7 ms·

Friends don't let friend buy HP printers. My pick so far is a cheap (under $200) brother lasers for home use.

by sliken 3y ago

turok 3y ago
The Brother grey box is exactly what a printer needs to be, totally anonymous until it is needed circa 3 times a year and then just works.
foobarian 3y ago
Do you have a recommendation for color photo printers? For when grandma is visiting and so on?
- squarefoot 3y ago
  Although Epson doesn't quite have a stellar reputation wrt user friendliness, my WP4515 has worked great for like 7-8 years so far. It's also perfectly supported by Linux. Not sure if the above can be still relevant as that model has been superseded by newer ones.
- graton 3y ago
  Print them at your local pharmacy or somewhere else that will do color photo prints. Not worth the hassle, in my opinion, to have a color printer (ink or laser).
- FireBeyond 3y ago
  Canon. A whole range from 'enthusiast' to 'professional' (I love my Image Pro 1000, but I make a sideline hustle from photography - it's entirely overkill for most - but there are more budget friendly models).
xeromal 3y ago
Brother printers have went this way too. Mine incessantly complains about low toner even when I use brand new ones because they aren't brother branded.
- m463 3y ago
  i have a brother toner cartridge and got low toner messages. I have not even printed 250 pages. I was thinking maybe I moved the printer and it is not level?
  - xeromal 3y ago
    That's actually great information because it has been driving me crazy. I put in a brand new cartridge and it still complains. I assumed it was non-OEM BS.
  - graton 3y ago
    You could try to shake the toner cartridge a bit from side to side. Try to make the toner even. It might help, it might not.
    - joecool1029 3y ago
      No point in doing this unless the prints themselves are fading out. Doing it with a full aftermarket cartridge is just asking for a mess.
  - joecool1029 3y ago
    > I was thinking maybe I moved the printer and it is not level? Unlike the inkjet where it shines a little LED through the cartridge (covering with black electrical tape makes it think it's always full), laser toner I think has an id chip on the cartridge and the printer just maintains an internal counter as to guess when it'll run out. Reset that, and make sure the option is turned off that stops it continuing to print once low (networked models have a webpage you can go to to turn these from stop to just warn).
- noAnswer 3y ago
  1. Make sure that the printer is on while changing the toner or it will not know that a change was done. 2. Speaking from experience doing support for a lot of them, brother* printers are notorious for not realizing the toner (even with originals) was changed. There are ways to reset the counter though(Holding two buttons while powering on). It's usually mentioned in the manual. * It's the only brand I know with that problem.
graton 3y ago
Same for a Brother black-and-white laser. Not a Brother ink printer. Not a Brother color laser printer. A Brother black-and-white laser. Now maybe things have changed. But I bought my Brother MFC-8890DW back in April of 2011. It is still going strong. In that time period I have replaced the toner once. But I have only printed 3,768 pages in that time. So 314 pages per year. It is the best type of printer for my use case which is infrequent printing. Ink type printers aren't the best options if you might have 90+ days between printing jobs. I also really like having the scanning and photo copying features that mine has. And the Ethernet connection makes it so anyone in the house can easily print.
cdchn 3y ago
There appears to be a thriving secondary market for pre-enshittification Brother laser printers. I wonder if anybody maintains a list of the "good models?"
- sliken 3y ago
  I've not heard of post enshitification brother lasers. Link? Or maybe just an overview?
  - cdchn 3y ago
    Other people are commenting that Brothers are getting kind of enshittified like these HPs have been know to do forcing people to use "HP+" and subscribing to ink on their discounted models.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

Friends don't let friend buy HP printers. My pick so far is a cheap (under $200) brother lasers for home use.

by sliken 3y ago

Friends don't let friend buy HP printers. My pick so far is a cheap (under $200) brother lasers for home use.

The Brother grey box is exactly what a printer needs to be, totally anonymous until it is needed circa 3 times a year and then just works.

foobarian 3y ago

Do you have a recommendation for color photo printers? For when grandma is visiting and so on?

squarefoot 3y ago
Although Epson doesn't quite have a stellar reputation wrt user friendliness, my WP4515 has worked great for like 7-8 years so far. It's also perfectly supported by Linux. Not sure if the above can be still relevant as that model has been superseded by newer ones.
graton 3y ago
Print them at your local pharmacy or somewhere else that will do color photo prints. Not worth the hassle, in my opinion, to have a color printer (ink or laser).
FireBeyond 3y ago
Canon. A whole range from 'enthusiast' to 'professional' (I love my Image Pro 1000, but I make a sideline hustle from photography - it's entirely overkill for most - but there are more budget friendly models).

xeromal 3y ago

Brother printers have went this way too. Mine incessantly complains about low toner even when I use brand new ones because they aren't brother branded.

m463 3y ago
i have a brother toner cartridge and got low toner messages. I have not even printed 250 pages. I was thinking maybe I moved the printer and it is not level?
- xeromal 3y ago
  That's actually great information because it has been driving me crazy. I put in a brand new cartridge and it still complains. I assumed it was non-OEM BS.
- graton 3y ago
  You could try to shake the toner cartridge a bit from side to side. Try to make the toner even. It might help, it might not.
  - joecool1029 3y ago
    No point in doing this unless the prints themselves are fading out. Doing it with a full aftermarket cartridge is just asking for a mess.
- joecool1029 3y ago
  > I was thinking maybe I moved the printer and it is not level? Unlike the inkjet where it shines a little LED through the cartridge (covering with black electrical tape makes it think it's always full), laser toner I think has an id chip on the cartridge and the printer just maintains an internal counter as to guess when it'll run out. Reset that, and make sure the option is turned off that stops it continuing to print once low (networked models have a webpage you can go to to turn these from stop to just warn).
noAnswer 3y ago
1. Make sure that the printer is on while changing the toner or it will not know that a change was done. 2. Speaking from experience doing support for a lot of them, brother* printers are notorious for not realizing the toner (even with originals) was changed. There are ways to reset the counter though(Holding two buttons while powering on). It's usually mentioned in the manual. * It's the only brand I know with that problem.

graton 3y ago

Same for a Brother black-and-white laser. Not a Brother ink printer. Not a Brother color laser printer. A Brother black-and-white laser. Now maybe things have changed. But I bought my Brother MFC-8890DW back in April of 2011. It is still going strong. In that time period I have replaced the toner once. But I have only printed 3,768 pages in that time. So 314 pages per year. It is the best type of printer for my use case which is infrequent printing. Ink type printers aren't the best options if you might have 90+ days between printing jobs. I also really like having the scanning and photo copying features that mine has. And the Ethernet connection makes it so anyone in the house can easily print.

cdchn 3y ago

There appears to be a thriving secondary market for pre-enshittification Brother laser printers. I wonder if anybody maintains a list of the "good models?"

sliken 3y ago
I've not heard of post enshitification brother lasers. Link? Or maybe just an overview?
- cdchn 3y ago
  Other people are commenting that Brothers are getting kind of enshittified like these HPs have been know to do forcing people to use "HP+" and subscribing to ink on their discounted models.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]