Silent B/W laser printer?

Morten74 · Post by **Morten74** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:32 am

Hi all

[Sorry if this is too far off topic

]

Having recently stepped into the world of silent computing, I am suddenly becoming more aware of noisy periferals.

Yesterday my old HP Photosmart P1000 died, so I need to replace it. I really do not need color printing, so I figured that a monochrome laser printer would be a good choice. I do not need a speed monster, but the quality of both text and graphics must be really good. However, I'm a little worried about the noise from a laserprinter in idle mode...

I have found this one http://reviews.cnet.com/laser-printers/ ... ml?tag=img, which seems pretty good (Lexmark describes it as "Inaudible dB" when inactive and 46 dB when printing in silent mode.

My price max. is about $200-250 and a 'must have feature' is a paper tray that 'hides the paper'.

Any help is very welcome

Best regards

Morten

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 12:03 pm

A) Laser printers are cheap if you never have to change your toner cartridge. Most of the cheap printers sell for about 2x the cost of the toner cartridges.

B) The small cheap laser printers are usually quiet when in idle. They don't print very fast and are unable to print heavy stock well since the fuser rolls cannot get too hot (because they lack a fan).

I've had good luck with the smaller HP Lasers (1020-series) but the cartridges are about $70, but you can get higher capacity ones from remanufacturers like Office Depot and the like. However these printers do not have the built-in paper tray that you want.

I did buy a HP p2015n for about $400, but it sucks (at least the one I got does). The toner doesn't quiet fuse to the media, which is not good.

I would never buy a Lexmark product. They are a ripoff when it comes to cartridge use (at least with their inkjets) and they are cheaply made. Unless it's a printer thats actually made by someone else. However, when it comes to lasers, they actually do make (or made) good printers. I have an IBM Infoprint 1352 that I believe is actually made by Lexmark (I've seen the same printer at BB&B with a Lexmark badge on it) and it works very well. But that's a $2000 printer.

You might want to check out Dell's printers. I believe Lexmark their products as well, but it might be cheaper than direct from Lexmark. Myself, I'd stick with the cheapest laser I can find that has good review and is small. But if you see lots of big vents on the side, most likely, it has a fan in it.

Best bet is to go to a local Staples, OfficeMax, OfficeDepot, at a time when nobody is there and give them a listen.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 3:37 pm

I bought a Brother USB/LAN laser printer a while back at Office Depot.....about $140. At idle it's silent, but when printing the fan does turn on.......not too bad. It's plenty fast and not too tall. Best one I've owned. I have it working off the LAN connection....very useful setup.

Morten74 · Post by **Morten74** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 3:49 am

Thanks for the input.

@Bluefront: would that by any chance be the Brother HL-2070N ? -How is 'photo' print on that i.e. printing a webpage with graphics?

Best regards

Morten

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:01 pm

Yeah that's the model. I just tried to print a picture using my standard/cheap paper. I never did it before.....now I know why.

It's not for pictures.....

Morten74 · Post by **Morten74** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 10:02 pm

Thanks mate

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 6:28 am

I have a $700 color Okidata C5500n that makes great images from web sources or presentations (I used it to print out instructions for modding my CNPS7000B with pictures), but when you try to print out real flesh tones, it just doesn't cut the mustard. There's just not enough resolution to create enough colors to have a good photo gamut.

Don't get color lasers for photos, they're really only good for light graphics (low res pics and charts/graphs) and color text/clipart.

Cheers

tomy · Post by **tomy** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 12:31 pm

they cant be quiet because laser printers use a high intensity lamp 300W? to heat a roller that fuses toner to paper.
i think usually have >1 fan also (usually seen NMB fans)

maybe someone tries a fan swap

notquitequiet · Post by **notquitequiet** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 6:35 pm

I have an older Brother HL-5070DN. It idles silently, but when it prints it makes some noise. The fans and motors are quite loud, but it sits idle more than it prints.

It's also a pig when it does run. WELL OVER 1200 Watts. The newer ones claim to use less energy, but I'm not buying another one for a while. Print quality is plenty good enough for me. Beats the old inkjets it replaced at B&W.

I would look at the HL-2070N if I was buying another. Duplex doesn't do that much and I haven't need to add RAM or a paper tray or anything.

ddrueding1 · Post by **ddrueding1** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 7:04 pm

I really like Samsung products; never been dissapointed. And this color laser brags of "Whisper Quiet Operation".

Looks like it is in your price range as well.

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 6:40 am

Ah, but he said he wants a "hidden" paper tray. Which rules out 90% of budget printers otherwise, I definitely would've recommended the Samsung lineup...nice cheap printers.

WR304 · Post by **WR304** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:41 am

A lot of laser printers tend to power down when not in use.

You get the fans and noise when they print but the fans turn off completely the rest of the time.

I've got a Brother HL-5250DN printer at home. It was cheap for a networked laser printer. Print quality is quite good and it works ok over the LAN.

The big problem is that it curls the paper: When you print more than 3 or 4 pages you end up with a pile of sheets on the floor.

ddrueding1 · Post by **ddrueding1** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:07 am

jhhoffma wrote:Ah, but he said he wants a "hidden" paper tray. Which rules out 90% of budget printers otherwise, I definitely would've recommended the Samsung lineup...nice cheap printers.

Ah, I assumed he meant that the paper was covered. More importantly, that is was stored horizontally. As opposed to the infamously horrible HP LJ 1100

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 9:16 am

A word of caution about Samsung laser printers, coming from my experience with entry level samsung printers.

1. They eat a lot of power on startup, my dads 2010 triggered power protection on his UPS every second time he used it.
2. A number of samsung printers such as 1710/1740/2010 have a small fan built in for "cooling purposes". It comes on every time about 10-15 seconds after you print something and stays on for several minutes. It's a small 40mm medium speed fan that is god awful annoying and yet completely useless as it moves almost no air. I don't think all samsung printers have that "feature" but anyone seriously considering samsung printers should first verify if it has one.

Morten74 · Post by **Morten74** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:30 am

Hi guys

I finally settled on the HP 1022n - had to compromise on the paper storage (but I can live with it, as the printer has a plastic cover over the paper). Printer is completely silent when not printing, noisy as other laser printers when printing, but as soon as the print is done, it goes back to completely silent. It prints fast and the quality is really good - both for text and graphics!

Highly recommended

Morten