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gotta get a new printer

Greentings As youve seen from the the title, i want to get a new printer as a present for my parents. Sadly they are still windows peasants and my mom somehow thinks that the HP printer on her desk has been a good financial investment, even though it has costed us more than 300 bucks in ink over the past 2 years.

I was hoping that you fine folks would have some good recommendations to replace this money leach on their home. Ive heard about the entire brother lazer meme going around, but the ones ive seen from them only do monochrome. And frankly speaking i dont think that my birth specimens can comprehend the greatness of 18 century film on their paper. Anyways have a nice day or night, internet strangers!

ares35 ,
@ares35@kbin.social avatar

if they don't need a new printer, and if mom is happy with what she has.. don't fix what ain't broken (in mom's eyes).

if you do replace the printer:

if they're low volume, can live without color, or are sporadic printer users, get a laser. a b/w brother with the features^1 you want, that has 3rd party toners and drum kits available.

if they're higher volume and regular printer users (they don't not print for weeks or months at a time) and 'need' color, you could consider one of those 'tank-based' color inkjets. do not let it run out of ink and always leave it plugged in to the power (let it go into power-save on its own). they also usually have 3rd party ink available. you may want to see if and how the printheads themselves get replaced when needed and whether or not you can actually buy them (we're binning one here because the printer says it needs a new printhead---but you can't buy them!).

for photos, stick 'em on a flash drive and go to walmart or a drug store that has the self-service photo printing stations or use an online service that ships. it's much cheaper than printing photos at home.

read the box, and all its fine print. some printers (mostly, but not exclusively hp) are shipping with strict blocks on 3rd party consumables. hp had previously reserved the hardcore blocking to the first firmware update you'd get after setting it up (let that update come in, you were screwed. disabled firmware updates and you were 'ok')... but not anymore.

^1 duplex printing (both sides, automatically) is something we use a lot. a sheet feeder (adf) on top for copies and scans is another feature we couldn't live without at the office. even though it might only be used occasionally--when it is needed, it saves so much time.

two other features that are often overlooked is a second input feed (even if it's 'manual'/one sheet at a time) for envelopes, letterhead or a sheet of labels.. and a main input tray with a decent capacity.. the one i'm using now only holds 50 sheets (about 30 in practice, because if you dare to fill it, it will misfeed frequently), and that's just not enough.

for printing from phones and tablets. look for that feature in the printer specs, then when you set it up at home, set it up as a wifi printer.

InputZero ,

I think people underestimate how good those self-service photo booths are or that they print more than photos. It’ll print whatever you tell them so as long as it can open the file.

WILSOOON OP ,

oh totally, they make my terrible passport photos look slightly less terrible

WILSOOON OP ,

the problem with not fixing what isnt broken, is that my parents arent the most technologically adept anymore, hell just the other day the guy that was installing their fiber told them that wifi is as fast as ethernet, and almost got them to buy 2 extra wifi access points they never needed. so i just want em to live life nicely and not have leaches glued to their wallet. the other reason why i want to replace that printer is that my 3d printer is looking awfully upgradable and hungers for some new parts. so its 2 birds with one stone really.

Im thinking a toner printer would be a good replacement since that stuff just never seems to run out and is really low maintenance. they do have a big old black and white office printer in the basement for bulk printing, but the hp bastard does all of smaller stuff. sadly they have updated the firmware on it so we cant shove third party cartiges in it. anyways thanks a bunch for the guide printer guru!

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

I second the Epson Ecotank, but the problem it has is that unless you use it regularly, it dries up and needs 1 to 3 cleaning cycles before it will print again.

So unless you want phone calls like “It’s printing blank pages again…”

terrrmus ,
@terrrmus@kbin.social avatar

The best printer to have in your house is not having a printer in your house.

If she has to have one, try and talk her into getting a Brother.

If she insists on getting an HP, try to avoid the subscription ones. If she's only printing, use the HP Universal Print driver and just use the base driver. (Device manager > find the printer > update driver > browse for the driver > Have disk > Find the INF > yada yada)

If she likes shitty bloated software, I guess let her install the normal drivers but it's going to suuuuuuck. Wifi printing from them also sucks, unless you enjoy constant tech support. Then being on the phone trying to resolve a wifi issue.

Anyway, fuck a printer.

WILSOOON OP ,

those drivers do suck ass, it is really just astonishing how much the hp software just stops working suddenly, im starting to think its intentional. know if there is any way to reverse that first firmware update that locks out all third party ink?

2xsaiko ,
@2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

The Brother laser meme is real. They also make color ones, I have one myself.

WILSOOON OP ,

i cant take the name seriously lol. i always imagine some warhammer 40k shit with like “Brother get the laser. No, not the printer, the weapon, brother”

Deckweiss , (edited )

I have an Epson eco-tank ET-2850

Running it on archlinux, over wifi.

It took a couple of hours to set it up by trying out different packages, but ultimately both printing and scanning work.

And I like the fact that it doesn’t use cartridges, you can fill it up with some cheap chinese liter bottles of printer ink.

If you get a laser printer, put it in a well ventilated area. They emit particles that are considered harmfull with frequent exposure, but are probably completely harmless in a home setting with a properly ventilated room.

wewbull ,

I don’t know what they sell these days but I’ve had a couple of Samsung mono lasers that were cheap ($150ish) and lasted decades of infrequent use.

ares35 ,
@ares35@kbin.social avatar

samsung sold their printer business to hp in 2017.

wewbull ,

Well that kills that idea then.

Bizarroland ,
@Bizarroland@kbin.social avatar

I bought a Samsung mono laser and printed approximately 400 pages on it before the fusor broke and would cost more than the entire printer did to replace.

I was past the 6-month warranty as well so I chucked it and bought a $10 Brother MFC-7860dw monoprinter from the thrift store that printed in the store.

It turned out that it would jam like the grateful Dead if it printed more than one page though.

Apparently that is a common issue with them and inside of the printer there is a small cork pad that gets twisted down and hits every time it picks up a new sheet of paper and the cork had gotten sticky somehow.

The fix for this incredibly complicated and delicate procedure is to open one side of the printer and take a piece of Scotch tape and cover over that tiny cork pad.

I did that 7 years ago and it still prints perfectly today.

lemmyreader ,

Brother laser is indeed the way to go for black and white printing. Else have a look at Epson.

p.s. HP = evil avoid HP if you can.

swab148 ,
@swab148@startrek.website avatar

I have an Epson ET-3830, took a bit of digging to find the right drivers and get them working on Bazzite, but since then it’s been great!

teawrecks ,

Did I read that right? What are you printing from your steam deck?

swab148 ,
@swab148@startrek.website avatar

I’m running Bazzite on my desktop lol, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t print stuff from your Steam Deck!

just_another_person ,

B4L

refreeze ,
@refreeze@lemmy.world avatar

HP = Has Problems

lemmyreader ,

😂

hedgehog ,

I have a Brother color laser printer and it’s great. Just as reliable as my B&W Brother laser printer. I don’t use it to print photographs, though - I assume your recommendation is more for people who need photo quality color?

something_random_tho ,

This is the way. My Brother laserjet is 15 years old and still kicking!

The one time a year you need to print photos, go to a FedEx Office or CVS.

WILSOOON OP ,

ill have a look at the epson offerings, since its mostly just color printing they need. For black and white they still have an inkjet 2000 hooked up to a XP machine in the basement. that thing will probably outlive me. thanks a bunch mate!

socphoenix ,

Brother does sell laser printers but they cost a good bit more. What media do they actually print? That would help a lot in trying to give advice.

WILSOOON OP ,

not a lot really, just some tax and insurance documents, and i use it of course once in the blue moon that i visit. its more just a scanner turned with a printer attached to it. hp’s software is just terrible

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