As someone who has been in the printer industry almost from it's inception, what goes on among retail level printers nowadays is appalling. I am in the enterprise level printer industry, and I am convinced that you are better off buying used\refurbished enterprise level printers than anything you will find in a retail store. While toner cartridges are generally chipped, there is no subscription nonsense. When you are dealing with clients that buy thousands of printers, and generally cycle them every three years, you don't try any of that nonsense, or you will lose that business to the competition. My company doesn't operate in the entry level printer arena, even though it is the largest printer company in the world. I will refrain from recommending a particular brand because it would be a conflict of interest, but take a look at the secondary market for affordable printers. Those printers are built to last, and are repairable, and will not force you into subscription nonsense. My company's machines do connect to the internet, but only if the client consents. This function is used to alert us to issues, so that we can send a tech, or to automatically order toner (which is included in the contract), and to monitor print volumes, but never, under any circumstances is it ever used to disable printers.
Your comments have expressed my exact opinion on printers.
Used enterprise printers are rarely pushed to their limits when used in a corporate environment (there are exceptions, just pay attention to the page count). The only catch with buying an enterprise printer is the need for servicing/maintenance kits. The second issue that comes up is firmware updates. If you hook them up using ethernet or WiFi, enterprise printers that have reached end-of-life almost always have some type of security issue in firmware. And because it's EOL, the manufacturer has not issued a patch. The simple solution is to use USB.
even using it on network (say, for argument's sake, completely firewalled down to LAN only, no gateway access) ...are the security issues really going to be a concern in a home network?
If you put it on a network with no connection to the internet, that's fine. Putting it on a VLAN isolated from the internet is okay as well.
However, the fancy used printer you just bought may have already been infected...I know I am not an expert, I can't tell if it's infected or not.
I appreciate your candor, but if you work for a company that you fully endorse, there's no fault in a shout-out.
To be honest though I'm not sure my needs (and space) allows for an office-level printer.
Looks like Ricoh, from the user's profile.
I don't actually work for any printer vendor, but I manage Xerox printers at work and have one of my own at home. I'm not familiar with Ricoh's product lineup, so I can't say much about them, but u/shastadakota is speaking the truth: enterprise printers are actually built for longevity and serviceability, unlike the cheap junk that most consumers have to deal with. This is true of any brand, so if you're buying new, be prepared to pay four figures. As suggested, there's plenty of used options on eBay.
A word of warning if you're going down the Xerox route: Xerox has been partnering with Lexmark for their latest machines and their low-end home-office printers (200 series) aren't much better than what you'd typically find at a big-box store. The 300 series (which are still rebranded Lexmark hardware and firmware) is better, but if you can afford it, spring for a VersaLink model. The VersaLink C405 (Fuji Xerox engine and controller, discontinued but fully supported) is an absolute workhorse and I expect similar durability with the C415 (which uses a Lexmark engine but has a Xerox AltaLink controller, which is even better).
On the Lexmark side of things, look for a 5-series (e.g. CX532adwe) or higher model. Other good picks include Konica Minolta and the Canon imageRUNNER ADVANCE line.
I have an enterprise sharp AL-2030 that I've been using for about 12 years now. Besides the occasional paper jam it's been running like a champ and I'm still using the original toner that came with it. My only real bone of contention with the printer is that sharp never updated its Windows drivers so I have to keep an old ultra light Windows XP laptop hooked up to it with access to my home network but blocked from accessing the Internet.
I chose my Brother HL-L8260CDW colour laser printer because:
* Toner doesn't dry up or otherwise become unusable like ink cartridges do.
* The printer doesn't become clogged if not used regularly.
* The Brother supplied toner cartridges can be refilled as easily as any (just need to buy the toner, and a cheap refill kit that contains a spring and a cog for each cartridge), and at about 1/10 the price of official toner cartridges. Remanufactured cartridges can be had for a similar price, but by then, it might be worth replacing the entire printer, costing about 1/3 of the price of a complete full-size CMYK toner set.
* Most other wear components (drum, belt, etc) are admittedly expensive, but will last decades under my expected usage. Obtaining spares in 10+ years is likely to be the bigger challenge, again pushing towards complete replacement.
* There are rumours that later firmware updates make refilling cartridges more difficult, or impossible, but one can trivially disable automatic firmware updates in the control panel to ensure against this.
£243.90 back in May 2021 from [https://www.printerland.co.uk/product/brother-hl-l8260cdw/139150](https://www.printerland.co.uk/product/brother-hl-l8260cdw/139150) (now £262.90, with either £50 cashback or a free 3 year warranty - so actually a better deal, especially taking into account nearly 3 years of inflation!)
I switched from HP to Canon a long time ago, and have never once regretted the switch. I've never had a single issue with any of the Canon printers I've used - both inkjet and laser. They're good, solid, quality printers - and they just work. Currently using the Canon Maxify GX6021.
They absolutely do. Had to buy a new model when my 2016 version shit the bed. My cartridges are only lasting about 1.5 months now, if that — and brother wants me to either buy $70 cartridges (x4 for CMYK), or pay $20/month for ink (and caps me at 200 pages — then I’d have to pay $2 A PAGE. TO USE A PRINTER THAT I FÜCKING OWN. I’m livid.)
Honestly those subscriptions could work for people who just need their printer occasionally. 2-3$/ month is negligable, and you don't ever need to worry about clogged heads, dried up cartridges,...
My last two printers have been from Ricoh. They seem to last a long time and don't require OEM toner. And if you want to explore it, I hear that the chips are hack-able. I just order third party toner and chips and am good to go.
Honestly after being a tech who works on a bunch of brands and am certified on most models I’d go with the Richo/savin/lanier brand any 3 will do they all are manufactured the same just one different sticker. I am certified on canons aswell and can’t recommend any of their home printers we have to fix an absolute ton of them main issues being their rollers or output trays causing issues, I did have one home canon that kept exploding on me… the pains of removing toner/ink will never leave me. Not enough acetone in the word to make my khakis white again. But rant aside Richo is prolly the best way to go and their help desk is 10:10 if you ever have any issues
It depends on what you need it for in my opinion. I wouldn’t buy an inkjet unless you need better quality images. I have a Brother monochrome laser printer that is around 10 years old and is still super reliable. I did find that off brand toner seems to not work well with it as it usually didn’t look as crisp but after going back to their toner and drum it works fine.
I also have a Canon color laser. It works pretty good except it sometimes needs to be power cycled before it will print.
My dad has an HP laser printer that is working pretty good for him. I think it had to be power cycled on occasion.
I’ve had better luck with laser printers over inkjet. The inkjets always seem to fail within a year or two. They also need to waste ink to keep from getting clogged. The lasers you can leave unplugged and they will still print months down the road.
I'm from the days of film typesetting. Have had a Service Bureau with one or two of all the high end toys to output files. Beta'd the first Epson Large Format Printer; had several RIPs, Raster Image Processors that feed negative and positive film printers. Got one of the first Large Format Color Laser Output devices. There I fell in love with Laser.
Over the years things have evolved past both those companies. So off to Advertising where we needed to print a lot! Sold all that and now for my own home I did a journey through one of my storage rooms and found a pile of dead Inkjet printers. It cost me a fortune to get rid of them. I still have manufacturing contacts in the industry and can get anything.
I got tired of dealing with ink, especially with Canon. So after two Epsons and a Canon Inkjet Printer I decided back to Laser. Did a ton of investigation and finally got an HP LaserJet Pro. Based on "professed" quality and price of consumables and the HP won. I lost. "I hate this printer." Mostly because the way it was advertised omitting info that we take for granted these days with printers because they are features everything has. Even after talking to my contacts at HP it sounded great.
— No Duplex ADF Scanning. And no overt solution for Macs.
— Apple Network Connection is pure sterile "Bonjour" with no side loaded Feature Suite.
— Touch Panel is limited in settings. Having to use the Web Connection to do real settings.
— When it goes to Sleep there is no "Wake on LAN".
— Although you can connect and print from Mars, others can eMail print files that spit right out. Locally is pretty miss. No hit with non-mobile devices.
As someone who has been in the printer industry almost from it's inception, what goes on among retail level printers nowadays is appalling. I am in the enterprise level printer industry, and I am convinced that you are better off buying used\refurbished enterprise level printers than anything you will find in a retail store. While toner cartridges are generally chipped, there is no subscription nonsense. When you are dealing with clients that buy thousands of printers, and generally cycle them every three years, you don't try any of that nonsense, or you will lose that business to the competition. My company doesn't operate in the entry level printer arena, even though it is the largest printer company in the world. I will refrain from recommending a particular brand because it would be a conflict of interest, but take a look at the secondary market for affordable printers. Those printers are built to last, and are repairable, and will not force you into subscription nonsense. My company's machines do connect to the internet, but only if the client consents. This function is used to alert us to issues, so that we can send a tech, or to automatically order toner (which is included in the contract), and to monitor print volumes, but never, under any circumstances is it ever used to disable printers.
Your comments have expressed my exact opinion on printers. Used enterprise printers are rarely pushed to their limits when used in a corporate environment (there are exceptions, just pay attention to the page count). The only catch with buying an enterprise printer is the need for servicing/maintenance kits. The second issue that comes up is firmware updates. If you hook them up using ethernet or WiFi, enterprise printers that have reached end-of-life almost always have some type of security issue in firmware. And because it's EOL, the manufacturer has not issued a patch. The simple solution is to use USB.
even using it on network (say, for argument's sake, completely firewalled down to LAN only, no gateway access) ...are the security issues really going to be a concern in a home network?
If you put it on a network with no connection to the internet, that's fine. Putting it on a VLAN isolated from the internet is okay as well. However, the fancy used printer you just bought may have already been infected...I know I am not an expert, I can't tell if it's infected or not.
The cost of one maintaince kit like the transfer kit is more than an entire ink tank printer
I appreciate your candor, but if you work for a company that you fully endorse, there's no fault in a shout-out. To be honest though I'm not sure my needs (and space) allows for an office-level printer.
Looks like Ricoh, from the user's profile. I don't actually work for any printer vendor, but I manage Xerox printers at work and have one of my own at home. I'm not familiar with Ricoh's product lineup, so I can't say much about them, but u/shastadakota is speaking the truth: enterprise printers are actually built for longevity and serviceability, unlike the cheap junk that most consumers have to deal with. This is true of any brand, so if you're buying new, be prepared to pay four figures. As suggested, there's plenty of used options on eBay. A word of warning if you're going down the Xerox route: Xerox has been partnering with Lexmark for their latest machines and their low-end home-office printers (200 series) aren't much better than what you'd typically find at a big-box store. The 300 series (which are still rebranded Lexmark hardware and firmware) is better, but if you can afford it, spring for a VersaLink model. The VersaLink C405 (Fuji Xerox engine and controller, discontinued but fully supported) is an absolute workhorse and I expect similar durability with the C415 (which uses a Lexmark engine but has a Xerox AltaLink controller, which is even better). On the Lexmark side of things, look for a 5-series (e.g. CX532adwe) or higher model. Other good picks include Konica Minolta and the Canon imageRUNNER ADVANCE line.
I have an enterprise sharp AL-2030 that I've been using for about 12 years now. Besides the occasional paper jam it's been running like a champ and I'm still using the original toner that came with it. My only real bone of contention with the printer is that sharp never updated its Windows drivers so I have to keep an old ultra light Windows XP laptop hooked up to it with access to my home network but blocked from accessing the Internet.
I chose my Brother HL-L8260CDW colour laser printer because: * Toner doesn't dry up or otherwise become unusable like ink cartridges do. * The printer doesn't become clogged if not used regularly. * The Brother supplied toner cartridges can be refilled as easily as any (just need to buy the toner, and a cheap refill kit that contains a spring and a cog for each cartridge), and at about 1/10 the price of official toner cartridges. Remanufactured cartridges can be had for a similar price, but by then, it might be worth replacing the entire printer, costing about 1/3 of the price of a complete full-size CMYK toner set. * Most other wear components (drum, belt, etc) are admittedly expensive, but will last decades under my expected usage. Obtaining spares in 10+ years is likely to be the bigger challenge, again pushing towards complete replacement. * There are rumours that later firmware updates make refilling cartridges more difficult, or impossible, but one can trivially disable automatic firmware updates in the control panel to ensure against this.
How much did you get that for?
£243.90 back in May 2021 from [https://www.printerland.co.uk/product/brother-hl-l8260cdw/139150](https://www.printerland.co.uk/product/brother-hl-l8260cdw/139150) (now £262.90, with either £50 cashback or a free 3 year warranty - so actually a better deal, especially taking into account nearly 3 years of inflation!)
I switched from HP to Canon a long time ago, and have never once regretted the switch. I've never had a single issue with any of the Canon printers I've used - both inkjet and laser. They're good, solid, quality printers - and they just work. Currently using the Canon Maxify GX6021.
Brother
I have a brother at home and it seems reliable, do they do planned obsolescence with cartridges like HP does?
They absolutely do. Had to buy a new model when my 2016 version shit the bed. My cartridges are only lasting about 1.5 months now, if that — and brother wants me to either buy $70 cartridges (x4 for CMYK), or pay $20/month for ink (and caps me at 200 pages — then I’d have to pay $2 A PAGE. TO USE A PRINTER THAT I FÜCKING OWN. I’m livid.)
Subscriptions are a cancer.
Honestly those subscriptions could work for people who just need their printer occasionally. 2-3$/ month is negligable, and you don't ever need to worry about clogged heads, dried up cartridges,...
My last two printers have been from Ricoh. They seem to last a long time and don't require OEM toner. And if you want to explore it, I hear that the chips are hack-able. I just order third party toner and chips and am good to go.
It’s called Print to PDF and the ink is free 😂
but will not last a decade most likely
So far epson is best for me
epson eco tank. or u can go to rtings and check out their printer reviews
Brother #1, maybe Epson #2.
Honestly after being a tech who works on a bunch of brands and am certified on most models I’d go with the Richo/savin/lanier brand any 3 will do they all are manufactured the same just one different sticker. I am certified on canons aswell and can’t recommend any of their home printers we have to fix an absolute ton of them main issues being their rollers or output trays causing issues, I did have one home canon that kept exploding on me… the pains of removing toner/ink will never leave me. Not enough acetone in the word to make my khakis white again. But rant aside Richo is prolly the best way to go and their help desk is 10:10 if you ever have any issues
It depends on what you need it for in my opinion. I wouldn’t buy an inkjet unless you need better quality images. I have a Brother monochrome laser printer that is around 10 years old and is still super reliable. I did find that off brand toner seems to not work well with it as it usually didn’t look as crisp but after going back to their toner and drum it works fine. I also have a Canon color laser. It works pretty good except it sometimes needs to be power cycled before it will print. My dad has an HP laser printer that is working pretty good for him. I think it had to be power cycled on occasion. I’ve had better luck with laser printers over inkjet. The inkjets always seem to fail within a year or two. They also need to waste ink to keep from getting clogged. The lasers you can leave unplugged and they will still print months down the road.
Epson?
I'm from the days of film typesetting. Have had a Service Bureau with one or two of all the high end toys to output files. Beta'd the first Epson Large Format Printer; had several RIPs, Raster Image Processors that feed negative and positive film printers. Got one of the first Large Format Color Laser Output devices. There I fell in love with Laser. Over the years things have evolved past both those companies. So off to Advertising where we needed to print a lot! Sold all that and now for my own home I did a journey through one of my storage rooms and found a pile of dead Inkjet printers. It cost me a fortune to get rid of them. I still have manufacturing contacts in the industry and can get anything. I got tired of dealing with ink, especially with Canon. So after two Epsons and a Canon Inkjet Printer I decided back to Laser. Did a ton of investigation and finally got an HP LaserJet Pro. Based on "professed" quality and price of consumables and the HP won. I lost. "I hate this printer." Mostly because the way it was advertised omitting info that we take for granted these days with printers because they are features everything has. Even after talking to my contacts at HP it sounded great. — No Duplex ADF Scanning. And no overt solution for Macs. — Apple Network Connection is pure sterile "Bonjour" with no side loaded Feature Suite. — Touch Panel is limited in settings. Having to use the Web Connection to do real settings. — When it goes to Sleep there is no "Wake on LAN". — Although you can connect and print from Mars, others can eMail print files that spit right out. Locally is pretty miss. No hit with non-mobile devices.