If you want to run a serious home business, you still have to have some sort of fax machine in your office. While most people think that the day of the fax is long gone, all the people who still hold on their machines seem to be business people. In other words, other businesses will eventually expect you to be able to send a fax and lose respect if you don’t have that capability. The appliance and electronics Sharp offers various fax machines, from the outdated UX 1300 printer with thermal roll toner to its modern UX-B800SE model that works on broadband and can send faxes to an email address.
How your machine prints on paper will greatly affect the choice you make. The technology your machine uses will influence how good the copies look once their printed and how much the toner costs. One type of fax machine, usually the cheap dedicated versions use thermal transfer rolls, like the UX 1300 does. They don’t make great copies, but they can get the job done like they always did and the toner doesn’t cost too much.
Some faxes use a newer (but already very familiar) technology to print and make copies. That would be the Inkjet, and many stand-alone faxes now use this ink instead of toner (like Sharp’s UXB20). These printers are usually at least a tad better at printing than thermal printers, and faxes will look and feel more like anything you print from a computer. Just remember that the quality between Inkjet printers is not always the same: a photo printer will always look much nicer than a machine designed to just make faxes.
Some laser copiers can also function as fax machines. These use the toner and drums of laser copiers, because that what they are. They tend to have good, reliable quality (although many of us have nightmares about jams and messes). These machines are more expensive so you don’t see them in the offices of small business all the time. Color capable laser printers are also much more expensive than any color Inkjet printer. If you get one of these, make sure you will be happy to use it as your copier and computer printer as well.
Another thing to consider is the price of toner. Thermal transfer rolls can print around 510 pages. They can generally be cheaper than laser toner. I was able to find some toner for the UX 1300 machine online for $37. These rolls are also more specialized and may be difficult to find in some stores.
Inkjet printers are much more common now. Fax machines that use this technology use the more readily available (and more easily installable) Inkjet cartridges. When I compared the cartridge for Sharp’s UXB20 to the thermal roll, the price was exactly the same. The website said the cartridge produces a “max” of 500 pages, so you might not get as much mileage with an Inkjet. The quality, however, will probably be much improved.
Toner for Laser Copiers and printers will be much more expensive, but also be able to last for many more copies. While the toner for these machines run into the hundreds, they will last for thousands of printed pages. When you factor that in, plain toner might be cheaper than the other options. It will certainly still be much more expensive to get starting with one of these machines.
Check out Sharp UX 1300 toner. Sharp toner is the best Toner.