For those of you with printers that buy ink all the time, here is the solution

[frostedflakes]

where do you guys get your refill for mono laser printer brothers especifically?

I'd be interested as well. I bought a Brother laser a while back and it's been working great. I probably only have a couple hundred prints on the current toner, but I'm not looking forward to when I have to replace it. The official toners are expensive, so if anyone knows of any good sites that offer comparable replacements for less, please share and I can bookmark them for later.

If your toner is getting low according to the printer, though, check out the reviews at Amazon before buying another. Sounds like the sensor in some of their printers is designed to force you to replace the toner long before it's necessary, and covering up the sensor can allow you to get a ton more prints from a cartridge.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...cm_rdp_product

 

[CRXican]

I hate printers

 

[KeithTalent]

I hate printers

This. I have not owned a printer for years now. I've always just found them to be expensive headaches.

KT

 

[mfenn]

I'd be interested as well. I bought a Brother laser a while back and it's been working great. I probably only have a couple hundred prints on the current toner, but I'm not looking forward to when I have to replace it. The official toners are expensive, so if anyone knows of any good sites that offer comparable replacements for less, please share and I can bookmark them for later.

If your toner is getting low according to the printer, though, check out the reviews at Amazon before buying another. Sounds like the sensor in some of their printers is designed to force you to replace the toner long before it's necessary, and covering up the sensor can allow you to get a ton more prints from a cartridge.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...cm_rdp_product

Yep, I have the Brother HL-2140 (or whatever the cheapest one is; got it on sale at Amazon for $80). I'm still using the toner cartridge that came with it.

Here's what happened: After about 500 pages the printer started the "low supplies" alert. After about 1000 more pages (1500 total), it refused to print. I took the toner cartridge out and could still hear a lot of toner sliding around in it. So I took some electrical tape and and x-acto knife and cut out 2 small circles and covered the sensors. 2000 prints later (3500 total), the print quality is still as good as it ever was.

 

[ElFenix]

Yep, I have the Brother HL-2140 (or whatever the cheapest one is; got it on sale at Amazon for $80). I'm still using the toner cartridge that came with it.

Here's what happened: After about 500 pages the printer started the "low supplies" alert. After about 1000 more pages (1500 total), it refused to print. I took the toner cartridge out and could still hear a lot of toner sliding around in it. So I took some electrical tape and and x-acto knife and cut out 2 small circles and covered the sensors. 2000 prints later (3500 total), the print quality is still as good as it ever was.

i wonder if my samsung can do the same? (though the print quality gets noticeably crappier so it probably is low)

 

[ibex333]

Ever since I bought a laser monochrome printer I never looked back. No more messing with inks, no more refilling every few months, no more worrying about incorrect colors, clogged heads.. Etc...

If I need to print photos, I order them online. This may SEEM expensive, but since I only print photos a few times a year, this ends up being by far cheaper than owning a color printer even with third party inks.

 

[Raizinman]

Yes, I had a HP OfficeJet that would go through ink jets very fast. I purchased a new ink filler kit off ebay too. Unfortuantely, I did not save money:

Cost of Kit $100
Ink spillage when trying to refill
Damage to dining room table, chairs and carpet $600
Damage to shirt and pants $100
Damage to shoes $75
Damage to dog, who is now yellow $50
Damage to printer when ink ran out $50
Damage to carpet under printer when ink ran out $100
Two rolls of paper towels $4.00
Damage to another shirt $20
Damage to 1/2 reem of paper when ink spilled on new paper $2.00

Nope - I'm sticking to the tried and true HP cartridges.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I have a laser jet at home. Have not replaced the ink in years. If I printed more I would probably get a color laser. The quality of those is outstanding, and it's consistent. Inkjet quality degrades very fast as the cartridge is drained faster then a bath tub.

 

[Fritzo]

I've had bad luck with ink refills. The carts always seem to get clogged.

 

[frostedflakes]

Yep, I have the Brother HL-2140 (or whatever the cheapest one is; got it on sale at Amazon for $80). I'm still using the toner cartridge that came with it.

Here's what happened: After about 500 pages the printer started the "low supplies" alert. After about 1000 more pages (1500 total), it refused to print. I took the toner cartridge out and could still hear a lot of toner sliding around in it. So I took some electrical tape and and x-acto knife and cut out 2 small circles and covered the sensors. 2000 prints later (3500 total), the print quality is still as good as it ever was.

That's just ridiculous, but at least the workaround is easy enough. Ink/toner in general just seems to be such an enormous ripoff, I don't know how these companies can get away with it.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

It's cheaper to buy a new printer than it is to buy new ink.

 

[Nitemare]

Just buy the cheap Chinese knock off print cartridges on ebay, less than a $1 a piece in bulk

 

[bruceb]

It won't work with my older HP7410 which has a Black and a TriColor cartridge.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

And it'll continue to work well until the chips in the ink tanks report to the printer that they are too old and the printer refuses to work with it/them any longer.

Ran into that problem last year with a refilled HP inkjet cart. Although the cart was nice and full, the cartridge itself had passed the expiration date stored within the chip on the cart, and the printer refused to work with it at all.

Next time try disabling bi-directional support. That means you tell the printer what to do, with no back-talk.

 

[jagec]

I use a color laser (lexmark X543dn) ~6000 pages for $50 @ 25 PPM with full duplex.

Newegg has a pretty sweet deal worked out with lexmark on exchange.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-563-_-Product

I also use a color laser...~infinite pages for $0 at 27 PPM with full duplex. Gotta love work!

The other day the secretary dropped by and handed us a bale of extra paper, since they're sick of having to grab it from their own office whenever the printer runs out.

 

[glugglug]

You can get color laser printers for >$200.

Why do ink jets even exist anymore?

Have you looked at the ink prices on those?

I saw a color laser for $149. A single set of toner cartridges for said printer was $800.

 

[Phoenix86]

Have you looked at the ink prices on those?

I saw a color laser for $149. A single set of toner cartridges for said printer was $800.

Shop around more?

HPLJ 1215 toner is ~$55 ($75ish from HP), it's very reasonable.

 

[Colt45]

laser 4 lyf yo

 

[shortylickens]

Have you looked at the ink prices on those?

I saw a color laser for $149. A single set of toner cartridges for said printer was $800.

Price per page is still often much cheaper than inks.
For my little cheap HP LJ 1000 the cost per page was a penny. Color is obviously more.
But if you actually sit down and analyze your color cost per page with inkjets, I think you'll be a little shocked. Go ahead and do it. As you change out inkjets much more frequently you'll be given many opportunities.

 

[glugglug]

Shop around more?

HPLJ 1215 toner is ~$55 ($75ish from HP), it's very reasonable.

That's $75 for each cartridge, for a total of $300. The cheaper cartridges last for 60% as many pages. My point still stands, the ink costs as much as the printer.

Doing pretty well with my Kodak ESP9...

 

[DayLaPaul]

Yes, I had a HP OfficeJet that would go through ink jets very fast. I purchased a new ink filler kit off ebay too. Unfortuantely, I did not save money:

Cost of Kit $100
Ink spillage when trying to refill
Damage to dining room table, chairs and carpet $600
Damage to shirt and pants $100
Damage to shoes $75
Damage to dog, who is now yellow $50
Damage to printer when ink ran out $50
Damage to carpet under printer when ink ran out $100
Two rolls of paper towels $4.00
Damage to another shirt $20
Damage to 1/2 reem of paper when ink spilled on new paper $2.00

Nope - I'm sticking to the tried and true HP cartridges.

Geez, I hate to see the damage you'd cause from changing your car's oil.

 

[Raduque]

I don't see how the IV drip ink thing works. Wouldn't the tubes get in the way of the printer head movement?

Next time try disabling bi-directional support. That means you tell the printer what to do, with no back-talk.

Turning off bi-directional support won't stop the printer's limited onboard software (or not so limited, if you have one of those digital display, do everything, copy/fax/whatever without a PC types!) from reading the expiration date from the cartridge and refusing to use it. You could force a print anyway, but the printer turns off the affected cartridge.

 

[ZaneNBK]

I use a color laser (lexmark X543dn) ~6000 pages for $50 @ 25 PPM with full duplex.

Newegg has a pretty sweet deal worked out with lexmark on exchange.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-563-_-Product

How are you getting 6000 pages for $50 when the cartridge you linked costs $45 and has a page yield of 1000 at 5% coverage? For color it would be more than triple that cost since the color cartridges are going for ~$55 on Newegg.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, I really am curious if there's something I'm missing since I've been looking into getting a color laser all in one to replace my Brother laser printer. Hard to beat it's cheap printing though. 2600 page cartridge for $45.

 

[ZaneNBK]

You can get color laser printers for >$200.

Why do ink jets even exist anymore?

Color lasers generally cost a lot more per page to print color, generally don't print on card stock and suck at printing glossy or matte photos.

 

[Freejack2]

I'll stick with my B&W laser. With the minimal amount of printing I do ink cartridges would just dry up. Toner never dries up and I have a bunch of toner cartridges that I bought for $10 on clearance and craigslist. My wife's printer and mine use the same toner cartridges so it'll be years before we need to buy toner.
There is one downside, HP fusers have the crappiest teflon that just doesn't last. My printer's teflon just died and I spent a couple of hours changing it because it requires so much disassembly to get to.