Recommendations for High Volume Color Laser Printers?

dughutch asks: "My church currently uses a small business color laser printer (Minolta 2200), but alas, it can not handle the load of our growing congregation. We are looking at buying a higher volume color laser printer and I wanted to ask the Slashdot readers for any and all information on possible solutions relating to this question, including, but not limited to: cost, volume, repairs, and outsourcing?"

Comments

Professional Printers?

[Patman]

If you're printing a lot of stuff that isn't time-sensitive(i.e., you don't need it RIGHT THIS SECOND), why don't you go with a professional printing house?

I think you'd probably have a lot less hassle with that route than with trying to find, purchase, install and support a color laser printer.

Re:You're barking up the wrong tree

[ComputerSlicer23]

Actually, the HP 4500 runs around $2K, and does 4ppm in full color, it does 16ppm in black and white. The toner's not too incredibly high priced. There is an HP 8500 if I recall correctly that prints even faster. Bought one for Mom a couple of years ago, she does desktop publishing as a business. It holds up well, and other then the inability to print the grey when printing a color document, it's great. In a B/W, it does grey just fine, but in color, it mixes in blue, so all greys have a blue tinge.

Remember, high volume, is not only that it prints fast. High volume is that it can print a lot of papers without breaking down. We've got several HP's at work that print relatively quickly, but if you print more then say 40K pages a month to them, they breakdown and need a lot of tender loving care to get them to run again. We have an nearly identical printer that prints at the same pages per minute rate, but it's rated to print 150K pages a month.

If he needs something that can print 10,000 pages without a break, that's different then he needs 86,400 pages to be printed in a day.

Kirby

FreeColorPrinters

[joncarwash]

Check out the following website:
FreeColorPrinters

The fraternity that I am in has been using this service for the past 3 years (that is how long the contract lasts); the printer lease runs out in a week (the printer is yours to keep after the lease expires). We have a Phaser 850DP, and I believe the current model is a Phaser 8200, which are both color wax transfer printers - check out this link for the specs:
Phaser 8200 Specs

The only thing you have to do is print the quota (if some guys living in a dorm can do it, I am sure you can as well), and buy your ink from them (all black ink is free; color ink is kind of expensive, but it is worth it for the free printer). Also included is an on-site service agreement for the length of the 3 year lease.

I would definitely recommend this service, especially for small organizations. Good luck with finding one for the church!

Get a good service contract

[zaad]

I don't know what you mean when you say high volume, but...

If you're not having a speed of printing issue, but are having trouble with the printer jamming, what you should look into is getting a good service contract. No matter what kind of "high volume" printer you get, excessive printing will wear down the rollers and cause a lot of paper dust to accumulate. The only way to keep them going is by cleaning them and replacing the rollers when they wear out.

I worked at a place that had 12 printer on a single floor that printed between 5,000 to 10,000 pages per printer per month. They were all great printers, but on average needed to be serviced ever six to eight weeks to keep working.

I'd recommend getting an additional printer, and getting a service contract on both printers when one needs to be serviced.

HP Color Laserjet 4500...

[SlashChick]

It seems that a lot of people replying to this thread haven't checked out color laser prices in the past couple of years. It used to be that the HP 4500 series was over $2000. However, that's no longer the case.

I picked up an HP Color Laserjet 4500 about a year ago for $600. This awesome printer had less than 10,000 pages on it. One $89 JetDirect 10bT Ethernet card later, I have a fantastic network printer that will last me for many years. I do a lot of prepress, brochures, etc. and the thing has already paid for itself just in printing out work for my clients (I charge them about half of what the local printer charges, and I've made plenty of money from that.)

I admit that $600 for a printer with less than 10,000 pages is a great deal, but there are some on eBay that are coming down under $800. (Note: Don't have one shipped... buy locally if at ALL possible. These things are HEAVY.)

If you're interested in a new color laser, the little Laserjet 1500L printers offer great bang for the buck. They're more unobtrusive than the giant 4500 series, but they have the same great laser quality starting at around $800. PC Connection has good prices for these as well, especially if you open an account with them.

If you want a brand-new giant color laser, try the Color Laserjet 4600. Yes, these are in the $2000 range, but if you're printing hundreds of pages per day, they are a good value.

I would never buy an inkjet again for a business. Yes, you can get an inkjet printer for $100, but those cartridges are a killer ($30 and they last perhaps 150 pages.) My color toner cartridges are $125, but they last for six thousand pages. The black toner cartridges are cheaper and go for 10,000 pages or more. At 11,000 pages, I've only ever had to replace one cyan cartridge, and I routinely do runs of a few hundred pages each. I'll never go back to the treadmill of inkjet cartridge upgrades.

For a church, I'd say the 1100 and 2500 series ($1200 or less) will work out great. Good luck on finding a printer that works well for you!