I see these constant horror stories of having to pay to print, silly ink prices, having to log onto a web server etc.
Is there no company that just makes a printer that works, does what it’s supposed to, and doesn’t play bizarre games?
I think a printer might be useful in my life right now… but, I’m actually just scared.
I’ve had a Brother toner printer/scanner for a couple of years now with NO issues. USB or wifi printing & scanning, reasonable toner price and no issues with genuine ink or anything else.
Same. Toner is the way. Pennies per print and can last for years when not in use. A little more upfront cost but that’s the only downside.
I’ve had a Brother MFC for 15+ years
Same here. I switched to Brother (laser) about 5 years ago. The day I bought it, I went online and ordered a replacement toner cartridge. Whenever it runs out, I just swap the cartridges and order a new replacement. No more trips to the overpriced OfficeStaplesDepotMax or whatever. Life is good.
Same. I outfitted a medium sized business with brother laser printers when I was the IT monkey and had very few issues. Bought a multifunction brother laser for home a few years back and it was the best decision ever. Brother lasers are today what HP laserjets we’re back in the 90’s.
Brother or your public library.
Yep, brother are good. I specifically bought mine based on being able to refill the toner cartridge. It turns out I don’t use it much so haven’t filled the cartridge, but when that day comes you just watch me!
Not saying that happens usually but after I have seen a toner explosion, I am not getting near it even if the probability it’s as rare as winning the lottery.
Yup. Can confirm. Brother are and have always been a great company that didn’t price fix or pull a bunch of shady crap.
I’ve had 3 over the past 20 years. Never an issue and ink refills worked the same as new cartridges.
Avoid inkjet at all costs. Ink is expensive and has a limited shelf life. What you want is a laser or toner printer. Instead of ink it uses powder which has a good shelf life.
As for brands avoid HP. Look at Brother, those seem to have the better reputation for printers. Yes laser printers are more expensive outright but after factoring in the cost of ink vs toner they become very affordable.
Brother or business class printers. Go laser. I hear the eco tanks are decent if you need to print volume with an inkjet.
Almost any consumer grade printer will be pricy to operate.
I had a black and white Brother laser printer and would just go to a print shop on the rare occasion I needed something color. Now, I haven’t had a printer at all for a few years.
IT consultant here, I would buy nothing short of a business class, Brother, Xerox, or Ricoh laser printer these days.
Laser printers are more expensive up front, but zero hassles. You’ll end up saving money in the long run.
But for the love of God don’t buy anything Samsung.
I bought a $300 Samsung multi-function laser printer, printed 45 pages on it over the course of a year, and after the year was up and it’s warranty was out, the laser fusor died and would cost the cost of a brand new Samsung printer to replace.
Their TVs are too blue, their appliances seem to magically break down immediately after the warranties end, and now even their memory, which used to be really good and reliable is having major fucking issues.
They have consistently been a great company with terrible products, products that are really good while they work but then when they break, break expensively.
However, the $7.99 thrift store brother printer that I got to replace it that was made in 2007 has tons of inexpensive toner available and the parts are super cheap and it still works flawlessly, with network printing working and Linux compatibility.
Maybe they’re worse now but I’ve had the same Samsung laser printer since 2005 and it still works great.
I have a Xerox colour laser printer that I’m very happy with: accepts off-brand toner, speaks postscript, good quality printing, no problems at all. I’ve also been very happy with Brother laser printers in the past.
Seconded for xerox laser printers. I use a phaser at work and print dozens of single pages periodically throughout the day. 3rd party toner and fuser drums work great, though they still have chip lifespan locks. Someday I’ll get a chip to swap out so I can use every bit of toner, but the prices are reasonable enough that it hasn’t been critical.
As every other comment here says, I recommend Brother. I’ve had a toner printer for several years, never have any issue connecting to it, works fine with third party toner cartridges, no screaming that things are empty when they aren’t…works great.
Get an office laser printer. Not one for regular home consumers, one that is actually sold to offices. Get one refurbished on Amazon. Office printers tend to have less bullshit attached and Just Work.
This is the one I have. I plugged it into my network and it worked instantly, no nonsense attached.
It took me three times of reading your title to see that you were saying con-job and not cron-job. I was scratching my head trying to understand how a printer could be a cron-job.
I don’t have much else to offer in addition to the suggestions already here, but I will say I feel your pain. I also got the desire for home printing somewhat recently, and quickly got stuck wondering… “Is there such a think as a non-evil printer anymore?”
Brother is mentioned a lot, as is laser. But I also value color printing, and I had an impossible time finding a Brother color laser printer in my price range. I settled on one of their ink tank models instead.
Yeah, ink isn’t supposed to last as long, but I haven’t had to replace it yet, so I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. Mostly I just ended up not printing as much as I thought I would.
a lot of people like Brother laser printers. I had one and it always went into “deep sleep” mode and I’d have to restart it whenever I wanted to print. it lasted about 2 years. I have a monochrome Canon laser printer/scanner now, it was about $230. it works very well.
I haven’t tried either personally, but Xerox Solid Ink and Epson Supertank/Ecotank (or apparently the Canon and HP equivalents) advertise some encouraging promises.
Basically the ink is just straight liquid, so they can’t do DRM bullshit with it, apparently.
I have a black and white Brother LaserJet I bought three years ago for ~$120. I don’t print a lot, but it works when I need it to and I haven’t had to replace the toner yet, but the toner runs about $30 for a set of two.
I agree. I take my brother laser printer off the shelf, plug in power, plug in USB and push print. I get my jobs with no fuss. I’d never go back to ink jets and their constantly needing expensive ink or clogging.
