Laser Printer with Scan and Xerox (All in One Kind) - B&W ok, low maintenance preferred

raksrules

Elite
I am in market to buy a new laser printer with scan and xerox facility. I have never used laser printers ever. I know most are black and white ones and I am ok with that. I would prefer one with low maintenance in terms of refilling the toner and such. Don't want any DRM like those inkjet printers have which detect when someone is using 3rd party cartridges or refilled ink or something.

Please suggest which to buy and from where. I would probably prefer amazon or flipkart. Smaller size will be preferred. Don't want lot of fancy features.

Edit: I also see something about "ink tank" printers which are also monochrome laser and I have never heard about those. Anyone has any idea about it?
 
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, American variant


That's the one i have. Bought less than two years back. Price is the same i paid but i didn't get it from Amazon just called up Brother in my city and they delivered it in half hour.

The W at the end of the model# means wireless. There are models that don't have it and i wanted wifi connectivity. Very handy as it can be placed anywhere without a wired connection. Also I insisted on an ethernet option and this adds about 5k to the price. I was not sure where i would place it initially so near the router was one option and ethernet is more reliable than USB. Printers with USB only so no ethernet will be cheaper but then you either need to connect it to a laptop or a router that takes USB. How stable that configuration will be i didn't want to find out. I learnt in the modem days to hate USB and prefer ethernet for stability. Of course if they have wifi then that is also an option. Get a wifi capable printer. We're in the 21st century.

With lasers you get two types. Drum in the toner cartridge or separate drum. This is a separate drum kind. So toner is cheaper as there is no drum inside.

When the laser starts up its draws close to 2kW as it heats up the corona wire. So it needs to be on a circuit that can handle this load. After the print job is done it goes to sleep and remains connected to wifi. Wakes up on its own when a print or scan job is sent. It's quite convenient.

I've found the apps it comes with for the PC have more cofiguration options than the mobile app. At times you need to tweak contrast and brightness when doing scans so these settings are available with the PC app. For 600 x 600 dpi native scanning i'm happy with the results. Same applies to printing. More options on the PC side. I can print from mobile but the options there are basic.

It is a bit noisy when it works so keep that in mind. Does not trouble me but it will be louder than an ink jet. The build quality isn't all that great, its ok. It's workable and functional. If you can see the model in a shop and play with it to get a feel that is always best. Only then you will know how much noise it makes.

You did not mention how many pages you will be printing per month. That could affect your choice. My use is quite low, a few pages every few days then many weeks nothing and then again the same. I did not want the headache of inkjets getting jammed. Laser gets around this.

Apparently ink tanks are more resilient these days and you get a colour option too. I rarely need to print in colour so laser BW was good enough. I did look at colour lasers but they were not wifi and dropped the idea. I can always go to a print shop if colour is needed.
 
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Thanks I will check on this. I personally don't have much usage except occasional copy of documents for some or the other application or so but mostly used by dad for his printing stuff.
I would say my usage will be similar to yours.
 
I find my use is much more for photocopying than anything else. Its always cheaper to go to a shop for this than buy a printer but the convenience of having it at home is priceless.
 
I'm using the brother all in one for home printing too. I too brought laser as if not used regularly inkjet tends to clog up. Pretty happy with the purchase.
 
I have one sort of similar ones that @blr_p has recommened. MFC-7340 that I bought this 10 years ago and its still going strong. No maintainence or issues.
 
Brother DCP-1616NW Multi-function Printer. It's an all in one. Brought on flipkart for 10.5k about a year back. It's wifi so can print from mobile as well with the brother app
 
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Brother DCP-1616NW Multi-function Printer. It's an all in one. Brought on flipkart for 10.5k about a year back. It's wifi so can print from mobile as well with the britney app
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Brother DCP-1616NW Multi-function Printer. It's an all in one. Brought on flipkart for 10.5k about a year back. It's wifi so can print from mobile as well with the britney app

It appears that this is no longer available and as per Amazon, its successor is


This is 17.5K.
 
Brother DCP-1616NW Multi-function Printer. It's an all in one. Brought on flipkart for 10.5k about a year back. It's wifi so can print from mobile as well with the britney app
I don't remember seeing this model when i was looking in Nov 2017



Specs are quite similar. Mine has a backlit lcd display and looks like toner cartridges are higher capacity.
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Brother DCP-1616NW Multi-function Printer. It's an all in one. Brought on flipkart for 10.5k about a year back. It's wifi so can print from mobile as well with the britney app
What is britney app ?

Another quirk i notice is your printer can print using legal size paper but cannot scan legal size

My tray won't accept legal size paper
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An equivalent HP but without the document feeder


With document feeder


Toner cost


Cheaper if you get a two pack toner set

 
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I think i will be going with the below printer (sorry unable to post link in tapatalk for some reason)

IMG_0578.JPG


I see that using icici debit card EMI option, I can get Rs 1500 off I order in next 3 days.

Will this be a good buy?

It seems buying the non wireless will reduce cost by 5K so is there any jugaad to make the non wireless printer wireless with some gadget? I have a hootoo trip mate nano already if that can be put to any use.
 
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I think i will be going with the below printer (sorry unable to post link in tapatalk for some reason)

View attachment 81602

I see that using icici debit card EMI option, I can get Rs 1500 off I order in next 3 days.

Will this be a good buy?
This is the one i have. I'm happy with it. Since Nov 2017 you can see my use
brother log.JPGbrother log2.JPGbrother status.JPG

You will notice i got a drum error on pg. 285. Surprised when life is supposed to be 12k pages. I had to move a lever on the cartridge a few times to clear the corona wire. The problem recurred a few times again and then its been working fine since.

It seems buying the non wireless will reduce cost by 5K so is there any jugaad to make the non wireless printer wireless with some gadget? I have a hootoo trip mate nano already if that can be put to any use.
Does that device allow to be setup in bridge mode ? otherwise you would need to get a wifi bridge and hook it up to the ethernet port. This makes anything with an ethernet port accessible by wifi.


This tp-link device is not available these days. I'm not aware what its successor is. I would only do this is no wifi option at all is possible.

Built-in means fewer parts that can go wrong. Troubleshooting is easier. And the way this printer works, is its naps but is still listening to the network. The wifi is solid.

I did not order from amazon even though it was selling for 15k at the time as i preferred to go with a local seller.
 
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@blr_p

It seems the cheaper version is not even having ethernet so I cannot use any nano router etc which would enable me to convert into wireless. I may have to do with buying the wireless version itself.

Any cheaper wireless all in one laser out there or this is my best bet? Also the EMI thing may not work out afterall as my ICICI Card it says not eligible, not sure why.
 
@blr_p

For the brother printer I had mentioned, do I have to buy replacement toner only or I can get the existing toner refilled somehow for cheaper price?

Also for replacement, do I need to buy original brother toner cartridge or some other generic brand is ok?
 
I think i will be going with the below printer (sorry unable to post link in tapatalk for some reason)

View attachment 81602

I see that using icici debit card EMI option, I can get Rs 1500 off I order in next 3 days.

Will this be a good buy?

It seems buying the non wireless will reduce cost by 5K so is there any jugaad to make the non wireless printer wireless with some gadget? I have a hootoo trip mate nano already if that can be put to any use.
This is a very good model. Offline it goes lowest to 14k.

It has wifi, easily refillable. Has duplex. My friend is using it since 3-4yrs as a mini xerox machine. Works great. Very popular.

I have the cheaper model with just printer. Its amazing. I bring a 100 rs toner and refill + reset whenever required. Nothing beats it.


By refilling it yourself, you can save around 200 per refill and in a few yrs you'd save enough to get another one of these printers if your volume is high :D

The duplex works very well. I have printed documents with 500 pages in duplex (in bunch of 50 or 100s)
 
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We use Canon 244dw at work - has everything you need. Costs around 20k all inclusive and even has ADF scanning. Only negative is the usual chip cartridges and the toner change irritations.
 
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