As a general tip: Unless you absolutely need color printing, always, always buy laser printers. Toner is much cheaper than ink, lasts longer, doesn't dry out, quality and print speed is much higher and the printers generally last much longer. Brother is a solid choice, and I'd stick with them unless you have specific reasons to choose something else. Maybe the MFC-L2820DW if money is not an object or you need the features, or HL-L2460DW if you're looking for a solid budget option and don't need anything fancy.
this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2026
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Deshittification
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State of affairs for technology seem bad? But what is being done to change it? And what could be done by you so it changes at least for yourself?
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There might be an echo in here, but Brother laser printer is the way to go. I've had mine for at least 15 years and the only complaint is deep sleep mode caused wireless printing issues until I figured out how to turn it off.
EcoTank printers. I bought one (an Epson) 7 years ago (maybe 8), and filled it up with liquid ink. I've refilled it once since, and that refill cost me under $50 total. It has some quirks, but it just keeps printing. Don't know if the tech has changed, but I don't see how you can DRM liquid.
I looked at these when replacing my HP, but they're still inkjets, right? We don't print often enough to keep inkjets operational--the ink dries and permanently clogs the head. I tried manually clearing that on my last one and was completely unsuccessful. It's been lasers ever since then.
This one seems to work even with weeks of no printing.
Laser printers are far better all around, if you can stomach the up front cost.
I just pulled a totally functional Brother laser printer out of a dumpster, half full of toner and a good drum. It /just worked/. I cannot imagine who would just toss a working laser printer into a dumpster like that. For me, this was of course the best possible option.
But I must say inkjets have an advantage no one ever acknowledges:
Inkjets use much less energy. They are the green choice. Of course, only if you’re not going through disposable cartridges that only hold 4ml and waste 2ml in cleaning. Hence why the Epson Ecotanks are a sweetspot of sorts.
/cc @Korval@lemmy.today (not sure if notifications go to parent of parent comments)
Companies toss old working items because they have no process to be able to sell them, even if it's worthwhile. And even if they did, lawyers would kill the idea because of liability (somehow). Ditto with any kind of donation arrangement.
TL/DR: lawyers are the leading source of corporate e-waste.
I suspect the dumping was illegal in my area. It was a legit dumpster, but e-waste has a specific disposal procedure. So the incentive for corps is to avoid fines.
But in the case at hand, it was a dumpster in front of an apartment building. It was full of furniture and other household waste.
Around here students dump a lot of stuff. They can't be bothered to move it, so they toss it, not even trying to use proper process or recover any funds. Depressing.
If not Brother, I like my Epson ET-38XX. The 28XX series are also nice. Tanks and refillable. Super efficient on ink and good output. No weird shit. Just works.
Epson will say it's out of ink when it's not just so you have to buy more. It's enshittified too. Also, I bout a nice one and it was broken within a week. That was about 10 years ago though.
okay. that sucks for you.
I've been using mine for years. no issues.
That must be a model-specific enshitification. If the tanks are refillable (as @orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com says), then why would it matter?
I have not used an ecotank, but my local dollar store type of place sells a full set of generic ecotanks (45ml per tank) for less than a Big Mac. So it seems the Ecotanks avoid the shenannigans.
The Ecotanks are efficient and in two years, I've filled mine exactly once... That was last week.
like suggested already: go for laser B&W. I am on the Brother team: they're much cheaper and very reliable (I replaced mine ~2 years ago after 15+ years using the previous Brother). And it this new one can still work with third party toners.
When I need to print in colors, which is rare to be honest, I just go make those prints to a copy shop. It's much cheaper than having to purchase a printer and overpriced ink. And I don't have to worry about cleaning it either.