6 ms·

I hate my brother printer. Now I have to do some weird black magic that involves pulling out the power cable and paper tray and inserting the cable while holdin

I hate my brother printer. Now I have to do some weird black magic that involves pulling out the power cable and paper tray and inserting the cable while holding some buttons in order for it to even turn on. A year earlier it suddenly stopped being able to print wirelessly and, as with all cartridge printers, the ink is crazy expensive. A month ago I bought an HP printer with an ink reservoir for my mother and it is great. You don't need apps to print and printing costs nothing compared to traditional printing. It comes with ink for about 10k pages and new ink costs around 10 euros. The best in class for ink-tank printers are supposedly Epson and instead of buying new ink for my own printer, I'll probably just buy one of those.

Aeolun 5y ago
Or just buy a laser printer and never have the issue again?
- DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
  Better yet: get rid of all printers. Stop printing. I haven’t needed to print anything in the past 28 months. When I do need to print something it’s a 5 minute walk to the town library where I can print 100 sheets for free every month.
  - rlonstein 5y ago
    If your life aligns with it, great (I also like that you're using the public library, I'm on my local library board and we also have b/w and color printer/copiers for patrons)! To reduce my printing and improve my own convenience, I replaced my failing twelve year old Brother laser with a Brother laser multifunction. Now when I deal with paperwork for my accountant, lawyer, bank, etc. I scan and send them a PDF. I made a scan of my signature and apply it as needed. With a few exceptions this has been acceptable. The kitchen chromebook is still no substitute for printing out recipes, though :)
  - kayodelycaon 5y ago
    Some of us have use cases where this won’t work. :) I happen to like my photo printer. Ordering a hundred 13x19 prints would cost more than all that I spent on the printer, ink, and paper. I still use my ten-year-old laser printer several times per month. Usually for RPG character sheets or paper copies of notes. Sometimes I’ll print out a story I’m beta reading. If I need a printout at 7pm on a Monday, the library isn’t open. I have gone digital with a lot of things, for instance: all of my handwritten notes go on a reMarkable 2 now.
  - gumby 5y ago
    I was away when our printer ran out of toner. My son called me concerned that he had an assignment due and needed to print something out. As I wasn’t home I had to resort to online. Amazon would deliver an entire laser printer in an hour for less than the cost of a new toner cartridge (no generic cartridges in the one hour service). Five years later we are still on the starter toner cartridge that came with that printer.
- mosselman 5y ago
  Toner is bad for your lungs.
plemer 5y ago
I am sorry you’ve had that experience. My Brother has been running perfectly for years. Use cheap generic toner. It just works.
wolrah 5y ago
When people talk about good reliable Brother printers they're always talking about their cheap laser line. Inkjet printers exist in two forms: Quality photo printers and complete garbage. They are not for documents or other normal printing, that's what laser printers are for. Your primary printer should not be an inkjet unless you only ever print color photos.
- dspillett 5y ago
  > Your primary printer should not be an inkjet unless you only ever print color photos. And unless you print photos very regularly or sometimes need them right-this-instant-gods-damn-it, you are usually better off going to a local shop and having them printed there on better paper with better equipment, cheaper. My main printer is a relatively inexpensive[†] laser, that has a true-black-only mode. [†] not _absolutely_inexpensive, because I wanted the luxury of automatic duplex and the cheapest models out there are rather unreliable or nearly as expensive/inconvenient to keep running long-term as some inkjets.
  - II2II 5y ago
    > And unless you print photos very regularly or sometimes need them right-this-instant-gods-damn-it, you are usually better off going to a local shop and having them printed there on better paper with better equipment, cheaper. If I had any need for colour prints, it would be a viable option since there is a shop a block away. For many people who regularly print in colour, the cost of the printer could be justified by the time it takes to stop off at the shop to pick up the prints. That being said, I don't see consumer grade colour printers fitting this role. Convenience is why I maintain a relatively inexpensive laser printer. I could easily print off 10 pages per week of work related documents at work, but racing across the building only to discover the printer isn't working (which it isn't about 10% of the time) and having to work around that problem for a good chunk of the day isn't worth the trouble of saving about $50/year.
    - dspillett 5y ago
      > For many people who regularly print in colour, the cost of the printer could be justified by the time it takes to stop off at the shop to pick up the prints Agreed. Though for me, assuming an inkjet in full quality mode isn't at least an order of magnitude faster than they were last time I had a supposedly high-spec one, printing a few A4 prints (or more of a smaller size), even assuming no “need several head cleans as I've not used the device for a week or two” or “had to reprint as something went odd half-way through a page” issues or similar, would take longer than marching to the nearest shop with printing facility, printing there, and getting home! Time of day makes a difference of course, my nearest 24-hour place is a noticeably further walk. > Convenience is why I maintain a relatively inexpensive laser printer. Same, mostly. I like to be able to print things to annotate. Wasteful environment wise but I'll take the deserved selfishness accusation on the chin there! The main use for it ATM is printing custom maps and other notes for trail runs, on fancy “thin but indestructible” paper that I doubt a print shop would offer, and sometimes being able to make a late correction before heading out to travel to the start is useful.

Aeolun 5y ago

Or just buy a laser printer and never have the issue again?

DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
Better yet: get rid of all printers. Stop printing. I haven’t needed to print anything in the past 28 months. When I do need to print something it’s a 5 minute walk to the town library where I can print 100 sheets for free every month.
- rlonstein 5y ago
  If your life aligns with it, great (I also like that you're using the public library, I'm on my local library board and we also have b/w and color printer/copiers for patrons)! To reduce my printing and improve my own convenience, I replaced my failing twelve year old Brother laser with a Brother laser multifunction. Now when I deal with paperwork for my accountant, lawyer, bank, etc. I scan and send them a PDF. I made a scan of my signature and apply it as needed. With a few exceptions this has been acceptable. The kitchen chromebook is still no substitute for printing out recipes, though :)
- kayodelycaon 5y ago
  Some of us have use cases where this won’t work. :) I happen to like my photo printer. Ordering a hundred 13x19 prints would cost more than all that I spent on the printer, ink, and paper. I still use my ten-year-old laser printer several times per month. Usually for RPG character sheets or paper copies of notes. Sometimes I’ll print out a story I’m beta reading. If I need a printout at 7pm on a Monday, the library isn’t open. I have gone digital with a lot of things, for instance: all of my handwritten notes go on a reMarkable 2 now.
- gumby 5y ago
  I was away when our printer ran out of toner. My son called me concerned that he had an assignment due and needed to print something out. As I wasn’t home I had to resort to online. Amazon would deliver an entire laser printer in an hour for less than the cost of a new toner cartridge (no generic cartridges in the one hour service). Five years later we are still on the starter toner cartridge that came with that printer.
mosselman 5y ago
Toner is bad for your lungs.

plemer 5y ago

I am sorry you’ve had that experience. My Brother has been running perfectly for years. Use cheap generic toner. It just works.

wolrah 5y ago

When people talk about good reliable Brother printers they're always talking about their cheap laser line. Inkjet printers exist in two forms: Quality photo printers and complete garbage. They are not for documents or other normal printing, that's what laser printers are for. Your primary printer should not be an inkjet unless you only ever print color photos.

dspillett 5y ago
> Your primary printer should not be an inkjet unless you only ever print color photos. And unless you print photos very regularly or sometimes need them right-this-instant-gods-damn-it, you are usually better off going to a local shop and having them printed there on better paper with better equipment, cheaper. My main printer is a relatively inexpensive[†] laser, that has a true-black-only mode. [†] not _absolutely_inexpensive, because I wanted the luxury of automatic duplex and the cheapest models out there are rather unreliable or nearly as expensive/inconvenient to keep running long-term as some inkjets.
- II2II 5y ago
  > And unless you print photos very regularly or sometimes need them right-this-instant-gods-damn-it, you are usually better off going to a local shop and having them printed there on better paper with better equipment, cheaper. If I had any need for colour prints, it would be a viable option since there is a shop a block away. For many people who regularly print in colour, the cost of the printer could be justified by the time it takes to stop off at the shop to pick up the prints. That being said, I don't see consumer grade colour printers fitting this role. Convenience is why I maintain a relatively inexpensive laser printer. I could easily print off 10 pages per week of work related documents at work, but racing across the building only to discover the printer isn't working (which it isn't about 10% of the time) and having to work around that problem for a good chunk of the day isn't worth the trouble of saving about $50/year.
  - dspillett 5y ago
    > For many people who regularly print in colour, the cost of the printer could be justified by the time it takes to stop off at the shop to pick up the prints Agreed. Though for me, assuming an inkjet in full quality mode isn't at least an order of magnitude faster than they were last time I had a supposedly high-spec one, printing a few A4 prints (or more of a smaller size), even assuming no “need several head cleans as I've not used the device for a week or two” or “had to reprint as something went odd half-way through a page” issues or similar, would take longer than marching to the nearest shop with printing facility, printing there, and getting home! Time of day makes a difference of course, my nearest 24-hour place is a noticeably further walk. > Convenience is why I maintain a relatively inexpensive laser printer. Same, mostly. I like to be able to print things to annotate. Wasteful environment wise but I'll take the deserved selfishness accusation on the chin there! The main use for it ATM is printing custom maps and other notes for trail runs, on fancy “thin but indestructible” paper that I doubt a print shop would offer, and sometimes being able to make a late correction before heading out to travel to the start is useful.