Love my Brother black and white laser printer.
It is important to point out that it isn’t the brand that makes it good, it is the fact that it is laser.
I used to have a Brother “multi function center” printer/scanner/photocopier/fax that used inkjet and it was pure asshole design. Wasting expensive ink just by remaining plugged in and refusing to do anything if one cartridge was low on ink (but was actually still half full)
But if I had to single out a brand that should absolutely be avoided for printers it is HP. They do asshole DRM to a whole new level. They bricked a brand new ink cartridge because I didn’t put it in properly at first.
Now I have a laser printer and the nightmare is finally over.
With my old brother inkjet, it would say it was out of ink in like 2 weeks because it used an optical sensor on the printer looking through a window on the ink cartridge at aimed at a floating piece of black plastic in the tank that would drop when the ink level went down.
The thing is, the sponge in the cartridge would soak up the ink and cause the floater to drop when there was still like 90% of the ink left.
So the key was to just put some black electrical tape over the window on the cartridge and keep using it until it actually stopped printing that color.
This is exactly what my Brother MFC did and I also put some tape on the window to extend the cartridge life. The problem is that it still went through “cleaning cycles” every few days, in which it will dump a bunch of ink into a big sponge hidden inside the printer (I took it apart after it broke). It will eventually run out ink even if you don’t use it because of that. And if you keep it unplugged to stop it from doing that it will eventually dry up and clog up. Even worse, if you leave it plugged in with tape on the cartridges and it tries to print with an actually empty cartridge, it will burn the printer head.
The absolute worst part is that you have zero control over when it did those cycles in which it would make all sorts of loud clunking and whirring noises and if it detected that an ink cartridge was low it would also beep loudly. It was in my bedroom at that time and it would wake me up in the middle of the night every time. I don’t care what people say about this company, I will never buy anything from it again.
The problem is that it still went through “cleaning cycles” every few days, in which it will dump a bunch of ink into a big sponge hidden inside the printer (I took it apart after it broke). It will eventually run out ink even if you don’t use it because of that. And if you keep it unplugged to stop it from doing that it will eventually dry up and clog up.
In other words, inkjet printers are inherently unsuitable for anybody who doesn’t need to print on a regular and consistent basis, but the initial purchase price of the hardware is cheaper so that’s what a lot of people who only need to print occasionally end up buying.
Here’s the catch: They’re not suitable for people who print frequently either because the cost per page is higher than laser. The only upside is the lower upfront cost but you very quickly make that difference in running costs no matter what your use is.
They’re only suitable for people who want high-quality color prints almost all the time, for things like photos and posters and banners, not just normal documents. The only inkjets that have a good reason to exist are the high-end ones mostly found at print shops and sign shops and the like; the cheap consumer ones are just e-waste from the moment they’re manufactured.
FYI, Brother seem to be acting a little shady in the last couple of years.
Printer must have kept seeing the cartridge as half empty.
As a rule, lasers make everything better.
Mate, they sold you a printer that prints white?
Had to pay twice as much for two colors but it was worth it!
Did they walk back their recent less than well liked choice to get into the same pool as HP? They were my go-to recommendation for the longest time.
Not sure, mine is several years old now.
Disregard inkjet printers
Acquire laser printer
Yup
I think the most under appreciated aspect is that ink can dry out just from sitting around. A lot of the time and “empty” ink cartridge just evaporated off its solvents
Toner lasts forever. Perfect for occasional use
Yeah I’ve been using an HP laser for a decade, get knockoff ink from some random website that probably steals my info, but whatever, who isn’t stealing my info these days, it’s got almost zero value at this point. Only issues are when it’s just needs to be restarted to work sometimes and I have to walk down to the basement to do it. Need to put it on a smart plug so I can just do it from my phone. Then I need a trained monkey to bring me my prints.
Absolutely. I had multiple inkjet printer between 2000-2012, smearing, drying, expensive, etc. In 2012 I bought a laser colour wireless, (Samsung CPL-365W) this thing was fantastic, worked with windows, linux etc. Finally in 2024 the fuser died or something…
*Goes through and upvotes all the comments about getting a Brother laser printer*
Mostly true, but a few months ago there was some reports of an automatic firmware update that blocked 3rd party ink or toner. It was probably my fault since I just bought a Brother and this sort of thing always seems to happen to me.
This reminds me, I need to learn how to partition my network to keep thebprinter from reaching the internet.
If you need an ink jet, I can also recommend the Epson L3260 ink tank. You pay a bit more for the printer but the ink is fairly reasonable.
I will throw this idea into the ether and hope someone with more time, knowledge, and talent than me builds on it: swap the brains of an HP Printer with a raspberry pi. All the motors and wiring are in place, and HP sells the printer for cheap to screw you on ink and software. You’d probably want a new source of ink and a way to refill the cartridges to fully cut out HP. I feel like this would get you pretty close at an affordable price.
The whole world wants the Linux version of a printer, we just need a couple people to get together and figure this out.
I would love to make a living lobotomizing smart devices.
“The motor was unable to verify activation. Please contact HP support”
Fuck you, HP
My advice, since as others have said inkjets are trash: If you only need to print something every so often, use your local library. Easier if you live close to one, and still a hassle loading it on a thumb drive, but to me it’s easier than having a printer taking up space in my home.
And if you want to print photos, get it done at a lab. It’ll cost more or less the same or even be cheaper, and come out much better.
When you say “a lab,” what are you referring to? Do you mean shops that provide photo printing, or somewhere more dedicated to photography specifically?
I like to scrapbook, but I don’t know anywhere that only prints photos. The photo lab at CVS can suffice for a lot of things, but if there is a better option, I’d value advice about it!
I meant it as a generic term for a photo printing place. Typically online nowadays. Good ones will do colour proofing if you take that into account in your processing.
I’ve been doing this for over a decade now. I don’t use a thumbdrive though, I just email myself the thing I need to print. Go to library computer, log in to email, print right from there. Each page is 10 cents at my local branch.
Also, a lot of libraries will provide you with a “guest pass” so you can use the computers even if you don’t have a library card. 10/10 highly recommended.
Governments need to sue more companies for the environmental and resource damage they do with irresponsible business models like this. Get that money Mr. Government. It’s laying on the floor for you to pick up.
They do get that money. They are called bribes … err, I mean … It is called lobbying.
Pro life tip.
- Buy a printer that accepts off-brand cartridges.
- Buy off-brand cartridges in bulk for further discounts (I buy 12-packs of ‘Hicorch’ cartridges for my Epson Stylus)
- Relax never having to worry about running out of ink.
- don’t buy an inkjet printer
Ink is for chumps. Real chads buy toner.
Better pro-life tip.
1)Buy a laser printer instead of inkjet and never worry about ink again.
That’s it. That’s the only step.
Pro life tip.
1) Buy a printer that accepts off-brand cartridges.2) Buy off-brand cartridges in bulk for further discounts (I buy 12-packs of ‘Hicorch’ cartridges for my Epson Stylus)3) Relax never having to worry about running out of ink.- Buy a ink tank printer
Another way they get you: the ink cartridges that come with new printers are often only half full.
I have bought a “starter” cartridge inkjet, a "premium“ AIO inkjet, and (supposedly) one-of-the-better-ones monochrome laserjet. All of them gave me nothing but grief. I used to think this was an accepted loss with the entire printing landscape, that it’s a problem of the domain itself.
Turns out it was because I had always bought HP.
The last final printer I bought is a Brother inktank. It is not without its quirks, granted, yet I have never felt so easy.
God knows how much of a grief stricken, pain inducing, blood boiling, poisoned my life was– because HP. Once I switched to a different vendor, a burden of sorts was lifted.
i have had a total of 5-6 products in my lifetime from HP, and I’m pretty sure each one has easily taken out years from my life expectancy.
Yep. Can anyone explain why this is?
Basically the business model is that if they can sell you a cheap printer at a loss, you won’t consider a less cheap model from a company that isn’t as shitty. Then they can lock you into years of buying their ink, which is overpriced deliberately.
Last I checked, if you need an inkjet printer, get a Brother or an Epson. All the rest will rip you off in various ways.
Even better, get a laser printer if you can afford it (or don’t mind forgoing colour with a b&w model). For these, the above two brands, plus Ricoh, Xerox & Canon have a pretty good reputation last I looked into it
Never ever buy HP anything
Also, seriously consider if a library might be a better choice than owning a printer for your use case
A caveat to the HP thing, they split off their enterprise hardware division years ago, and it’s actually a decent company.
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I am onboard with the Canon lasers. I got a color mfp/scanner. Off brand toner is less than half the price, and even the Canon toner is less than other brands.
The amount of ink that comes with an inkjet printer is tiny. So a new printer comes with 10mL of ink, and the refills are 35mL or more. You quite literally get what you pay for.
The other reason is that inkjet printers need to be used on a regular basis, or the ink can dry out. But manufacturers have handled this by having the printer drip out tiny bits of ink all the time, so it’s literally using the ink even when you aren’t using it.
For the vast majority of people, a cheap laser printer is the far better option. Unless you want to produce art prints, but at that point you’re looking at spending a ton of money anyways.
Get an ecotank printer
I have am epson ecotank and they actually make money on the printer instead of the ink, you fill the ink into tanks on the printer
I have done this before!!!
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