cloversandlions Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 I've noticed several folks on here mention having a laser printer for printing homeschool materials. Is it really that cost-effective? If you have a laser printer, and you 'drive' a Mac, do you mind sharing the make and model of your printer? I'm still on the fence whether I want to buy a printer just for this purpose (we have a newish color laserjet, but I have A LOT of printing coming up!), but if I do, the two options I know I'd want are wireless and auto duplex. And I'd want it to be cheap-but-good-quality...and here yesterday. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HLDoll Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 I don't have a Mac, but... Last spring I bought a Brother HL 2270DW for less than $100. It's fast and does auto duplex. I've purchased a lot of digital curriculum over the past year and sat down with the calculator. Setting the cost of the printer itself aside, but taking into account the cost of paper and toner (I'm already on my second cartridge because the one that comes with it isn't full capacity), I calculate I'm paying about 2.5 cents per page. The cheapest print shop around here was 8 cents a page, so it's worth it to me. We still have our color inkjet, which also scans and copies, but the laser is our workhorse. ETA: And yes, it is wireless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommee & Baba Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 I don't have a Mac, but... Last spring I bought a Brother HL 2270DW for less than $100. It's fast and does auto duplex. I've purchased a lot of digital curriculum over the past year and sat down with the calculator. Setting the cost of the printer itself aside, but taking into account the cost of paper and toner (I'm already on my second cartridge because the one that comes with it isn't full capacity), I calculate I'm paying about 2.5 cents per page. The cheapest print shop around here was 8 cents a page, so it's worth it to me. We still have our color inkjet, which also scans and copies, but the laser is our workhorse. ETA: And yes, it is wireless. I have the exact same printer. I purchased mine last year and the only regret I have now is that I EVER bought an inkjet. I LOVE my laser! I have my inkjet for color printing but am now even considering investing in a color laser JUST because laser printers are so much more cost effective! I'm on my 3rd toner. Mind you I print x2 in nearly everything when it comes to curriculum. I also print ALOT of tot school things for totboy and I print several dozens of coupons DAILY! Now that we're only printing coupons daily and not so much curriculums like we did in the beginning of the school year. Still is SUPER cost effective for us! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abreakfromlife Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 I don't have a Mac and I don't know what auto-duplex means :tongue_smilie: but I have a laser printer and it's amazing. I have this Canon one. I would love a color laser printer but they're so expensive. This one is a copier/scanner too, which I use a lot. I buy toner online, so it's really cheap. A laser printer is soooo cost effective. I don't know why anyone would buy a bw inkjet printer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrissySC Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 I don't have a Mac and I don't know what auto-duplex means :tongue_smilie: but I have a laser printer and it's amazing. I have this Canon one. I would love a color laser printer but they're so expensive. This one is a copier/scanner too, which I use a lot. I buy toner online, so it's really cheap. A laser printer is soooo cost effective. I don't know why anyone would buy a bw inkjet printer. Just in case you are not kidding, duplex is to print on both sides of the paper, also called two-sided. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dani3boys Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 I have a brother MFC-9440CN. It is a color laser printer, and it has been one of the best purchases we have made for our hs. I have had it for four years, and have replaced the black toner twice and the color toners once. I print a lot of things, so I think in the long run it has been a better choice for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Jen* Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 Another fan of the Brother laser printers. I have one that is still on it original half full cartridge that came with. It's printed 1800 pages. One thing to definitely know is that the cartridges will say they are empty LONG before they are out of toner. Mine was saying it was empty and refuse to print. I taped up the window that it reads the toner level through and I have gotten another 500 pages out of it and it is still going. I have had to go shake the cartridge a time or two in the last month to get it to print evenly since the toner is about gone but I'm trying to get every bit out of it before I spend the money on a new cartridge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kathkath Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 we have a mac and a hp laserjetp1005 we picked up at costco for less than $100. We get no-name laser cartridges cheap on Meritline.com. They are not perfect but we get a LOT of pages from each cartridge, like 1500 or more. I think we paid around $80 for 3 cartridges??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ma23peas Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 We have an hp 4900... Not sure how much it was (dh got it from office when they upgraded)...but it scans which is so helpful in homeschooling and also faxes, prints photos and does double sided...also very helpful! Nth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 I want a laser printer! I completely regret buying the inkjet that we have. The ink runs out so fast and I am dreading printing the notebooking pages I need to print. I just spend about $50 on more ink, and I am betting it will all be gone by the time I finish printing everything I need to print. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen in CO Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 I have a brother MFC-9440CN. It is a color laser printer, and it has been one of the best purchases we have made for our hs. I have had it for four years, and have replaced the black toner twice and the color toners once. I print a lot of things, so I think in the long run it has been a better choice for us. About that color laser... The problem I have with my color ink jet, besides the price of the ink, is that the color has dried up more than once because I'm stingy with printing color. I use a b&w laser printer for all my printing, but would love some color occasionally. I don't want to print photo,s and I'm not going to connect it to the computer the kids do KidzPix on. Do you know if a color laser would dry up if only used sporadically? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abreakfromlife Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 Just in case you are not kidding, duplex is to print on both sides of the paper, also called two-sided. haha, thanks, I wasn't. I always called it double-sided. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dani3boys Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 I'm not sure about that. We print color pages fairly often, so I'm not much help. I would guess that it doesn't dry up like the ink because the toner is a powder instead of liquid. That's just a guess though. About that color laser... The problem I have with my color ink jet, besides the price of the ink, is that the color has dried up more than once because I'm stingy with printing color. I use a b&w laser printer for all my printing, but would love some color occasionally. I don't want to print photo,s and I'm not going to connect it to the computer the kids do KidzPix on. Do you know if a color laser would dry up if only used sporadically? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashfern Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 We have a laser printer because we need it for our business. I am just able to use it for school too. We have a mix of Macs & PCs. We used to have an HP Laser printer that was b/w. We replaced that one with a brother (MFC-9320cw) which is a color laser printer/fax/scanner. I loved the HP, I am tolerating the brother. When it's time to replace this one, I want to get one that prints duplex. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kathkath Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 FYI I neglected to mention that we also do have an epson scan/copy/print stylus inkjet I use for scanning and printing in color rarely. most of our printing is on the bw laser. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crafty Mathy Mom Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 I haven't read the other replies, but I love my Brother laser printer. It's fast and quiet. It cost $90. To refill the ink on my inkjet was over $60 to get colored and black ink. I tried to save some money by using remanufactured cartridges and killed it. I may end up getting a cheapy Kodak inkjet for the rare times that color would be nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~Jo Posted August 12, 2011 Share Posted August 12, 2011 We have a Brother HL 3570DW b/w laser printer that I LOVE! I love that I don't have think about printing...I just print it if I need it. The above printer does not have a copier/scanner so I scan things on my Canon MX860 and it saves it as a multi-page PDF document that I then save and can print out on the laser - which is wireless. I think my dh figured out that it costs us less than a cent to print a page - that is for ink, not paper cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momma2Many66 Posted August 12, 2011 Share Posted August 12, 2011 I don't have a Mac, but... Last spring I bought a Brother HL 2270DW for less than $100. It's fast and does auto duplex. I've purchased a lot of digital curriculum over the past year and sat down with the calculator. Setting the cost of the printer itself aside, but taking into account the cost of paper and toner (I'm already on my second cartridge because the one that comes with it isn't full capacity), I calculate I'm paying about 2.5 cents per page. The cheapest print shop around here was 8 cents a page, so it's worth it to me. We still have our color inkjet, which also scans and copies, but the laser is our workhorse. ETA: And yes, it is wireless. I have the same Exact printer !! I got mine on Amazon for $ 79.99 a few months ago. I LOVE this printer !! It is my FAVORITE new homeschooling device, it is a workhorse !! I can double side print anything in a a very short time and it makes our homeschool run so much more efficiently ! I love it for our Math Mammoth and WWE pdf files to print out whole books in minutes. Excellent deal ! I can't say enough wonderful things about my Brother Printer ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrappyhappymama Posted August 12, 2011 Share Posted August 12, 2011 We have a Brother HL 3570DW b/w laser printer that I LOVE! I love that I don't have think about printing...I just print it if I need it. The above printer does not have a copier/scanner so I scan things on my Canon MX860 and it saves it as a multi-page PDF document that I then save and can print out on the laser - which is wireless. I think my dh figured out that it costs us less than a cent to print a page - that is for ink, not paper cost. This is me exactly except my Canon is an MP620. :w00t: I posted on one of the other threads, but will say it again here. I LOVE my laser printer and it is absolutely cost effective. We use several different e-books and I print a lot for lapbooks and file folder games and other reproducible supplements. I use my Canon for occasional color printing and scanning. I do print pictures several times a month too for our church picture board. In the last year, I have spent MORE on ink for the Canon printer that I use occasionally than I've spent on toner for the Brother laser printer I use everyday. In fact, I just had to replace the toner for the first time about a month ago, so the toner lasted 10 months, even though I have not been shy at all about using it. Whenever someone starts a thread along the lines of 'what are the top items you couldn't homeschool without?' my laser printer is now toward the top of that list. Enough gushing? :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloversandlions Posted August 12, 2011 Author Share Posted August 12, 2011 I have the exact same printer. I purchased mine last year and the only regret I have now is that I EVER bought an inkjet. I LOVE my laser! I have my inkjet for color printing but am now even considering investing in a color laser JUST because laser printers are so much more cost effective! I'm on my 3rd toner. Mind you I print x2 in nearly everything when it comes to curriculum. I also print ALOT of tot school things for totboy and I print several dozens of coupons DAILY! Now that we're only printing coupons daily and not so much curriculums like we did in the beginning of the school year. Still is SUPER cost effective for us! I don't have a Mac, but... Last spring I bought a Brother HL 2270DW for less than $100. It's fast and does auto duplex. I've purchased a lot of digital curriculum over the past year and sat down with the calculator. Setting the cost of the printer itself aside, but taking into account the cost of paper and toner (I'm already on my second cartridge because the one that comes with it isn't full capacity), I calculate I'm paying about 2.5 cents per page. The cheapest print shop around here was 8 cents a page, so it's worth it to me. We still have our color inkjet, which also scans and copies, but the laser is our workhorse. ETA: And yes, it is wireless. This is the printer I've been considering! Alas, it is not currently on sale; I've been wondering if I should wait for a sale. I have so much to print, though. HLDoll's comment makes me think that I probably shouldn't wait too long - I'll spend in inkjet ink what I'm trying to save by waiting. (Wait - did that make sense? LOL) Thanks to all who've replied. I'd love a color laser, but I'm not sure I'm ready to buy another color printer since our inkjet (Canon MX860, just like Jo, above!) is less than a year old. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lahmeh Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 (edited) I'm thinking of getting a Brother HL 2270DW after reading this thread. May I ask where you all get your replacement cartridges from? I know nothing about laser printers but I'm learning! :D TIA Never mind, found them at Costco! Edited September 11, 2011 by lahmeh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 I have a Mac (actually there are 4 in the house) and an HP color laser printer, but I don't know the model number off hand and I'm sure it isn't available any more anyway. I love it and find it very affordable. I hate the quality of ink jets and ink is outrageous and has to be constantly refilled. Our lasers, both HP, one 3 years old, the other about 10, have both been wonderful. Excellent quality, reasonable supply prices and virtually maintenance free. I highly recommend HP lasers with Macs for great compatibility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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