How To Buy The Right Copier

There are two common types of copiers sold in the market today. While that seems underwhelming, there are vast differences which could lead you to the huge headache that comes from picking the wrong copier. Thankfully there’s educational information on how to buy the right copier for the task.

Business copiers were designed with ability to print in higher volumes, and the dependability a copier owner looks for. Business copiers are typically sold by knowledgeable and reputable traders, not office supply stores. While business copiers are the perfect fit for most businesses, hence the name, “office copiers”, or personal copiers, are a great choice for the average consumer. Office copiers are for those printing in low volumes. Usually they’re sold in office supply stores such as Office Depot, or Staples.

Price of Equipment

Just shopping for cost and purchasing one on price alone can be misleading and may wind up being more expensive in the long term. This is particularly the case when you create thousands of copies per month. You could be paying three times the quantity of the price of the copier in toner and supply expenses. It doesn’t matter if you are buying one for business or individual use. The very first thing you should do is research the cost per copy.

Volume and Cost per Copy

When purchasing a copier, you must first research your monthly copy volume. Here is the initial step in choosing which copier is ideal for you. One simple way to ascertain this would be to think of the number of reams of paper you use a month. Simply multiply that by the number of reams that you use, and you’ve got a fairly accurate evaluation of your “copies per month.” The reason you have to be aware of this is that it helps you determine your “price per copy.” This is how far it can cost you each time you press the backup button. Now, you take the cost of the toner and divide that into the estimated yield, and you have your cost per copy. Your price per copy is.01 cents per copy. Office copier supplies are nearly always more expensive than a business class type copier.

Service and Repair, Service Contracts

Most copier service businesses, (not connected with office nightclubs) won’t provide you an onsite service contract within an office copier. This is because they don’t sell them. Office supply stores often offer you extended warranties, but policy might not be complete. For instance, they may not pay the toner, or they won’t cover onsite service.

Dealers of business class copiers typically have a service contract which includes parts, support, and toner and supplies (everything except paper) are significantly less costly than the toner prices on a private copier.

Automatic Document Feeder and Feed Systems

Document Feeders

An automatic document feeder will be the feeder which automatically feeds your original files one at a time, so you don’t need to stand there and lift the lid every time you’ve got a pile of originals to be duplicated. Not all file feeders are created equally. There are lots of distinct mechanisms that nourish, different and eject the originals on all of the makes and models of copiers. Business kind copiers have far better mechanics than private copiers. Whenever you’re in business, and you make lots of copies and sets of copies, it is frustrating when you can’t count on this feature to function dependably.

The most frequent problems are multi-feeding and jamming. Multi-feeding is when the feeder pulls in more than one at a time. Most of the time the copier won’t permit you to understand this occurred. It will not show a jam, and you might not realize that it did this until you are in the center of your crucial meeting and you’ve got some pages that are missing. Paper jamming is another problem where it doesn’t pull the paper through properly and jams. Additionally, this is quite frustrating.

Feed Systems

Feed systems are the rollers and mechanisms that pull on your backup paper to make copies. Paper jams are the most frustrating thing that a person can have using a copier. Office supply store copiers have weak systems that feed the paper in and as you make larger copier runs the dependability is much under a company type copier.

Quality and Longevity

The quality of these copies being produced has improved through the years especially because of the electronic evolution. There is not much difference in backup quality. I’ve seen personal copiers that have equally as excellent resolution and copy quality as a very expensive business copier. But, when it comes to the quality of manufacturing, sturdiness and just plain quality of the gear you can see a big difference.

Business kind copiers are built to last. It depends on your backup volume as to how long every machine will last. Company copiers are built to last the monthly duty cycles that the producer has designated. Though sometimes I feel that they over estimate these numbers. There are applications in which a private copier will have to be substituted in only one year besides a business kind copier which may endure seven to ten years!

Conclusion

Purchasing a copier can be pricey, but buying the wrong copier may be a waste of cash. By doing your research ahead of time, you’ll be able to spend less and use your regulator for several years with few issues. Finding a reliable business to service your system is equally as important as buying the correct machine.