Choosing The Best Laser Printer For Home

When you finally start looking for printers for home or office use, there are generally two types of machine available on the market.

The first is an inkjet printer. This type is most common for home use and they use liquid ink along with small hoses that spray that ink onto the paper, creating your images and text. They are much more expensive to maintain and each page you print costs more than the alternative, the laser printer. Here you will learn which type of printer is best for your needs.

Strangely enough, the technology used in laser printers is older than that used in inkjets. In many ways, a laser printer works almost like a copy machine in that it uses a toner cartridge full of black powder, and electrically charged rollers pull the oppositely-charged powder particles along the paper. After that, a special heat roller fuses the toner onto the paper so that it will not be able to be smudged off. Choosing the best laser printer really depends on what you will be printing with it.

With laser printers able to print over 8,000 pages on a single toner, whereas inkjet can only print out 170 pages on a single cartridge. With these facts lined up, it’s obvious which is best in an office environment. If you are running reports, printing school work or literature, then this is the best laser printer for you. The downside is that a laser printer can cost $400, while you can pick up an inkjet printer for around $50. Even the replaceable cost more: an inkjet cartridge costs $35 while a toner cartridge costs $115. This brings up the topic of why exactly a monochrome laser printer would be better than a color inkjet.

Monochrome laser printer basics: PRICE: $150, TONER CARTRIDGE: $115, TOTAL COST: $265, PAGES THAT CAN BE PRINTED: 8,000

Inkjet, full color printer basics: PRICE: $50, COLOR AND BLACK INK: $35, TOTAL COST: $85PAGES THAT CAN BE PRINTED: 170

The big production different makes it obvious why so many large companies choose to use monochrome laser models for large printing jobs, while they still use inkjet printers for smaller, color printing jobs. To be able to print over 8,000 pages with an inkjet you would need 47 refill cartridges for a total of $1,647.00.

It is possible to find color laser printers, but they are harder to find and can cost quite a bit more than their monochrome counterparts. Those types require four separate toners, which are all cheaper on their own but more expensive than monochrome together. And because there is less black toner in a four-color setup, you won’t get the same amazing output as a monochrome laser. The color laser printer option is not at it best yet, though it is getting there. So while monochrome models are the best laser printers, color models are not quite there yet.

There are a ton of printer choices out there for whatever your needs are. Determine which is the best laser printer for your needs.