Any base model brother laser printer, preferably any that support wifi printing. i’ve had one for 7 years, and replaced the toner exactly once.
[deleted]
Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?
91–100 of 131 posts
Re: Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?
#92Not to hijack the thread -- but any recommendations for 100-200 pages a month, coming in sporadically?
That's a light load for a laser printer. An inkjet would probably work if you print about once a week, but not so well if all pages are at once.
Re: Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?
#93Any cheap Brother branded laser printer. Don't worry about buying any extra toner cartridges.
I still have an HL-5250dn bought new with the original "sample-sized" toner cartridge installed.
It's about 13 years old, at this point. I paid something like $75 for it.
Re: Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?
#94I'm just waiting for a laser printer to show up at a local Goodwill, but so far it's just dozens of inkjet printers. The Goodwill stores in my area offer a 7 day return period for electronics. I imagine I'll get this for $10-30 and support the community when I make the purchase. If this doesn't work out for me, I might break down and buy something new.
I just scored a monochrome laser printer at Goodwill on my lunch break for $2.50. Of course I rounded up to help the community, so it was really $3.00. Still has a toner cartridge in it. I have 10 days to return it, not 7. It doesn't have a network port on it, but I have an old ethernet-to-parallel-port adapter to put to use for that. Now the question will be, how will I justify ever buying toner for this when the toner will be much greater in cost than the printer, but that's a problem for another day.
Re: Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?
#95Only thing I can add to the laser printer choir: I used to try to go with inkjets because they were so cheap, and the price of a laser really put me off (wanted a color one). The inkjets jammed and clogged every time I tried to use them, which was very infrequently. I finally bit the bullet and went with a Brother color laser (MFC-9340CDW) and it is one of the best purchases I have ever made. You can print stuff dire…
Plus one on the color laser. It hurt having to buy all of that expensive toner, but the robustness, the long interval between toner change, and the quality and speed of printing has made inkjets a false economy. Inkjets produce better photos, but I decided that I would just pay a photo printer when I need prints made (and they are better prints than I could ever make at home anyway).
Re: Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?
#96I have an Epson multi-function ink jet which sits for months at a time unused, and because of the cartridge design (I think the print head is part of the cartridge itself?), it prints just fine regardless.
The MFDs are cheap, the carts are expensive, but it fits your usage requirements (which were similar to mine, at the time).
Re: Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?
#97Whilst there's not really much more left to add to the laser printer argument, in my own experience the absolute peace of mind a laser printer brings in knowing your report/flight ticket/etc. will print without issue is well worth the greater initial cost.
Re: Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?
#98A recommendation to stay away from Samsung laser printers, their division was sold off to HP a few years ago and the Samsung wireless setup and connection has been maddening and completely unreliable.
[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?
#99A recommendation to stay away from Samsung laser printers, their division was sold off to HP a few years ago and the Samsung wireless setup and connection has been maddening and completely unreliable.
I have a Samsung ML-3710 or similar that I've had for about 10 years now. Only ever used with USB. It's always been fantastic and I love it, because as a former dot matrix owner the idea of printing out pristine documents in seconds at home is still a bit magical. It's only ever had light use, but for my needs it's perfect. I can switch it on for the first time in months and it's up and printing in seconds.
Yeah, I wouldn't doubt that wired printing would be mostly bulletproof but getting our SL-M2020W's wireless/airprint functionality (under Windows) has been painful after multiple attempts at configuring.
Re: Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?
#100I've got an Epson ink bottle printer. The bottles last for thousands of sheets, don't cost much, and don't dry out. I only print a couple of times a month and moved from a Brother printer because a set of four cartridges cost €120 and you couldn't use the scanner when any of the ink cartridges were empty.