Vacation printer

[rongold]

Rather than lugging my laser printer to and from our vacation home (the car is overloaded as is), I would like to get a printer to leave there. The printer will sit unused for 4-6 months at a time. Which printer will tolerate this better: laser printer or inkjet printer? I will need it almost exclusively for black and white text printing.

[Jack W]

I personally would recommend a laser printer. But only for B/W pictures.

Both Brother and HP make good quality inexpensive laser printers. I would lean toward HP.
I have been very happy with their printers.

Amazon has the HP LaserJet P1006 laser printer for $109.17 with free shipping.

Quote from Amazon site description:

"HP P1006 Laserjet Printer. The patented new spherical toner is controlled more efficiently, which allows for a smaller print cartridge, and as a result, HPs smallest laser printer. And because sound can be as intrusive as size, the printer is specially designed for exceptionally quiet operation. You can enjoy the convenience of desktop printing without the annoying background noise. Conserve resources as well as office space. Engineered to use the smallest amount of power possible to get the job done, this printer stays cool and keeps your energy bills low. Do not waste time waiting for your documents. Other printers need time to warm up before printing the first page, but with no wait Instant on Technology your first page will print in half the time. Get performance and reliability that is superior for a personal desktop printer with a 266 MHz processor, 8 MB of memory, and speeds up to 17 pages per minute/ ppm. It is easier than ever to keep your desktop printer running smoothly with many of the same technologies as HPs robust workgroup and department LaserJets. Intelligence in the cartridge enables automatic print quality adjustments, so your documents always look great. Cartridge intelligence also helps ensure you never run out of toner by alerting you when supplies are low and providing convenient options for online reordering. Just choose your preferred reseller and place your order through HP SureSupply. Quickly and easily stop incorrect print jobs with the Cancel button on the front of the printer. Meet both your budget and space requirements without compromising quality. Have it all with the HP LaserJet P1006 Printer at an entry level price."

- Jack

[chriskleeman]

Hi Ron,

As cheap as some of the newer laser printers are, that's the way I'd go for sure. Inkjets have too many problems with dried ink, clogging, cartridges that become dried out when they are not used for some time... if it's going to remain idle for that long, I would certainly go laser. But again, like Jack says, the inexpensive ones are only for b&w printing...

Just my 2 cents worth!

Chris K

[Mayo]

If you want a color inkjet the HP printers tend to do very well sitting for long periods without being used, while Epsons tend to clog after a relatively short period of time. I'm afraid I know this from personal experience... The HP inkjets also print great looking pics with very little tweaking compared to my experience with Epson printers.

If B&W is all that you need then a laser printer is the way to go, particularly when you take into account the cost per print.

[gunug]

Not to contradict one of my betters (sorry Mayo); HP inkjets in my school district don't go through temperature extremes very well at all!  It's slightly worse for refilled cartridges but whatever model, from the DJ 970's to something bought last year that possessed 4 numbers in the name, they have all tended to leak out and clog the wiping and capping areas.  Heat and cold both seem to cause this problem.  

For a simple and cheap laser I like some from Brother.  I was just looking at a Brother HL-5250 in a school that has been there over a year and has been used a lot and it still looks to be in very good shape.  I don't imagine that's a current model # though!

[Mayo]

Gunug, my current HP 8450 printer doesn't experience temperature extremes; what kind of changes in temp are you seeing in your schools? Do you use other inkjet brands that you can compare to the HP printers?

My comment was regarding clogging tendencies when a printer isn't used for long periods of time, which I took to be the primary focus of rongold's query.

[sandbox]

My experience with inkjet would deter me from purchasing one that will be left unattended for long periods of time. Inkjet can/do re-ink their heads on a set schedule, but it doesn't guaranty that the ink or heads will not dry out. I just looked into a Brothers office printer that I purchased for a friend 3 years ago who hardly ever prints. In three years maybe 100 pages, and today it will not print with new ink cartridges, except for faint black broken lines of text. No matter how many runs of Head Cleaning are performed nothing changes. The warranty is long up, so the replacement becomes the burden of the purchaser. If you purchase a inkjet make sure the heads are built into the cartridges.

[rongold]

Thanks for the suggesitons. I purchaed an HP LaserJet P1006 - because it was on sale at Staples and comes with $20 rebate. The only problem was the software on the CD was woefully out of date (not able to run with Leopard installed) and I had to drive back down the hill (4 miles) to connect to the net in order to download the current driver from HP. Works fine now.