When my small business needed a needed a new all-in one printer-scanner-copier, we were mostly looking at the ink-jet types. They were generally good, but the units that really impressed us with their color output were the line of Xerox solid ink printers. We mostly wanted to be able to produce our own small runs of full color fliers and brochures, so these seemed a perfect fit. Our budget did not allow us to get one of the high end models, so we settled for the less expensive Workcentre C2424 solid ink printer.

We ordered the unit online and it had to be delivered via freight because it was too large for UPS. That created a bit of extra hassle, since once the crate was unloaded from the delivery truck, we had to deal with it ourselves. The unit is large for a counter top model and is really heavy - the the packaging was enormous. The box looked like a kitchen range could fit into it.

Once we got the unit out of the box, set up was not too hard, but did take longer than expected. The unit did fit on our counter top, but was so huge that we ended up getting a dedicated table for it.

Set up after that was fairly routine. Make sure you read directions so that you remove all the internal packaging put in place for shipping.

As for running the unit, it has a nice set of features, an easy to use LCD display on the front, and useful messages when something isn’t quite right.

The Workcentre C2424 isn’t a perfect machine and there are a number of things you need to be aware of before you purchase one. First off, the machine is not nearly as fast as toner printers. Especially in full duplex mode, it takes a lot of time to flip the paper. If you are used to a high-speed toner copier, you’ll be disappointed.

Another thing is the warm up time. From a cold start, the C2424 goes through a lengthy start up and warm up process, lasting at least 5 minutes. If you leave the machine on all the time (recommended) it will go into sleep mode and then warm up is only about 3 minutes. That took a while to get used to. We now have a cheap ink-jet copier next to the Workcentre for quick copies.

Another downside is that C2424 ink is really expensive. You can get compatible supplies that are much more affordable than the OEM supplies, but even then, they are a bit on the high side. The unit used solid ink sticks, but they are more like blocks rather than sticks. They are a lot like hard crayons - in fact you can write with them like crayons. The unit melts them (that’s the thermal part) and unfortunately, it also wastes a lot of the ink in the cleaning and startup process. C2424 black ink comes in 6 packs (OEM) for over $100, but you can buy compatible C2424 black ink sticks in a 7 pack for half that amount.

You need a lot of ventilation for this unit. It produces a lot of heat and it also smells like melting crayons, so a small, confined room is not the best solution unless it has some really good airflow vents.

A final caveat is that the print output in economy mode is almost unusable. The standard mode is what I would consider draft mode - I only use the standard mode for draft copies. Most of our work is printed in enhanced mode.

So, with all these downsides - why would you want to get a Workcentre C2424? One reason -awesome, vibrant color printing. When you use enhanced mode printing or above, the output is hard to distinguish from 4-color process printing. The output is incredibly professional looking. We usually only need about 3-5 fliers a day to mail out, and we often make changes to the information it contains. So getting 10,000 printed at a commercial printer, only to have them out-of date within a month is no good. Having information crossed out an hand written over does not present the type of professional image we want to project.

The Workcentre C2424 solid ink printer is a great investment if you need high quality color output for short runs. If you need speed and will primarily use your copier for black and white copies, there are probably better solutions for you.

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