JDavis,
In other words, instead of having a spreadsheet or database to track your IP allocation, everything is already in DHCP, provided you use reservations.
If you want to only use the DHCP server to manage your IPs, I suggest making reservations for your printers. Also, it's always good practice to backup your database regularly, and, if possible, have a standby DHCP server ready to take over should something happen to the primary. You can have the same scopes on the standby but don't activate them.
IMHO, I don't think that having the printers' IPs excluded from the DHCP scope is the cause of the printers losing their connections. The exclusion list just a range of addresses that the DHCP server does not lease out nor does it keep track of.
Can you give some more information about the printers that are losing their connections, i.e., how often does it happen, what do you do to correct it, model of printer, switch/hub/router info, print server info, etc?
Good Luck!
Tim Cambridge
A+, CCNA, MCSA, MCSE (W2K)