john banks

I have a Panasonic KX-P6300 "windows" printer - ie it is dumb, but chucks out 6ppm at 600 DPI. Trouble is the print is faded despite cleaning and toner, so I think it needs a new process unit which is about £120. However, the printer new was only £180, and it is now 5 years old.

I was wondering how the current generation of £200 inkjets compare for print quality compared to a 600 DPI old fashioned laser. Are the inks cheaper than they used to be? Occasional colour/photo printing would be nice, but my volume is low - probably 1000 pages/year.

Seems a shame to effectively throw the printer away when I quite like it, but not knowing the technicalities in detail if say it was not the process unit and I paid out would be irritating.

Recommendations appreciated.

David_Wallis

cannon series colour printers are good but ink is quite expensive... not as much as a toner cartridge though..

I run a laserjet4000 at home paid £100 for it secondhand...

Dave26 had a colour printer for 20 /30 in here somewhere...

David

mj

i use epson inkjets at home and work with no problems. the cartriges for my scan 2000 at work cost £3 colour, £2 blk. the carts for the 680 i have at home are a bit more expensive but that is because the carts have a little chip on them to monitor ink levels(i think). you can pick up a stylus scan 2000 for about £140 now, mike cost me £200 about 2 yrs ago.

dsmith

John

I have a brother HL-730 - which sound similair to your panasonic i./e. 600 dpi, 6 ppm windows laser printer which is about 5 years old. I've also recently bought an HP 1113 Photosmart inkjet which can go upto 2400x1200 dpi but for black & white I think does about only does 1200x1200 (not sure though).

I love the inkjet for photos etc and printing some web pages when I want to keep the colour, but, for letters etc. the laser wins hands down. Text is far crisper. even on really cheap paper. The inkjet really needs quality paper to show its best.

Are there any other easily replacebale bits on the panasonic ? My brother has needed a new drum once which is speparate to the toner.

Deano

john banks

Thanks guys. I am tempted just to replace the process unit then if this is still the best quality B&W print, no smearing, not paper quality sensitive, quick no matter what the complexity of the page on a fast PC, cheap.

carl

I just bought an Oki 14ex Laser (14ppm) for a smidgen over 200 quid. Might be a better option?

ozzy

John,

Panasonic printers have been notoriously expensive for replacement parts. If you do change printer, stick with HP lasers.

As for the spare parts, shop around. Like everything, you'll save some money by trawling the Internet.

Here's a few suppliers to start with
http://www2.btwebworld.com/itenergy/...c_products.htm
http://www.inks4less.co.uk/acatalog/..._6500_604.html
http://www.amblestreet.co.uk/foris/m...asp?offset=300
http://www.s-m-m.fsnet.co.uk/index1.htm
http://www.pc-com.co.uk/acatalog/Onl...plies_782.html
http://www.pc-ink.com/prodlist.html

£130 seems to be about the cheapest out of these.

It's worth phoning these people Big Fish in Grangemouth. We use them to supply toner catridges for all our printers. They can supply cheap toner catridges, but I'm not sure how competitive they are with other parts.

Stefan