Kinko's

Agreed if the unit is in ready mode. But if the modern Phasers are shut down and disconnected from the mains, that ink returns to its solid state just like the rest of the ink stick. Xerox specs 45 minutes for the ink to return to its solid state. There will be a little bit of ink lost to calibration when the machines are powered back on, but it is a very small amount, something like 2-3 grams as I recall.

Looks to be a moot issue though as the OP seems to be looking for a less expensive option.

Cheers.

I have a sub-$200 cannon laser all-in-one that I keep in my vacation house. I also have a Brother MFC-7360n that is only used a few times a year and am very happy with it. I've never had a problem with any laser printer from intermittent use.

Inkjets are always a problem.

This is a function of how you use it. The printer must put a certain amount of ink through it's system or it's going to clog up. If this goes onto the paper, fine, but if you don't print (or don't print with all the colors) it's going to periodically spit some out. (Note: This means that if you leave a printer turned off for too long it will suffer. Likewise, if you leave it with an empty ink tank for too long, the same problem.)

The price is getting down there where it's competitive with everything but the el-cheapo inkjets.

You can find the low-end Samsung and Brother lasers really cheap. If you're an adventurous shopper, you could probably find some working bargain on Craigslist even cheaper.

My LaserJet 5P still works great! I have a LaserJet 1200 these days, but that 5P still gets fired up every year or so because it is better for envelopes or thick cardstock. Works the first time, every time! No consequences to storing it have been observed whatsoever.

Best suggestion yet.

I'm sure there's a Mexican equivalent. Or, if not, just befriend some local office/hotel and pay them to print whatever you want.

I approach these kinds of problems a little differently - rather than decide what I have to have and then go get it, I see what I can get cheaply (or free-ly) and make that work.

As I reported in an earlier thread, I have an HP 5Si that I picked up at a garage sale for $30 six or eight years ago. Tricked it up with memory, PostScript, duplexer, and MIO, and it sits (somewhat heavily) on the table next to the router. Available to all my computers, wired and wireless. Still using the same cartridge I bought back then and it still churns out paper at a very acceptable rate (24 ppm). My total investment was well under two hundred bucks.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran into a deal on craigslist - a local outfit was dumping their Xerox Phasers (two of them) for a ridiculously low price. I got both of them and a ton of ink for $200. Downloaded the drivers and manuals from Xerox, attached the cat5 cable, and it was up and running before it warmed up.

I had never used a solid ink printer before; I wasn't real happy with the output from color lasers (nor the cost of replacing the toners) but this thing is a marvel. Fast and quiet, and the built in duplexing is a bonus.

I bought some white card stock and use it to print photos. They won't pass a very critical eye, but the results are really astonishing. It does the same on ordinary bond paper, but the card stock is sturdier and makes it look like a regular 8x10 print.

I've run a few hundred pages through it so far, and the maintenance kit still registers as 88% life left. Besides, if anything breaks I've got a spare just sitting around. :)

Which exact model did you get?

And is the end effect more similar to inkjet or laser technology when it comes to paper getting moist/wet? Will the ink go messy or will there be no effect like with lasers?

They are 8560DN's.

I've only had it a while, but supposedly the ink won't run when wet. Remember, the color isn't fused onto the paper like it is with a laser - the ink (think crayons :)) is deposited on the paper and adheres to it.

Mechanical abrasion can also scrape off the wax, but you need a knife or something - ordinary handling doesn't affect it.

The results, especially when printing photos, is pretty stunning, at least to me. I would be a little leery of using this technology if I was concerned with archival storage, but for ordinary use, printing up some pix, etc. -- you know, stuff with a half-life or maybe a few years at most, I would have no problem.

I mentioned the ink because this stuff can get pretty pricey- the retail value of the ink sticks I got was probably between $600-$1000, depending on where you get it. And Xerox can get pretty testy about using non-Xerox inks. However, I believe there are some good substitutes out there, and for the price I paid, and not having any sort of maintenance agreement with Xerox, I'm not worried.

The way I use it, I'll probably be dead before I run out of ink.

There was an older Phaser (I don't remember if it was even new enough to be Xerox vs. Tektronix branded) where my wife worked, and we've got some 7-10 year old prints. They've held up at least as well to age as the oldest color laser prints I've got (10-11 years old); they definitely don't fade as fast as (consumer) inkjet prints, and it produced output MUCH nicer than the color lasers of the era.

The only big down side I've seen to the old prints is that on areas of heavy print, the solid ink can flake off if the paper sees too much mechanical stress with folding or crumpling, while color laser print seems to adhere better.

The more recent generation of mid-range color lasers seem to have caught up with that one in quality, but that was an OLD Phaser... I'd imagine a newer one (googling shows the 8560 as 2008 vintage) might be enough nicer still.

On color lasers, the drivers can matter a lot; the Dell I've got now (a refurb Dell 3130cn; something like $180 shipped on an after-Christmas sale last year) came with a recommendation to use their "Unified Printer Driver" and the results for photos were horrible; rolling back to the 3130-specific drivers produced results which are as good as any other 600-dpi color laser I've seen.

Due to the nature of the printing technology, would you say it is good for general business purposes like addressing envelopes, printing company stationary, etc.?

Which "it" - the Phaser/Xerox solid ink?

In general, I'd stay away from any of the color technologies if you can get away with regular black and white laser printing. I don't have a sense of cost per page, but of the color technologies, the Xerox solid ink is among the most mature, and should be quite reliable... but you cannot beat plain old B&W laser for either cost per page or reliability.