I see these constant horror stories of having to pay to print, silly ink prices, having to log onto a web server etc.
Is there no company that just makes a printer that works, does what it’s supposed to, and doesn’t play bizarre games?
I think a printer might be useful in my life right now… but, I’m actually just scared.
Brother or your public library.
Yep, brother are good. I specifically bought mine based on being able to refill the toner cartridge. It turns out I don’t use it much so haven’t filled the cartridge, but when that day comes you just watch me!
Not saying that happens usually but after I have seen a toner explosion, I am not getting near it even if the probability it’s as rare as winning the lottery.
Yup. Can confirm. Brother are and have always been a great company that didn’t price fix or pull a bunch of shady crap.
I’ve had 3 over the past 20 years. Never an issue and ink refills worked the same as new cartridges.
It took me three times of reading your title to see that you were saying con-job and not cron-job. I was scratching my head trying to understand how a printer could be a cron-job.
Laser printers are more expensive up front, but zero hassles. You’ll end up saving money in the long run.
But for the love of God don’t buy anything Samsung.
I bought a $300 Samsung multi-function laser printer, printed 45 pages on it over the course of a year, and after the year was up and it’s warranty was out, the laser fusor died and would cost the cost of a brand new Samsung printer to replace.
Their TVs are too blue, their appliances seem to magically break down immediately after the warranties end, and now even their memory, which used to be really good and reliable is having major fucking issues.
They have consistently been a great company with terrible products, products that are really good while they work but then when they break, break expensively.
However, the $7.99 thrift store brother printer that I got to replace it that was made in 2007 has tons of inexpensive toner available and the parts are super cheap and it still works flawlessly, with network printing working and Linux compatibility.
Maybe they’re worse now but I’ve had the same Samsung laser printer since 2005 and it still works great.
Having an ice buildup problem with my Samsung fridge right now
Common issue with a drawer freezer. At least with ours, it was constantly getting left cracked open but not enough to trigger the door alarm.
You have to practically disassemble the thing just to get it completely defrosted in a reasonable amount of time, otherwise, it’ll take forever.
I suspect that there was a tiny leak in the refrigerant system as well, but we just replaced the entire thing. What a waste.
Not just the drawer ones, the French door ones as well.
I had a black and white Brother laser printer and would just go to a print shop on the rare occasion I needed something color. Now, I haven’t had a printer at all for a few years.
If you do have a HP printer, using it with Linux is an order of magnitude less fucky than their Windows/Apple/Android counterparts.
On Linux, their printer drivers are far more standardised, properly integrated into the system and isn’t trying to sell you shit or force you to make accounts. The printer itself can still be another issue entirely however.
As every other comment here says, I recommend Brother. I’ve had a toner printer for several years, never have any issue connecting to it, works fine with third party toner cartridges, no screaming that things are empty when they aren’t…works great.
a lot of people like Brother laser printers. I had one and it always went into “deep sleep” mode and I’d have to restart it whenever I wanted to print. it lasted about 2 years. I have a monochrome Canon laser printer/scanner now, it was about $230. it works very well.
I don’t have much else to offer in addition to the suggestions already here, but I will say I feel your pain. I also got the desire for home printing somewhat recently, and quickly got stuck wondering… “Is there such a think as a non-evil printer anymore?”
Brother is mentioned a lot, as is laser. But I also value color printing, and I had an impossible time finding a Brother color laser printer in my price range. I settled on one of their ink tank models instead.
Yeah, ink isn’t supposed to last as long, but I haven’t had to replace it yet, so I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. Mostly I just ended up not printing as much as I thought I would.
