Does your office have enough fax power? If paper or ink cartridges need regular replacement, fax errors are a normal part of the workday, or the fax portion of your phone bill leaves you shocked, the answer to that question may well be "No."

Sometimes, businesses erroneously conclude that they can function on the cheapest fax available. Actually, buying such "throwaway" fax machines that you replace instead of fix when breakdowns occur can be a more costly strategy than buying a more robust fax machine upfront.

How much fax power you realistically require depends on your faxing activity. If you send between 50 and 200 sheets per day, you should look at a mid- or even high-volume fax machine. Fax features at this level differ from those of low-end faxes in four major areas: transmission speed, cost per page, paper capacity, and memory.

While entry-level faxes typically transmit at about 14.4 kilobytes per second (Kbps), more advanced models feature much faster 33.6 Kbps transmission. Some get even faster results using high-compression methods such as JBIG and MMR. These high-speed features can translate to lower long-distance charges.

If you receive many faxes, buy a fax equipped with the more cost-effective laser technology. Laser printing averages 2 cents per page vs. 5 cents for ink-jet output. Receiving 100 pages on a laser fax machine will cost the same toner-wise as receiving 40 pages via ink-jet.

Moreover, offices with heavy fax reception will benefit from higher paper capacity, especially if those faxes are received after hours. Rather than the 50-sheet supply typically found with throwaways, business-class fax machines hold at least 250 sheets, and often 500, with the option of boosting that to over 1000 sheets.

Memory helps ensure smoother faxing. With memory, incoming faxes delayed by paper jams or empty trays can be stored for later printing. Memory also allows for quick-scanning so the user can take a document before the fax finishes transmitting. Very roughly speaking, 1 megabyte (MB) of memory equates to 40-50 pages. That ratio plunges for graphics-heavy pages. Mid-volume faxers should look for at least 1-3 MB of memory, and high-volume users should seek 4-8 MB and above.

Business fax machines often include other time and cost-saving features, like dual-access for simultaneous sending and receiving, Internet faxing to curtail international faxing costs, remote diagnostics to troubleshoot from your desktop, and network interfaces for faxing throughout a network or adding another function, such as printing.

Mid-level laser faxes with sufficient memory and paper supply start at around $600-800 (without options) and range to $2000 and above. Still unsure whether you need a volume fax? Ask a fax dealer to do a total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis for you. With the costs in front of you - including long distance charges, toner and drum, and time -- it will be easier to determine whether spending more upfront will save you money. Then you might just find that the only "throwaway" item will be your list of reasons to replace your fax machine.