6 ms·

Which brother do you have / recommend? I have been quiet happy with my OKI but the phone connection is the only letdown so far and I might change for a brother

by esel2k 3y ago

Which brother do you have / recommend? I have been quiet happy with my OKI but the phone connection is the only letdown so far and I might change for a brother in the future.

politelemon 3y ago
I don't think you can go wrong with any Brother (or laser printer) as long as you don't need color printing. I have a DCP 1612W only for light printing. It works with Ubuntu, no special drivers required. I've had it for a few years now and I'm still on the toner the printer came with. If you need color printing, it tends to be expensive.
- Scoring6931 3y ago
  I have one of the same model. WiFi connection doesn’t seem to work. I’ve tried every troubleshooting article I could find, to the extent of setting a static IP for it in my router. Otherwise a great printer, but that issue did leave a bad taste in my mouth
tivert 3y ago
> Which brother do you have / recommend? I have been quiet happy with my OKI but the phone connection is the only letdown so far and I might change for a brother in the future. I have a brother HL-2270dw that I've been using for more than 10 years that I'm happy with. I don't think they make that exact model anymore, but Wirecutter recommends the HL-2350dw (I don't know what you get for the extra $10 to get a HL-2370dw): https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-home-printers/ https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-home-printer... I've got it hooked up to my wired network, and have never had an issue with it. I really like the duplex printing. I prefer my devices to do one thing, so I've avoided combo devices.
- bgirard 3y ago
  For me, I ended up with the MFC-L3770CDW because there was a big sale on it, not from any particular research.
  - snuxoll 3y ago
    Also have a MFC-L3770CDW, it's perfectly fine but you really have to pay attention to consumable cost when selecting laser MFC. A cartridge of TN227BK (high-yield black toner) for the MFC-L3770CDW is ~$80 for a ~3000 page yield, while a TN433BK cartridge that fits a MFC-L8900CDW is $85 for a ~4500 page yield. That's a (toner-only) cost per page of ~2.5c vs ~1.8c, or nearly a 30% reduction in toner cost; the difference between which is amplified for the color cartridges (TN227 color is $100/ea for ~2300 pages, TN433 color is $136/ea for ~4000 pages or ~4.3c/page vs ~3.4c/page). Considering the price difference between these units, I opted for the MFC-L3770CDW because I do not print that often and I've spent far more over years on wasted ink from dried out cartridges and destroyed print heads; but it's still an important factor to keep in mind.
    - bgirard 3y ago
      Thanks for the tip. I hadn't looked into it since I'm still on the original cartridge. When I value my time debugging janky inkjet printers I think even a 4.3c/page printing cost is still acceptance since I have low volume, rare printing jobs.
      - snuxoll 3y ago
        Realistically if your volume is that low the break-even point will be long after the machine becomes unobservable anyway, but I'd still always recommend people take a look at $/page metrics for consumables before they buy just so they avoid getting stuck in the same shitty situation as cheap inkjets.
- sundvor 3y ago
  Can confirm the Brother series is great. I have the HL-L2375DW. I got accused of being a shill last time I posted about it, so I'm preempting this by calling it out. :-) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37006705#37007593 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37006705#37007593 However it just sits there asleep at an extremely low wattage most of the time, then pops instantly to life the moment a page is sent to it - as bgirard pointed out, without even needing to install a driver - and then back to sleep. And this is on wifi. Loved it enough to buy another one when the first one went to my ex. I'll use the full duplex occasionally, it's worth having years down the track from purchase time for the tiny price bump over the base.
  - exodust 3y ago
    To be fair on your accuser, it's only been 60 days since your last Brother Laser promotional post. Last time you included details about price, and a note about "supporting Brother" by not using third party toner. I own an Epson eco-tank inkjet and happy with it, but I'm not invested in convincing others about it. I wouldn't put a laser printer in my house. Regardless of whether it's actually a proven health risk, I don't want my printer emitting tiny particles. And I want the option of good quality colour prints using different paper types and thickness.
- addaon 3y ago
  HL-L2350DW checking in here. Zero complaints, zero issues. Just works.
  - B1FF_PSUVM 3y ago
    Same.
  - jmspring 3y ago
    Same
  - karolist 3y ago
    Another happy HL-L2350DW user. So happy in fact, I've bought one for my mom and one for her aunt and they too have zero issues and I've never had to hear about it again after setting it up. This is how printers should be.
  - wdb 3y ago
    Yeah, recently also got a Brother laserprinter on sale. Love this printer. Works great. It’s big but better than fighting with a HP printer
somehnguy 3y ago
Not a Brother printer but I would like to recommend the Canon MF240. I bought it at Walmart for $99 - and it feels like I practically stole it with how good it's been to me. Has both Wifi & ethernet, automatically wakes when sent a print job, scanner works great, etc. Works perfect with generic toner cartridges from Amazon, no funny business with DRM. Canon in general have been good printers in my experience. I recently bought one of their low end inkjets because I needed to print some photos. That printer also works great & has a highly customizable web interface built in - I didn't expect it to be that feature complete for $45. I've had 2 brother printers over the years & they were fine - for whatever reason though one of them would refuse to print from a Chromebook. Every other printer I've used in the last 10 years has essentially 'just worked' with any device capable of speaking to it except this Brother. Known issue & they never released a firmware update to fix it.
- davchana 3y ago
  Bought the same in 2020 Black Friday for $49, and intro toner had about 1000 pages, lasting me for about 2.5 years. Then I bought a full toner for $49, going great.
- vel0city 3y ago
  Canon business printers and scanners are also super solid. Every business line Canon I've encountered has been great.
vel0city 3y ago
I've got a Brother DCP-L2540DW. The only feature I wish it had was duplex scanning from the auto document feeder. Otherwise its been an immensely solid printer. I gave up doing photo printing at home. These days I'll just order prints online. If I want it quick or save on postage I'll just pick it up at a convenience store close by. The break even on a new high end photo printer is after thousands of photos by comparison, and even then its only marginally cheaper per print. Once my last photo printer had some assembly fall apart inside from brittle plastic cracking I moved on to this Brother.
- bgirard 3y ago
  I agree the duplex scanning from the feeder is a big miss for my model as well.
kevmarsden 3y ago
We've had the Brother HL-L2340D for a few years. It's been rock solid. It's so much better than the HP inkjet printers we had in the past.
leetrout 3y ago
I will never buy another Brother device. In rural areas you cannot find a service center and they are not self serviceable. I paid $350 for a multifunction multicolor device like others are mentioning and it lasted 13-15 months before failing to power on and Brother refusing to help make it right. There was a rash of these models having this issue where it just bricks and wont turn back on so maybe they learned but they lost all goodwill with me. Happily printing on a Canon now.
- throw9away6 3y ago
  The price range here is in the toss it if it breaks category
mozman 3y ago
Brother 9130 is great
peterleiser 3y ago
I bought a new Brother HL-L8360CDWT color laser printer in September 2017 for $349.99 and it still works great after 6 years of heavy use. I am extremely impressed with this printer. I used to run it with cheap 3rd party cartridges, which worked fine, but this year I finally had to break down and buy official ones. I also have a Canon MF6160dw black and white laser printer, scanner, copier, fax that is a bit older and it's had even more use. It's great, and I use it to scan to my Synology NAS all the time as well. I'm very, very happy with these two printers.
ph4te 3y ago
I’ve only have two printers in the past 13 years, a Brother MFC-7840w, which worked perfectly and I only gave away because my family wanted a color printer. The upgrade was an HL-2170CDW. I have no complaints with either. I’ve even gone through my starter toners on the color laser and bought a knockoff set for 70$ which included two black toners with all the colors, and have been quite surprised at the quality. Both have had wireless support and print from phones without issues.
- civilitty 3y ago
  > HL-2170CDW I can vouch for the HL-2170DW (B&W only version) as well. Costco has been selling it for years. The only downside is that it takes some trial and error to figure out which instructions actually reset the cartridge EEPROMs
JohnBooty 3y ago
The cheap ones are great too. There are a few models at $150 and under. There are minor differentiators for them like Airprint and double-sided printing. I bought one a few months ago. Best computer-related thing I've purchased in ages. It JUST WORKS. As the review says, Here’s the best printer in 2023: the Brother laser printer that everyone has. Stop thinking about it and just buy one. It will be fine! [...] The Brother whatever-it-is will print return labels for online shopping, never run out of toner, and generally be a printer instead of the physical instantiation of a business model. https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-laser-wi-fi-its-fine https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-...
- CalRobert 3y ago
  Heh. From your link. """ ... And here’s 275 words about printers I asked ChatGPT to write so this post ranks in search because Google thinks you have to pad out articles in order to demonstrate “authority,” but I am telling you to just buy whatever Brother laser printer is on sale and never think about printers again. ChatGPT ideas about printers (I didn’t even proofread this. Don’t read it unless you are a lonely Google search robot, in which case look at this incredible demonstration of experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness and rank this post first in searches for “best printer.”) Laser printers are popular choices for home and office use because they offer fast printing speeds, h... """
warpspin 3y ago
I have a Brother MFC-L3750CDW after getting annoyed with cheap inkjets. Great printer with scanner. I regret not getting a Brother MFC-L3770CDW instead though. The 3750 has no automatic two-sided scanning, unlike the 3770.
justinclift 3y ago
Brother have started going down the cartridge DRM route now too, so they're no longer a good brand. :( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31860131 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31860131 There are ways around their particular DRM - for now - but who knows how long it'll be until they're as bad as HP and friends: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzaRVEzYuz8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzaRVEzYuz8
- tim333 3y ago
  I'm happy with my Samsung laser printer and would recommend it except HP bought the company and discontinued the good ones. I think their strategy is to own all the things and then extort us.

by esel2k 3y ago

Which brother do you have / recommend? I have been quiet happy with my OKI but the phone connection is the only letdown so far and I might change for a brother in the future.

politelemon 3y ago

I don't think you can go wrong with any Brother (or laser printer) as long as you don't need color printing. I have a DCP 1612W only for light printing. It works with Ubuntu, no special drivers required. I've had it for a few years now and I'm still on the toner the printer came with. If you need color printing, it tends to be expensive.

Scoring6931 3y ago
I have one of the same model. WiFi connection doesn’t seem to work. I’ve tried every troubleshooting article I could find, to the extent of setting a static IP for it in my router. Otherwise a great printer, but that issue did leave a bad taste in my mouth

tivert 3y ago

> Which brother do you have / recommend? I have been quiet happy with my OKI but the phone connection is the only letdown so far and I might change for a brother in the future. I have a brother HL-2270dw that I've been using for more than 10 years that I'm happy with. I don't think they make that exact model anymore, but Wirecutter recommends the HL-2350dw (I don't know what you get for the extra $10 to get a HL-2370dw): https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-home-printers/ https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-home-printer... I've got it hooked up to my wired network, and have never had an issue with it. I really like the duplex printing. I prefer my devices to do one thing, so I've avoided combo devices.

bgirard 3y ago
For me, I ended up with the MFC-L3770CDW because there was a big sale on it, not from any particular research.
- snuxoll 3y ago
  Also have a MFC-L3770CDW, it's perfectly fine but you really have to pay attention to consumable cost when selecting laser MFC. A cartridge of TN227BK (high-yield black toner) for the MFC-L3770CDW is ~$80 for a ~3000 page yield, while a TN433BK cartridge that fits a MFC-L8900CDW is $85 for a ~4500 page yield. That's a (toner-only) cost per page of ~2.5c vs ~1.8c, or nearly a 30% reduction in toner cost; the difference between which is amplified for the color cartridges (TN227 color is $100/ea for ~2300 pages, TN433 color is $136/ea for ~4000 pages or ~4.3c/page vs ~3.4c/page). Considering the price difference between these units, I opted for the MFC-L3770CDW because I do not print that often and I've spent far more over years on wasted ink from dried out cartridges and destroyed print heads; but it's still an important factor to keep in mind.
  - bgirard 3y ago
    Thanks for the tip. I hadn't looked into it since I'm still on the original cartridge. When I value my time debugging janky inkjet printers I think even a 4.3c/page printing cost is still acceptance since I have low volume, rare printing jobs.
    - snuxoll 3y ago
      Realistically if your volume is that low the break-even point will be long after the machine becomes unobservable anyway, but I'd still always recommend people take a look at $/page metrics for consumables before they buy just so they avoid getting stuck in the same shitty situation as cheap inkjets.
sundvor 3y ago
Can confirm the Brother series is great. I have the HL-L2375DW. I got accused of being a shill last time I posted about it, so I'm preempting this by calling it out. :-) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37006705#37007593 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37006705#37007593 However it just sits there asleep at an extremely low wattage most of the time, then pops instantly to life the moment a page is sent to it - as bgirard pointed out, without even needing to install a driver - and then back to sleep. And this is on wifi. Loved it enough to buy another one when the first one went to my ex. I'll use the full duplex occasionally, it's worth having years down the track from purchase time for the tiny price bump over the base.
- exodust 3y ago
  To be fair on your accuser, it's only been 60 days since your last Brother Laser promotional post. Last time you included details about price, and a note about "supporting Brother" by not using third party toner. I own an Epson eco-tank inkjet and happy with it, but I'm not invested in convincing others about it. I wouldn't put a laser printer in my house. Regardless of whether it's actually a proven health risk, I don't want my printer emitting tiny particles. And I want the option of good quality colour prints using different paper types and thickness.
addaon 3y ago
HL-L2350DW checking in here. Zero complaints, zero issues. Just works.
- B1FF_PSUVM 3y ago
  Same.
- jmspring 3y ago
  Same
- karolist 3y ago
  Another happy HL-L2350DW user. So happy in fact, I've bought one for my mom and one for her aunt and they too have zero issues and I've never had to hear about it again after setting it up. This is how printers should be.
- wdb 3y ago
  Yeah, recently also got a Brother laserprinter on sale. Love this printer. Works great. It’s big but better than fighting with a HP printer

somehnguy 3y ago

Not a Brother printer but I would like to recommend the Canon MF240. I bought it at Walmart for $99 - and it feels like I practically stole it with how good it's been to me. Has both Wifi & ethernet, automatically wakes when sent a print job, scanner works great, etc. Works perfect with generic toner cartridges from Amazon, no funny business with DRM. Canon in general have been good printers in my experience. I recently bought one of their low end inkjets because I needed to print some photos. That printer also works great & has a highly customizable web interface built in - I didn't expect it to be that feature complete for $45. I've had 2 brother printers over the years & they were fine - for whatever reason though one of them would refuse to print from a Chromebook. Every other printer I've used in the last 10 years has essentially 'just worked' with any device capable of speaking to it except this Brother. Known issue & they never released a firmware update to fix it.

davchana 3y ago
Bought the same in 2020 Black Friday for $49, and intro toner had about 1000 pages, lasting me for about 2.5 years. Then I bought a full toner for $49, going great.
vel0city 3y ago
Canon business printers and scanners are also super solid. Every business line Canon I've encountered has been great.

vel0city 3y ago

I've got a Brother DCP-L2540DW. The only feature I wish it had was duplex scanning from the auto document feeder. Otherwise its been an immensely solid printer. I gave up doing photo printing at home. These days I'll just order prints online. If I want it quick or save on postage I'll just pick it up at a convenience store close by. The break even on a new high end photo printer is after thousands of photos by comparison, and even then its only marginally cheaper per print. Once my last photo printer had some assembly fall apart inside from brittle plastic cracking I moved on to this Brother.

bgirard 3y ago
I agree the duplex scanning from the feeder is a big miss for my model as well.

kevmarsden 3y ago

We've had the Brother HL-L2340D for a few years. It's been rock solid. It's so much better than the HP inkjet printers we had in the past.

leetrout 3y ago

I will never buy another Brother device. In rural areas you cannot find a service center and they are not self serviceable. I paid $350 for a multifunction multicolor device like others are mentioning and it lasted 13-15 months before failing to power on and Brother refusing to help make it right. There was a rash of these models having this issue where it just bricks and wont turn back on so maybe they learned but they lost all goodwill with me. Happily printing on a Canon now.

throw9away6 3y ago
The price range here is in the toss it if it breaks category

mozman 3y ago

Brother 9130 is great

peterleiser 3y ago

I bought a new Brother HL-L8360CDWT color laser printer in September 2017 for $349.99 and it still works great after 6 years of heavy use. I am extremely impressed with this printer. I used to run it with cheap 3rd party cartridges, which worked fine, but this year I finally had to break down and buy official ones. I also have a Canon MF6160dw black and white laser printer, scanner, copier, fax that is a bit older and it's had even more use. It's great, and I use it to scan to my Synology NAS all the time as well. I'm very, very happy with these two printers.

ph4te 3y ago

I’ve only have two printers in the past 13 years, a Brother MFC-7840w, which worked perfectly and I only gave away because my family wanted a color printer. The upgrade was an HL-2170CDW. I have no complaints with either. I’ve even gone through my starter toners on the color laser and bought a knockoff set for 70$ which included two black toners with all the colors, and have been quite surprised at the quality. Both have had wireless support and print from phones without issues.

civilitty 3y ago
> HL-2170CDW I can vouch for the HL-2170DW (B&W only version) as well. Costco has been selling it for years. The only downside is that it takes some trial and error to figure out which instructions actually reset the cartridge EEPROMs

JohnBooty 3y ago

The cheap ones are great too. There are a few models at $150 and under. There are minor differentiators for them like Airprint and double-sided printing. I bought one a few months ago. Best computer-related thing I've purchased in ages. It JUST WORKS. As the review says, Here’s the best printer in 2023: the Brother laser printer that everyone has. Stop thinking about it and just buy one. It will be fine! [...] The Brother whatever-it-is will print return labels for online shopping, never run out of toner, and generally be a printer instead of the physical instantiation of a business model. https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-laser-wi-fi-its-fine https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-...

CalRobert 3y ago
Heh. From your link. """ ... And here’s 275 words about printers I asked ChatGPT to write so this post ranks in search because Google thinks you have to pad out articles in order to demonstrate “authority,” but I am telling you to just buy whatever Brother laser printer is on sale and never think about printers again. ChatGPT ideas about printers (I didn’t even proofread this. Don’t read it unless you are a lonely Google search robot, in which case look at this incredible demonstration of experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness and rank this post first in searches for “best printer.”) Laser printers are popular choices for home and office use because they offer fast printing speeds, h... """

warpspin 3y ago

I have a Brother MFC-L3750CDW after getting annoyed with cheap inkjets. Great printer with scanner. I regret not getting a Brother MFC-L3770CDW instead though. The 3750 has no automatic two-sided scanning, unlike the 3770.

justinclift 3y ago

Brother have started going down the cartridge DRM route now too, so they're no longer a good brand. :( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31860131 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31860131 There are ways around their particular DRM - for now - but who knows how long it'll be until they're as bad as HP and friends: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzaRVEzYuz8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzaRVEzYuz8

tim333 3y ago
I'm happy with my Samsung laser printer and would recommend it except HP bought the company and discontinued the good ones. I think their strategy is to own all the things and then extort us.