sdifox
No Lifer
- Sep 30, 2005
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I got rid of a 4si when I moved.
never mind, it's a 4, and still sitting in my basement. Muse, come grab it :biggrin:
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I got rid of a 4si when I moved.
never mind, it's a 4, and still sitting in my basement. Muse, come grab it :biggrin:
- Jul 11, 2001
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Ah, they told me they took me to Canada when I was 2 years old. Haven't left the USA since. My passport application (blank) is sitting in my kitchen!
If I could easily do it, I'd grab your old 4.
You know what? Since people started suggesting I just get rid of my 4, it's not looking as good to me when I see it! I'll probably pick up a new printer soon, but I want to do my homework, research it. Duplexer, B&W laser, reliable, gorgeous super sharp text, passable graphics, not expensive to run, work in my network. I don't need smartphone support, but who knows, I might use that.
This next one will be the first printer I buy new in my life. The 4 I bought slightly used (had about 20 prints on it), the 4+ I found on the curb in 2010 and cleaned up and fixed a minor paper crunching problem.
sdifox
No Lifer
- Sep 30, 2005
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I have been running third party toners. 8k pages for 35 bucks. One thing you need to know is on brother printers the drum is separate from toner but the drum lasts a while, like 30k pages. There are third party ones as well. You need to figure that into your print cost calc.
- Jul 11, 2001
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I've seen info about this in owner reviews, don't comprehend it. The only printers I've ever owned are the LJ4 and LJ4+. They have a toner cartridge, AFAIK no "drum." What's a drum?
It's taken me about 20 years to print 20k prints. I don't know that my pace is apt to quicken.
Maybe I should get a printer with built in copying. I have a lot of paper I keep accumulating, have a file cabinet that's getting pretty full. Maybe I can digitize things and toss them, it's an idea. I think I've heard of people doing this, don't know if I want to start doing that. Maybe more trouble than it's worth. Right now, I rarely scan anything. My inclination right now is to pass on multifunction printing.
I've been doing some research on monochrome duplexing laser printers. Reading reviews, mostly owner reviews. The Brother HL-6180DW you linked has my especial attention as one I'm apt to be pleased with. Before I decide I figure I'll trip on over to Best Buy and have a look at them and hopefully get them to print some copies for me. I figure (I've never done this!) I can probably bring a flash drive and small documents that include text and graphic images, along with copies made with my LJ4+ for comparison of text printing and graphics.
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sdifox
No Lifer
- Sep 30, 2005
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lulz the toner you have been buying have drum built in, the transparent greenish roller is the drum. that is what gets charged and pick up toner to transfer to paper.
I don't think BB has the printers hooked up. I think Staples had the print samples at one point.
me taking a picture or scan a page I printed is probably not going to help you.
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- Jul 11, 2001
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Uh, there's a BB around 3 miles from me. IIRC, there's an Office Depot in the same shopping park. I figure I can go down there and see what I can come up with. At the very least I can cajole them in an attempt to get my hands on a print sample. How can they expect people to come in and buy a printer without seeing some output? I've been in stores before where they have prints you can look at, even take with you, maybe. It might not even matter so much if it's a document I bring in, just something that the printer can produce, even a test copy. The Laserjets have more than one possible test print in the menus. Yes, they can show me prints made in the best possible configuration, not the default, but presumably I can adjust the printer to print that well if I want it to.
Myself, my output is so modest that I don't care that much to squeeze out the maximum number of copies for a given toner cartridge. Toner has a shelf life, anyway. You should use it before a cartridge goes bad like a carton of milk. I also don't obsess on speed. My LJ4 was 8 pages/minute mas, the LJ4+ 12 pages. I liked the faster speed, but given the fact that I printed about 1000 prints/year, it's not a major consideration to configure a printer for maximum speed. If it prints 9 pages/minute instead of 12 pages/minute but the output is better I would probably opt for the better output.
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sdifox
No Lifer
- Sep 30, 2005
- 98,760
- 17,235
- 126
Toner doen't really go bad, the issue is they clump up when they are not used. Take it out, turn it ouside, flip it over and shake it horizontally to loosen it up again. And then print some blank pages, then run through cleaning pages a few times if you see streaks.
Do not buy HPs.
want stunning quality? Get a solid ink printer
but they don't like low duty cycle eitther.
Do not buy HPs.
want stunning quality? Get a solid ink printer
but they don't like low duty cycle eitther.
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- Jul 11, 2001
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The search goes on. Tom's Hardware in comparing 3 entry level monochrome laser printers including the Brother HL-6180DW said "Unfortunately, graphics is another story entirely; the HL-6180DW is the worst of the group."
I actually desktop published my dad's memoirs. I managed to get reasonably good results with photos I scanned, and I printed several copies on my Laserjet 4, tweaking some stuff, it came out not too bad. I brought the job to a copy place that had Docutech machines and they came out better, certainly, but the LJ4 wasn't bad at all. I won't be doing work like that on my new printer (well, certainly have no such plans right now), but I do print some things that include graphics, especially manuals. Sometimes manuals have graphics, very frequently, and I value good graphics reproduction... far more than speed.
I actually desktop published my dad's memoirs. I managed to get reasonably good results with photos I scanned, and I printed several copies on my Laserjet 4, tweaking some stuff, it came out not too bad. I brought the job to a copy place that had Docutech machines and they came out better, certainly, but the LJ4 wasn't bad at all. I won't be doing work like that on my new printer (well, certainly have no such plans right now), but I do print some things that include graphics, especially manuals. Sometimes manuals have graphics, very frequently, and I value good graphics reproduction... far more than speed.
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- Jul 11, 2001
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Toner doen't really go bad, the issue is they clump up when they are not used. Take it out, turn it ouside, flip it over and shake it horizontally to loosen it up again. And then print some blank pages, then run through cleaning pages a few times if you see streaks.
Do not buy HPs.
want stunning quality? Get a solid ink printer
Yeah, I just won't be printing enough to warrant an inkjet. I figure the high priority things for me are print quality and duplexing, then reliability and cost/print. I'm going to keep pounding the reviews until some model emerges as likely a good/best choice for me.
sdifox
No Lifer
- Sep 30, 2005
- 98,760
- 17,235
- 126
- Jul 11, 2001
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Edit4: Hmm, I'm reading reviews of the Brother Hl-l2360dw Laser Printer and the next most-recent reviewer (review title: 2.0 out of 5 stars, Look at the print CLOSELY...you'll most likely return it, dated Oct. 29, 2015) said:
The above is from a post earlier in this thread. It made me think that the 2360dw probably has really bad text printing quality. Well, I went to Best Buy a couple days ago to see what they had. They had very little in the way of monochrome duplexing laser printers that aren't multifunctional. Plenty of printers, though, and very little in the way of expertise from the staff.
I think the quote above may have happened because he printed graphic representation of text, not what the printer is capable of if it prints text based text using fonts.
I did find the Brother HL-2360dw, though. They didn't have it hooked up to a computer, however I was able to print test sheets. Inspecting with a magnifying glass (after taking it home) makes the text printing appear actually a LOT sharper than my HP4M Plus (I think the HP may have been printing a graphic, not text based, though, is my thinking... a print made with text later looks tack-sharp!). I think it was probably in a toner saving mode because the letters were not solid. However, even so, the text is very readable and the letters sharply formed, without the rugged outlines of the HP.
Boy, picking a printer is proving tough. Reading reviews, it seems that every printer has serious downsides, at least if you believe the reviews. I did, however, pick up on the fact (that you always here nowadays) that today's printers' quality of constructions just sucks compared to the old HP Laserjet 4/4+. Those really are tanks, too bad the electronics just crap out.
-----------------------------------
The above is from a post earlier in this thread. It made me think that the 2360dw probably has really bad text printing quality. Well, I went to Best Buy a couple days ago to see what they had. They had very little in the way of monochrome duplexing laser printers that aren't multifunctional. Plenty of printers, though, and very little in the way of expertise from the staff.
I think the quote above may have happened because he printed graphic representation of text, not what the printer is capable of if it prints text based text using fonts.
I did find the Brother HL-2360dw, though. They didn't have it hooked up to a computer, however I was able to print test sheets. Inspecting with a magnifying glass (after taking it home) makes the text printing appear actually a LOT sharper than my HP4M Plus (I think the HP may have been printing a graphic, not text based, though, is my thinking... a print made with text later looks tack-sharp!). I think it was probably in a toner saving mode because the letters were not solid. However, even so, the text is very readable and the letters sharply formed, without the rugged outlines of the HP.
Boy, picking a printer is proving tough. Reading reviews, it seems that every printer has serious downsides, at least if you believe the reviews. I did, however, pick up on the fact (that you always here nowadays) that today's printers' quality of constructions just sucks compared to the old HP Laserjet 4/4+. Those really are tanks, too bad the electronics just crap out.
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- Jul 11, 2001
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Yup, I don't. Considering that I print 1000 prints/year, a super durable printer doesn't make sense for me. I should just take care when using/handling it and hope it lasts for 20k prints and I'm way ahead of the game... as long as I get good service out of it, doesn't jam, the printing quality's really acceptable, I suppose I'm OK with a cheapie. :\
The more I look the more confused I'm getting. Every time I think, OK, this one looks like it, I do some more research and my idea is blown out of the water. I'm actually looking at an $80 printer now, the Brother HL-2380dw, which throws scanning into the equation. Top review at Amazon, the guy just loves how he can scan right into Evernote. I have that on my Windows Phone, don't know squat about it but figure maybe I really should. I have a proprietary data program that I wrote myself, it's terrific and has a ton of data but, right now at least, I only have access to it with computers and none of the data is in the cloud. Evernote, I guess, is cloud based.
I am considering biking down to Best Buy and see if they'll print out a test document on the 2380dw and inspect it with a magnifier. Also looking at the 2360, the 5470, hell, even the 6180 (which I think accommodates 500 sheets, a nice touch, but no biggie). Sucks that I can't compare output from the printers I'm considering, taking people's word for it is close to conjecture.
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- Jul 11, 2001
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- Jul 11, 2001
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How so? I don't buy that "time is money" crap.
I have learned a lot in my research. I've been out of the home/SO printer loop. I knew they did duplexing, that they were a lot cheaper and more cheaply made, but had no hands on experience at all. I've learned a lot.
After some online researching, I wanted to see with my own eyes the output of printers before making my decision. I did this over the weekend. I made my decision but was waiting for this deal to kick in before placing an order. That kicked in today and I ordered my Brother HL-5470dw. The printing was noticeably superior to the other two Brother printers I was considering. It might be considered light on features, costs a little more, but the superior readability of text printing was for me the deciding factor.
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sdifox
No Lifer
- Sep 30, 2005
- 98,760
- 17,235
- 126
Time is the only commodity you cannot buy with money.
but at least you bought a printer
that takes high yield toner so that is good.
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- Jul 11, 2001
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At the Amazon site one of the question/answers provides this:
Brother's specs at their site for this printer says the box includes:
(1) Standard Yield Toner Cartridge (yields approx. 3,000 Pages‡
(1) DR720 Drum Unit (yields approx. 30,000 Pages‡
Documentation / Installation CD-ROM
AC Power Cord
Quick Setup Guide
So, evidently I should get 3000 prints with the starter, which for me averages out to 3 years. I may get the big 8000 cartridge when it's time to replace it.
For me, as long as it functions up to spec, I'm doing great with this. I have spent a lot of time doing D.I.Y. duplexing.
I hope this does booklet printing, something I've done a few times with my HP4's.
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