Time to junk the old laser printer?

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I have a perfectly fine old HP color laser printer – I think I got it about a dozen years ago. It does the job well, even though it lacks the bells and whistles of newer models. But the HP toner cartridges are just getting more and more expensive, and now are becoming harder to find in stock anywhere. (I’ve tried the no-name brands and find them to be of significantly poorer quality.)

So do I throw out the old printer, even though it works perfectly well, and get a brand new one that uses easier-to-find and cheaper toner cartridges? That just seems wasteful – the curse of planned obsolescence, I suppose.

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WSila wrote:

But the HP toner cartridges are just getting more and more expensive, and now are becoming harder to find in stock anywhere.

What good is a laser printer without toner?

It’s time to buy a new printer and keep away from HP.

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/is-your-printer-spying-on-you/

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/hp-and-printer-cartridges-article/

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It is a cost benefit analysis.

How much for a new printer?
Cost of toner?
How many pages do you print per month and how often do you replace toner?
How long to pay off the new printer?

cheers, Paul

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I have a Brother black and white laser printer. I don’t miss color at all and off brand drums and toner cartridges work just fine. I get around 2600 pages out of a toner cartage. I needed a 8 X 10 full color page a couple of weeks ago. Took to Staples on USB stick and they printed a full color page for $1.64. I mostly use my printer for scanning documents to a PDF files.

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Charlie

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I also use a Brother B&W laser printer (an HL-5240 I bought new back in 2009) and, like @TechTango, have never had any issues with no-name toner cartridges or drum units.

Back in Nov 22 my Uncle’s old HP LaserJet 1200 started having constant paper jam alerts (the paper wasn’t “really” jammed, it just wasn’t passing thru the printer fast enough) and replacing the consumables and even the entire paper pickup assembly didn’t fix it, I convinced him a new Brother printer would be a much better choice than a new HP.

He bought a Brother HL-L5000D and has been very pleased with it and also has no problems with no-name toner cartridges.

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If you decide to replace your old printer, be sure to understand what you are buying.

We recently purchased a “low cost” HP laser printer.

We were in a rush and did not read the fine print.

When we went to set it up and use it, we found that it required a HP “toner subscription” and that the printer have nonstop access to the internet.

The new HP printer was sent to the recycle bin and we replaced it with a Brother Laser printer.

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wavy, TechTango, Ascaris

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Kathy Stevens wrote:

When we went to set it up and use it, we found that it required a HP “toner subscription” and that the printer have nonstop access to the internet.

I cannot blame anyone for missing that. Who would have thought that a printer needs a subscription or internet access? Even if I had a net-enabled printer, I would only need it to have access to the LAN, where all of the computers that would be doing any printing would be.

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WSbobby-p

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In addition to requiring a subscription and/or internet access, the HP printer was restricted to using HP toner.

Each HP toner cartridge is equipped with a chip that confirms that it’s OEM.

No HP chip – no printing!

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I appreciate everyone’s thoughtful comments.

I do need the color printing, and if the printer died tomorrow I’d have no problem shopping for an alternative such as the Brother. The HP was the right choice at the time, and it’s old enough that the newer issues surrounding HP re phoning home and toner don’t apply.

But it still works fine and it just seems wrong to throw out a bulky piece of hardware when it still does the job – except that, yes, it doesn’t seem to be cost-effective (and increasingly difficult) to get supplies. So yes, on a cost-benefit basis, it may make sense to move on but it still somehow offends my sense of frugality.

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I, too, loved my old HP Laser printer, although it was a black-and-white LaserJet 1000 that eventually no longer ran on certain “modern” computers. I had gotten it from a friend of mine over 20 years ago and it was a workhorse!

I strongly relate to your sense of frugality I just checked eBay and saw a number of both genuine and compatible toner cartridges for it, most of them reasonably priced (and new). I’d suggest you do as Anon (below) suggests, and see what’s available on eBay.

If you decide not to keep it, consider offering it through, say, Freecycle.org or similar, with as much detail as possible. There may well be someone else who will be able to make use of it, and you’ve kept it out of landfill. Good luck in whatever you decide.

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I love my (old, pre toner lock) HP Laser printer, and at times some sources of official toner seem expensive.  I’ve heard from friends that generic toner is OK, maybe once you find the right generic – I haven’t tried it yet.  My solution has been that if I look in enough places (used on Amazon or Ebay) and am willing to buy open box or expired toner that I can find the toner at a good enough price.  The expired toner has worked fine.

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WSila wrote:

I’ve tried the no-name brands and find them to be of significantly poorer quality.

I don’t print much of anything these days but I never, ever had any issues with third-party toner replacements for my own HP colour laserjet.

However, your spelling of ‘color’ suggests that the suppliers I use(d) wouldn’t be of any use to you as they are UK-based. Sorry.

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WSila wrote:

I have a perfectly fine old HP color laser printer – I think I got it about a dozen years ago. It does the job well, even though it lacks the bells and whistles of newer models. But the HP toner cartridges are just getting more and more expensive, and now are becoming harder to find in stock anywhere. (I’ve tried the no-name brands and find them to be of significantly poorer quality.)

So do I throw out the old printer, even though it works perfectly well, and get a brand new one that uses easier-to-find and cheaper toner cartridges? That just seems wasteful – the curse of planned obsolescence, I suppose.

keep using that old HP color laser printer until it either breaks down (like serious hardware problem or malfunction occur) or if & when the HP toner cartridges for your old laser printer are no longer being sold in your area

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Bill C.

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For me, it is all about whether the printer is till doing what I need it to do. In my case that is print and scan (faxes are rare now).

I have an HP Laserjet 3050 AIO B&W. It is old and still works for B&W printing (98%+ of my printing is B&W) and sheet scanning. Faxes still work also but, as faxing is no longer common, I use the FAX to deter robocalls on the land line. I turn off the answering machine and let all calls go to FAX and the number drops way down for 3-4 weeks (yes I still have a landline.) Genuine HP cartridges are still available locally (expensive) or online (cheaper) plus it has a smaller footprint than any of the Laser (color or B&W) printers/flatbed scanners I’ve looked at. I have found if you buy a popular HP laser printer, cartridges tend to be available longer.

One other feature I’ve found with newer HP printers is that you can ignore the install software and go online and download the driver-only package to avoid the various “utilities’ nagware and online “resources”. Those “features” are at the root of most of my colleagues printer woes.

For those not wedded to Windows, I’ve found HP has a good selection of Linux drivers, but you need to dig around on the website at times. My printer has Linux support and is now is usable with 2 Linux distros, Windows 7, and Windows 10 via a manual printer switch.

I am looking at successors to that printer, potentially a color laser with a flatbed scanner, but finding a replacement that will physically fit in the available tabletop landscape is a major part of the challenge.

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I’m very lucky. It’s a small stroll (less than a quarter of a mile, which is good for me) to my local public library. They now print whatever I need… and I can have a chat and a laugh at the same time.

I let them worry about maintenance, refills, etc.

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TechTango, wavy

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