this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023
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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I have an HP printer now, Epson before that. Both are dogshit. When the HP eventually kills itself, as they tend to do, should I buy a Brother? I heard a lot of good stuff about it but have 0 experience with it.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I've had a brother printer going on 10 years and it's never let me down. I've changed toner three times over that time and each cart has never cost me more than 20 ish quid. No DRM carts, no jamming, no subscriptions just a printer that does its job. Even when it's running low, it doesn't prevent me printing, it'll let me know it's low then keep on printing until you can't see the letters any more.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I swear, if it weren't for the fact that I've also had good experiences with Brother, I'd be thinking they have an insanely good astroturfing department. Every time there's a thread about printers, there are dozens of comments saying how good they are.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Having a brother laser printer as well it's honestly not even about how good brother printers are, just about how shitty the competition is.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I have a friend who works in the engineering department of HP designing ink jet printing heads.

He uses Brother at home. They're actually that good.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

10 years ? Mine is around 20 years old. I slapped a Raspberry Pi on it to have it network-enabled and it still works like a champ. Never ever will I buy another brand.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Thanks mate. Will check it out.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I have a Brother DCP L2541DW. Bought it last year and has been working since with no hiccups nor drum change.

Regardless of brand, don't buy "at home" printers. Those are straight up scams. Just buy office printers.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I have a Brother HL-2365DW. It's a home printer, or maybe at most a home-office printer. I've had it nearly a decade with only two toner replacements. Being laser and networked solve the two biggest problems I've had with inkjet printers in the past, and those two categories are the main things I would strongly recommend to people when choosing a printer.

edit: I initially wrote "it's not a home printer" (emphasis added here for demonstrative purposes). This was the exact opposite of what I intended to say.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I need to print in colour because I do papercraft :/ any tips?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There do exist colour laser printers, although I suspect if you're interested in artistic printing their quality may not be good enough.

I couldn't tell you what brands or models are good, but I'm sure some inkjet printers do exist in a less user-hostile business model. You just might need to pay a bit more for them up-front. You'd need to ask the opinions of other people in your hobby's community for better advice I think.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Papercraft, it doesn't have to be god-like quality. But better is... well better.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I will check it out! Thanks friend

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Yeah, Brother have been real good so far. Their shit is rock fucking solid reliable, and you can use third party ink with no issues.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I have a epson EcoTank printer and I really really love it.

The Ink is cheap and very good. I will never go back to cartriges.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Can confirm. Those EcoTank printers are awesome!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Interesting. I will check it out. Thank you!

[–] Squirrel 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have had no trouble with my Brother printer in ~7-8 years of use. Of course, laser vs inkjet is not a particularly fair comparison, but I am still never going back to HP, Canon, and the like.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I need to print in colour, I'm afraid. Any tips?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you aren't doing photography prints there are plenty of nice brother color laser printers.

If you are doing photography... I hear good things about the ecotank printers.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Papercraft, so better the print, the better. I'll check those out. Thank you!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In what way was the Epson dogshit? I'm mostly asking because I just bought an Epson printer a few days ago

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

It was a long time ago, so I can't remember the specifics. But it was the ol' asking for ink when it was obviously still full, bad software, unresponsivness and gradually getting worse and worse prints as it aged.