Cheap BW printer for occasional use
#What would you like to accomplish?
Convenience of occasional printing at home - airplane tickets, some documents and such.
#Are there any models you are currently looking at?
- HP LaserJet Pro M12w (WiFi only bothers me a bit, cheapest)
- HP LaserJet Pro MFP M26nw (Has ethernet, scanner is a little bonus, but a bit too expensive given that it is mostly the wired connection that I'd appreciate above the M12w)
- Brother HL-L2360DN (Ethernet, has enclosed paper tray, but a bit more expensive)
- Brother HL-L2340DW (WiFi only)
#More Details:
| Questions | Answers |
|---|---|
| Budget: | $150, but preferably cheapest over long period of use. |
| Country: | Poland |
| Color or black and white: | BW is enough |
| Laser or ink printer: | Laser since I expect it to sit around doing nothing for weeks at a time |
| New or used: | Preferably new, but I'm also fine with maintenance of old model |
| Multi-function: | Fax is completely useless to me, scanning mostly useless |
| Duplex Printing: | No need |
| Home or business: | Home |
| Printing content: | Documents |
| Printing frequency: | 50 pages per month or less, but with long downtimes |
| Pages per minute : | whatever |
| Page size: | A4 |
| Device printing from: | Linux PC, Windows PC |
| Connection type: | Definitely networked, preferably ethernet, but WiFi is acceptable if sufficiently cheap. |
#Any other details:
- I'd like to keep the printer for years and I don't mind having to disassemble it for maintenance.
- Decent Linux drivers sway me towards HP and Brother
- Rather than initial purchase price I'm more interested in total lifetime cost.
Posted Nov 14, 2017, 9:00 AM UTC
12
I usually get 100,000 pages on Brother printers with minimal intervention beyond toner, drums and an occasional cleanout.
HP printers use a combination drum/toner, so their supplies are going to be more expensive. The Brother printers use separate toners. For example, on the Brother HL-2xxx series, the toner capacity may be stated at 2600 pages and the drum capacity stated at 12000 pages.
But the toner and drum lights are triggered by a counter. A simple reset procedure turns off the light. You can get quite a few more pages out of a toner this way. I find the drums are good for double or triple the stated life without noticeable problems.
It is also easy to get third party toners and drums for the Brother printers very cheap.
You may be able to find new old stock of older models of the Brother printers as well to save some money.
Thanks for your information. You helped to sway me towards Brother HL-L2360DN which I ordered.
WiFi variant was cheaper, but in the end I decided that cable is just much more convenient and easier to secure. I'm always iffy about devices that don't necessarily get regular security updates and cannot be easily isolated from outside world.