Laser Printers by the Numbers
In comparison to ink jets, laser printers are quieter, faster and remarkably hassle free. But it's the math that makes them stand out. The numbers are as follows:

An HP laser printer with an estimated machine cost of $400, combined with a $115 toner cartridge, yields 8000 pages. Printing 40,000 pages costs you $400 plus $460 for the ink for a total of $860. A Brother 1440 laser printer works out at about $930 for the same number of pages. That comes to around two cents a page, or eight times less than an inkjet printer.

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SpencerLab, a digital-color laboratory in Melville, New York, tested the HP LaserJet 1320 and the Dell 1700 Laser Printers. According to Catherine Fiasconaro, director of SpencerLab, even when you calculate the cost of the toner and the drum (which has to be replaced about every 20,000 pages), HP high-yield monochrome cartridges cost about two cents per print, with Dell costing slightly more.

Adding to the allure of the laser, printer prices are continuing to fall and the range of available products is steadily mounting. According to Trina Wolfgram, a marketing manager for HP, the HP Color LaserJet 2600n prints eight pages-per-minute, at 600 x 600 dots-per-inch (dpi) resolution. It has a recommended maximum monthly volume of 35,000 pages. Its estimated street price is $399.

If you don't require that much printing volume, the monochrome HP LaserJet 1020 — rated at a maximum monthly volume of 5,000 pages — prints up to 15 pages-per-minute and offers 600 x 600 dpi output. It has an estimated U.S. street price of $179.

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To bring the costs of laser printing down further, you can purchase inexpensive replacement or remanufactured ink cartridges.

"Replacement ink cartridges are cartridges that are manufactured by a company other than the original manufacturer," says Shulman. "A remanufactured ink cartridge is the original OEM cartridge that has been professionally cleaned, refilled with quality ink that is made in the USA and tested prior to leaving the factory."

With so much money being poured into ink cartridges, it's no surprise that hundreds of companies have sprung up offering refill kits for ink jets and replacement/remanufactured cartridges for ink jets and laser printers. They work for some people, but many find them too much trouble — most people have blackened their hands, injected the yellow ink into the red receptacle or ruined the carpet with refill kits.

Replacement cartridges, too, are catching on for ink jets and are widely available. But the success rate is sporadic to say the least. According to Recharger Magazine you simply cannot refill every inkjet cartridge. The actual numbers are more like 20 percent of black inkjet cartridges and 50 percent of colors can't be refilled or reused.

On the other hand, almost 99 percent of laser toner cartridges can be remanufactured to provide a product that meets or exceeds the OEM yield and quality. A handful of high-end companies produce "compatible" cartridges — products that equal of improve upon the quality of the big OEMs. At the low-end, a horde of remanufacturers offer refill kits and replacement toner cartridges at a fraction of the cost.

"HP own research revealed that 66 percent of people who try alternative cartridges never go back to the more expensive OEM models," said Gary Pendl, CEO of Pendel Companies, a Waukesha, Wisconsin-based manufacturer of high-quality compatible toner cartridges for HP, Apple, Panasonic, Tektronix, Epson, Lexmark, IBM and Canon printers.

Pendl guarantees its cartridges will perform equal to or better than OEM cartridges or it will either replace the cartridge or offer a full refund. The guarantee covers not only the cartridge but also the printer. The quality matches or exceeds OEM standards, with a defect rate of less than one percent on toner cartridges. The OEM defect rate is one percent.

Reink Shulman quotes similar figures for his company's products. In terms of cost, the HP cartridge for a LaserJet 1010 costs around $70 and has a yield of 2,000 pages. Reink remanufactures it with the same 2,000-page yield and sells it for $55. It also makes a longer-life version with a yield of 3,600 pages at $85.

Other suppliers offer less in terms of quality (and perhaps yield) but at a lower cost for toner. For a Brother 6800 MFP, for instance, we bought six toner cartridges from ABC for $48 and they worked out fine. A single cartridge purchased direct from Brother cost $33.99. We noticed no real difference in quality.

That said, you should realize that not all replacement and remanufactured products are created equal.

"Usually going with the cheapest is not the best idea," says Shulman. "Many companies don't even test their cartridges before they are sent out."

HP Wolfgram counters the replacement/remanufactured cartridge point of view saying that HP designs its laser printing supplies to provide maximum value by going beyond yield and estimated cost per page calculations.

"HP develops supplies that offer real value in total cost of ownership by focusing on yield and cost per page, as well as usability, quality and reliability," said Wolfgram. "By offering supplies that address all these concerns, small businesses are assured that can save time and money with HP supplies."