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Which consumer grade printer should I buy?

Title, basically. My old torture device needs to be replaced, and while it’s been mostly working OK, printers have no excuse for being as shitty as they are. So therefore I am looking for suggestions.

Specs:

  • Must include a flatbed scanner
  • prints in color
  • Wifi connection preferred
  • No PaaS or IaaS bullshit
  • No driver weirdness. I’m going to use it on linux.
  • Available “anywhere”.
  • Ability to sit powered and connected in my HarryPotteresque “server room” under the stairs for ages, unattended, and work without hazzle when I send it the bimonthly print job.

I know the geek community likes Brother. Any particular model?

For reference, this new printer will replace my aging Canon Pixma 4250.

xonigo , (edited )

I have a brother b&w laser printer with scanner (hl-l2390dw) that I got after years of grief from an awful canon inkjet that would clog after 2 weeks of no use. Went through so many ink cartridges on that thing.

I love the brother now. It can sit around for weeks and when I do occasionally need to print something it comes out great. Sure I do miss printing color but I can always send a print job over to Walgreen or Staples and they’ll have it printed out in an hour with better quality than a consumer inkjet printer can put out

Mine works with Linux so no issues there

brokenlcd ,

I think the options may be either:

An ecotank, the problem with them is that it doesnt respect the last point, since if it’s not used in a while the ink it’s going to dry and clog the print head, but i’ve seen some pretty good prints coming out of them+ on aliexpress you can get ink + other bits for cheap

A brother mfc, if i remember correctly there where color laser variants, the problem with them is cost and size, if i remember correctly they are office printers, space was not taken in cosideration when they where desined, so they are huge compared to standard printers + the ink cartriges are expensive, but last forever, i’m not sure if you can find cartiges on aliexpress, toner refills are more likely, but can be very messy and requiring cutting a hole in the cartriges, and i’ve found out that for the b/w toner printers it’s the most economical way of getting ink for them

Sorry for the length of the comment.

tilefan ,

I can’t think of any brand that’s going to be connected to Wi-Fi that eventually isn’t going to cut off your ability to scan when you run out of a certain color of ink.

I bought a last generation flatbed scanner for like $15 and a Canon printer that will never be connected to the internet

BearOfaTime ,

Upvote for “my old torture device”… I’ll be stealing that

Hildegarde ,

Get an old color laser printer, that is not aimed at the home market. Get whatever boring printer box your local library has. Toner stores very well, and it takes almost a decade for a normal person to print an office sized amount of toner.

To do that you will need a separate scanner. Most desktop printer/scanners are aimed at home users where they do much more of the, “cannot scan low magenta.”

SpaceNoodle ,

I see nobody else is touching the flatbed scanner requirement.

Instead of one device that’s a mediocre scanner and a mediocre printer, get a decent printer, and a separate decent scanner. It will also be far easier to find two separate devices with good Linux driver support vs. a more obscure MFC.

Coasting0942 ,

Somebody said laser. Those things vaporize toner into your air.

A printer where you can actually see the ink tank and you can refill it.

BearOfaTime ,

What are you on? “Vaporize toner into your air”… Then why isn’t my house covered in toner (and every office that prints thousands of pages a month)?

Toner is electrostatically attracted then heated onto the page, not vaporized.

echo ,

Why must it be color?

mspencer712 ,

Advice from most to least certain: If you want very long standby time (a reliably perfect first print after literally months of inactivity) and you have the space for an ugly cube of a printer, laser is the only option. Ink tank printers have unexpected wear parts, like internal ink sponges.

Black and white laser is stupid simple. Color laser “prints” four times in series onto an intermediate transfer belt (ITB) and then puts that onto the paper, still super reliable but bulkier, and your prints get watermarked with yellow dots because FBI or something. I’d go color.

Toner lock-in is becoming more common, not just for HP. If your page count is going to be low, just pay full price for name brand toner. If you don’t want to do that, like your use case could involve printing a single page or entire binders of paper between months of inactivity, read on.

Start your printer research by shopping for cheap off brand toner, get a sense for what they’re selling the most of and what that’s compatible with, and see what printers they support.

Some aftermarket toner just works, out of the box, because the printer isn’t crazy locked down. Those cartridges have normal sounding instructions. Some aftermarket toner requires you to transplant a chip from a first party cartridge, and their instructions include this. Avoid those printers.

And consider used printers. I have a used HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw that I love, but I would never ever buy another HP printer, especially not one made later than this one. Be very careful before buying any HP printer, especially one made in the past 6-8 years. Even wear items (like the ITB) have modules with firmware and compatibility requirements, and I’m worried I could be one replacement component away from suddenly having a locked down printer.

AndrewZabar ,

I can’t wait until the whole toner chip bullshit becomes illegal.

bluGill ,

Do you really need all that? Is there a local copy shop (often public libraries, drug stores...) that have some of those services? Sometimes they have better quality printers (photo printers for example). While you pay more per page, do you really do whatever it is enough to make it worth the cost of the printer vs just going elsewhere? There are many middle grounds (black and white printer. Use your phone camera as a scanner) that are clearly worse than what you want, but still good enough for most purposes and you can use the better option when you need it.

The answer to the above of course depends on your specific situation so there isn't one right answer. It is always work thinking about though.

saigot ,

If you are only printing bimonthly have you considered using a library?

neidu2 OP ,

Not open every hour of every day

teamevil ,

Yo…best purchase has been an Epson eco tank…never buy heads again.

rwtwm ,

I was certain this link would already be here! theverge.com/…/best-printer-2024-home-use-office-…

HootinNHollerin ,

Make sure its a laser

folekaule ,

I second this. If you’re only printing occasionally, ink tends to dry out, while toner will still be good.

gimmemahlulz ,
@gimmemahlulz@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I bought my black and white brother laser printer in 2018. I’m still using the same printer and the sample toner it came with in 2024. Literally zero issues ever, still prints fantastically. I just send it a print job once every 3-4 months and get a paper out of it with no fuss.

BearOfaTime ,

My 1997 black-and-white Lexmark died last summer. Yes, 1997.

neidu2 OP ,

Yup, I noticed. Like I mentioned, I don’t print very often, so ink/toner lifetime is definitely a factor.

Diplomjodler3 ,

I have an Epson ET-2851 and I’m pretty happy with it. The Eco-tank ink seems to last pretty long and is easy to top up. It runs without any trouble under Linux. For my modest requirements it’s fine.

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