"Best" laser printer? (that can handle letter/legal/A4 size)

[colinstu]

I'm new to the forums, but I'm really curious what everyone here thinks is their "favorite" or most recommended laser printer (that can't handle 11x17).

I'm truly a pretty big fan of HP LJ 4200/4300/4250/4350s. They seem to be able to keep on going and going, maintenance kit parts are super easy to swap in and out, and general cleanings and maintenance & they'll last a long time. Swing plate gear wear sucks but I stumbled across this online (one made out of metal), I've yet to try/use one but they look very promising. Has anyone had experience with them?

I was convinced that HP no longer made LJs with easily swappable fusers (thinking everything went the way of P3005/LJ Pro 300 series etc) but dumbly found out that the P4X1X series as well as the current m60X series printers have the same capabilities. More modern designs, features, and faster speeds... looks great to me. The few of these printers I've stumbled across on my job have seemed fine. Reading online it seems like people seem to have problems with their formatters and power supply components failing however. Is this really as big and common a issue? Do these new series have the same swing plate gear wear problems as the trusty 4XX0 series?

4000, 4050, 4100 are ok machines. They can last a long time too, but more effort is required to pull out the fuser, and they're simply just old and slow and my clients don't always seem pleased by that.

So what do you guys think? Your top picks for printers that (preferably new ones you can still buy):
1) Have readily available and easy to install maintenance kits (fuser/transfer roller/other misc rollers/etc)
2) Aren't MFPs. Purely just printers here.
3) Not the extra expensive and big 11x17 printers

I did a lot of research on other brands of printers that meet these requirements and found printers from: Xerox, Oki Data, Dell/Lexmark, Ricoh, and Sharp.
* Xerox's Phaser 4622 and 3610 look promising. Anyone have experience with these? (this same question can be applied to the next printers too).
* Oki Data B731 and B721 (their older B730/720/710 are apparently rebadged Sharps)
* Dell B5460dn (MS811dn)/ Lexmark MS710dn/MS711dn/MS810n/dn/de/MS812dn/de
* Ricoh 5200DN/5210dn, 4310n, 4110n-kp, 4100nl
* Sharp DX-B350P / DX-B450P

In my past experience with Dells and Lexmarks... I really truly hate them. Have had so many issues with them, but I have never experienced these above models. When they work, they work great. if they break... it can be a nightmare.

Are there any other printers that I've left out?

Brother doesn't make a printer that has a fuser you can actually easily swap out. Most of their printers are really cheap, and they make up for that by making them impossible to maintain or fix. I've had so many clients come in with these having problems... and there's very little that can be done most of the time (affordably, anyways). Most of the time with a Brother you just buy another cheap crap one, or you pay more and you get a real printer.

Kyocera has the FS4300 and 4200 which look pretty nice, but have the problem of maintenance kits again. Konica Minolta has the pagepro 4650en which is just a rebadged Sharp... their other printers don't look very promising. Canon/Toshiba/Samsung again nothing remarkable there.

Tell me what you all think!

Colin

[CompyTech]

I don't work on too many printers. I have worked on a few, and from what I've seen, hp has been the best. Kyocera has a few good ones. I've heard some of the newer hps are crap, I've only worked on the older ones though.

I think you summed it up pretty much..

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