Lobster wrote:

I have exactly the same issue - the vast majority of output in my house
is B&W but we do have occasional need for colour. So binning my Epson
Stylus Photo 760 inkjet in favour of a monochrome laserjet isn't an
option; I wouldn't mind running them in parallel but for the fact that I
know the inkjet would always be bunged up every time I wanted to use it
if that was only fortnightly, say.


Why not run a test print every couple of days? I run an A3 photo
through my Epson printer twice a week just to keep it all fluid. The
last time I had to clean the nozzles was when I came back from three and
a half weeks in the Caribbean - a small price to pay. ;-)


I don't know much about laser printers, especially colour ones - but if
I bought a colour laser printer as a replacement for the inkjet, and
continued using it 95% for monochrome work, would the consumables work
out far more expensive (for B&W output) than if I bought a monochrome
printer? Or does that depend on the printer? Are colour models
inherently any less reliable?


If they have three or four times as many of the components that are
likely to fail, I think you can draw your own conclusions.