HP Store Online

How does color Laser Printers run out of ink and whats its average maintenance cost?

I'm planning to buy a new Laser Color Printer. I'm worried if its maintenance costs go beyond my budget.

Public Comments

1. Lasers don't use ink they use toner, and powder with iron filings in it. It is hard to say the cost as it depends on the page coverage. you can shop around for toner cartridges but a black one is around £60 depending on the make. An eco cartridges is cheaper as they are refurbished old ones If you do pictures then the cost will go up but drawings and such will be cheaper
2. This is a very valid question. I sell laser printers for a living, so let me give you the skinny on how this industry works. Factors to Consider: Coverage -- Coverage is the amount of the surface area covered by toner. Now the tricky part about coverage is that it can be 400% -- This is because it is possible to have 100% of each color, Cyan, magenta, Yellow, and Black. If you take a piece of standard 8.5 X 11 paper and fold it in half 3 times, that is going to be, on average, the amount of color you can spread over the whole page for the rated 20% coverage. If you are going to have a lot more color than this, it is best to get a cost per print plan from a manufacturer like Xerox where the toner and maintenance costs get locked in. Toner costs vs yield - If you don't look at the costs of the laser printer and the yield, you'll kick yourself. Do yourself a favor and take the color toner cost/yield and multiply this by 3 (for the three "colors" and then do the same thing with black. Add these numbers together and that will give you the estimated cost per print for that piece of paper you folded in half three times. If you vary much, costs can soar. I hope these tidbits help!
3. printing in color is costly if you have a laser or inkjet. But a laser is much cheaper to print with in the long run , you will get about 400 pages out of a inkjet cartridge and 2000 from a laser. If you get a low cost color laser the only thing you will really need to buy is the cartridges. Most low cost laser are not really really worth fixing once you have a trouble. depending on how much you print, but it should not need to do much to the printer.