Choosing a thermal receipt printer that will still be working in five years
Print speed is the number everyone compares, and the one that matters least. Here is what to look at instead.
A receipt printer is bought once and used forty times a day for years, so the specifications worth comparing are the ones about endurance rather than speed.
The auto-cutter is the part that fails. It is the only moving component doing real work, and its rating — measured in cuts — is the closest thing to a life expectancy the unit has. A cutter rated for 1.5 million operations at forty receipts a day is a century of service; one rated for 500,000 is not, and the difference in purchase price is rarely proportionate.
The interface outlives the computer. A printer with both USB and serial will connect to whatever replaces your current terminal. A printer with a proprietary connector will not.
Paper width is a lock-in. 80 mm is the standard here and the rolls are available everywhere. A 58 mm printer saves a little on consumables and commits you to hunting for them.
Print speed, meanwhile, is the number on the front of the box. The difference between 200 mm/s and 250 mm/s is under half a second on a typical receipt, which nobody in the queue will ever notice.