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sako243
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We've always used Brother and never had an issue. We tend to use them because of their accuracy for making laser transparencies for PCBs.
If you wanted an all in one then I've been very happy with my MFC 3770CDW which does scanning, duplex printing etc.
If you wanted an all in one then I've been very happy with my MFC 3770CDW which does scanning, duplex printing etc.
Fazerruss
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I used to be in the industry many moons ago. Brother aren't bad, personally I would go for Canon/HP ( they share a lot of parts) and there is a very good parts supply chain for genuine consumables without going to an authorised dealer.
If you want a cheap to run machine stay away from full colour as some parts can be over 60% the price of a complete new machine.
When you choose a model check for availability of parts besides the toner and image unit :
fuser unit
Pick up/ feed rollers
Transfer roller.
Also if you can find a copy of the service manual will be very helpful for error codes
Lexmark are also very well made machines
If you want a cheap to run machine stay away from full colour as some parts can be over 60% the price of a complete new machine.
When you choose a model check for availability of parts besides the toner and image unit :
fuser unit
Pick up/ feed rollers
Transfer roller.
Also if you can find a copy of the service manual will be very helpful for error codes
Lexmark are also very well made machines
Craig-SM
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We have a Brother 4150CDN colour printer, it's a fair few years old and has been faultless. It took quite a hammering to begin with and ran on cheap toners once the originals had been consumed but with decent quality paper and can probably count the number of paper jams on one hand. Times have changed and it only gets occasional use now as the majority of documents are kept digital now but even if not used a while it still produces perfect copies. I did upgrade to an additional paper tray at the time which was quite pricey in the scheme of things but saved a lot of time with different paper stocks.
We always used separate automatic document scanners so never went with the built in ones as they were always much slower so can't comment on the machines with built in scanners. Again these ADF scanners are barely used now and previous machines stored under the desk that had cost hundreds at the time so can't bear to scrap them and nearly worthless to sell now.
Before the Brother we'd gone through Samsung, HP and Epson, all of which we had issues with, HP the worst.
We always used separate automatic document scanners so never went with the built in ones as they were always much slower so can't comment on the machines with built in scanners. Again these ADF scanners are barely used now and previous machines stored under the desk that had cost hundreds at the time so can't bear to scrap them and nearly worthless to sell now.
Before the Brother we'd gone through Samsung, HP and Epson, all of which we had issues with, HP the worst.
sako243
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I can honestly say that in 20 years of having Brother laser printers we have never had to replace any parts other than consumables. In fact all the printers we've had are still working bar one which got wet. The only reason we've changed is to add extra features.
welder_dave
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I've got a Brother DCP-L8410CDW in the office at home. Colour laser. Does scanning and copying. Print quality excellent and never had an issue. I have its wee brother (can't remember model number) in the workshop. It's had maybe 5 replacement toner cartridges (non-gen) in maybe 6 years. It just keeps working.
Fazerruss
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It's horses for courses with print machines. Reliability depends on several factors: environmental (temperature/humidity), usage, paper/media and print coverage.
Most manufacturers base their statistics on around 6% print area per page at X thousand prints per per month maximum on their own preferd paper type and quality ( usually 80 gm2) non recycled
It's a sliding scale, if you get all the conditions right in the sweet spot then you have a very reliable device. It drops when these factors change.
Wildefalcon
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We've a domestic networked brother. Can't fault it.
have a kyocera Ecosys M5521, networked all in one fax, colour laser, copier, scan to email etc. Before that have owned epson, hp, brother etc. Mostly upgraded to get new features.
The only thing I would say is check out the price of consumables and if they can be generic or have to be own brand, some manufactuers put chips in the refils and only accept their own branded official refils, though you can often find alternative firmware to work around this.
For me the days of checking for parts other than the toner and image unit for smaller office printers are gone. When it breaks just get a newer one, it'll be obsolete by then and long outside its guarantee anyway.
Before taking the old one the tip, you can harvest lots of nice linear rods and steppers etc for use elsewhere.
The only thing I would say is check out the price of consumables and if they can be generic or have to be own brand, some manufactuers put chips in the refils and only accept their own branded official refils, though you can often find alternative firmware to work around this.
For me the days of checking for parts other than the toner and image unit for smaller office printers are gone. When it breaks just get a newer one, it'll be obsolete by then and long outside its guarantee anyway.
Before taking the old one the tip, you can harvest lots of nice linear rods and steppers etc for use elsewhere.
Seadog
Save the planet. It's the only one with rum!
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Canon made, or still make perhaps, HP printers.
daedalusminos
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Obviously do your homework on supplied toner...most of the really cheap ones won't last long. I went for theThat seems to be swaying me to Brother! Thanks guys
Brother HL-L9470CDNW
It came with 12K black, 9K colourDoes many moons mean well over 10 years?
I have an OKI C5750 aa I was trying to do full colour T shirts. It was a magic touched badged one but since windows 10 they no longer provide drivers for it.
It's not a major problem it just means you need to use OKI drivers and cross reference for the magic touch papers.
I never made money from it but used it at home for printing stuff for every man and his dog.
Apart from not picking up paper every few weeks it's been Rock solid. Even on 3rd party toner it's been awesome.
Sadly my supplier no longer in business for toners so I tried a new place. But it's not printed well since I fitted a new magenta toner. Followed by a new cyan drum. Then I was sent another cyan drum but the printer now seems to have a mind of it's own.
This was the first cyan drum they sent me.
Farside
Badly Welded Man
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Got a Brother HL L-8260CDW, still on the initial toners as I'm not a heavy user. Plan to get toners from Amazon when I need them.
I mostly use it for rough proofs and some of them are good enough for actual use. Won't be long before office lasers are good enough for general photo printing.
I thought they were already??
Fazerruss
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It was about 6 years ago since I left the industry. The feint line in the cyan can be either lack of toner concentration at one end of the developing roller, dirty primary charge roller or the laser optics need cleaning or all of the above.Does many moons mean well over 10 years?
I have an OKI C5750 aa I was trying to do full colour T shirts. It was a magic touched badged one but since windows 10 they no longer provide drivers for it.
It's not a major problem it just means you need to use OKI drivers and cross reference for the magic touch papers.
I never made money from it but used it at home for printing stuff for every man and his dog.
Apart from not picking up paper every few weeks it's been Rock solid. Even on 3rd party toner it's been awesome.
Sadly my supplier no longer in business for toners so I tried a new place. But it's not printed well since I fitted a new magenta toner. Followed by a new cyan drum. Then I was sent another cyan drum but the printer now seems to have a mind of it's own.
This was the first cyan drum they sent me.
View attachment 463836
Farside
Badly Welded Man
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They're ok for roughing stuff out, and some good enough output depending on the subject matter.
Laser optics I have never seen those. Lol
I put some more new drums in but now I can actually see the line is in black and yellow. So I am becoming convinced it in one place. I checked the transfer belt but it looks fine.
The line is in two different prints in the same place.
