best monochrome production printer for low cost & reliability

[reckless]

I am a book publisher who prints 3M impressions a year. I want to do 10M+. My books are 6x9" text duplex and generally distributed freely. Which is the cheapest and most reliable monochrome production printer? Speed is not an issue as long as printer doesn't need attention. Want something without maintenance contract. Prefer something that will never die, smaller footprint would be nice. Don't need any finishing as I manually perfect bind.

[PrintWhisperer]

Re: best monochrome production printer for low cost & reliability

I am a book publisher who prints 3M impressions a year. I want to do 10M+. My books are 6x9" text duplex and generally distributed freely. Which is the cheapest and most reliable monochrome production printer? Speed is not an issue as long as printer doesn't need attention. Want something without maintenance contract. Prefer something that will never die, smaller footprint would be nice. Don't need any finishing as I manually perfect bind.

Given what you have laid out I am not sure a production machine would fit your parameters of 'easy to maintain' and 'small footprint'. Especially if you are considering a used production machine.

You will still need to hook-up with a dealer to buy your maintenance parts and consumables, plus for those things you cannot do like firmware updates and such you will be on a chargeable status. For Kyocera there is a 3 year 'bumper-to-bumper' warranty, but it is only available to authorized dealers. unauthorized parties get a 90-day warranty.

It might be better to purchase 2 hi-volume units in the 80-90ppm range, which is quite common. (1 would suit current volume)

I'll float the Kyocera product because the 9003i has a 600k PM cycle and a monthly duty cycle of 450k. PM parts and toner will be your biggest cost at your expected volumes.
PM kit~.002 cents/page Toner~.002 cents/page (rounded up)

Good Luck!

[PrintWhisperer]

Re: best monochrome production printer for low cost & reliability

I felt obliged to add that the 9003i warranty does end at 3 years OR 4.8 million, whichever comes first. This applies to the series which include 7003i/8003i.

Also, once the warranty has passed you no longer have to obey the PM cycle.

If you shop used, this model is the same frame as 2 prior series, the 7001i/8001i or 7002i/8002i/9002i however they do have some issues like transfer belt drift and fuser exit sensor flag wear which should be checked.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: best monochrome production printer for low cost & reliability

Given what you have laid out I am not sure a production machine would fit your parameters of 'easy to maintain' and 'small footprint'. Especially if you are considering a used production machine.

You will still need to hook-up with a dealer to buy your maintenance parts and consumables, plus for those things you cannot do like firmware updates and such you will be on a chargeable status. For Kyocera there is a 3 year 'bumper-to-bumper' warranty, but it is only available to authorized dealers. unauthorized parties get a 90-day warranty.

It might be better to purchase 2 hi-volume units in the 80-90ppm range, which is quite common. (1 would suit current volume)

I'll float the Kyocera product because the 9003i has a 600k PM cycle and a monthly duty cycle of 450k. PM parts and toner will be your biggest cost at your expected volumes.
PM kit~.002 cents/page Toner~.002 cents/page (rounded up)

Good Luck!

Great post. I'll just add that I think it's a bad idea to not have a service agreement. I also think the parameters that the OP laid out will be damn near impossible to meet.

[allan]

Re: best monochrome production printer for low cost & reliability

Konica Minolta Pro1100. 40 mil life cycle at 110ppm. 1 mil plus a month. Take the maintenance agreement.

[reckless]

Re: best monochrome production printer for low cost & reliability

I was thinking about finding an older piece of equipment that just never dies or goes down. Something built to last forever. Since I am printing text, even 300 dpi will suffice but 600 dpi is better. I looked at digital duplicators but I don't want to collate. I had heard of KM 1251's lasting really long but would prefer a smaller setup if available (Kyoceras do look nice). Also with newer vacuum feed paper systems there should be no jams on input and if I just want to output to a tray/stacker it should be a simple paper path. It would be nice if someone invented a printer than can print on both sides at once to avoid jams.

Somehow paying $0.008/click adds up to 6 figures. I feel like I am buying a new printer every year just on maintenance agreement.

[Woxner]

Re: best monochrome production printer for low cost & reliability

What you are asking for does not exist. 10m a year and you will have calls. One or two a month. No machine lasts forever. If it didnt break we would all be out of a job. Even if a machine has a 20m or 40 m life it will take a lot of calls to get there.

[reckless]

Re: best monochrome production printer for low cost & reliability

At 2 phone calls per month, 24/year paying $80-$100,000 seems too much to me. Maybe I am a big cheapskate. Maybe I should look at different technology like digital duplicators with collator function? They might be less maintenance?

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: best monochrome production printer for low cost & reliability

To use a car analogy, you are seeking to acquire a used Dodge RAM 350 or the like. You want to pull a heavy load and you do not want any breakdowns.

Like any used vehicle, you could be buying somebody else's problems.

Like the used vehicle market, COVID has caused both a great scarcity of quality used production copier inventory and a big run up in prices.

If you do not have at least $20k in your budget, you will probably have a hard time finding a used solution.

The solution definitely includes finding a quality local service provider with local parts and supplies. If you want to opt for a "Time & Materials" service contract that is do-able but it will cost you more.

You will be hard pressed to find a service provider who is willing to put a used copier making 83k prints per month under service contract.

Such a service provider would likely first insist on doing a full Preventative Maintenance kit rebuild on the copier at your significant cost.

"Used", "No breakdowns" and "10M prints per year" are rarely compatible statements.

I recommend be happy, buy new and lease a Toshiba eStudio 1058 at 105 cpm at around $40k or approx $700.00 month x66 plus cpc charges (toner, labour and parts inc.)

[reckless]

Re: best monochrome production printer for low cost & reliability

I hear you, $20,000 is in my budget. Not in the mood to spend $100,000.

Regarding car analogies: I used to have many V12 cars as backups and got tired of the maintenance and sold all of them for an older 2009 Toyota Land Cruiser with 100k miles. I beat the hell out of it everyday and it has almost 300k miles, still drives like new and never has let me down or needed any real maintenance (just oil changes and brakes). I would love the copier version of a Toyota Land Cruiser but maybe such a thing doesn't exist.

I feel like the whole point in spending $20-50k on a printer is not to be married to a dealer. I don't like someone's hand in my pocket. Same reason I got rid of the Mercedes and BMWs. I used to buy production printers from Minolta for $8-12k but they wanted their hands in my pocket. Most of my older problems were to do with finishers or paper tray feeders. If I take those out of the equation I feel like its a matter of fusers/rollers.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: best monochrome production printer for low cost & reliability

I hear you, $20,000 is in my budget. Not in the mood to spend $100,000.

Regarding car analogies: I used to have many V12 cars as backups and got tired of the maintenance and sold all of them for an older 2009 Toyota Land Cruiser with 100k miles. I beat the hell out of it everyday and it has almost 300k miles, still drives like new and never has let me down or needed any real maintenance (just oil changes and brakes). I would love the copier version of a Toyota Land Cruiser but maybe such a thing doesn't exist.

I feel like the whole point in spending $20-50k on a printer is not to be married to a dealer. I don't like someone's hand in my pocket. Same reason I got rid of the Mercedes and BMWs. I used to buy production printers from Minolta for $8-12k but they wanted their hands in my pocket. Most of my older problems were to do with finishers or paper tray feeders. If I take those out of the equation I feel like its a matter of fusers/rollers.

At 83,000 prints per month even your ideal copier still has to deal with paper trays. Your ideal copier still has to output paper onto a Finisher.

Unless you are good at fixing copiers yourself and have access to all of the parts, know how and consumables, you need a 3rd party service provider.

Your Land Cruiser still needed gas in the tank. CPC charges are like gas in the tank. Oil, brake and tire changes are like a copier service contract.

Unless you get really lucky, I do not think you will find what you are looking for at the price you are willing to pay.

[livancicm]

Re: best monochrome production printer for low cost & reliability

At 83,000 prints per month even your ideal copier still has to deal with paper trays. Your ideal copier still has to output paper onto a Finisher.

Unless you are good at fixing copiers yourself and have access to all of the parts, know how and consumables, you need a 3rd party service provider.

Your Land Cruiser still needed gas in the tank. CPC charges are like gas in the tank. Oil, brake and tire changes are like a copier service contract.

Unless you get really lucky, I do not think you will find what you are looking for at the price you are willing to pay.

At 830,000 prints per month

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: best monochrome production printer for low cost & reliability

At 830,000 prints per month

OMG! You are right! At this volume, you probably need two new copiers working in tandem. Used copiers are out of the question unless you want to live a life of misery.

[Gift]

Re: best monochrome production printer for low cost & reliability

OMG! You are right! At this volume, you probably need two new copiers working in tandem. Used copiers are out of the question unless you want to live a life of misery.

Even splitting this volume with two production units is probably not a long term solution and comes with a some workload of maintanance and repair needs.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: best monochrome production printer for low cost & reliability

There's no reason that he can't purchase a low meter used machine. But I do agree that he'd be better off buying 2 machines. There's a couple of advantages to this.

1.) Splits the workload.

and

2.) If one machine goes down, you're still able to print.

Just make sure they're the same model.