Throughout my life i have set up a multitude of different printers. None of them have been a pleasant experience. Why is this, and is there a printer that is actually good?
Order of priorities:
- Free/open software and hardware
- Available ink/toner and spares
- No connectivity “dumb as a rock”
Print quality really doesent matter unless it is really bad. Of course, im willing to make sacrifices on all of these points, but you get the gist.
Any suggestions for models that comes even close to any of these requirements?
I note that in the comments you acknowledge that point #1 doesn’t exist.
I had a similar set of criteria to you. I settled on the Epson Ecotank. No complaints so far. It has wifi but I never turned that on, I connect it to my (linux) laptop with a USB cable.
Some printers are programmed to stop working after a certain number of prints. I hope this isn’t one of them.
+1 for the Epson Ecotank.
The ink bottles are cheaper than cartridges and it’s basically “dumb”. There’s no DRM that prevents you from squirting any generic type of ink in there.
I did not test it on older hardware but mine is WiFi enabled and it works seamlessly on every device.
It’s not a perfect solution but it’s a good middle ground for me.
I’m not sure about the make and model, but I’ve seen at least one person who loved their ink tank printer for exactly a year, then it insisted that he send it off for a $200 service of some ink absorbing part.
I have an Epson (not eco tank) and it has this. It is called a maintenance box. But you can get one off Amazon etc for a few dollars and it is easy to replace, just one screw off the front. The display literally shows you how to do it!
I love my Epson. I use generic cartridges and they work fine. When you install a generic cartridge it gives you a warning, and that’s it. I have it on wifi but I have disabled firmware updates in the settings.
I bought mine during lockdown and still not encountered this issue but this is good info!
I bought an Epson Ecotank. It was a nightmare to setup the WiFi connection, and when we finally had it connected it was unstable and printed out text when we tried to print images. Returned it the next day.
Ended up buying a Canon Pixma 600 series and I’m happy so far. Use it to print photos, and the result isn’t too bad either. It has tanks similar to the Ecotank
I share your frustration with printer hell. I don’t use the wifi on the Epson Ecotank.
Previously I owned a Canon Pixma, a pre tank version. It worked great for several years, then one day it stopped working. I eventually established that the problem was that the machine was programmed to fail after a finite number of prints. It’s criminal that they prevent you from maintaining their hardware.
It’s hard to find a good printer when it seems all the companies that produces them are all about making money and screwing the buyers.
Fortunately for me, in my country (Norway) we have really good consumer protection laws, so if my printer fails before it should I will get it repaired or replaced. But I really hope this one lasts.
The closest thing you’re likely to get is a black and white Brother laser.
It’s as open as a printer is likely to ever be in terms of driver support, the availability of parts is reasonable, and you plug the thing in via USB and then forget it exists until you need to print something.
I have a 2300D I’ve had for most of a decade now and the only thing I’ve had to do is put paper in it.
My wireless brother is also setup and forget. So long as you keep the same wifi name and pw it will alway work. Ive moved 4 times with it and theres not been as much as a single misprint or anything
Also a black/white laserprinter, bought in 2015
That’s a good unit! The fuser assembly in that one is bulletproof. I won’t recommend or buy anything except for Brother laser printers.
Got the same printer, it’s also great if you don’t print a lot. I’m still on the same third party toner from 7+ years ago. Never again will I buy an inkjets printer.
The whole reason I bought a laser printer. I was sick of paying $20 every time I printed something once a month or so. 100% worth it.
Will definately take a look, thanks.
2350dw, use the wifi, just works on all platforms including bsd.
I swear by Brother printers. They work well with open source software. Older ones are dumb as a rock and it’s easy to find toner for them. They’re also workhorses.
Nice, thanks.
Did we ever find out what Rage Against the Machine was raging against? I think it was a printer.
This joke was stolen.
Aw fuck! Chuck’s on a killing spree again
With guillotines for men
I’ve been a Lexmark laser tech for 15 years, so I am a bit biased. Repairing a lexmark is miles easier than any other brand I’ve worked on, and I’ve worked on them all. Kyocera desktops are the only ones in a similar category. I can easily keep a Lexmark running into the millions of pages. Their network usability is as complex or as simple as you need. Their Universal driver is unmatched when it comes to stability. Their Linux support is pretty damn good too. Again, I am biased as hell here, but I personally would buy a lexmark laser in a heartbeat.
Also, fuck HP with a rusty spoon. Garbage fuckin’ machines…
I would NEVER recommend a modern HP printer, but…I have a HP Laserjet 4000 (Circa 1997) that I ‘acquired’ from the company I worked for that went bankrupt.
This thing refuses to die. current impression count is over 500,000 prints. All its patents expired over a decade ago, and it’s still easy to find parts and toner (originals, and now even 3rd party knockoffs). It’s old enough now that modern generic drivers have built in support for it. The only parts I’ve ever had to replace are the rubber sheet feeder rollers which dry out and stop working correctly after 12-15 years.
So, I guess the point here is that some really solid printers were made a couple decades ago, back when manufacturers still took pride in their products, and they are old enough that the hardware is no longer protected by patents (so practically open) and robust driver support without all the bullshit. Picking up something from this era and cleaning it up would come close to satisfying a lot of your requirements.
Also has a smaller laserjet. No nonsense, just USB. Toner lasted a few thousand pages.
Basically indestructible. Brother replaced it with a wifi samsung laser, bad move.
Wifi? Rarely works and requires a data harvesting app to be installed on your pc.
NFC? Doesn’t work.
I now connect to it via usb. Works fine like that. I preferred the old printer.
Never went wrong with a Brother laser printer.
Like others have mentioned, black & white Brother laser printers are the way to go. No bloated software, lasts forever, no fussy ink situations, etc.
Over the past 30 years, technology has taken extensive leaps forward. Except for printers and printer drivers. Still stuck in 1990.
People who run printer companies should be incarcerated and forced to hand copy the source code of the linux kernel with a very small pencil.
Several years ago, I decided to finally buy an all-in-one so I could print my favorite photos and do some scanning. I did what I thought to be pretty adequate research to find a model where the ink wasn’t too expensive. It was Epson x-something.
Printed a few pictures but then, foolishly allowed to update software.
After that, it doesn’t scan (scan!!) if one of the inks is low. When I bought it I thought, if nothing else I will have a scanner. Wrong!
It turned out to be impossible to obtain the epson ink cartridges. No retail location near me sold them. Not on amazon. They sold it on the epson website. I ordered some. When the delivery came I was at work. So what this shipping company does is leaves a note saying “you can pick up your parcel at our facility” with an address that was miles away from my house in an industrial park hardly served by public transit. They were only open during business hours so I would have had to book a day off work and the google maps estimate was >3 hours round trip. I don’t even think I ever got a refund for the package which sat at the courier for 2 weeks and got returned to epson.
At the time I bought the printer, it was possible to use 3rd party ink. However their “security update” robustly protected against this. I had intended to buy the epson ink but I was never able to. So I tried 3rd party. It didn’t work, the printer wouldn’t use it because it could tell it was not epson brand.
There was no way to do a factory reset on the device, which IMHO is crazy for all kinds of reasons. The ink vendors had stuff up about how you could use some closed-source hack tool to force it to down grade. It primarily ran on windows which I don’t have. Also it seemed to me that the application could be doing literally anything to the printer, it was mysterious. I tried some things I read about how to force it to return to original hardware but it never worked.
I spent sooo much time researching, troubleshooting, reading on forums, shopping etc. And some money, I think about $100-150. What I got for it was a half dozen prints, mostly testing out how the printer worked. 2 of these were worth keeping in any respect so I have 2 photos that costed >$50 and many hours of work each. After a few years I gave up and threw it out.
I gave up years ago. The best printer is pay by the page at your local office or FedEx ofc. Unless your printing and scanning constantly, every printer ends up being more expensive or frustrating.
Point 1 doesn’t exist.
Yeah, im aware. Mostly mentioned to set the tone.
I see what you did there!
I have the HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw I love it. I got it new last year. Sure its been complaining about low toner for 90% of that time but it still prints and they look great. I don’t have hp software installed, I have the wifi turned off and just use the ethernet hookup. airprint from my phone works great also. Its never once refused to print because one of the toner colors are empty. Sure it complains but it still prints. I can’t say the same for any inkjet I have ever owned.
Never buy consumer grade printers. If the ink is more expensive than the printer you are going to get hosed in the long run.
I had a brother laser before but it pulled so much current at warm up that it caused a brown out that tripped all the ups’s in the house.
I
That’s exactly my experience with a CP1525nw I’ve had for a dozen years. Kernel support and Android prints fine to it directly since at least the last several versions. I have been using off-brand toner and have had mixed results with some, but it’s cheap enough that it doesn’t bother me to replace a full cartridge if that happens
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I wish there was a 2D printing community like for 3D printing where you could build your own printer and run it off a Raspberry pi.
