Running Costs Review - Is it better to just buy another printer?

Just bin it?

With the price of colour laser printers falling to levels not seen before you may be tempted to simply buy another printer when the toner runs out.

Who could blame you (apart from the Greenies) after all, the cost of a set of replacement toner looks like it's more than you paid for the printer in the first place!

Hold on! Lets do some math first!

A new Fuji-Xerox colour SLED printer costs around $250, not bad for 4 x the information (twice the DPI) on the page as the others at the time!

Now you've run out of toner and it's looks like a set will cost about $320!

I may as well buy another printer and put this one in the bin you think?

It's not that simple..

Most printers come with "Start up" or "Interductory" toners which are LOW capacity.

In this example (using a Fuji-Xerox CP205 printer) the cost per print including the cost of the printer was $0.32c per page (Based on the standard 5% coverage for each toner or 20% total)

However the cost per print from now on (you've already paid for the printer) is only $0.20c per page, even if the whole set costs more than the printer!

It's the cost per page that sould consern you, not the cost for a toner cartridge or set, and what seems like a good idea upon closer inspection is not only damaging to the enviorment but damaging to your finances too.

Bottom Line

It's around 30% cheaper per page to buy a set of toners than another printer. If the cost per print and being environmentally responsible is of concern to you, replace the toner cartridges.

All printer manufacturers want to make money, they do this by selling consumables for their printers.

-- hot.com.au

New Eco Toners

In line with recent energy-saving trends, Fuji Xerox has been actively pursing technological innovations that increase the energy efficiency of widespread office multifunction devices and printers.
Toner fusion is the most power-intensive process in those devices - accounting for 50 to 80 percent of total power consumed - as instant high-temperature fusion requires a massive amount of energy.

Fuji Xerox has now developed EA-Eco toner, a special toner that enables a lower fusing temperature - by more than 20℃ compared with conventional EA toner. Changes in the viscosity of EA-Eco toner relative to temperature are shown in Fig. 1. With its viscosity sharply changing with temperature, EA-Eco toner achieves its minimum fusing temperature at 20 to 50℃ lower than conventional toner.

EA-Eco toner is completely oil-free, with wax contained as with conventional EA toner, allowing for a glossy finish that follows glossy paper with the sharp-melting characteristics as shown in Fig. 1. As a result, it attains an appropriate gloss even on different paper types, such as less gloss on plain paper and higher gloss on glossy paper. With EA-Eco toner, which enables both lower fusing temperature and high-gloss printing, power consumption can be reduced by approximately 40% in glossy mode compared with conventional Fuji Xerox EA toner, leading to a large reduction in the amount of carbon dioxide emissions.

* Cost/Rated pages per toner cartridge. Cost per page is based on 20% total coverage per page (5% per toner). Subject to change without notice. Note printers come with "startup" toners which do not have the same page yield as tones used in this example. (Figures are correct at time of writing and should be used as a guide only)