Which consumer grade printer should I buy?
Title, basically. My old torture device needs to be replaced, and while it's been mostly working OK, printers have no excuse for being as shitty as they are. So therefore I am looking for suggestions.
Specs:
- Must include a flatbed scanner
- prints in color
- Wifi connection preferred
- No PaaS or IaaS bullshit
- No driver weirdness. I'm going to use it on linux.
- Available "anywhere".
- Ability to sit powered and connected in my HarryPotteresque "server room" under the stairs for ages, unattended, and work without hazzle when I send it the bimonthly print job.
I know the geek community likes Brother. Any particular model?
For reference, this new printer will replace my aging Canon Pixma 4250.
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Advice from most to least certain: If you want very long standby time (a reliably perfect first print after literally months of inactivity) and you have the space for an ugly cube of a printer, laser is the only option. Ink tank printers have unexpected wear parts, like internal ink sponges.
Black and white laser is stupid simple. Color laser “prints” four times in series onto an intermediate transfer belt (ITB) and then puts that onto the paper, still super reliable but bulkier, and your prints get watermarked with yellow dots because FBI or something. I’d go color.
Toner lock-in is becoming more common, not just for HP. If your page count is going to be low, just pay full price for name brand toner. If you don’t want to do that, like your use case could involve printing a single page or entire binders of paper between months of inactivity, read on.
Start your printer research by shopping for cheap off brand toner, get a sense for what they’re selling the most of and what that’s compatible with, and see what printers they support.
Some aftermarket toner just works, out of the box, because the printer isn’t crazy locked down. Those cartridges have normal sounding instructions. Some aftermarket toner requires you to transplant a chip from a first party cartridge, and their instructions include this. Avoid those printers.
And consider used printers. I have a used HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw that I love, but I would never ever buy another HP printer, especially not one made later than this one. Be very careful before buying any HP printer, especially one made in the past 6-8 years. Even wear items (like the ITB) have modules with firmware and compatibility requirements, and I’m worried I could be one replacement component away from suddenly having a locked down printer.
I can’t wait until the whole toner chip bullshit becomes illegal.
Wait, b&w prints yellow tracking dots but color doesn't? I thought they both (and inkjet) printed tracking dots, but if any didn't I'd think it was b&w!