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I flat out refused to buy a printer for a long time, but it's become more necessary for me in recent years. I decided against any inkjet technology (including HP PageWide / fixed head printers, which can be presented similarly to a consumer) for a number of reasons... critically:

• Idle Inkjet printers get "gunked" up very quickly - if you're not printing regularly, then the head quickly becomes caked in dried ink, which requires careful and expensive cleaning (ink is expensive) - potentially requiring hand cleaning or even a replacement head (or whole printer)


• Running costs: replacement ink is incredibly expensive, and DIY refills are becoming harder and harder due to DRM - Printer Ink is one of the most expensive liquids in the modern world - See "Ink Cartridges are A Scam".


• I've long maintained that "printing is the weak link in computing" - Inkjet printers have a habit of jamming, chewing on paper, wearing out... mechanically they are far from a sound idea

I purchased a Samsung Laser MFD (CLX-6260FW) over two years ago, and I've had no issues with it. It came with a set of "starter" toner cartridges:

• Black - 1503 impressions / 2000 page capacity


• CMY - 645 impressions / 1500 page capacity

About 1.5 years after receiving it, the cartridges each showed as "0% remaining" and required "immediate user intervention" so I purchased more to be prepared (6k Black, 3.5k CMY), but a further ~7 months later they're still going strong.

Toner cartridges can benefit from a good shake, which helps to redistribute the contents when they start to get low and show print issues.

With the price and size of laser printers now, I'd recommend that nobody purchases an Inkjet ever again (budget permitting of course, they are still a bit more expensive in the short term).

While laser printers are quantitatively worse for high-quality photo printing, I'd suggest that unless high-quality photo printing is a very important use-case for you, laser will be just fine. For occasional photo printing, use an online service.

To expand on the running costs of an Inkjet printer briefly, consider some random HP cartridges.

While the upfront cost is much higher, the running cost is significantly lower (probably better than ~50%).

HP Inkjet Black Ink Cartridge

• 
  HP "No. 45", claims a coverage of ~930 pages, for £44.95
  
  
  • 4.8p / page
  
  


• 
  HP "No. 300XL", claims a coverage of ~600 pages, for £36.73
  
  
  • 6.1p / page
  
  

An approximate ~5.5p / page of black and white only printing... completely ignoring the use for alignment, head cleaning, wastage due to being dried out, wastage due to re-prints, wastage due to DRM, etc...

HP Laser Black Toner Cartridge

• 
  HP 1500, claims a coverage of ~5,000 pages, for £100.50
  
  
  • 2.1p / page
  
  


• 
  HP 642A, claims a coverage of ~7,500 pages, for £206.23
  
  
  • 2.7p / page
  
  


• 
  HP 645A, claims a coverage of ~13,000 pages, for £320.95
  
  
  • 2.5p / page
  
  

An approximate ~2.4p / page of black and white only printing.

I have had my printer, a Fuji Xerox CM305DF for more than 3 years. The cartridges (rated at 3000 pages) are still 3/4 full - I have only printed about 1500 pages. The toner seems to be perfectly OK.

In most laser printers, the toner is stirred whenever a print is made. This is true regardless of whether the cartridge and drum are together (as is the case for most mono printers), or when the cartridge is far removed from the drum (most colour lasers). As a result caking or clumping should not be a problem.

In general, I agree with your comment about inkjets. In many inkjets only 50% or less of the ink makes it onto the page. The rest is used in regular head cleans (e.g. every time it wakes up) or in emergency cleans (when the print quality suffers from a clogged jet). Inkjets also need to be used regularly. If you leave them switched off for a couple of months, you can expect to waste large volumes of ink to get the jets working properly again. Lasers do not have any of these problems.

Inkjets have a place if your main use is printing photos. On photo paper they do a far better job than any laser. On the other hand, on plain paper any laser will print better photos than an inkjet. When considering an inkjet for photos, make sure you include the cost of photo paper, which is something like 20c for 4" x 6". Including the ink, you'll be up for close to 50c per photo. If you get them printed at the nearest shop, the same photos will cost you 10c or less and the quality will be even better. Of course, it does mean you have to wait a couple of hours to get your hands on them.

Not to get dragged into a laser vs inkjet debate (laser was far superior.), I will simply add my experiences using lasers.

Do not be worried about the toner going bad. I have never had it happen, nor heard of it going bad.

I have a Brother H-2140 sitting next to me now, it was manufactured in January 2008. It gets little use. The toner in it now is over 2 years old (and that is only the second cartridge in its entire life). So using (very) old toner is not an issue.

There are a host of HP laser printers at work, all with mixed amounts of use, some with OEM toner others with cheap ebay toner. Some machines sit unplugged for long periods of time until needed, no issues with toner in any of them.

Under no circumstance would I consider buying an ink jet, especially for infrequent use. An inkjet will either use up all the ink sitting idle, or if you unplug the printer will ruin it. Tthe ink really can dry up and clog the print head, (have had it happen).

To add another data point, I have an inherited LaserJet 4250, and according to the supplies status page, the toner was first used in May 2008, just shy of 11 years as of this writing. The capacity and page counts are within limits, and it works perfectly fine.

This is backed up by the fact that HP has a warranty on laser cartridges that lasts until the printer reports the toner is consumed, and states

There is no expiration date for the use of HP toner cartridges.

This is in contrast to inkjet supplies which are marked with a end-of-warranty date.

This might be only anecdotical evidence, but I'm using my HP Laserjet P3005 maybe once a week for 3 years now on the same toner cardridge that was there when I bought it used, and it still prints like new. The same was with my previous Laserjet 2200 printer before I broke it — bought in 2009 used and it printed just fine on the same cardridge long into 2015. I wouldn't worry about durability of these cardridges, it's more likely that there will be a mechanical problem.

Unlike inkjet int which lasts at best a couple weeks opened/installed and unused, laser printer toner lasts years if not decades. Don't worry about it at all.

Your choices

Other answers point out cost advantages for lasers, and attest to the longevity of toner. That's all true. But the simple fact is that if you need a printer for occasional use and it will sit idle for months, a laser printer is really your only practical option.

There are some other technologies that have a long shelf life for the supplies but they generally aren't used for day-to-day printing requirements. Virtually all consumer printing is either inkjet or laser.

Inkjets can't

An inkjet will be problematic if it sits even a few weeks without use because the ink dries out in the print head and clogs it. Beyond that, ink cartridges actually have a limited shelf life. Even unopened cartridges deteriorate in a few years. Once the cartridge is installed, its ink slowly dries out inside the cartridge and changes consistency. It can become unusable in a year or two. So inkjet printers just aren't compatible with this kind of usage.

Lasers can

Which brings us to your question of whether laser printers can't do it, either, based on Brother's "best if used by" date. A shelf life of 6 months after opening simply isn't realistic. Brother would probably claim that it's to ensure that customers get the best possible performance. But I suspect it's really to fool some customers into buying more toner so it's "fresh".

On a time scale of less than many years, the primary issue is the potential for the toner to absorb some humidity and clump together inside the cartridge. If that happens after sitting idle for 6 months, shaking the cartridge is a trivial fix. The toner will still work for an extremely long time. So yes, a laser printer can handle your usage pattern without a problem.

I'll add another example of personal experience to the responses. I have a 15 year old HP 1012 laser printer connected to an old computer in a back room. It gets used a few times a year. The toner cartridge is a dozen years old and still prints just fine (and I don't think I've ever had to even take it out and shake it).