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Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?

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Re: Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?

#11

Post by 52-6F-62 »

hprotagonist wrote: post #8

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.

I'll second this. I had a Brother for years. I ran out of toner once (I did a lot of printing) and I think the second time I donated it or gave it to a friend.

I think the only pain point was the toner was almost as expensive as the original printer + toner. Go figure.

But they're good, reliable machines for sure. And affordable.

Re: Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?

#12

Post by beatgammit »

hprotagonist wrote: post #8

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.

Same, but I'm on my first toner cartridge after 3 years or so. My biggest complaint is that it only supports Wireless-G, so I have to keep a separate network for it so it doesn't slow everything else down. I'm running cable to solve that problem instead of buying another printer just to fix a stupid WiFi issue.

Re: Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?

#13

Post by grawprog »

hprotagonist wrote: post #8

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.

I'm just going to throw another recommendation for a brother printer. We've got a few at my work, we do a lot of printing and copying. In the 5 years i've been there, i've changed the toner in the one in our office once.

Re: Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?

#14

Post by MrMember »

hprotagonist wrote: post #8

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.

Yep, I think mine was maybe $70 when I bought it six years ago. It works without fail when I boot it up once or twice a month, well worth the money for the lack of hassle.

Re: Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?

#15

Post by koolba »

hprotagonist wrote: post #8

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.

Yes they’re great for low volume printing and the Linux support is great too.

Newer models track the number of printed pages and nag to replace the toner. You can instead reset the page counter and continue printing. Exact steps vary by model but easily found online.

Re: Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?

#16

Post by beatgammit »

elorant wrote: post #5

Any entry level Laser printer will do the work. You have to avoid inkjets because with so low printing jobs the ink will become thicker and it could clog the heads. Shelf life for toner is higher. As long as you keep the printer in a low-humidity area one toner could last you a decade.

And they're often faster, which is useful even if it's used rarely. We bought our laser printer because of the shelf life thing, and then we needed to do a ton of immigration stuff and the fast printing was nice. I wouldn't buy a printer just because of speed, but it was a nice value add.

We got ours at Costco for <$200 IIRC (base model monochrome Brother with WiFi), and it has worked well and we're still on the toner it came with. That's about the cost of an ink printer with one or two cartridge refills, so I feel like it's already paid for itself.

Re: Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?

#17

Post by dahdum »

mille562 wrote: post #10

HP Envy 5055 w/ HP Instant Ink Just works. We print a couple of times a month and the Instant Ink is fee < 10 pages per month.

A friend of mine had two Envy’s failing less than 6 months after purchase with light usage. They are disposable printers, and the ink scam is ridiculous. We could never get the supposed override to work, and it would never print b&w if any color cartridge was low.

Re: Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?

#18

Post by jotm »

I still have a Canon Mx925, with all the bells and whistles (photo/CD/card printing, high resolution scanner, ADF, etc). Great machine. 150 Euros.

Also bought a HP Envy 5020 for £40 for scanning and label printing, printed over a hundred pages (just text) on the starter cartridges, worked a charm. Gifted it to a friend when I moved as I had no space. Quality wise, same as the Canon.

But really, any machine will do. HP/Epson/Canon always have everything from cheap to expensive. Check driver compatibility, they're weird nowadays.

Re: Ask HN: What printer do you recommend for rare printing?

#20

Post by raphlinus »

Apologies if this is off topic, but I'm interested in this same question, but with an emphasis on printing quality - one of the main things I want to use it for is proofing fonts. Right now I'm doing most of that on a 4k monitor, but print is the only way to reach really high resolution. I have an inkjet, but it doesn't come close to the quality needed.
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