I have an HP cm1415fnw color laser multifunction that I've had for 15 years (2010). The color prints are great if you need color but not as a replacement for photo printing. In the 15 years, I've replaced the black toner twice and the colors once. No other maintenance at all, and it supports AirPrint. It's still running flawlessly.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
A good decision; Brother Compact Monochrome Laser Printer, HL-L2350DW,
- Thread starter transmaster
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I've been refilling the starter cartridge that came with my printer. I have spent less that $20 on toner in the 12 years I've owned my printer.
I continue to swear by my Brother monochrome laser printer with duplex printing that I got back in 2018. When I first bought it, I hooked it up to an old Airport Express, and boom–wireless printing, across all of my Macs, no muss, no fuss (well, it seems to work only 50% of the time on my partner's Windows 11 laptop, but oh well). After dealing with crappy HP junk and Epson printers that cost a small fortune to maintain, I'm never going back.
Meanwhile, at the shop where I work, we have an HP color laser printer that's supposed to have built-in WiFi printing, and it's hopelessly broken all the time, plus it goes through toner like it's no tomorrow.
Meanwhile, at the shop where I work, we have an HP color laser printer that's supposed to have built-in WiFi printing, and it's hopelessly broken all the time, plus it goes through toner like it's no tomorrow.
The cheapness of the ink is definitely tempting, but l've found inkjets have a lot of drawbacks beyond the cost of ink:
- time-consuming "head-cleaning" that inevitably happens if you haven't use it a while
- streaky prints
- general slowness
- needs expensive paper to avoid blurry prints
- printed pages will be ruined if they get wet
I guess I'm showing my age, but I switched to a laser printer from a dot matrix printer over thirty years ago.
My most recent laser printer is a monochrome Brother that I bought over 15 years old. I'll probably replace it sometime soon. It does not duplex; it doesn't support Airplay; and a USB-C to USB-A adapter doesn't work, so I have to print from an old MacBook Pro with a USB-A port. However, it still prints just fine.
In the past I owned a couple color inkjet printers, specifically for color photo printing. I haven't done any of that recently, so I don't currently own one. I also experienced the inconvenience of ink drying out.
Do any current laser printers support wireless but not wi-fi printing? Maybe direct to the printer via Bluetooth or something? Just curious. It would be handy to have a printer located where there is no wi-fi signal.
I bought one of these 7-8 years ago. I rarely print, but it is 100% reliable. Shows up in air print. Prints two-sided. I replaced the toner one time, with a third party toner cartridge. It has a decent size footprint, but the footprint isn't deceptive like HP printers where the paper tray flips back 5 inches from the feet. The size is what it is. Basically a perfect product for simple document printing.
I did the exact same thing- I think it was recommended on one of the Apple tech podcasts like ATP - and never looked back. One of the best bits of kit I've bought in 30 years or so. Utterly reliable and has more than paid for itself.
I have a musician/arranger friend arriving in a few weeks time for Edinburgh's Jazz festival. Having stumbled upon and read through this thread, I decided not to trust my unreliable ink cartridge printer and invest in a Brother L2627 Mono printer/scanner/copier. Unpacking and setting that up now.
The Brother mono printer is perfect for printing music scores. I was thrilled when mine printed normally after 22 months of disuse. I usually bought a 3-n-1 HP printer, but rarely used the scanner, so I opted for just a printer this time.
One important suggestion is to get a quality dust cover for it. I have one for mine, but I didn't put it on. The drum got contaminated from something getting on it over the 22 months of disuse, I had a dark line on both sides of the pages I printed. I fixed it by cleaning the drum with medical-grade 99% alcohol. The cover is now installed. "My Bad."
Last edited:
What sold me on the Brother was Leo Laporte of TWiT.tv. I was asking about a printer on Discord. He popped in and mentioned the mono-tone Brother he had at his home office, and it still had the same toner cartridge it came with when he purchased it over 10 years before.
When I purchased mine, I also got a high-yield toner cartridge, a TN760 (3000 pages); the printer comes with a TN730 1200-page toner cartridge. The TN760 is still in the box, unused.
When I purchased mine, I also got a high-yield toner cartridge, a TN760 (3000 pages); the printer comes with a TN730 1200-page toner cartridge. The TN760 is still in the box, unused.
Remember to wear new cotton gloves when handling the roller drum in your Brother printer to prevent fingerprints from ruining it.
I have been using a Brothers MFC-L8610CDW colour laser for two years, love it. It was just under $600 USD as I recall, and I am still using the original ink that came with it. I don't print a lot of things, but the ink still works after two years.
HP argues that ink is more expensive to subsidize the printers… having one big purchase to begin with is easier to swallow than the frequent high expense of consumables. Then add their anti-consumer nonsense, I’ll never give them a dime. I’ve always found humor that quarter million dollar metal 3D printers are easier to diagnose and repair than garbage HP inkjets. You’d think another dimension would make it harder…
I believe that all the major printer makers have understood that many many users, like the OP, have reached their limit with the scam of print cartridges and clog-prone designs. But this is not inherent to the inkjet technology. To the defense of inkjet printers, I'd like to mention that the new 'ecotank' EPSON line does no longer suffer from the problems alluded to by the OP.
I bought an ET-8550 A3+ printer three years ago and it has been phenomenal since. This is a 6-ink printer that does all the home office tricks (scan, double-sided printing, standalone operation without computer) while also being able to reach a very high quality level in color and B&W photo prints. Over the three years I have printed ~4000 pages, refilled the ink tanks only once for a cost of about ~100 euro (in line with the 2 cent/page advertised cost) and the printer has been remarkably consistent in terms of its ability to remain clog-free.
Since getting this fine piece of equipment, I wonder how I have been able to get along with my former printers that were, just like the OP says, a nightmare to operate and maintain.
I bought an ET-8550 A3+ printer three years ago and it has been phenomenal since. This is a 6-ink printer that does all the home office tricks (scan, double-sided printing, standalone operation without computer) while also being able to reach a very high quality level in color and B&W photo prints. Over the three years I have printed ~4000 pages, refilled the ink tanks only once for a cost of about ~100 euro (in line with the 2 cent/page advertised cost) and the printer has been remarkably consistent in terms of its ability to remain clog-free.
Since getting this fine piece of equipment, I wonder how I have been able to get along with my former printers that were, just like the OP says, a nightmare to operate and maintain.
Last edited:
I didn’t know they still made dust covers for printers. Where did you find one, Amazon? I currently use micro fiber cloths to cover the scanner/auto document feeder. I used to cover my CRT monitors… showing my age.The Brother mono printer is perfect for printing music scores. I was thrilled when mine printed normally after 22 months of disuse. I usually bought a 3-n-1 HP printer, but rarely used the scanner, so I opted for just a printer this time.
One important suggestion is to get a quality dust cover for it. I have one for mine, but I didn't put it on. The drum got contaminated from something getting on it over the 22 months of disuse, I had a dark line on both sides of the pages I printed. I fixed it by cleaning the drum with medical-grade 99% alcohol. The cover is now installed. "My Bad."
In the U.S., that is a $650 printer, or there about. So, it should be expected to behave as it has. The issue with IJ printers as I see it is the sub $200 USD price range I see them in, in fact, often less than $100 USD. Those printers are useless and when the owner finds out it costs nearly as much for new ink cartridges as it is to buy a new printer, they often buy the new printer, which comes with ink cartridges. I know people that do buy a new printer after they use up the second set of cartridges. Ink Jet printers at the consumer level have an intentional 'landfill' factor built into them.
Another Epson ecotank user here. I’ve had mine since late 2021. Still on original inks despite printing on a relatively regular basis, including lots of full page (letter) color photo prints. If color printing is at all desired, I think ecotank (or similar from other brands) is the way to go. Addressing the concerns above in order:
- correct, definitely want to print at least once every 3 to 4 weeks to avoid having to run cleaning cycle. I simply send a photo to it to put on the fridge if I feel like it’s been a while since my last print.
- never had streaky prints on this particular printer. Ironically my LaserWriter 300 way back in the day did occasionally. So maybe just a per-printer basis, regardless of tech used?
- again, text and images on this particular model appear plenty sharp on standard printer paper that you can buy in bulk at Costco. Of course, for framing a photo, photo paper does look better, regardless of printer tech.
- I had initially typed an agreement that I thought the ink would run if it got wet. However, literally picked up a text only print from the other day, walked it to a sink and ran half of it under the water stream for 20 seconds. No running or smearing at all. This is with the black Epson branded ink that came in the box when I bought the printer. Text is still sharp and legible, though paper isn’t looking too great at the moment. Maybe paper will dry back to normal?
All that said, when I finally run low on ink (still have plenty, but let’s say later this year after 4 years on the ink it came with), Costco has the 4 pack (black, cyan, magenta, yellow) official Epson refill ink for $50.
I had looked at an HP color laser printer, but the cost of the HP replacement toner was significantly higher. Due to high cost, gave the ecotank a chance and I’m glad I did.
Ecotank actually appears to be way more than just big tanks, to me it's a whole rethink of the inkjet technology that happens to solve most of the above drawbacks. I've been surprised how long you can keep the printer unused and still get a perfect nozzle check / streak-free prints afterwards. Concerning speed this is comparable to most home laser printers (but slower than a pro office printer, but things are not comparable here). Concerning resolution I do not see an issue and the speed can be dialed down if a really crisp result is desired.
Last edited:
Interesting. I have locked into my b&w laser printer zone for ages now and hadn't realized there were non-horrible inkjets out there. I rarely need color, but it could be fun to have sometimes. Thanks for posting this!
Hmm. From what I'm reading, the EcoTank printers under ~$500 say they put out 10-15 ppm. The basic Brother lasers are rated over 30 ppm -- which I would say tracks with real world use for text documents.
I'm seeing up to 18ppm for (color) Brother models under $500, which is barely more than the 15ppm of ecotank printers. But I agree that if you are willing to spend significantly more you can reach speeds with laser than are not possible with inkjets.
Last edited:
They sure do; here you go.
Printer Covers | Custom Dust Covers for Printers & Scanners
Purchase custom dust covers for printers, scanners, plotters, and copiers at DigitalDeckCovers. Our premium fabric products help your equipment to last.
www.digitaldeckcovers.com
Not sure where you're getting that but that's incorrect. The speed varies by model, but it's usually right around this. And again, that tracks with my real world usage -- the thing spits out a page every couple seconds.
link
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.