6 ms·

I’ve been a very happy Brothers customer for nearly two decades. We still have the same laser printer. Would highly recommend a laser printer over ink printers

by blitz 3y ago

I’ve been a very happy Brothers customer for nearly two decades. We still have the same laser printer. Would highly recommend a laser printer over ink printers in most cases and would advocate for Brothers over any other brand printer at this point. The printer we have has never had any issues, including a situation where a bunch of boba tea spilled into the printer. Hosed it down, let it dry, and still works!

nerdponx 3y ago
I can second this. I got a Brother HL-2270DW about 12 years ago and I have had no major complaints with it. Works great on Linux too.
- hahamrfunnyguy 3y ago
  I had a similar (or the same) HL model. It lasted 10-12 years, not sure exactly what the failure mode was, but I think I paid $75 for it. Definitely paid more for drums and toner over the years and I never even bought 1st party drums and toner! I replaced it a few years ago with a more recent HL model that is almost identical, but has wifi. Really happy with the quality and reliability of both printers so far.
Aperocky 3y ago
Same here, have a Brother printer that just printed and scanned. did nothing else and did not complain for years. Had the minimum features but that's exactly what I need it for. I guess HP think they have a monopoly somehow for them engage in stuff like this? Except they don't.
- InitialLastName 3y ago
  They learned from watching Brother that you can't make any recurring revenue off your printer working without complaint for a decade.
  - Aperocky 3y ago
    Yes except people could just ditch HP and buy a Brother. It's not like printers are too expensive to replace.
SeanAnderson 3y ago
Yeah, absolutely this. I'm incredibly happy with my Brother printer. I've never had a single issue with mine after almost a decade.
hellcow 3y ago
I also have a ~$70 black-and-white Brother laser printer which is more than a decade old at this point. Never had a single issue or complaint with it.
chandlerswift 3y ago
I was looking into Brother (again) as a result of this post, and it turns out they also have their own Instant Ink-style program, with the same "cancel and we'll trash your still-full toner cartridge" terms[0]. Though, perhaps unsurprisingly, it does seem like they do a much better job about making it clearer what you're opting into, though the "we'll make your formerly-working cartridge unusable" note was fairly buried in the FAQs, and not terribly clear up front. [0]: https://www.brother-usa.com/supplies/subscription-info/refresh-faqs#cancelling https://www.brother-usa.com/supplies/subscription-info/refre...
ksec 3y ago
The problem is sometimes, ( 10-20% ) I need colour printing. And colour laser is still expensive. I know it is wishful thinking but I do hope someday we could have some innovation with Colour Laser. Reposting What I wrote during COVID [1] I had to install a new inkjet printer because kids now need to print out their homework during COVID. I swear to god if I ever become wealthy the printer industry is what I intended to completely destroy. Not in it for profit. Not positive sum whatever startup thinking. It will be Zero Sum. Edit: Lasers are fine. That will be left alone. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30553662 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30553662
- aembleton 3y ago
  I bought a Brother colour laser 8 years ago for about £150. Its about double that now [1] at £275. The only fault it has had was that once I hadn't used it for a couple of years and the first page I printed wasn't quite perfect. The next one was though. I think for £275 with toner is worth it. Its pricier up front than the inkjets but the ease of use and reliability are totally worth it for me. 1. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brother-HL-L8260CDW-Wireless-Connected-Printing/dp/B071YHF67Q/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=brother+colour+laser+printer https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brother-HL-L8260CDW-Wireless-Connec...
  - ksec 3y ago
    If I could ever get one for £150 I would have bought one without thinking. I think £150 / $199 is the sweet spot. Another problem is I only need it during the pandemic. Otherwise I might only need about 10 page per year. And all of a sudden that £275 investment becomes quite expensive.
- Aeolun 3y ago
  Honestly, looking at the mechanics that go into my Brother color laser printer I’m surprised they go for the price they do. It seems fairly cheap, everything considered.
  - xadhominemx 3y ago
jaywalk 3y ago
I've had a Brother color laser for nearly 10 years at this point. Still on the original toner, because I don't print a lot. But it doesn't dry up like ink, and the printer just happily sits there waiting for the occasional page I need to print. Best money I ever spent on a printer.
tmerc 3y ago
Brother is less bad and I still recommend them, but they're not not shady. The starter cartridge that came with my laser printer said it was empty after 500 pages. I found a way to reset the chip from the printer and am still printing with the same cartridge a year later. That said, it now works with Linux on WiFi and has not given me any other issues.
- _ah 3y ago
  I've had the same issue (and same solution), but it's not shady. Brother makes reliable printers for offices. A consumer might want to print until the ink gets faded and streaky (to maximize lifespan), but for an office setting reliability is more important. You'd rather replace toner more often and have the prints always look great, than have to QC every sheet to determine if it's time to change the cartridge. Given the variable amount of ink on each printed page, Brother knows that a toner cart should last X pages 95% of the time (or whatever it is).
joseph_grobbles 3y ago
My Brother multifunction has been without CYM inks for literally years, which was fine as I printed in only B&W. A recent system update has suddenly made it refuse to print anything, including B&W, because one or more color inks are empty, despite the black being 80% full. Brother saw the money on the table and have decided to move towards the dark side.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
kitsunesoba 3y ago
I have a ~$250 Brother laser printer that worked great until it mysteriously stopped accepting print jobs, regardless of connectivity (wifi, ethernet, USB). I've factory reset it multiple times to no effect and the only lead I have to potentially fixing it is reflashing its firmware, but that seems to require some kind of obscure Windows utility that only authorized Brother servicers have access to.
- coding123 3y ago
  I had a ~$400 Brother laser about 10 years ago that I loved until one day it just stopped working completely. Repair company wanted... $500 so that ended that.
bouke 3y ago
I have a Dell 1320CN Color Laser, which has been great for some 15 years. The sad part is that it needs drivers on macOS/Linux which only work on Intel CPUs. So I have to cuddle an ancient iMac so to keep the ability to print.
- EvanAnderson 3y ago
  I have a 1310CN from around the same period. It has been a great purchase. It has PostScript support. You should be able to get it to print using other PostScript drivers. (I’ve only ever used it from Windows PCs so I can’t tell you something that works for-sure.)
mrbonner 3y ago
I bough a Brothers laser printer in 2020 because my kid and I were home to study and work, and I needed to print documents. It has been a glitch-free experience for me. The firmware works charmingly. No more messy ink change. And the laser cartridge lasts a long time for me. I would never go back to anything else! One thing I wish could be better is the cloud printing. But it could be because all my online accounts are now MFA and it is PITA to set up my brothers with them.
freedomben 3y ago
Has anyone bought one recently that can vouch for Brother (especially on Linux)? I love the "10 years ago" testimonials and those are helpful, but I'm worried that quality/philosophy of Brother might have dropped in the intermittent time. Or are the same models still available new? That would be neat.
- nwallin 3y ago
  I bought a B&W half duplex Brother printer circa 2011 and have no problems with it. Besides the fact that it was half duplex. I've bought a generic brand toner cartridge twice since then; neither have had problems. Earlier this month I upgraded to a full duplex color laser printer. (HL-3270CDW) Not because my existing printer is broken or has stopped working, but I was printing sections from a book and it annoyed me that I had to do all the flipping manually and gosh it would be nice if it were in color. Kind of an impulse buy. It's the same. Everything is the same. It's got new tech in it; it's got newfangled stuff like wifi, bluetooth, and NFC. (my old one had nothing but a USB port; they had versions with ethernet and wifi but I got the cheapest one) But it looks the same, it feels the same, it sounds the same, the drivers are in one of my distro's package manager's overlays and just work. (Gentoo/brother-overlay) I haven't owned it long enough to need to replace the toner. Amazon has generic versions of the toner for 30% of what Brother is charging. I don't know whether it will last forever with no issues, but my magic 8-ball says "all signs point to yes." My old printer is the HL-2240. It's discontinued. It looks like the new model in that line is the HL-L2320D. Besides the fact that they've discontinued the half-duplex printers, (D is for full duplex, W is for wireless, C is for color) it looks like it's basically the same exact thing; they're putting precisely zero effort into "updating" the styling which I like. The toner cartridges for the 2240 and 2320 are not compatible, but Brother is still selling toner in the 2240 cartridges, despite the fact that they're not selling any printers that use them. https://www.brother-usa.com/products/hl2240 https://www.brother-usa.com/products/hl2240 https://www.brother-usa.com/products/HLL2320D https://www.brother-usa.com/products/HLL2320D https://www.brother-usa.com/products/HLL3270CDW https://www.brother-usa.com/products/HLL3270CDW
  - ryandrake 3y ago
    I have the HL-L3270CDW, too. No complaints so far. Linux, Mac, and Windows support, and the color is not too bad. It's not as beautiful as a good inkjet on quality, glossy paper, but it does the job for basic PDFs and web sites that have colored text.

by blitz 3y ago

nerdponx 3y ago

I can second this. I got a Brother HL-2270DW about 12 years ago and I have had no major complaints with it. Works great on Linux too.

hahamrfunnyguy 3y ago
I had a similar (or the same) HL model. It lasted 10-12 years, not sure exactly what the failure mode was, but I think I paid $75 for it. Definitely paid more for drums and toner over the years and I never even bought 1st party drums and toner! I replaced it a few years ago with a more recent HL model that is almost identical, but has wifi. Really happy with the quality and reliability of both printers so far.

Aperocky 3y ago

Same here, have a Brother printer that just printed and scanned. did nothing else and did not complain for years. Had the minimum features but that's exactly what I need it for. I guess HP think they have a monopoly somehow for them engage in stuff like this? Except they don't.

InitialLastName 3y ago
They learned from watching Brother that you can't make any recurring revenue off your printer working without complaint for a decade.
- Aperocky 3y ago
  Yes except people could just ditch HP and buy a Brother. It's not like printers are too expensive to replace.

SeanAnderson 3y ago

Yeah, absolutely this. I'm incredibly happy with my Brother printer. I've never had a single issue with mine after almost a decade.

hellcow 3y ago

I also have a ~$70 black-and-white Brother laser printer which is more than a decade old at this point. Never had a single issue or complaint with it.

chandlerswift 3y ago

I was looking into Brother (again) as a result of this post, and it turns out they also have their own Instant Ink-style program, with the same "cancel and we'll trash your still-full toner cartridge" terms[0]. Though, perhaps unsurprisingly, it does seem like they do a much better job about making it clearer what you're opting into, though the "we'll make your formerly-working cartridge unusable" note was fairly buried in the FAQs, and not terribly clear up front. [0]: https://www.brother-usa.com/supplies/subscription-info/refresh-faqs#cancelling https://www.brother-usa.com/supplies/subscription-info/refre...

ksec 3y ago

The problem is sometimes, ( 10-20% ) I need colour printing. And colour laser is still expensive. I know it is wishful thinking but I do hope someday we could have some innovation with Colour Laser. Reposting What I wrote during COVID [1] I had to install a new inkjet printer because kids now need to print out their homework during COVID. I swear to god if I ever become wealthy the printer industry is what I intended to completely destroy. Not in it for profit. Not positive sum whatever startup thinking. It will be Zero Sum. Edit: Lasers are fine. That will be left alone. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30553662 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30553662

aembleton 3y ago
I bought a Brother colour laser 8 years ago for about £150. Its about double that now [1] at £275. The only fault it has had was that once I hadn't used it for a couple of years and the first page I printed wasn't quite perfect. The next one was though. I think for £275 with toner is worth it. Its pricier up front than the inkjets but the ease of use and reliability are totally worth it for me. 1. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brother-HL-L8260CDW-Wireless-Connected-Printing/dp/B071YHF67Q/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=brother+colour+laser+printer https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brother-HL-L8260CDW-Wireless-Connec...
- ksec 3y ago
  If I could ever get one for £150 I would have bought one without thinking. I think £150 / $199 is the sweet spot. Another problem is I only need it during the pandemic. Otherwise I might only need about 10 page per year. And all of a sudden that £275 investment becomes quite expensive.
Aeolun 3y ago
Honestly, looking at the mechanics that go into my Brother color laser printer I’m surprised they go for the price they do. It seems fairly cheap, everything considered.
- xadhominemx 3y ago

jaywalk 3y ago

I've had a Brother color laser for nearly 10 years at this point. Still on the original toner, because I don't print a lot. But it doesn't dry up like ink, and the printer just happily sits there waiting for the occasional page I need to print. Best money I ever spent on a printer.

tmerc 3y ago

Brother is less bad and I still recommend them, but they're not not shady. The starter cartridge that came with my laser printer said it was empty after 500 pages. I found a way to reset the chip from the printer and am still printing with the same cartridge a year later. That said, it now works with Linux on WiFi and has not given me any other issues.

_ah 3y ago
I've had the same issue (and same solution), but it's not shady. Brother makes reliable printers for offices. A consumer might want to print until the ink gets faded and streaky (to maximize lifespan), but for an office setting reliability is more important. You'd rather replace toner more often and have the prints always look great, than have to QC every sheet to determine if it's time to change the cartridge. Given the variable amount of ink on each printed page, Brother knows that a toner cart should last X pages 95% of the time (or whatever it is).

joseph_grobbles 3y ago

My Brother multifunction has been without CYM inks for literally years, which was fine as I printed in only B&W. A recent system update has suddenly made it refuse to print anything, including B&W, because one or more color inks are empty, despite the black being 80% full. Brother saw the money on the table and have decided to move towards the dark side.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

kitsunesoba 3y ago

I have a ~$250 Brother laser printer that worked great until it mysteriously stopped accepting print jobs, regardless of connectivity (wifi, ethernet, USB). I've factory reset it multiple times to no effect and the only lead I have to potentially fixing it is reflashing its firmware, but that seems to require some kind of obscure Windows utility that only authorized Brother servicers have access to.

coding123 3y ago
I had a ~$400 Brother laser about 10 years ago that I loved until one day it just stopped working completely. Repair company wanted... $500 so that ended that.

bouke 3y ago

I have a Dell 1320CN Color Laser, which has been great for some 15 years. The sad part is that it needs drivers on macOS/Linux which only work on Intel CPUs. So I have to cuddle an ancient iMac so to keep the ability to print.

EvanAnderson 3y ago
I have a 1310CN from around the same period. It has been a great purchase. It has PostScript support. You should be able to get it to print using other PostScript drivers. (I’ve only ever used it from Windows PCs so I can’t tell you something that works for-sure.)

mrbonner 3y ago

I bough a Brothers laser printer in 2020 because my kid and I were home to study and work, and I needed to print documents. It has been a glitch-free experience for me. The firmware works charmingly. No more messy ink change. And the laser cartridge lasts a long time for me. I would never go back to anything else! One thing I wish could be better is the cloud printing. But it could be because all my online accounts are now MFA and it is PITA to set up my brothers with them.

freedomben 3y ago

Has anyone bought one recently that can vouch for Brother (especially on Linux)? I love the "10 years ago" testimonials and those are helpful, but I'm worried that quality/philosophy of Brother might have dropped in the intermittent time. Or are the same models still available new? That would be neat.

nwallin 3y ago
I bought a B&W half duplex Brother printer circa 2011 and have no problems with it. Besides the fact that it was half duplex. I've bought a generic brand toner cartridge twice since then; neither have had problems. Earlier this month I upgraded to a full duplex color laser printer. (HL-3270CDW) Not because my existing printer is broken or has stopped working, but I was printing sections from a book and it annoyed me that I had to do all the flipping manually and gosh it would be nice if it were in color. Kind of an impulse buy. It's the same. Everything is the same. It's got new tech in it; it's got newfangled stuff like wifi, bluetooth, and NFC. (my old one had nothing but a USB port; they had versions with ethernet and wifi but I got the cheapest one) But it looks the same, it feels the same, it sounds the same, the drivers are in one of my distro's package manager's overlays and just work. (Gentoo/brother-overlay) I haven't owned it long enough to need to replace the toner. Amazon has generic versions of the toner for 30% of what Brother is charging. I don't know whether it will last forever with no issues, but my magic 8-ball says "all signs point to yes." My old printer is the HL-2240. It's discontinued. It looks like the new model in that line is the HL-L2320D. Besides the fact that they've discontinued the half-duplex printers, (D is for full duplex, W is for wireless, C is for color) it looks like it's basically the same exact thing; they're putting precisely zero effort into "updating" the styling which I like. The toner cartridges for the 2240 and 2320 are not compatible, but Brother is still selling toner in the 2240 cartridges, despite the fact that they're not selling any printers that use them. https://www.brother-usa.com/products/hl2240 https://www.brother-usa.com/products/hl2240 https://www.brother-usa.com/products/HLL2320D https://www.brother-usa.com/products/HLL2320D https://www.brother-usa.com/products/HLL3270CDW https://www.brother-usa.com/products/HLL3270CDW
- ryandrake 3y ago
  I have the HL-L3270CDW, too. No complaints so far. Linux, Mac, and Windows support, and the color is not too bad. It's not as beautiful as a good inkjet on quality, glossy paper, but it does the job for basic PDFs and web sites that have colored text.