We need a new printer. Maybe I am just cynical but I feel increasingly like printers are cheap upfront but then outrageous on ink prices or with forced internet connection and updates at all times and other assorted printer based horror stories that I have been seeing a lot of in the past years.

I’m just wondering if anyone has actually GOOD (or at least ok) experiences with theirs and could point us in the right direction? Reminding me which ones not to use is also helpful here.

Thanks!

Edit: thanks everyone for the feedback! This is very helpful.

  • manxu@piefed.socialEnglish
    8·
    2 days ago

    I’ve had great experiences with Brother laser printers, until my color laser started refusing 3rd party cartridges. Someone else reported there was a firmware update that made that happen, Brother swears they didn’t do anything.

    For that reason, I would not buy a connected printer, ever. The setup I have now is a dumb printer connected to my local network using an RPi Zero W as print server. I would do it this way even if the printer had WiFi connectivity.

    • vonbaronhans@midwest.social
      4·
      2 days ago

      I’ve been using a black and white toner Brother printer I got in 2013 and it’s still chugging along. My 3rd party toner cartridges also work well. Sucks your color ones aren’t though.

      • manxu@piefed.socialEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        Does it have WiFi though? Brother swears they didn’t remove third party toner functionality, but they definitely installed new firmware without asking.

        • vonbaronhans@midwest.social
          1·
          2 days ago

          Mine does, yeah. Normally I wouldn’t put it on the network, but I’ve just not had a decent place where I could plug it into my PC.

          It could just be my model is old enough they don’t bother trying to gimp it remotely? Who knows.

    • khannie@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      Came here to recommend Brother printers. They willingly accept non-Brother ink (at least my one does).

      • manxu@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Mine did, too - until it didn’t :-( But aside from that, it was an amazing color printer. HL- 4150CDN