• I have two ten year old non color hp laser printers. I bought them at a surplus sales along with two new toners. So far I’m still on the first printer. They are old enough that they have no drm. The work with everything and I expect them to outlast me. I print about ten to twenty pages a year.

  • Got a simple brother laser printer. Duplex, BW only, works flawlessly with Linux and as a network printer.

    4-5 times a year I’ll need to print 10 pages. Add an additional one every two weeks.

    The printer definitely paid for itself in convenience.

    • @whoisearth@lemmy.ca
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      41 day ago

      The problems with society can really be highlighted with how printers are marketed. Cheaper to buy a new printer than replace the ink cartridges on an existing printer.

      We are literally built to encourage waste.

    • @korazail@lemmy.myserv.one
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      31 day ago

      Brother is the other secret, though it seem like maybe even they have turned… the problem with making a solid piece of equipment that will last for a decade is you consume your customer base and can’t show ‘growth’ constantly.

      My Brother color laser (model 3170, bought in 2016) doesn’t print the perfect photos, but that’s not what I use it for. I print coloring sheets and camp forms for my kiddos and random forms for adult life. It ran on the original toner carts for around 5 years, with black being replaced first on its own. There’s no inkjet in the world that will have 5 year-old carts work, but laser toner doesn’t dry out.

      • @papertowels@mander.xyz
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        21 day ago

        Yup, one of the first things I did when I had a reasonable expectation of not moving around often was buy a big ass brother laser printer, scanner etc used for like $60. These things are built like a tank.

  • @zod000@lemmy.ml
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    222 days ago

    Xennial here, get a Brother laser printer if you can. The “starter toner” lasted me for like 4 years so far and is only now getting low. I can’t imagine going back to an inkjet that would always dry up since I used infrequently, but I still needed it.

    • Bonus is you can buy third party refilled toner in bundles for like $15 for 3. I bought some a couple of years ago and I still haven’t burned through the first replacement

      • @axus@lemmy.ca
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        42 days ago

        There have been reports that Brother has finally started being evil about third-party toner with new firmwares.

    • @Maalus@lemmy.world
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      32 days ago

      Same, 3 years running, printing lots of shit for my own company and just now got a “low toner” warning which I’m ignoring for the last 2 or so months. Buying an inkjet is the biggest scam there is, you pay more in the ink and broken printers than you ever would for a laser.

    • @cynar@lemmy.world
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      32 days ago

      A second vote for brother lasers.

      I upgraded my old printer about 6 months ago. Laser is far superior, and no longer particularly expensive. I also discovered they have solved the photo printing quality issue at some point (laser’s only real weakness). I ran off a photo and it came out near/at inkjet quality.

      • Scrubbles
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        22 days ago

        You do one up front payment and it saves so much money long term, so many people are against that concept

    • @renrenPDX@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      Yep, finally got rid of my Epson BJ with a Brother b/w laser and it’s fantastic. A little louder but it functions like it should instead of complaining about low Magenta.

  • @Buske@lemmy.world
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    112 days ago

    The entire printer industry is being funded by our grandparents, I am not fucking joking. My grandpa has bought MULTIPLE printers last year alone, please some one send help.

    • Bakkoda
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      2 days ago

      My entire family for probably 30 years thought i was gaslighting them about how bad my grandfather is with computers. And phones. And the internet. And phones.

      He’s 93 and he’s convinced them really well these last 5 years or so. It’s a nightmare lol.

  • @BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world
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    82 days ago

    I have a printer, and know where the power cord is! I even have it paired to my wifi and use it to scan stuff. Don’t ask me to print anything, I can’t afford the ink.

  • @lemmebee@sh.itjust.works
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    11 day ago

    Just picked one up for $10 at habitat for humanity restore. Works perfectly, scanner too! Still got em.

    I’ve heard Xennial and even heard Xellennial, had not heard Xenninial yet. Impressed.

  • @Broda@szmer.info
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    11 day ago

    Picked one for free two years ago, works perfect, I buy pirated cartridges for like, 30$ per entire set, evep prints high quality photos…

  • Emily (she/her)
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    593 days ago

    I think, for me, owning a printer is like owning a van. You’re the only person your friends know who has one, so every time someone needs it you’re the one they ask.

    • Camelbeard
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      53 days ago

      Except for my wife and kids almost nobody knows I have one. But yes I have gotten pdfs from my mother in law to print.

  • @sunbytes@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    My local library has been getting refurbished for a couple of months.

    It’s really thrown off my ability to do paperwork, as they were the only people around with a working printer.

    I actually had to fix the printer at work. Horrible stuff.

    • @restingboredface@sh.itjust.works
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      32 days ago

      Ditto on libraries. Mine does AWESOME large format printing for next to nothing. I got 5 different sewing patterns printed, which ended up being 20 or so pages of 48"x48" sheets in color and it cost about $30. Priced it at fedex and it was running well over $100 (I think closer to 200 or 300 but I didn’t pay much attention after seeing how much it was at the libraries.

      I have a small Canon b/w laserjet at home which has worked well for small projects but the libraries have been a huge help for anything outside standard letter size print jobs.

  • @Nooodel@lemmy.world
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    62 days ago

    I just write the document by hand the one time a year I need a printer. Doesn’t work for everything but is good enough for lots of the stuff that still requires your signature in ink

    • @xor@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      12 days ago

      i just sign a piece of paper, take a picture then photoshop it into to a screenshot of the pdf, and slightly distort it and add noise to make it look like it was scanned….
      if they want me to physically mail the paper in, i just give up and move on.

  • Boomer Humor Doomergod
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    433 days ago

    I bought a Brother printer and an extra large toner cartridge a dozen years ago and it just sits there and prints things without any problems from any device on my WiFi.

    So invent a time machine and get a Brother from ten years ago is my advice.

    • @BossDj@lemm.ee
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      33 days ago

      Same. After years of replacing ink in the hp to do one print job, then letting it sit and dry out until it was time again. But now I’ve had that brother for a decade on the same toner