Which printer to buy?

[Zero999]

My dad is looking to buy a new monochrome laser printer for home use and has asked me to do some research.

The main requirements are: a low cost per page and no counters for toner/drum use: he wants to decide when to replace the toner, when he notices the print quality deteriorating.

Budget is around the £150 mark.

[Rerouter]

Look for a used HP laserjet, they will last until the end of time, and most come with network functionality,

I myself picked up a 4000 series as a freebie, needed a new toner cartridge ($89 for a 10,000 page one), and its been happily sitting in the corner printing pages for the past 5 years without a hiccup.

[mariush]

Brother laser printers tend to be easy to refill and there's a relatively easy to reset their page counters.
Usually you can find kits on ebay with wheels and springs that you have to add to the starter toner mechanism to be able to reset it to 0 pages, toner can be poured in easily...

When I bought my Brother laser printer, it was at a time when Samsung started to use chips to prevent people from refilling and I couldn't be bothered to mess around with that, even though they were easy to find and cheap on eBay.

[wasyoungonce]

I'm using a Brother HL-2270DW.  There are now similar new models.  The reason I went this...cheap to refill uses TN2250 (~3K pages).

I refill with bulk toner for $8 which is $3.2 cents per page and cartridge re-set procedure is on the net! You can buy compatible for $20. Unless you buy a more office orientated Brother printer, most home Brothers have limited page print capability compared to HP printer and the like. The offset is brothers are easy to obtain replacement carts or refill.

The printer returns the unused toner back to the cartridge thus uses a variable corona wire.  Not that I've had issues with print quality.   I just keep 2 carts, one refilled ready to go on in use.

For cheapness for home...cannot beat Brother.  Oh some Overseas Brothers use a different measuring system for low toner.  Ours uses a toner count and re-set flag gear but some USA have toner diode.

[imidis]

Brother laser printers tend to be easy to refill and there's a relatively easy to reset their page counters.
Usually you can find kits on ebay with wheels and springs that you have to add to the starter toner mechanism to be able to reset it to 0 pages, toner can be poured in easily...

When I bought my Brother laser printer, it was at a time when Samsung started to use chips to prevent people from refilling and I couldn't be bothered to mess around with that, even though they were easy to find and cheap on eBay.

I'll second brother, I have a 9130cw and quite like it and it is easy to reset the page  count.

Note: Mine is color that I got on sale/pricematch for around that price range.

[IanB]

My dad is looking to buy a new monochrome laser printer for home use and has asked me to do some research.

The main requirements are: a low cost per page and no counters for toner/drum use: he wants to decide when to replace the toner, when he notices the print quality deteriorating.

Budget is around the £150 mark.

I have a Brother (HL-2270DW) and I have been very happy with it.

[sleemanj]

+1 on brothers, have used both brother laser and inkjets for years, and also the QL-550 ptouch I use for shipping.

I always have 2 lasers hooked up at a time, my "good" HL5340D which actually gets treated to proper toners etc, and a secondary one which I use for run-of-the-mill stuff, currently an HL2140 but  'm a cheap bugger, when toner runs out on the secondary, I buy another used brother with some more.  Just bought another today for the princely sum of a buck fiddy to add to the stockpile, an HL2130.

Linux support is pretty good also for all the brother stuff.

[Halcyon]

It is possible on some printers to enter some sequence of button pushes to override the toner low signal. Good luck finding one that allows you to run the toner down until it prints poorly, without manual intervention.

I use a Brother HL-2250DN which has an automatic duplexer and Ethernet interface. It's been very reliable and the cost of the device and toner cartridges are reasonable. I get many thousand prints out of a single cartridge. I'd probably replace it once every year or two (I don't do a huge amount of printing at home these days).

The great thing is, you can override the "empty toner" alert by putting a bit of opaque tape over the sensor window on the toner cartridge (or colour it in with a marker like in this example). The printer will just continue to print forever.

[nctnico]

I'd go for a HP laserprinter intended for office use (stay away from the consumer crap!). The HP protocol is well supported so least chance on driver or compatibility issues. Also the toner cartridges come with a new drum so print quality is optimal. For some printers you can choose between large and small toner cartridges. It often helps to shop around to find cartridges for a good price. However I don't bother with the cheaper refilled cartridges because I want a printer to work when I need it.

[coppice]

If you get through a few reams per month, Brother currently seems to be the sweet spot for reasonably priced monochrome laser printing. This is true whether you use their own toner cartridges, or 3rd party refills. Obviously 3rd party refills are cheaper, but Brother's own toner cartridges seem to actually give the number of pages they quote on real world pages. Our experience with other makes is that pages need to be nearly all white to get the page counts they claim.

[HighVoltage]

100% HP LaserJet 4100N
Best printer for the money and it fits your budget.
If you are lucky you will find one with less than 2000 pages printed
All repair parts are available if you ever should need them.

[SeanB]

My refilled HP/Canon cartridges typically give around 30% more pages per cartridge, and as the refill price is around a quarter of the retail price it is very good value. Just find a reputable refiller in your area and you are set. Also ask them what they will refill and you then can limit your choice to those printers as well, which is a lot of the HP, Canon, Brother and some Samsung printers.

Only ever used new cartridges at the insistence of the supplier for the initial warranty, and had a nice stock of empty ones for the end of warranty period to send out for refill. I get my own units back, with new toner, new drum and new scraper and for those with a chip new chip. Some HP will say non genuine, but otherwise keep on working.

[coppice]

My refilled HP/Canon cartridges typically give around 30% more pages per cartridge, and as the refill price is around a quarter of the retail price it is very good value.

If you buy the toner and refill your own cartridge it can be less than 10% of the cost of an original cartridge, and only takes a couple of minutes. Just make sure the bottle of toner you buy is recommended for your printer. They aren't all the same. Some melt at a much higher temperature than others.

If you are clumsy, the refill process can be really messy. Take a little care and you'll be OK.

[SeanB]

That is mostly for work, and it is a lot easier for me to just let them do it, like they have been doing for the last couple of years. I know the owner, know quite a few of the staff and they are local to me. A lot less messy as they have the extractor hoods to get the old toner out, and buy the toner and drums in bulk.

Now, if I had 100 of the same model printer the investment in doing it in house would be a different thing.

[kripton2035]

very happy with epson workforce PRO printers (model 5620)
it's not laser but micropiezo ink, and it's quite lower price/page than a monochrome laser printer.
as it's not a laser, you can't do pcb toner transfert method with it, but to print it's very economical.

remember : the less you pay for a (new) printer, the more you pay on the ink ...

[nanofrog]

Another vote for Brother. 

I've currently an HL-2140 & an MFC-9450CDN. Both have been in service for years, and both have cartridges that use a reset gear which makes them easy to reset & refill. Makes per page costs inexpensive.

[kaz911]

And another vote for Brother - I have had all their MFC styles over the years. I changed from HP to Brother as the HP software drivers and windows 10 auto installs just became to bloated (Yes when Win 10 detects a HP device it auto downloads HP spyware) - and like all other HP (and Canon) are so bloated you download the Brother software 10 times before you are even CLOSE to reaching the sizes of Canon and HP's bloat.

And I find in daily use their printers are super. Not cutting edge but solid workhorses - even their cheap inkjet MFC's. Again compared to the HP's I have had - most HP's landed in the dumpster or taken apart for parts within a short while due to cartridge issues. So far no issues with my Brother Inkjets either apart from occasional paper jams on their Euro 100,- MFC printer I have in my little apartment in Spain. But that might be due to paper+humidity....

So thumbs up for Brother Lasers and Ink jets from here.

[nctnico]

I agree about the HP drivers being bloated and buggy. Better download the driver only package and install that.

[imidis]

I've had horrible luck with HP's. I'm not a fan of their printers, but that's my opinion. Brother on the other hand. I had a monochrome that I left with my mother and bought it in hmm... 2002 or 2003, it's still working and she had to replace the cartridge last year. I can't believe that thing is still kicking around.

[Marco]

A testimonial for the HP 1320, doesn't have the hipster chique of the 4000 but it's more compact and has built in duplexing. Bought it for 50 euro at auction 6 years or so ago, put a supposedly 6000 page refurb toner in it for 25 euro a year ago (I don't print a lot). 6 Watt standby power, so around 10 Euro a year from that.

[Zero999]

Thanks for the replies. I've gone for the Brother HL-L2300D. I hope I've made a good choice.

[Halcyon]

Thanks for the replies. I've gone for the Brother HL-L2300D. I hope I've made a good choice.

Well if it is a newer version of my basic Brother printers then it should serve you well. One thing I am interested in is the nature of the Duplex feature mentioned. Mine don't have the ability to automatically print both sides. This one does not look like it is bigger or has room for the mechanism to reinsert the printed page for the opposite side to be printed. Mine has a driver feature that shows you how to reload the one-side printed stack back into the paper tray to resume printing the reverse side. It works quite well but it isn't my idea of duplex printing as a feature.

Duplexers take up hardly any room these days. As I mentioned, I have a HL-2250DN which has an automatic duplexer built-in. The total size of the printer is 18.3cm (H) x 36.8cm (W) x 36.0cm (D). It works rather well actually.

[Marco]

Thanks for the replies. I've gone for the Brother HL-L2300D. I hope I've made a good choice.

Not a network printer BTW. Unlike the 2360/2365.

[IanB]

One thing I am interested in is the nature of the Duplex feature mentioned. Mine don't have the ability to automatically print both sides. This one does not look like it is bigger or has room for the mechanism to reinsert the printed page for the opposite side to be printed.

It looks very similar to my HL-2270DW, which can do automatic duplex printing. I don't know how it does it, but it somehow finds a place to turn each page over and print on the reverse side before ejecting it. If I were to nitpick, there is a little more paper curl when printing both sides, but if you set the sheets aside to cool down most of the curl disappears. I'd say this is one of the inevitable compromises with compact printers. There isn't space to keep the paper flat during printing so it has to be bent around rollers while travelling through the printer.

[Zero999]

Thanks for the replies. I've gone for the Brother HL-L2300D. I hope I've made a good choice.

Not a network printer BTW. Unlike the 2360/2365.

That's fine, since it will only be connected to one PC.

Look for a used HP laserjet, they will last until the end of time, and most come with network functionality,

I myself picked up a 4000 series as a freebie, needed a new toner cartridge ($89 for a 10,000 page one), and its been happily sitting in the corner printing pages for the past 5 years without a hiccup.

I did look at some refurbished HP printers, as a new one was beyond his budget, but I often feel uncomfortable buying something used for someone else. If it was just for me then fine, but I'll get all the grief when there's a problem.