Also....
Be very wary of printers that offer a "long life drum with separate toner
bottle" The kyocera and brother lasers tend to get a grey cast on the page
after x0,000 pages, and look terrible.
My advice is to hold onto those printers with standardised cartridges. Most
of the HP series of lasers and inkjets have a fairly limited selection of
cartridges (ie, a no 45 black ink is used in 17 different HP inkjets. As
for lasers - consider recycled toner cartridges.
Your LJ 4 would use the 98A or 98X cartridge (6,800 or 8,800 pages
respectively) (also known as an EP-E cartridge. Pricing is $140 and $148
+GST, or a recycled one for $100 +GST. That equates to 2.4 cents or 1.9
cents per page for new carts, or (assuming 5000 pages from a recycled
cartridge) 2.25 cents per page. Paper costs between 1 and 2 cents per page
depending on if you buy cheap $5/ream or more expensive $10/ream paper. In
addition you have the cost of power.
The drum is a component of the toner cartridge and is calculated in above.
The cost of a replacement fuser unit is several hundred dollars, but
generally these last for 100k to 200k pages. I doubt you'd replace a fuser
if it ever dies, and I strongly doubt any home user would do 100k pages
(that's twelve toner cartridges replacements!)
Worst case analysis
6800 pages is 13.6 reams of A4 paper at $10, $136
One new 98A cart $157 Inc GST
Power $20 (total guess)
4.60 cents/page
Best case
8800 pages is 17.6 reams of A4 paper at $5, $88
One new 98X cart at $166.50 Inc GST
Power $25 (previous guess plus 20%)
3.1 cents/page
Back on topic - separate scanner and printer is always a great idea... That
way you can swap around and replace in the future without having unneeded
pieces. However, if they're cheap enough initally then maybe its no big
deal.
-----Original Message-----
From: Fisher, Robert (FXNZ CHC) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, 17 February 2005 8:39 a.m.
To: 'linux-users@it.canterbury.ac.nz'
Subject: RE: Linux experience with Canon CanoScan LiDE 20 scanner
Be very wary of running costs for LaserJet printers - typically more than 8
cents per page when you take both the toner and drum modules into account.
Regards,
Robert
-----Original Message-----
From: yuri [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, 16 February 2005 7:28 p.m.
To: CLUG
Subject: Linux experience with Canon CanoScan LiDE 20 scanner
we have a sturdy old HP LaserJet 4 Plus with JetDirect that works like a
charm, she now wants a scanner so she can do her photocopying at home and
not pay 7c/page at the place she uses now.
