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Printer suggestion? Yep. Not my area...

CMetaphor

CMetaphor

Quadfather
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xentr_thread_starter
Just thought Id toss out yet another Q to our little community.

Printers aren't my area. Like, never at all. I learned to un-jam them and crap, but have little knowledge otherwise haha.

So yeah: suggest me a printer?

Quick background: for very annoying and frustrating reasons, I still need to print stuff... albeit very infrequently (*coughstupidreturnlabelscough*). So I need a printer that can happily turn on only a few times a year max, and be reliable and readable when I do use it.

Laser printer with toner?
Laser engraver? (Mostly lol idea)
Regular printer with some sort of ink and ink jets that never dry out?

This stuff really isnt my area of expertise, so throw me some ideas and ill just get whatever you guys suggest haha
 
Brother or Epson are the only ones I'd consider with an Inkjet.

With Epsons you need to enable the full power off function, otherwise it'll periodically do the 'nozzle cleaning' and you'll somehow use a half cartridge of ink when you've only printed 3 pages in six months.

Since enabling that on my Epson I've been on the same cartridge for years with no issue. Yeah you have to manually power it on every time you want to use it, but that's a very minor inconvenience.

If you're looking laser I'm less familiar with them, but I'd probably eye a brother or watch for one of their refurb sales.
 
We print not very often at home. We used regular inkjet before and the cartdridge would go dry and / or printer would need nozzle cleaning a lot, pages would get lines in it.

In 2014, we got a laser duplex Brother hl3170cdw. Never changed a toner cartridge (even the black), and it prints perfect every time.

I do not regret it one bit.
 
xentr_thread_starter
FreeKnight said:
Brother or Epson are the only ones I'd consider with an Inkjet.

With Epsons you need to enable the full power off function, otherwise it'll periodically do the 'nozzle cleaning' and you'll somehow use a half cartridge of ink when you've only printed 3 pages in six months.

Since enabling that on my Epson I've been on the same cartridge for years with no issue. Yeah you have to manually power it on every time you want to use it, but that's a very minor inconvenience.
Click to expand...
Definitely looking at a Brother, ever other printer brand myself or anyone around me has ever used has been a letdown in some way. Surprised you don't have issues with the ink jet itself drying out!
djbrad said:
We print not very often at home. We used regular inkjet before and the cartdridge would go dry and / or printer would need nozzle cleaning a lot, pages would get lines in it.

In 2014, we got a laser duplex Brother hl3170cdw. Never changed a toner cartridge (even the black), and it prints perfect every time.

I do not regret it one bit.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's what im leaning towards. A Brother LaserJet printer. Afaik, laser toner remains a dry inert powder, basically forever. The laser (fuser, i think its called?) Is what heats up a tiny portion to super high heats to print with, as needed. No ink, no ink jets... so theoretically, no problem only using a few times year, for many years?

I just don't want an ink / cleaning debacle just to return a product or sell/ship something every few months. Its all scummy and annoying and seems designed to screw over we consumers.
 
Do you need colour? If not, a relatively inexpensive B/W laser would probably do the trick. (Brother has been and continues to be my go-to).

If you need colour, keep your eyes open for a decent sale on one of the newer style "tank" inkjets. My referb Brother InkVestment printer got somewhere around 1700 page prints over 15 months (without drying out) before any of the carts had to be swapped out.

JD had a discussion on the topic over here....

JD

Thread 'Colour Laser MFP'

All 3 models seem to review well enough and roughly the same price. Any brand preferences amongst people here?

The Canon seems to be the latest model of Rtings recommendation, and is a bit cheaper. It also is the biggest of the bunch though and I'm a bit short on space where my existing inkjet lives. I suppose it can hang over the edge of the cabinet?

The most...

Brother's got a similar model to the one I grabbed (main difference appears to be that it's a single tray as opposed to double) listed @ $250 (refurb)

www.brother.ca

Brother MFCJ4345DWXL Refurbished INKvestment Tank All-in-One Colour Inkjet Printer

The MFC-J4345DW XL Refurbished INKvestment Tank all-in-one colour inkjet printer is ideal for home and home office use. Its reengineered high-capacity in-box ink cartridges provide up to 2 years of uninterrupted printing. Print and copy from your mobile device plus scan and fax.
www.brother.ca www.brother.ca

edit: Looks like the other major difference between the linked one and the one I got is the lack of Ethernet connection on the one currently available. Connections are limited to wifi/usb.
 
Last edited:
xentr_thread_starter
Dont need color, dont wanna any ink headaches (even if its a new "tank" system), and 1700 pages per year is about 1690 more pages per year than I need 🤣.

Definitely gotta go with a laser + toner setup. But can anyone confirm on the long-teem longevity of a toner cartridge? I know they expensive, but 1x toner every ten years sounds better than adding ink and cleaning ink jets at least once year for a printer I barely use.
 
I've had the same toner cartridges in the HP color laser I brought home from work 5 years ago and it still works, printed a few tax forms last night. The toner is a dry dust, I can't see it going bad.
 
SugarJ said:
I've had the same toner cartridges in the HP color laser I brought home from work 5 years ago and it still works, printed a few tax forms last night. The toner is a dry dust, I can't see it going bad.
Click to expand...

Worst case for toner would probably be the need to physically remove it annually and give it a shake.
 
xentr_thread_starter
sswilson said:
Worst case for toner would probably be the need to physically remove it annually and give it a shake.
Click to expand...
Ha! I actually remember doing that all the time when swapping big toner cartridges in large laser printers - shaking the crap out of them. And I just remembered why too (you jogged my terrible memory!): the worst a toner cartridge can do is sortof solidify the "dust" inside into more of a solid.

So ill grab a Brother B&W laser printer, and just shake the toner cartilage once in a while before use. Should be golden?

Any recommendations on a specific model? Wifi or ethernet would be a preference, not USB. Small consumer size. No other requirements other than not being ridiculously expensive haha
 
CMetaphor said:
Ha! I actually remember doing that all the time when swapping big toner cartridges in large laser printers - shaking the crap out of them. And I just remembered why too (you jogged my terrible memory!): the worst a toner cartridge can do is sortof solidify the "dust" inside into more of a solid.

So ill grab a Brother B&W laser printer, and just shake the toner cartilage once in a while before use. Should be golden?

Any recommendations on a specific model? Wifi or ethernet would be a preference, not USB. Small consumer size. No other requirements other than not being ridiculously expensive haha
Click to expand...
One thing you may want to consider since it seems you always have projects you'd discuss wanting to do is to get one that has an 11x17" bypass. When I used to do crazy costumes/props I'd often print templates on 11x17 cardstock that I'd tape together so I could make cutting templates, stencils, etc.

Not a must, but just something to keep in mind.
 
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