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Buying a black/white only brother laser printer solved all my printing problems. Cartridges last for thousand of pages; no strange cloud requirements; the Frit

Buying a black/white only brother laser printer solved all my printing problems. Cartridges last for thousand of pages; no strange cloud requirements; the FritzBox registers the printer immediately and all devices in the local net can print. Non of this was the case for my previous HP or Epson printers…

hef19898 3y ago
It worked surprisingly well for my Epson so. Connect to WiFi, all devices find it, including Linux ones, without additional drivers or software. Additional software is needed for photo prints (color management and stuff like that) and (maybe?) scanning. I didn't try scanning without additional software, as I installed it with the photo print software. And since that software inly works under Windows anyway, I never bothered with scanning under Linux. Printing works just fine so.
- amluto 3y ago
  GNOME ships a scanner app that can scan from many (newish) networked scanners without a driver. The UI is, ahem, about as minimal as you would expect from a GNOME app, but it works. (Seriously, GNOME, whether to scan one side or two sides is actually important and the desired mode changes all the time. Would it kill you to dedicate some screen real estate to it, instead of filling everything with empty post-modern white space?)
jen729w 3y ago
Cartridges that you can get from cheapinkcartridges.ru and they work just fine.
chongli 3y ago
I think people forget that ink is a liquid which dries up and leaves a sticky mess. They think of the printer as a magic technology box that somehow is supposed to deal with that mess perfectly, without issues or waste. Well it doesn’t work! Ink needs to be flushed to keep the lines clear. Inkjet printers need to print regularly for optimal performance and low waste. If you need a printer to sit on the shelf for 4 months between print jobs, laser is the only game in town. Toner is a solid powder and it lasts forever without issues. No clogging, no mess.
- iteratethis 3y ago
  We don't forget this, we don't care. We buy a printer and it should print.
- soared 3y ago
  Shouldn’t a liquid not dry up if it’s sealed properly?
  - specialist 3y ago
    Sure. But no seal is 100%. Have you ever saved an opened glue or epoxy container? It'll eventually dry out.
  - stonogo 3y ago
    The container has to have holes through which to squirt the ink onto the page, and when ink is dispensed it is replaced in the container with air.
    - LorenPechtel 3y ago
      You could make one that doesn't have an air hole. Put a membrane between the air and the ink. Consider a standard reverse osmosis water tank--inside there's basically a big bag, pressurized air on the outside, water on the inside. The outside should stay dry, the inside shouldn't contact the air. You still have the problem at the print head, though.
crote 3y ago
I remember something similar being the case with HP Laserjets a decade ago or so. People were buying second-hand 1995-era Laserjets in 2010 because they were simply better than anything you could buy new. They... Just Worked.
- prova_modena 3y ago
  We used old HP Laserjets in a warehouse up until about a year ago. Towards the end, we had to repair and replace them with increasing frequency due to the beige plastic becoming very brittle. As a result, the printers became hard to service and more prone to damage during regular use. Replaced with a cheap Brother laser.
- MarkusWandel 3y ago
  The only problem with these ancient and durable HP Lasterjets - I used to use a 4L - is that they were slow. My modernish Brother HL2270DW - which I got for free at a garage sale because the toner cartridge was missing so they couldn't test it - is much faster and can print double-sided. And has a $20 aftermarket toner cartridge in it.
  - bsder 3y ago
    > The only problem with these ancient and durable HP Lasterjets - I used to use a 4L - is that they were slow. That's not completely true. Those printers sucked so much power you could brown out your local substation. And the amount of ozone they kicked off could be smelled in a cube farm--I don't want to think what they would do to you in a home office.
- NoGravitas 3y ago
  I used to maintain/repair a couple of LaserJet IIIs (circa 1990), up until about 2010, when I got tired of the printer's footprint being so large, and retired my last computer with a parallel port. The LaserJet III was the VW Bug of laser printers in terms of being easy to repair.
Aeolun 3y ago
Buying a black/white brother laser printer gave me just a single consistent issue that was entirely my own fault. It didn’t print in color. So now I bought a color laser instead, and I couldn’t be happier.
Loughla 3y ago
Which model do you have?
- Ographer 3y ago
  I bought a black and white laser printer (Brother HL-L2350DW) because paying a little extra for laser up front results in much total lower cost of ownership due to the cartridges lasting much longer than ink jet. I have had it almost 5 years and I've only replaced the cartridge once.
hanspeter 3y ago
My exact experience. It just works and it's fast. In the rare occasion I need a fancy color print, there's a store close by where I can order some nice prints with a few clicks. Had an HP color inkjet before that. With that I felt like I did not have a printer.
baz00 3y ago
To be fair I have the same experience with my HP LaserJet Pro (M148). Consumer garbage printers are consumer garbage printers.

hef19898 3y ago

It worked surprisingly well for my Epson so. Connect to WiFi, all devices find it, including Linux ones, without additional drivers or software. Additional software is needed for photo prints (color management and stuff like that) and (maybe?) scanning. I didn't try scanning without additional software, as I installed it with the photo print software. And since that software inly works under Windows anyway, I never bothered with scanning under Linux. Printing works just fine so.

amluto 3y ago
GNOME ships a scanner app that can scan from many (newish) networked scanners without a driver. The UI is, ahem, about as minimal as you would expect from a GNOME app, but it works. (Seriously, GNOME, whether to scan one side or two sides is actually important and the desired mode changes all the time. Would it kill you to dedicate some screen real estate to it, instead of filling everything with empty post-modern white space?)

jen729w 3y ago

Cartridges that you can get from cheapinkcartridges.ru and they work just fine.

chongli 3y ago

I think people forget that ink is a liquid which dries up and leaves a sticky mess. They think of the printer as a magic technology box that somehow is supposed to deal with that mess perfectly, without issues or waste. Well it doesn’t work! Ink needs to be flushed to keep the lines clear. Inkjet printers need to print regularly for optimal performance and low waste. If you need a printer to sit on the shelf for 4 months between print jobs, laser is the only game in town. Toner is a solid powder and it lasts forever without issues. No clogging, no mess.

iteratethis 3y ago
We don't forget this, we don't care. We buy a printer and it should print.
soared 3y ago
Shouldn’t a liquid not dry up if it’s sealed properly?
- specialist 3y ago
  Sure. But no seal is 100%. Have you ever saved an opened glue or epoxy container? It'll eventually dry out.
- stonogo 3y ago
  The container has to have holes through which to squirt the ink onto the page, and when ink is dispensed it is replaced in the container with air.
  - LorenPechtel 3y ago
    You could make one that doesn't have an air hole. Put a membrane between the air and the ink. Consider a standard reverse osmosis water tank--inside there's basically a big bag, pressurized air on the outside, water on the inside. The outside should stay dry, the inside shouldn't contact the air. You still have the problem at the print head, though.

crote 3y ago

I remember something similar being the case with HP Laserjets a decade ago or so. People were buying second-hand 1995-era Laserjets in 2010 because they were simply better than anything you could buy new. They... Just Worked.

prova_modena 3y ago
We used old HP Laserjets in a warehouse up until about a year ago. Towards the end, we had to repair and replace them with increasing frequency due to the beige plastic becoming very brittle. As a result, the printers became hard to service and more prone to damage during regular use. Replaced with a cheap Brother laser.
MarkusWandel 3y ago
The only problem with these ancient and durable HP Lasterjets - I used to use a 4L - is that they were slow. My modernish Brother HL2270DW - which I got for free at a garage sale because the toner cartridge was missing so they couldn't test it - is much faster and can print double-sided. And has a $20 aftermarket toner cartridge in it.
- bsder 3y ago
  > The only problem with these ancient and durable HP Lasterjets - I used to use a 4L - is that they were slow. That's not completely true. Those printers sucked so much power you could brown out your local substation. And the amount of ozone they kicked off could be smelled in a cube farm--I don't want to think what they would do to you in a home office.
NoGravitas 3y ago
I used to maintain/repair a couple of LaserJet IIIs (circa 1990), up until about 2010, when I got tired of the printer's footprint being so large, and retired my last computer with a parallel port. The LaserJet III was the VW Bug of laser printers in terms of being easy to repair.

Aeolun 3y ago

Buying a black/white brother laser printer gave me just a single consistent issue that was entirely my own fault. It didn’t print in color. So now I bought a color laser instead, and I couldn’t be happier.

Loughla 3y ago

Which model do you have?

Ographer 3y ago
I bought a black and white laser printer (Brother HL-L2350DW) because paying a little extra for laser up front results in much total lower cost of ownership due to the cartridges lasting much longer than ink jet. I have had it almost 5 years and I've only replaced the cartridge once.

hanspeter 3y ago

My exact experience. It just works and it's fast. In the rare occasion I need a fancy color print, there's a store close by where I can order some nice prints with a few clicks. Had an HP color inkjet before that. With that I felt like I did not have a printer.

baz00 3y ago

To be fair I have the same experience with my HP LaserJet Pro (M148). Consumer garbage printers are consumer garbage printers.