Cheap b/w laser printer that does auto duplex?

[potkettleblack]

Having spent hours researching and googling I am none the wiser and have determined that the whole area of laser printers is a minefield.

Thought I was onto a winner on the Dell website only to find out that they rebadge Lexmark products, add on a hefty markup and that the page output seems to drop between toner replacements for some reason compared to the original manufacturers identical product. Have looked at the Lexmark E350D and Brother HL5340D as well but still open to suggestions.

Budget - around the 150 quid mark

Toner - I want to use up some refill bottles so I really want to avoid nasty "chips" and other nasty tricks that the manufacturers use to ensure you buy their overinflated toner cartridges.

Usage - not a very high user at all, just the usual home office type of thing

Duplex - auto

Paper feed - can take A5, A4 and all the usual envelopes etc which I am sure most do anyways

So any thoughts and experiences? Cheers in advance.

[Bushfiva]

I used the Brother HL-5250DN. It does autoduplexing, toner is separate from the drum, and resolution can be reduced from 1200x1200 or 2400x600 down to 300dpi, plus toner economy mode. It works nicely as a direct-connect or network printer. I added more memory to mine, and it takes old stuff so the memory cost as much as the printer. There&s no straight-through path, so it balks on card stock.

[seacue]

HP1320 has a duplex mode, but when in the duplex mode it goes through the motions of printing on both sides, even though you print on only one. This greatly reduces the throughput.

I couldn't find a way to make it automatically switch from single-sided to duplex paper routling.

Inserting single sheets is not as convenient as in my old HP4L.

[Saab Dastard]

I'd consider looking at a used printer - loads of them on ebay!

I picked up a 2nd hand HP4050 network duplex printer for next to nothing 6 years ago and it's still going strong.

SD

[Mike-Bracknell]

I couldn't find a way to make it automatically switch from single-sided to duplex paper routling.


..and you won't - because how would a printer know whether you wanted two single-sided pages or one double-sided page from the same Word document, unless you were to click that you wanted it duplex.

[Bushfiva]

He's talking about auto duplex as opposed to manual duplex.

[terrain safe]

Got a Lexmark e250dn printer. Fab does duplex and is on my network as well so when sat on any PC at home I can print out without having to start up and carry a printer around the house (I've got 3 PCs and 3 laptops!). Cost me £85 on special offer a couple of years ago, very cheap to run, looking to buy the e352dn when I need to. Wife loves printing things out double sided as it uses half the paper. Only trouble is the network settings got corrupted and I can't reset them so it is off the network at the moment but when the toner finally runs out I will replace with the e352dn.

[boe777]

HP4050, all the way, simple, (Cheap..Ebay) and a workhorse.. the only problem you might encounter is the cartridges, but if you hunt for it you will find it. The best printer by miles... although they have lots of new models, none compares to 4050.