Choosing The Right Printer Equipment - Just How Much Can It Save You!

When it comes to buying computer hardware then besides the purchase of our computer, the next purchase we make, and often the next most expensive, is a printer. All colour printers are the same are they not? Well nothing could be further from the truth with many printers that look the same size having very different features and running costs. Firstly let us look at running costs. The biggest single mistake you can make when buying a printer is to go into a computer superstore and just buy the cheapest colour printer you can, as the chances are it will be a purchase that will come home to haunt you. The reason for this is the consumables that they use in the form of toner cartridges. I actually learnt this the hard way, buying a cheap £65 printer that came with a set of free cartridges thinking that I had got a good deal. Unfortunately when they ran out a week later, I went back to the store only to find the toner cartridges were £20 each, making a grand total of £80 to replace all four. This meant every time I needed to change the cartridges then it was costing more than the original printer. So the first thing to look at when you have made your shortlist of printers is how much do the consumables cost? This will most often make your shortlist even shorter. Also look online to see if you can buy third party replacements, as if only the original manufacturer supplies them then you can be held to ransom if they start putting prices up. Many re-manufactured printer cartridges are now just as good as the originals and often half the price. Secondly have a good look at the features that you really need, as you can buy them with integrated faxes, scanners and copiers, but do you really need all those features? Email has virtually killed off faxes as an example. Also the more such features it has the more there is to go wrong. Lastly consider the replacement cost of your printer, current prices make them virtually disposable if they go wrong, and I would actually advise not taking out an extended warranty. It will come with 12 months as standard, and changes in European law will shortly see this go up to 24 months. So take all of this in to account when going out to buy your new colour printer.

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