Swords & Wizardry Light - Forum

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Looking for Advice From the Tavern's Patrons on a Laser Printer Potential Purchase

As I get closer to refining the whole Pocket Settings concept for White Star, I'm realizing that my current ink jet is not quite up to spec. I'm running through ink way to fast, including color which I don't actually use. I think there is some sort of magical drain on the color ink cartridges.

Anyhow, with the pocket settings currently being worked on, I'm considering sending print "ash can" copies to some of the higher end supporters of my Patreon as well as giving away a copy or two of each one when completed here on the blog.

So, I need a better printer. I'm looking at the Brother DCPL2540DW Wireless Compact Laser Printer on Amazon for $139. The price is right and the reviews look good, but I'd like to get opinions of others.

I'm listening, so comment away :)

14 comments:

  1. Brother is a good name. I often recommend them to my customers. The important things about printers are duty cycle and toner cost per page. That particular printer has a 10k/month page duty cycle and toner is about $50 for 2600 pages (YMMV). So it is on the light duty side of office printers and toner is middle of the road expensive. So all in all probably a good choice for you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brother is a good name. I often recommend them to my customers. The important things about printers are duty cycle and toner cost per page. That particular printer has a 10k/month page duty cycle and toner is about $50 for 2600 pages (YMMV). So it is on the light duty side of office printers and toner is middle of the road expensive. So all in all probably a good choice for you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have a Brother wireless printer, and I love it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have a Brother wireless printer, and I love it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have a Brother MFC-L2700DW and it's been easily the most econmical printer I've every purchased (I always used HP inkjets at home). I keep the HP for the rare occasions when I need color, but the brother was very easy to setup, and has been reliable for the year I've owned it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have three, one too old to be fully supported when used with newer systems. Currently using a HL-5340D and a HL-4150CDN (Color). All Three have been workhorses.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I absolutely swear by the Samsung Xpress. There's a couple of slightly different models (range from about $80-$150; Staples is always putting one on sale for about %40 off). The simple models do 1-sided. Mine (a $140 model I got for $99) does double-sided. Print all the Dragon Horde zines on it. Good speed. Good print quality. And you'll get 3000 prints out of the XL cartridge (which sells for about $60).

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have a slightly older iteration of that printer (having had mine for about three years now), and I've had no quarrels with it, and purchased a second brother laser for my wife to use at her desk as well. It works more reliably than the HP 1606's we use at my office and I'll be replacing those with Brothers as they need replacing.

    ReplyDelete
  9. One other thing you'll need to consider Erik is that laser printers also have a drum/dev unit. The Brother you mentioned takes a DR630. I think you'll get around 12,000 pages at 5-7% toner coverage (standard text on a page with no pics) before it reaches its end of life. When that happens, you might find it will warn you constantly, or stop working until reset/replaced...YMMV. These go for about $90 USD and I think are replaceable by the customer, by the looks of the pics (its the bit that the toner cartridge fits into. If that is a cost you can wear along with the periodical toner, I say go for it. IME one gets what one pays for. Also, avoid non-genuine toners; they'll reduce the life of your drum.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I make sure my printer settings are set in Grayscale for "Black Ink Only." This saves my color, FWIW.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I'm using a Brother colour laser printer. Sorry, a Brother Multi-Function something or other (doesn't even have the word printer in the name).

    Don't make the mistake I did. Get one that supports duplex printing.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Here we go -

    I'm using this model: http://www.amazon.com/Brother-MFC-9130CW-Laser-Printer-Print/dp/B00KABR1HE

    It is rock-solid, reliable and a workhorse. But it doesn't support duplex printing, whereas this model does: http://www.amazon.com/Brother-MFC-9340CDW-Wireless-600x2400dpi-Capacity/dp/B00DJG8D88/

    I just watched for good sales and got mine for $199.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Do you need the multifunction? if not brother makes a smaller model that would be a better choice (Brother HL-L2340DW ). If your printing ever hits a higher amount 1000+ pages a month you might want to look at much more robust printer like the m600 series from hp otherwise the brother is your best choice.

    ReplyDelete
  14. If you keep your ink jet, you can save ink by not ever turning your printer off. Every time you turn a printer on, it goes through a boot/cleaning routine that uses ink. If you are turning your printer on and off regularly, this might be the mystery behind what is happening to your color ink.

    ReplyDelete