Oce Plotwave 300 vs. Lanier LW426

[dgosnell]

I work at a relatively small (25-person) architectural office with moderate print volumes (a little over 1000SF per month). We are looking at purchasing a new laser (LED, Xerographic) plotter, either with or without a scanner. The Oce Plotwave 300 seems like a good fit for our office and there are a number of reviews by reputable magazines out there. It is also praised in the AUGI forums. Today a local dealer recommended a Lanier LW426. I have not been able to find any reviews or user experience with this plotter, or even this brand. The only information I found is that it is a re-branded Ricoh product, but I have not been able to find any reviews on those either. Does anyone have experience with Lanier (good or bad)?

Thanks for your help,
Dave

[cadtag]

What's the service situation for either of them? Is there a local (e.g. within 5 miles) service person who can respond expediently? If not, which has available service organization within a reasonable distance, and what's the reputation of that organization? In my experience, the service aspect of these devices is far more important than the purchase price. they only break down when you most need them to work,

Since the vendor is recomending Lanier, is he willing to guarantee your satifaction? Refund your money and/or replace with the Oce?

we have a Ricoh office color printer/scanner/fax - a bit tweaky to set up, but it's run well. That doesn't say much about their (or Lanier's) large format devices though....

[dgosnell]

The service situation is comparable. As far as I know, there is only the one Lanier dealer, so we would be locked in with service there. But their office is about a block from our office, so I would hope service response is quick. Oce is sold and serviced by two dealers in town, both within a couple miles of our office. We don't have direct experience using the service teams at any of these three dealers.

I don't know about the "satisfaction guarantee" on the Lanier. That dealer does not sell Oce, so a swap would probably not be possible. They talked about a one week trial in our office, but I'm not sure that is long enough to make an informed decision. An Oce dealer offered a 30-day trial which seems a bit more reasonable.

[jmeyer.186809]

for whats it's worth we just got a Oce Plotwave 300 and we love it and FYI the color scanner is incredible. 200dpi is litterally higher res then then 1000dpi our kyocera used to do. I love it!

[GreyHippo]

We have had a Lanier LW324 for about three years and I would not recommend it to anyone because it sucks at stacking paper copies. Currently I can only print about 15 to 20 sheets before paper starts to fall on the floor or gets crocked. Our typical sheet size is 24"x36". Also in high volume situations it needs constant servicing because of wheels squeaking.

[Ian Philpott]

We are looking at UK wide plotter replacement. Have an OCE colourwave 600 + scanner on test atm. Brilliant thus far. About to get an HP Z7100 on trial to, not laser but inkjet. Seen it at HP demo suite, superfast but need to see the cost comparisons for our meterage