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I jumped from HP printers long ago and bought some cheap Canon (yes I read the full article and saw Canon mentioned) as it was easier to buy cheap cartdriges. M

I jumped from HP printers long ago and bought some cheap Canon (yes I read the full article and saw Canon mentioned) as it was easier to buy cheap cartdriges. My usage is very low. What printer would be the good one to go these days?

shiftpgdn 3y ago
Everyone seems to repeat that brother lasers are the way to go, but I’ve found that for home use (photos and documents) that the canon eco tank is superior to the brother is basically every way.
- graton 3y ago
  So you can not use the eco tank for 6 months and it will just work when you need to print again? That is why I like laser printers, I don't have to worry about head cleaning or clogged nozzles.
  - RedShift1 3y ago
    The clogged print head is overestimated. I recently revived a Brother inkjet printer that was in storage for 4 years and after 3 or 4 head cleanings it was back in business.
    - foobarian 3y ago
      Get back to us when the absorbent cleaning sponge in the printer fills up :-)
      - RedShift1 3y ago
        You can always use some isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs and clean them yourself.
        r00fus 3y ago
        I’ve been using inexpensive laser (monochrome) since 2010 and haven’t had to do any of this nonsense. Sometimes I don’t even replace the toner when it complains; I just take toner out shake it and it keeps working (a bit lighter than usual)
        foobarian 3y ago
        Laser is great but it doesn’t solve the visiting grandma wanting to print photo album pictures.
        pbjtime 3y ago
        My color LaserJet photos are magazine quality. If I need better, I get them at CVS for something like eight cents
        robin_reala 3y ago
        That’s not remotely worth the hassle of a colour inkjet. Just decide on the photos together and upload them to a proper photo print service for delivery to her home.
        foobarian 3y ago
        It sure is a hassle, but the grandma loves it so much it feels worth it. I gave up on HP in the past but I’m giving it another go now with an Epson eco tank. So far so good.
        vel0city 3y ago
        I just use an online printing service to mail the prints. At like 50¢/ea mailed if I send a collection it'll take almost a thousand prints just to match the price of a decent photo printer. And even then most 4x6s printed at home still cost like 20¢-40¢/ea each anyways, so even after a thousand prints I'll still probably be ahead in the end. And then I also don't have to store a photo printer and it's supplies in my house. So yeah, black and white laser multi-function and online printing services for me.
    - pbjtime 3y ago
      Can someone calculate the price of ink consumed for those for cleanings?
    - Spare_account 3y ago
      But I have to clean the print heads every time I print (about once a month). I use up vast amounts of ink just keeping this thing working. I wish I'd bought a laser
- ghaff 3y ago
  It really depends on if you or family needs a color printer more than rarely. I have a Brother laser. I pretty gave up on my inkjet ink drying out. For (rarely) printing photos I just send them out.
- mcshicks 3y ago
  I love my brother black and white laser printer. But I print infrequently. The problem I had with inkjets for years and years was dealing with clogging if I used them infrequently. Does anyone know if the color canon eco tanks work if you only print infrequently? Or do they clog? Some cursory searching sounds like clogging is still a problem for infrequent users. https://www.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/kjxd45/do_these_new_ink_tank_printers_still_clog/ https://www.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/kjxd45/do_these_n...
  - b112 3y ago
    You'd think you could flush with water or some such after orint, as long as it was pure h2o (no minerals, etc) One flush after each print, but sadly, no manufacturer cares I guess.
    - ghaff 3y ago
      I expect the Venn diagram of people who own a printer but may not print for a few months at a time is fairly small. Every now and then I'd like to print out a map or whatever in color but it's just not often enough to maintain an inkjet printer.
      - thatguy0900 3y ago
        Yeah, I only print every few months so I just use staples. Not sure why you would want a printer with such infrequent usage, you're not really saving money doing it yourself
        ghaff 3y ago
        Driving to a Staples to print a recipe or some travel information every week or two sounds incredibly painful and inefficient (admittedly we're not talking months). (But I admit I don't like to be dependent on information on my phone for everything.) A laser printer connected to my computer at home is essentially free.
      - chongli 3y ago
- eek2121 3y ago
  I bought a brother color laser 4 years and haven’t had to change the toner yet. The toner was included with the printer. We have probably printed around 150 pages in that time span including a 6 page document today. No complaints. It just works. 3rd party toner also works should i need it.
  - mh- 3y ago
    Also, the toner cart it comes with is only half-full*, so when you do eventually have to replace it.. you can expect the new one to last twice as long. * they're transparent about this, was just pointing out how efficient they are.
- Lio 3y ago
  Brother laser printers are boring. Mine just sits there until the rare occasions when I need to print something. It's still on the original toner cart that came with it. I've not needed to install a printer driver for any of the 4 platforms we've printed from on it. No photo storage, no ink drying out, ink subscription service and no multi-gig downloads before you can use it. A totally, wonderfully boring product. I wish I could buy more stuff like that.
  - Moru 3y ago
    My brother is so old I changed toners twice. Still no paper jams. Saw too many customers with HP printers with problems so stayed away from those.
    - mh- 3y ago
      My wife is a teacher and prints a lot of stuff at home. I have an MFC-2710 that I just had to replace the drum on. First time I've had to do anything except toner. It just plugs along, sometimes going weeks-months without use. For the price (and lack of subscription hijinks), it's unbeatable.
  - lbourdages 3y ago
    I have a totally featureless Brother laser printer (its most advanced feature is dual-sided printing) and it does its job perfectly fine. I've replaced the toner with a refilled cartridge and have not had any problems with it. I'm fine with only B&W and no scanner. When I need to scan something, I grab the insanely good camera I have in my pocket all the time and use the Microsoft Lens app. Works great for scanning a few pages.
- jwells89 3y ago
  I had a $200-ish Brother laser printer which worked great for a few years, but at some point semi-bricked itself. It no longer accepts print jobs from any source (USB, ethernet, wifi) and nothing seems to fix it, not even factory resets. There were some posts online that pointed to reflashing firmware fixing the problem but it wasn't clear how to do that and the required utility is apparently only distributed to licensed technicians.
- Spooky23 3y ago
  Brother printers are great but not like they used to be. The prices have 2-3x in the last decade. The issue with any inkjet is that you need to use them. The eco tank makes sense if you print a lot.
egberts1 3y ago
Brothers printers get mentioned a lot BUT ... Be careful of some Brothers models as the ones to avoid have "Refresh" option. "Refresh" is just a way for a centralized Brothers server to monitor your printer and your local subnet (for what ever purpose they wanted). HP/Epson/Canon have few or no models without "Refresh" option, unless you spring for a more expensive business-class printer.
chrisweekly 3y ago
I couldn't be happier with my Brother HL-L3290CDW all-in-one. I posted this response to a similar question here 3 months ago: >"I got tired of the user-hostile shenanigans, bad software, low-quality output, and high TCO (5 or 6 HP or Canon devices over the years), finally came to my senses and bought a Brother. It "Just Works", is fast and quiet and reliable, does exactly what it's supposed to, and is in such stark contrast to the typically terrible printer UX it's almost funny." Coincidentally, just yesterday it warned of low black toner (for the 1st time) and I realized I actually believe it, given all the printing my family's done this year. I've read that it supports non-OEM cartridges, will find out for myself in a day or two.
- adhesive_wombat 3y ago
  I have a DCP9020CDW that works just fine on the cheapest eBay toner going (under £30 for a 5-cartridge CMYKK set with shipping included). At that price it's not really even worth trying a powder-bottle refill!
- smegsicle 3y ago
  several models auto-updated a year or so ago to reject third party toner, so if your auto updater is off make sure to keep it that way
  - MostlyStable 3y ago
    I had my brother printer do this to me. I had been using a 3rd party toner cartridge and it just stopped working one day. Luckily I was able to remove the DRM chip off of the expended starter cartridge that I hadn't yet thrown out and swap it into the 3rd party toner cartridge which got it working again. I'm honestly confused at how they were able to do this. I'm pretty sure that several years ago HP lost a class action lawsuit about exactly this kind of behavior. I'd have thought that, having another company lose that lawsuit, there'd be a lawyer just waiting to jump on this. Is brother just too small market share to attract a class action lawsuit over?
stefan_ 3y ago
Do people still print a lot? Those things went the way of the DVD drive for me. For the very rare occasion I do need to print something (exclusively, of course, things that could have been digitized 20 years ago), the one in the office works fine..
- ghaff 3y ago
  What is an office? I joke obviously but I don't really have an office to go into any longer, I still need to print things out from time to time, and taking a 20 minute drive to Staples is pretty suboptimal for something I can otherwise take care of for not much money or effort at home.
  - prmoustache 3y ago
    I just do the 2 min walk to the closest copy/print service. Looks like the problem is living in a terrible suburbia that prevent businesses from opening close to the residents and being dependent on a car for simple services, not the printers themselves. What do you do if you realize once every n months that you need a print that the ink has dried out / toner is empty?
    - ghaff 3y ago
      I live in a semi-rural area among apple orchards. So, no, we don't have copy shops on every corner. A toner cartridge lasts me years and it's obvious when it's getting somewhat low--and can generally be revitalized for another number of months by shaking it a bit. It's really tiresome that some people seem to think there's is the only reasonable lifestyle.
    - yencabulator 3y ago
      > I just do the 2 min walk to the closest copy/print service. Nearest Staples is in the nearest bigger city, a 30 minute drive. > What do you do if you realize once every n months that you need a print that the ink has dried out / toner is empty? Laser toner in home use lasts for years, and the printer will tell you percentage levels and warn about if for the last year of operation. Shaking the toner cartridge lets you print a few hundred pages more. There's plenty of time to order a replacement.
rodgerd 3y ago
I bought a black-and-white Brother laser circa 2000. It ran an ran until around 2020 when it finally broke (physically) in ways that weren't worth repairing. I bought a Brother 3770CDW colour laser to replace it. It has run and run with no problems. It just works. Even The Verge agree: https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-laser-wi-fi-its-fine https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-... "...it does not feel like the CEO of Inkjet Supply and Hostage Situations Incorporated is waiting to mug me..."
to11mtm 3y ago
I'm kinda at the point where I think someone needs to kickstart an (Semi)open Solid Ink printer design. 1. The tech has been around long enough that any/all patents should be done with. 2. In general they are much more eco-friendly, the 'cartridge' is just a specially shaped wax block. 3. Prints wind up being extremely robust due to the wax ink, I remember when salespeople would spray photo prints with water and show it just run off. Of course, the challenges would be providing a sufficient filter for ink, any foreign particles can clog up the print heads after all, as well as making sure users understand that there are processes in moving them.
- MostlyStable 3y ago
  After I got burned by Brother institute toner cartridge DRM, I started looking into this. Apparently there are a lot of patents around paper feed mechanisms etc. It would, apparently, be very expensive to design a new, non-infringing, non shitty paper feeding mechanism and the customer base would likely be extremely small, resulting in a sky high price. I'm no expert and can't vouch for any of the details, but this is what I encountered in multiple online discussions when I looked into it last. That being said, I'd probably be willing to pay up to $500 for a simple black and white open source, open hardware laser jet printer, assuming that it worked as well (from a pure mechanical perspective) as current consumer grade printers.
  - matkoniecz 3y ago
    When this patents are expiring?
- whoopdedo 3y ago
  Let's bring back the pen plotter. It can use a lot of the existing parts and software now being made for 3D printers but changing the filament head to a pen carriage.
wilsynet 3y ago
I’ll add my support to the chorus of Brother laser printers. My spouse bought one about 6 years ago and the company has updated drivers and it is just super reliable. I just bought a new one for my parents this year. Couldn’t be happier.

shiftpgdn 3y ago

Everyone seems to repeat that brother lasers are the way to go, but I’ve found that for home use (photos and documents) that the canon eco tank is superior to the brother is basically every way.

graton 3y ago
So you can not use the eco tank for 6 months and it will just work when you need to print again? That is why I like laser printers, I don't have to worry about head cleaning or clogged nozzles.
- RedShift1 3y ago
  The clogged print head is overestimated. I recently revived a Brother inkjet printer that was in storage for 4 years and after 3 or 4 head cleanings it was back in business.
  - foobarian 3y ago
    Get back to us when the absorbent cleaning sponge in the printer fills up :-)
    - RedShift1 3y ago
      You can always use some isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs and clean them yourself.
      - r00fus 3y ago
        I’ve been using inexpensive laser (monochrome) since 2010 and haven’t had to do any of this nonsense. Sometimes I don’t even replace the toner when it complains; I just take toner out shake it and it keeps working (a bit lighter than usual)
        foobarian 3y ago
        Laser is great but it doesn’t solve the visiting grandma wanting to print photo album pictures.
        pbjtime 3y ago
        My color LaserJet photos are magazine quality. If I need better, I get them at CVS for something like eight cents
        robin_reala 3y ago
        That’s not remotely worth the hassle of a colour inkjet. Just decide on the photos together and upload them to a proper photo print service for delivery to her home.
        foobarian 3y ago
        It sure is a hassle, but the grandma loves it so much it feels worth it. I gave up on HP in the past but I’m giving it another go now with an Epson eco tank. So far so good.
        vel0city 3y ago
        I just use an online printing service to mail the prints. At like 50¢/ea mailed if I send a collection it'll take almost a thousand prints just to match the price of a decent photo printer. And even then most 4x6s printed at home still cost like 20¢-40¢/ea each anyways, so even after a thousand prints I'll still probably be ahead in the end. And then I also don't have to store a photo printer and it's supplies in my house. So yeah, black and white laser multi-function and online printing services for me.
  - pbjtime 3y ago
    Can someone calculate the price of ink consumed for those for cleanings?
  - Spare_account 3y ago
    But I have to clean the print heads every time I print (about once a month). I use up vast amounts of ink just keeping this thing working. I wish I'd bought a laser
ghaff 3y ago
It really depends on if you or family needs a color printer more than rarely. I have a Brother laser. I pretty gave up on my inkjet ink drying out. For (rarely) printing photos I just send them out.
mcshicks 3y ago
I love my brother black and white laser printer. But I print infrequently. The problem I had with inkjets for years and years was dealing with clogging if I used them infrequently. Does anyone know if the color canon eco tanks work if you only print infrequently? Or do they clog? Some cursory searching sounds like clogging is still a problem for infrequent users. https://www.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/kjxd45/do_these_new_ink_tank_printers_still_clog/ https://www.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/kjxd45/do_these_n...
- b112 3y ago
  You'd think you could flush with water or some such after orint, as long as it was pure h2o (no minerals, etc) One flush after each print, but sadly, no manufacturer cares I guess.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    I expect the Venn diagram of people who own a printer but may not print for a few months at a time is fairly small. Every now and then I'd like to print out a map or whatever in color but it's just not often enough to maintain an inkjet printer.
    - thatguy0900 3y ago
      Yeah, I only print every few months so I just use staples. Not sure why you would want a printer with such infrequent usage, you're not really saving money doing it yourself
      - ghaff 3y ago
        Driving to a Staples to print a recipe or some travel information every week or two sounds incredibly painful and inefficient (admittedly we're not talking months). (But I admit I don't like to be dependent on information on my phone for everything.) A laser printer connected to my computer at home is essentially free.
    - chongli 3y ago
eek2121 3y ago
I bought a brother color laser 4 years and haven’t had to change the toner yet. The toner was included with the printer. We have probably printed around 150 pages in that time span including a 6 page document today. No complaints. It just works. 3rd party toner also works should i need it.
- mh- 3y ago
  Also, the toner cart it comes with is only half-full*, so when you do eventually have to replace it.. you can expect the new one to last twice as long. * they're transparent about this, was just pointing out how efficient they are.
Lio 3y ago
Brother laser printers are boring. Mine just sits there until the rare occasions when I need to print something. It's still on the original toner cart that came with it. I've not needed to install a printer driver for any of the 4 platforms we've printed from on it. No photo storage, no ink drying out, ink subscription service and no multi-gig downloads before you can use it. A totally, wonderfully boring product. I wish I could buy more stuff like that.
- Moru 3y ago
  My brother is so old I changed toners twice. Still no paper jams. Saw too many customers with HP printers with problems so stayed away from those.
  - mh- 3y ago
    My wife is a teacher and prints a lot of stuff at home. I have an MFC-2710 that I just had to replace the drum on. First time I've had to do anything except toner. It just plugs along, sometimes going weeks-months without use. For the price (and lack of subscription hijinks), it's unbeatable.
- lbourdages 3y ago
  I have a totally featureless Brother laser printer (its most advanced feature is dual-sided printing) and it does its job perfectly fine. I've replaced the toner with a refilled cartridge and have not had any problems with it. I'm fine with only B&W and no scanner. When I need to scan something, I grab the insanely good camera I have in my pocket all the time and use the Microsoft Lens app. Works great for scanning a few pages.
jwells89 3y ago
I had a $200-ish Brother laser printer which worked great for a few years, but at some point semi-bricked itself. It no longer accepts print jobs from any source (USB, ethernet, wifi) and nothing seems to fix it, not even factory resets. There were some posts online that pointed to reflashing firmware fixing the problem but it wasn't clear how to do that and the required utility is apparently only distributed to licensed technicians.
Spooky23 3y ago
Brother printers are great but not like they used to be. The prices have 2-3x in the last decade. The issue with any inkjet is that you need to use them. The eco tank makes sense if you print a lot.

egberts1 3y ago

Brothers printers get mentioned a lot BUT ... Be careful of some Brothers models as the ones to avoid have "Refresh" option. "Refresh" is just a way for a centralized Brothers server to monitor your printer and your local subnet (for what ever purpose they wanted). HP/Epson/Canon have few or no models without "Refresh" option, unless you spring for a more expensive business-class printer.

chrisweekly 3y ago

I couldn't be happier with my Brother HL-L3290CDW all-in-one. I posted this response to a similar question here 3 months ago: >"I got tired of the user-hostile shenanigans, bad software, low-quality output, and high TCO (5 or 6 HP or Canon devices over the years), finally came to my senses and bought a Brother. It "Just Works", is fast and quiet and reliable, does exactly what it's supposed to, and is in such stark contrast to the typically terrible printer UX it's almost funny." Coincidentally, just yesterday it warned of low black toner (for the 1st time) and I realized I actually believe it, given all the printing my family's done this year. I've read that it supports non-OEM cartridges, will find out for myself in a day or two.

adhesive_wombat 3y ago
I have a DCP9020CDW that works just fine on the cheapest eBay toner going (under £30 for a 5-cartridge CMYKK set with shipping included). At that price it's not really even worth trying a powder-bottle refill!
smegsicle 3y ago
several models auto-updated a year or so ago to reject third party toner, so if your auto updater is off make sure to keep it that way
- MostlyStable 3y ago
  I had my brother printer do this to me. I had been using a 3rd party toner cartridge and it just stopped working one day. Luckily I was able to remove the DRM chip off of the expended starter cartridge that I hadn't yet thrown out and swap it into the 3rd party toner cartridge which got it working again. I'm honestly confused at how they were able to do this. I'm pretty sure that several years ago HP lost a class action lawsuit about exactly this kind of behavior. I'd have thought that, having another company lose that lawsuit, there'd be a lawyer just waiting to jump on this. Is brother just too small market share to attract a class action lawsuit over?

stefan_ 3y ago

Do people still print a lot? Those things went the way of the DVD drive for me. For the very rare occasion I do need to print something (exclusively, of course, things that could have been digitized 20 years ago), the one in the office works fine..

ghaff 3y ago
What is an office? I joke obviously but I don't really have an office to go into any longer, I still need to print things out from time to time, and taking a 20 minute drive to Staples is pretty suboptimal for something I can otherwise take care of for not much money or effort at home.
- prmoustache 3y ago
  I just do the 2 min walk to the closest copy/print service. Looks like the problem is living in a terrible suburbia that prevent businesses from opening close to the residents and being dependent on a car for simple services, not the printers themselves. What do you do if you realize once every n months that you need a print that the ink has dried out / toner is empty?
  - ghaff 3y ago
    I live in a semi-rural area among apple orchards. So, no, we don't have copy shops on every corner. A toner cartridge lasts me years and it's obvious when it's getting somewhat low--and can generally be revitalized for another number of months by shaking it a bit. It's really tiresome that some people seem to think there's is the only reasonable lifestyle.
  - yencabulator 3y ago
    > I just do the 2 min walk to the closest copy/print service. Nearest Staples is in the nearest bigger city, a 30 minute drive. > What do you do if you realize once every n months that you need a print that the ink has dried out / toner is empty? Laser toner in home use lasts for years, and the printer will tell you percentage levels and warn about if for the last year of operation. Shaking the toner cartridge lets you print a few hundred pages more. There's plenty of time to order a replacement.

rodgerd 3y ago

I bought a black-and-white Brother laser circa 2000. It ran an ran until around 2020 when it finally broke (physically) in ways that weren't worth repairing. I bought a Brother 3770CDW colour laser to replace it. It has run and run with no problems. It just works. Even The Verge agree: https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-laser-wi-fi-its-fine https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-... "...it does not feel like the CEO of Inkjet Supply and Hostage Situations Incorporated is waiting to mug me..."

to11mtm 3y ago

I'm kinda at the point where I think someone needs to kickstart an (Semi)open Solid Ink printer design. 1. The tech has been around long enough that any/all patents should be done with. 2. In general they are much more eco-friendly, the 'cartridge' is just a specially shaped wax block. 3. Prints wind up being extremely robust due to the wax ink, I remember when salespeople would spray photo prints with water and show it just run off. Of course, the challenges would be providing a sufficient filter for ink, any foreign particles can clog up the print heads after all, as well as making sure users understand that there are processes in moving them.

MostlyStable 3y ago
After I got burned by Brother institute toner cartridge DRM, I started looking into this. Apparently there are a lot of patents around paper feed mechanisms etc. It would, apparently, be very expensive to design a new, non-infringing, non shitty paper feeding mechanism and the customer base would likely be extremely small, resulting in a sky high price. I'm no expert and can't vouch for any of the details, but this is what I encountered in multiple online discussions when I looked into it last. That being said, I'd probably be willing to pay up to $500 for a simple black and white open source, open hardware laser jet printer, assuming that it worked as well (from a pure mechanical perspective) as current consumer grade printers.
- matkoniecz 3y ago
  When this patents are expiring?
whoopdedo 3y ago
Let's bring back the pen plotter. It can use a lot of the existing parts and software now being made for 3D printers but changing the filament head to a pen carriage.

wilsynet 3y ago

I’ll add my support to the chorus of Brother laser printers. My spouse bought one about 6 years ago and the company has updated drivers and it is just super reliable. I just bought a new one for my parents this year. Couldn’t be happier.