Stands the test of time - Home or Office

Over the years I have owned several ink jet printers including some professional HP models. In every case they ended up being more hassle and expense then they were worth due to ink drying up or just plain the high cost of cartraiges. So I finally decided it was time to try a laser for my home printing needs. I have never looked back.

From the offices I have worked in, I knew that the HP4, 5, 4000, and 5000 series of printers are a bit dated now but incredibly reliable. So I decided to pick one up used as my printing volume is very low. I ended up finding a 4000n for about $65 at a local pawn shop with about 200,000 pages on it. HP rates these printers for a lifespan of about 750,000pages so mine will probably have it's electronics die or become completely obsolete long before I could ever wear it out with the couple hundred or so pages per month I print. The best part is the laser toner...it doesn't dry up and go bad like ink jet ink. I can let the printer sit for a couple months and the next page will be as crisp as the last. While the toner cartraiges are typically twice to three times as much as an inkjet unit, there is much greater value as you will get 10-20 times more pages out of one. Cost per page is actually very low with a laser like this.
While the 4000n is not the speediest of printers by today's standards, I find the 17ppm speed to be quite acceptable for everyday printing. The 8mb buffer and 1200dpi resolution make most graphics look good. Having the printer networked is great and to me is a must for the modern household. It's pretty nice to be able to hit print on my laptop in the living room and have the noise of the printer be isolated in my home office.

I have had my 4000n for several months now and have been loving every minute. It's still working on the toner it came with and no other maintinence has been needed so my only ongoing costs have been paper. My only possible complaint is that it's not a color printer...but that is a whole other ball game.