printer and another guide

HP Color LaserJet 3800dn

We bought the HP Color LaserJet 3800dn as something of an extravagance when my wife and I started our own business. We thought we would use the features and wanted a quality brand like Hewlett Packard. Since its purchase in 2006 we have used it steadily and it hasnt let us down yet.

We print a lot of checks, which it does brilliantly when using the multipurpose tray. Our old printer had started jamming when printing individual ones, which is why we bought a new one when we started the business. The multipurpose tray handles most sizes of odd shaped media, like the checks, envelopes and postcards. The 250 sheet paper tray is for letter sized paper and seems to work well.

Everything seems to be built solidly, even the flaps on the front have solid feeling hinges. The toner cartridges are all in ones so they dont need a drum, which reduces the running costs quite a bit. The cost is about on par with other manufacturers, with a 6000 page black toner coming in at $87, and color $99 for 6000 sheet yield. That offers quite a long life for users like us who dont print every day, especially as toner doesnt dry out like ink does. On average a toner cartridge will last us six months, maybe a bit longer for the color ones. That makes running costs minimal indeed for this printer.

The 3800dn goes to sleep when we dont use it to save power and go silent. When we request a print it only takes a few seconds to warm up and begin printing. It isnt too loud, but is loud enough that you wouldnt want to be printing in a small room with it all day.

The quality of its output is excellent for both color and black and white. Text on our documents and checks is finely printed with no blurriness or other mess on the page. Its ideally suited for us and I for one am glad we bought it.

We have only had to use HP Technical Support once, and while they arent in the US, they do speak good English and understood us well enough. We had suffered a power surge and it fried something inside the printer. The Tech guy figured it out pretty quickly and sent us a replacement part. Once fitted we were up and running again in no time.

The HP Color LaserJet 3800dn is a great printer with duplexing and networking built-in. It works well, works quickly and helps us with our daily chores without complaint. I would recommend it to anyone.