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Are there any online resources on what is the most reliable and cheap printer to use long term? I'm thinking a BW or Color laser printer where the parts last a

by pingec 6y ago

Are there any online resources on what is the most reliable and cheap printer to use long term? I'm thinking a BW or Color laser printer where the parts last a long time and accept cheap third party toner cartridges?

zemvpferreira 6y ago
Common wisdom has been any Brother printer (for the past 20 years maybe). I have one and love it compared to my previous HPs.
- sokoloff 6y ago
  I’ve had very good service from my HP3600N color laser. Economical, reliable, decent paper handling. It was caught up in the HP driver security cert error of late last month (which makes me suspicious that it wasn’t an accident, but a reinstall of Apple drivers fixed it). Economics here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24985405 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24985405
- pingec 6y ago
  I have an OKI C301dn. What I like: - Build quality and the low price, the thing is huge and weighs 22kg and I paid only 100 EUR for a new one - Availability of cheap third party toner cartridges What I do not like: - Every toner cartridge must include a circuit board that needs to be replaced together with the cartridge. This increases toner cart replacement price by ~4 EUR - Third party toner quality varies a lot even from the same seller it's hard to find a cheap supplier with constantly good quality - After 7 years and about 3k pages printed, a white vertical line / streak started to show up on the printed pages Based on recommendations here I guess my next printer will be from Brother.
shafyy 6y ago
I just ordered an HP laser printer since Wirecutter recommended it. Not used it yet. On HN I see people recommending Brother all the time though, so now I hope my HP is still ok :-)
- bzbarsky 6y ago
  FWIW, I've been using HP lasers for the last 12 years. The first one started getting a bit wonky after 9 years and I replaced it; the new one has been fine. We do a middling amount of printing (~10,000 pages over those 9 years, iirc). I haven't tried non-first party toner; the B/W high-capacity HP toner cartridges for my current printer, for example, are ~$200 and last for ~10,000 pages, which works fine for me; my total cost of ownership ends up at $45/year or so, and there's zero hassle involved, which is worth a lot to me personally.
  - shafyy 6y ago
    Good to know, thanks!

by pingec 6y ago

zemvpferreira 6y ago

Common wisdom has been any Brother printer (for the past 20 years maybe). I have one and love it compared to my previous HPs.

sokoloff 6y ago
I’ve had very good service from my HP3600N color laser. Economical, reliable, decent paper handling. It was caught up in the HP driver security cert error of late last month (which makes me suspicious that it wasn’t an accident, but a reinstall of Apple drivers fixed it). Economics here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24985405 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24985405
pingec 6y ago
I have an OKI C301dn. What I like: - Build quality and the low price, the thing is huge and weighs 22kg and I paid only 100 EUR for a new one - Availability of cheap third party toner cartridges What I do not like: - Every toner cartridge must include a circuit board that needs to be replaced together with the cartridge. This increases toner cart replacement price by ~4 EUR - Third party toner quality varies a lot even from the same seller it's hard to find a cheap supplier with constantly good quality - After 7 years and about 3k pages printed, a white vertical line / streak started to show up on the printed pages Based on recommendations here I guess my next printer will be from Brother.

shafyy 6y ago

I just ordered an HP laser printer since Wirecutter recommended it. Not used it yet. On HN I see people recommending Brother all the time though, so now I hope my HP is still ok :-)

bzbarsky 6y ago
FWIW, I've been using HP lasers for the last 12 years. The first one started getting a bit wonky after 9 years and I replaced it; the new one has been fine. We do a middling amount of printing (~10,000 pages over those 9 years, iirc). I haven't tried non-first party toner; the B/W high-capacity HP toner cartridges for my current printer, for example, are ~$200 and last for ~10,000 pages, which works fine for me; my total cost of ownership ends up at $45/year or so, and there's zero hassle involved, which is worth a lot to me personally.
- shafyy 6y ago
  Good to know, thanks!