Anonymous wrote:Depends upon the printer. My HP Laserjet 4000 (from circa 1999) still works great. It pre-dates USB, but has networking. I am not sure if drivers are available for modern operating systems, but it does support both PCL and Postscript, which makes that a non-issue. Admittedly, toner is getting hard to find, since HP no longer makes it. Meanwhile, some printers made as recently as 2010-ish have been orphaned by their manufacturers, with no drivers available for modern operating systems.

The HP 4000 laserjet was over $1000 when it was released in 1997 and has a duty cycle of 65k pages a month. Not a typical home printer.

Depends upon the printer. My HP Laserjet 4000 (from circa 1999) still works great. It pre-dates USB, but has networking. I am not sure if drivers are available for modern operating systems, but it does support both PCL and Postscript, which makes that a non-issue. Admittedly, toner is getting hard to find, since HP no longer makes it. Meanwhile, some printers made as recently as 2010-ish have been orphaned by their manufacturers, with no drivers available for modern operating systems.

Anonymous wrote:Black-and-white network laser printer with Postscript and PCL support. Postscript and PCL mean that you will never need printer-specific drivers, so the manufacturer will never be able to make the product obsolete by discontinuing proprietary drivers to make it work. Network support means that you will never have to worry about USB or parallel interfaces becoming obsolete. Black-and-white laser is a reliable technology with a low cost per page.

Drivers and USB support are not going to become obsolete within the lifetime of the printer.

Black-and-white network laser printer with Postscript and PCL support. Postscript and PCL mean that you will never need printer-specific drivers, so the manufacturer will never be able to make the product obsolete by discontinuing proprietary drivers to make it work. Network support means that you will never have to worry about USB or parallel interfaces becoming obsolete. Black-and-white laser is a reliable technology with a low cost per page.

HP250. Nice and small

Go laser printer. Buying inkjet printers is often inexpensive. You'll be paying for ink cartridges forever and THEY are expensive.

Got a brother laser black and white. The laser uses powder and will never dry it.

The inkjet wasn’t used frequently enough and eventually the ink clogged the jets no matter what procedures I tried.

I always stick with HP. I've had many in my career, and they always work well, and good support for the products. If you want the lowest cost per page, buy a laser printer. $100 cartridge can print 5k+ pages.

We have an Epson Super Tank and it's FANTASTIC.

Agree with Pp. I have an HP deskjet pro that does a ton of stuff and is awesome. The ink is insanely expensive, but I expense it.

Anonymous wrote:i like the brother laser printers. i've had two. (the first one didn't break, i gave it away in a fit of minimalism, and it's still going strong.) inkjet are crap unless you love printing in color or something, laser printers are faster and the toner cartridges last quite a long time.

HLL2350DW Mono Laser Printer

Agreed. We have a brother laser printer and it’s been going strong for 5+ years. Never had an inkjet (any manufacturer) that worked consistently.

Nope. I’ll be following this avidly. I’ve heard good things about Brother printers, so maybe they’ll get a mention.

I have an HP printer/copier/scanner, that cost an insanely low amount. The printer works well, but the ink cartridges are very expensive and cost more than the printer. The cartridges that came with the printer didn’t last long at all. The kicker though, is that my previous HP printer would print black and white pages with an empty color cartridge. This one won’t, and apparently uses a tiny bit of ink from the color cartridge, even for black and white pages, so both cartridges need to be replaced frequently.
TLDR: HP printers are easy to use, but the ink is expensive, and I have had multiple problems with two printers because of the cartridges, including refusal to print because the expensive legit cartridge was not recognized by the printer as authentic.

Love my laser brother

i like the brother laser printers. i've had two. (the first one didn't break, i gave it away in a fit of minimalism, and it's still going strong.) inkjet are crap unless you love printing in color or something, laser printers are faster and the toner cartridges last quite a long time.

HLL2350DW Mono Laser Printer

Our home printer died today and I need to buy a new one.
Ink jet or laser. I don't care.
I'm happy to spend any amount of money for one that works well.
The reviews on Amazon/Best Buy, etc seem to be universally bad.


Any recs?
Thank you so much!