MONO LASERS (black and white)
These are the backbone of commerce
Colour is all well and good but the fact is that 99% of businesses rely on 'black print on white paper'. There are myriads of manufacturers out there, but one name dominates the market and that is Hewlett Packard. This massive dominance in the market-place is justified when one examines the progression and development of the product. For example in 1996, HP brought the 4000 series to market. This was and still is an exceptional product...robust, reliable, cost effective in terms of product and pence-per-page. This was followed by the 4100 series and latterly (2002) the 4200/4300 which is unquestionably still remains the state of the art in mono printing today.
Thinking of buying a mono printer? - well here are a few pointers.
First of all we are talking about mono LASER printers only! Think HP first and exponentially tail off with a host of others; -possibly Lexmark following along as the best of the also rans.(Not to be confused with Lexmark inkjets -avoid!!).
Think value for money too. Far better to buy a refurbished HP 4000/4100/4200 series than any of the new 'toy' series such as the HP 1200s etc.
If you want a smaller printer, but still maintain quality and reliability -here is your best option. In the three year timescale of the HP 2300 we evaluated this to be an exceptional performer. We bought the complete job lot of these NEW sealed boxes from Viking Direct stationers (who didn't realize what they were selling!)and have been distributing them quietly all over the West Country. We never get called back for faults on these but we make our money from supplying genuine HP toner carts for them at 'price beat' from any supplier.
There are many laser printers around priced in the £200 region. Customers are tempted by these, thinking "oh well, at that price, we can afford to scrap it, if it fails when the one year warranty runs out". Hmmmmm...Does this make sense? As if by magic, many printers, especially HP 'toys', play up just after the warranty period and that £200 now begins to appear wasted. By now it begins to dawn on the user that the money would have been better invested in a more solid printer.
Also, these newer smaller printers have a smaller 'footprint' on the desk - great, but they also have smaller and much more expensive toner cartridges that don't last as long and cost you much more per unit and page. They are also more time-consuming for engineer's maintenance - more difficult to replace rollers/fusers etc. These 'toy series' are not as robust - it's only when you get a paper jam and you find bits of cheap plastic rollers and springs coming off with your efforts to drag the jammed page out of the offending printer that you think better of the purchase. So think twice about the £200 laser printers!
(At Bristolprinters, we do a continuous trade in upgrading older and lesser quality to the above mentioned HP series - we may take your old printer as a trade-in, but in any case we will do the best deal possible for you and make sure you are 100% satisfied with the product and the excellent toner cartridges to go with it - PLUS the added assurance of our unqualified guarantee).
Hints 'n' tips...
1. Advisory Messages
With many of the quality business laser printers, including the HP 4000/4100/4200 series, every 200,000 pages or so a message will come up on the printer's display panel..."Maintenance required". This means call the engineer as soon as reasonably practicable to come and install a 'maintenance kit' to ensure reliable print far into the future. No need to panic though, the printer won't stop working, but call within a month or so. The proper HP (or other manufacturer's) maintenance kit is not cheap but well worth it and will keep your printer in tip top condition for another 200,000 pages. We also do a thorough clean out and lube at the same time as installing the maintenance kit. expect the printer to be out of action for about 45 minutes - time well spent.
Huh! we often get a phone call for a price to do a 'maintenance' and no follow up. Be sure if you choose another maintainer that they guarantee that the maintenance kit they supply is genuine HP original. The market is flooded with refurbished fusers etc. Also ask how long they will take to do the maintenance. If less than 45 minutes- think again.....
2. Paper Jams
Poor quality paper can make a difference, particularly in the high volume laser printers. These printers can print very fast, up to 24 pages per minute and this needs a very hot 'fuser' element to register the toner dust on to the page that quickly. Consequently the pages get very hot and if the paper is cheap it will 'curl' and jam up.
80 gram paper is normal, 90 gram is common for letterhead pages.
Be fussy about loading the paper tray - don't feed in any pages that are bent or damaged. Never feed in used paper. Also make sure the paper guides in the tray are set to A4 not LETTER and make sure the guides are a snug fit, but not too tight against the paper. ( Oh and by the way, Microsoft Outlook often is set on the computer for the default American 'Letter' page size - in UK we use A4 and so does the printer. Often users have to go to the printer and press 'go' for printing to start. Go to Outlook settings and change letter to A4 to right this problem).
If the guides are too loose, paper will again jam, especially with the cheaper printers. If the page jams, be ultra careful in retrieving it- if you tear bits off it, it can be a major job to strip the mechanism apart to remove it.
Labels- as above, if they get stuck inside printer they can write-off a hugely expensive 'fuser' element. We recommend only one make of labels - "Avery". Don't buy others, it is false economy.
Acetates- they are a huge gamble with printers. Choose your least valuable printer in the office to print on these.
3. Error Messages
Various printer problems. Often these are 'resolved' by switching the printer off and on again!...especially if it's on a network/shared cabling system. But make a note of the exact error message before the switch off or if you need to call for help.
4. Consumables
Toner Cartridges - from 20 years experience with printers we cannot recommend any re-manufactured toner whatsoever. Sorry! Many 'remans' slowly leak toner into the printer mechanism and onto the expensive fuser and roller assemblies. EXPENSIVE repairs eventually. Consider instead buying the 'maximum' capacity edition of your original cartridges. For HP this is usually suffixed by an X. For example on the HP 4000 printer the standard cartridge is the C4127A and the maximum volume of toner cartridge is the C4127X. The latter is much better. It uses the eminently capable mechanical parts of the toner for much longer and it is also much better value for money.
At Bristolprinters Ltd. we will supply you with original HP toners at the drop of a hat, even outside office hours if you are stuck. We also do unique deals such as free clean up's of your printers and yet match -or IN MANY CASES WE BEAT- any toner costs you currently pay. You'd be mad not to take advantage of this, ...yet many companies ignore this option, ...some don't seem to care how much they pay for exactly the same product and allow their printers degrade from lack of basic cleaning out/maintenance, which we offer for free. DAFT !
5. Don't panic, help is at hand!
If in doubt, just give us a call - we will try to fix it over the phone for you, free of charge - we are professionals and we know that if we do right by you, you will come back to us when the printer really needs an engineer to come out and fix it!