It feels surreal just printing stuff without guilt or drama. 10/10 highly recommend.
Wifi died on mine, so no malware updates for me woohoo!
this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2025
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Brother is the way to go. They just work.
Careful, they used to, older models are still primo, but don't get a new one, company decided they would go full ink monopoly, anti repair and everything
https://consumerrights.wiki/Brother_ink_lockout_%26_quality_sabotage
Mixed messages coming from this write up.
well this is just great, literally yesterday I upgraded to a new Brother printer after 14 years with my old HP laser printer. I may have to consider returning but damn I'm so happy finally having automatic duplex printing and scanning. Honestly the amount they are pushing a subscription toner service had me kinda skeptical already, just seemed really weird from a company everyone has been touting as so consumer friendly
Yeah printer at work suddenly decided it would not work unless there was oem brother cartridge in it. It was printing fine with third party ink the day before.
I recommended Brother to everyone and now BAM ! No more good company out there.
Oh no, just got one similar to OP’s but the MFC series with extra copy/scan features after a great experience with the old equivalent Brother model I had for about 20 years with near zero problems!
I realized the new model was surprisingly cheap and with features I always wanted on the old one (which was now starting to show its age in a few ways), so I made the upgrade. Hope I won’t regret it.
Oh, brother
Hell yeah Brother!
Should've bought a measuring tape first lmao.
Get sticker paper, now anything you want is a sticker.
lol. The wife has a cricut. The reason I’m just now getting a laser printer is because we needed an inkjet so she could make her custom stickers.
Weird, I bought the sticker paper years before I got my laser printer because it said it was for ink jet. The ink jet stickers always smudged or ran. Once I got a laser printer, I tried printing a sticker and it worked great. No smudging or running.
TIL sticker paper would work in a laser printer. I just sort of assumed the heat+adhesive would cause problems.
The trick is to make sure it takes the "flattest" route - ie. use the manual feed tray. Also make sure duplex is switched off if you have it, I think I've made that mistake before.
Protip - if it's a networked printer, fuck with it's DNS/IP gateway settings or block it at your firewall. Brother was accused of pushing firmware that locks out 3rd party cartridges .
My network gateway is actually 10.0.0.1 but I configured the printer's gateway for 10.0.0.254 - that way any attempts to leave the 10.0.0.0/24 network will fail.
I've blocked outgoing access on router level, two clicks and done.
I bought an ink tank brother, you just put ink in the tank, no DRM possible baby
Brother has enshittified and their inkvestment "ink tanks" aren't actually ink tanks at all, just ink cartridges with DRM chips. You cannot refill them with generic ink.
Actual ink tanks are Canon MegaTank, Epson EcoTanks, and HP Smart Tank, which explicitly allow you to refill with generic ink. Ink Tank printers do however require maintenance/replacement of a waste pad (basically a sponge).
Of the three, Canon's Megatanks don't have a waste pad at all and just randomly dump ink so you have to throw the printer out, Epson offers a replacement with a DRM chip (although cheap), and in a rare HP win the waste pads for their Smart Tanks are user serviceable (albeit somewhat labour intensive).
My laser printer also doesn’t fit on my shelves haha. I feel like we are slightly tweaked dimensional variants of each other.
It wouldn’t be so bad if the power cord didn’t stick straight out the back
They make 90° power cables.
They even sell them.
I've got the same one. Brother printer brothers 🤙
Mine live inside a cupboard next to the desk with a hole drilled in the back of the cupboard for cables. Stays neatly tucked away.
That, or you both got your shelves from Ikea, in a flash of household genius
In the past 15 years I've had two brother laser printers. I gave the first one sway because my wife needed a scanner so we bought a combo unit. That old one is still going strong at a friend's house.
My brother laser printer was literally a barn find, still works great.
Found Lexmark 3426adw in a warehouse of a company that sells used hotel stuff. It has a defect where it would bend a piece of paper ever so slightly across whole page hence the price of 30 euro. Still prints perfect. It has been a year since this find and I am still hyped of buying it.
My Brother in Brother. Welcome. You purchased the dullest printer. It is glorious
My wife got that exact printer free through work. She was very confused about my excitement
I bought a Brother multifunction printer. It's ace! It just works, even scanning just works. It can even scan directly to email, and print from email.
I had so many problems with my last printer. I was very surprised when the new Brother printer worked out of the box with Linux. I even got it to scan to NAS with minimal effort.
Is it a brand new Brother printer? Or a second hand one?
I swore by Brother printers for years. They were far and away above other brands. But I heard somewhere that their new models over the last few years have been going down the same enshitification route of other brands. Locking down features, forcing users to change cartridges prematurely, etc.
Depends on whether it’s a consumer-level product or one marketed to big business. This goes for other brands, as well. For example, I have a color HP laser printer that I love. It’s a whole different type of product than their absolute crap consumer inkjet products.
There's still fuckery afoot in HP's lineup. You really need to find the sweet spot of a unit that's old enough to predate their BS with non-HP toner, but new enough that consumables and parts are still readily available.
I rescued from e-waste a CP5225dn (2012 model, though mine was manufactured in 2017); an A3 colour printer with network (10/100, baby) and automatic duplex. It's not blazingly fast, but it has enough features, consumables are still readily available, and the print quality is honestly quite respectable.
As for firmware updates? Well there hasn't been one of those since 2015. Pretty sure they're not about to start releasing new versions now :)
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I come into contact with a lot of residential printers. By no means an expert.
Brother ones like this are fucking tanks. They still try and push the subscription ink on you but it's no where near as forced as HP. Good on mobile and PC.
love the consistency of brother. Those old hps are incredible though.
I need to try cannon. Know a lady who has one with no issues no frills but unsure of their current monetization practices
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F'n Legend!
USB "B" only
That right there is the Rolls-Royce of printers!!!!
Now you're making me think of my Samsung laser printer. That was good machine.
Brøther, may I print some?
Go get an exhaust filter to have less contamination in the room.
I have to check if this is a dodgy printer. Any opinions from anybody I'd like to hear.
Don't know about the printer but that pile of paper next to it is covered with creepy crawlies.
Any opinions about the printer*****
Well, it's not a particularly good-looking printer, that's all I can say.
Make sure it's in a less-trafficked area. Laser printers emit clouds of microscopic toner particles when they're printing. It's as bad for your lungs as secondhand smoke.
I'm still on a Laserjet 4P. I'll probably cry the day it dies.
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