Printers

[Goalpost]

I just need a simple home printer. It has to be wi-fi. Also my devices are Apple so it has to have the Apple AirPrint feature. I'm thinking about getting a laser printer vs ink cartridge. I'm considering the Brother HL-L2370DW XL which comes with 2 additional toner replacements. They offer a basic model like this without the replacements but unfortunately Best Buy is out of stock on them. The sales rep mentioned due to part shortages, the industry may not be reliable right now replacing stock in this cheaper model. So anyway, to the people who use printers, what's your experience using them. Are they easy to set up? Don't need fax or scanning or any of that stuff. Just an occasional printer. Also, how long will the toner replacements last in their packages before I need to use them? Any personal experiences shared would be appreciated.

[fredtoast]

Sorry I can't help you. It just blows my mind how expensive toner/ink is. You can buy a printer for less than an ink refill.

[bjf123]

I have an HP Envy 6400 and am all Apple with a Mac mini, an iPad, and 2 iPhones. They all print wirelessly to it with no issues at all. Its not a heavy use printer, but I don’t print all that much, a few pages each month. Works great for me.


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[Goalpost]

(10-09-2021, 12:48 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Sorry I can't help you.  It just blows my mind how expensive toner/ink is.  You can buy a printer for less than an ink refill.

 
That's kind of why I'm leaning laser.  Replacement cost is higher but it last longer, so it seems, than ink cartridges.

[bjf123]

(10-09-2021, 01:21 PM)Goalpost Wrote:  
That's kind of why I'm leaning laser.  Replacement cost is higher but it last longer, so it seems, than ink cartridges.

HP has a replacement ink program that auto ships you ink when you’re getting low. The cost is based on how many pages you want included in your allowance. I don’t print a lot of pages and think I pay $0.99 each month.


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[George Cantstandya]

I have a Brother laser printer and am a Mac user. I can't recall the model number but it is probably 5 years old. If you want to print black and white only it is great. The cartridges last a long time, 100's of pages compared to inkjet. Mine has worked on Wi-Fi but I gave up on it. It seemed every time the power went out or my Internet went down I had to set it up again. It was a total pain in the ass because to do so I had to use up, down, left and right buttons on the small screen of the printer to select letters and special characters to input my Wi-Fi password. It took forever and if I messed up back to step one. I'm not sure why there seemed to be no memory built in to store the Wi-Fi info. But as far as Mac yes it did work for that so I'm guessing more recent Brother printers are also Mac friendly. It would make no sense not to be.

But now I just connect it with a USB cable and it works great and I have been happy with it aside from the Wi-Fi stuff. So maybe the newer ones have gotten better as far as Wi-Fi connections and ease of connecting them. Here is the reference guide for the printer you mentioned. It might give you some info you are looking for.

https://download.brother.com/welcome/doc100775/cv_hll2310d_use_rg_a.pdf

[Goalpost]

(10-09-2021, 04:34 PM)George Cantstandya Wrote: I have a Brother laser printer and am a Mac user.  I can't recall the model number but it is probably 5 years old.   If you want to print black and white only it is great.  The cartridges last a long time, 100's of pages compared to inkjet.  Mine has worked on Wi-Fi  but I gave up on it.   It seemed every time the power went out or my Internet went down I had to set it up again.  It was a total pain in the ass because to do so I had to use up, down, left and right buttons on the small screen of the printer to select letters and special characters to input my Wi-Fi password.  It took forever and if I messed up back to step one.  I'm not sure why there seemed to be no memory built in to store the Wi-Fi info.   But as far as Mac yes it did work for that so I'm guessing more recent Brother printers are also Mac friendly.  It would make no sense not to be.  

But now I just connect it with a USB cable and it works great and I have been happy with it aside from the Wi-Fi stuff.  So maybe the newer ones have gotten better as far as Wi-Fi connections and ease of connecting them.   Here is the reference guide for the printer you mentioned.  It might give you some info you are looking for.

https://download.brother.com/welcome/doc100775/cv_hll2310d_use_rg_a.pdf

Appreciate it.  That's one of my main issues.....installing it.  If there is downloading of drivers involved etc.  My understanding is that the Apple AirPrint eases some of this, but not sure to be honest.  

[George Cantstandya]

(10-09-2021, 05:04 PM)Goalpost Wrote: Appreciate it.  That's one of my main issues.....installing it.  If there is downloading of drivers involved etc.  My understanding is that the Apple AirPrint eases some of this, but not sure to be honest.  

For my printer I did have to download printer drivers but as I recall was easy. But that is usually the case when installing a new printer. As for AirPrint here is a trouble shooting article I found for the printer you mentioned.  So it seems that model supports it?

https://support.brother.com/g/b/faqend.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=hll2370dw_us&faqid=faq00002866_002

[Sled21]

The biggest problem I have with my printer is I don't use it enough. I can put brand new cartridges in it (about 80 dollars), use it a few times, then I might go a month or two without using it. Next time I try to print something, the cartridges are dried up. When I replace it, I'm going with one of those with ink reservoirs you fill from a bottle.

[Goalpost]

So as an update to this. I bought a HL-L2390DW Brother laser printer. It is a slight upgrade over the printer I initially mentioned. It has a scanner with it also. It did not come with any replacement toners. Just had the initial one included. It wasn't that difficult to set up. No drivers needed. The wifi was input through the menu, SSID and password of the modem. It seems to remain on, even with the sleep button on. Total cost was 183.00 freely shipped. My Apple MacBook initially wouldn't find the printer and I just did an update of software, and afterward it found it. I could see, if the connection gets lost to the printer, that it would be somewhat of a pain to re-input the SSID and password but it is rare that I lose internet connection.

Kind of a peace of mind thing to me that I have it. I'm retired and have to prepay taxes quarterly and the checks appear in my bank account on-line. When I do taxes, the guy wants copies of them and last year was a pain going into the bank for copies. The teller doesn't do it so you have to schedule an appointment with a manager. I write 3 checks quarterly for State, local, and school. Now I can print my own. I'll probably use it for receipts or copies of contract work I occasionally schedule here and there. And if I want to print things online just off the net I can do it. Thanks to those that responded to this.