omni550 said:
I currently have a great black & white laser jet printer.
I now need to make a considerable amount of color copies for the next year or so.
Does anyone have any recommendations on a decent (does not have to be fabulous) color printer that has a very low cost per copy?
How much is a 'considerable amount' of color copies?
You'll need to do the math - as mentioned, color lasers will cost more initially, but at some point, the per page cost will make them cheaper. Until you need a new toner cart.
If you decide on an inkjet - definitely choose based on finding cheap 3rd party cartridges. We have three of the Canon series (pixma 2000, i350, i475) in the family that take the cheap BC_24B/C cartridges. I get them online for around $1.50 each. The color cart is 3 colors in one. I end up replacing the ink carts about every 3 months at roughly 100 pages printed per month. I know roughly how much I print because I bought a 2500 sheet box of paper and dated it, and I jot down the date in the printer when I change carts.
At $1.50 times 2 for 3 months, I personally would not want to mess with separate colors - I change one and I get them all changed at once. I can't believe the prices I see in the stores for ink carts $20??!! (fine if you need high quality prints, but that is what Costco photo print is for @ $0.20 per pic, IMO).
Another reason that I have three of the canon in this series, is that I now know how to maintain them. You can pop out the print head and soak it and clean it in alcohol. I've had to do that once or twice. In fact, I bought the 2000 after I thought the i350 was broken, but then learned how to fix it, so that is now working and is my 'spare' printer.
This series is discontinued now I think, and the new ones might take more expensive cartridges, but check it out. I plan to salvage parts as they croak to try to keep the remaining ones running - no real problems yet, other than cleaning the print head.
I get my ink carts from:
www.inkjetmadness.com and
www.inkandbeyond.com
-ERD50