[cups] New Printer Recommendation

[Gene Heskett]

On Monday 19 March 2018 08:14:33 Aaron Laws wrote:

> I have a Brother MFC-J625DW. In the last week or so, it stopped
> printing magenta. I replaced the cartridge, ran a clean cycle a couple
> times, etc. I use third-party ink cartridges (but I don't refill). I'm
> ready to buy a new printer (please let me know if you have any
> suggestions that take less than 4 hours for a noob that have some
> chance of success!).
>
> What should I get? I'm looking for GNU/Linux compatibilty, and low
> cost per page. This Brother is *very* low cost per page with
> third-party cartridges. Beats laser printers even with Official
> Brother ink cartridges, but with third-party cartridges, it leaves
> them in the dust.
>
> I'm looking at
> https://www.thinkpenguin.com/catalog/printer-all-one-gnulinux which
> seems promising. I understand that HP, Brother, and perhaps Epson are
> particularly GNU/Linux friendly. What else should I know?
>
Those are friendly, but my last epson ink squirter only lasted a couple 
months, head failure using genuine epson inks.

I currently have a couple brothers, an HL2140 b&w laser, on its 4th 
toner, probably 20,000 pages on it. 19 pages a minute, using brothers 
own drivers, it just works.

And because I needed a bigger printer, I also have an Brother MFC-J6920, 
scanner/copier/printer that can handle 11x17 tabloid paper although hand 
feeding it is a PITA. A color inkjet printer, can do duplex on some 
papers but is fussy about the paper, and just over one letter sized page 
face a minute, so its much slower than the cheap laser. Over a year old 
now, and early in its 2nd tanks of genuine brother inks, I've had to 
clean its head 2 cycles so far. Probably 6 reams of paper thru it.

I also have a failed corona wire voltage generator in HL3170CDW color 
laser on the floor behind me, and brother refuses to sell me the circuit 
board to repair it.

I am a C.E.T. and I'll repair it and put it back in service if I don't 
fall over first. Since I'm already 83, thats a possibility. I've already 
had my 10 minute warning buzzer, I've survived a pulmonary embolism 3 
years ago. Thats usually fatal.

It was a good printer for several years but at way too much for toner 
carts.  The cost for tanks for the 6920 are about the same for all 4 
tanks as one toner cart for the 3170. And they are bigger, much longer 
lasting tanks than epson has ever sold, so its per page cost is low. Its 
slow for sure, and the glossy paper I keep in the upper drawer, is side 
sensitive. Both sides LOOK identically glossy, but one side makes a 
great color print, the other seems to get 10x too much ink, puddling and 
bleeding something terrible. What the diff is, I've no clue, but the 
printer sure knows, and no markings on the ream to show good/bad sides.

The scanner has a 11x17 glass, and an adf. Color copies are great.

Would I buy it again? Yes.

> I'm of the opinion that the best person to ask about the quality of a
> machine is the repairman, and this list does a lot of GNU/Linux
> printer "repair" (configuration)!
>
> Thanks!
>
> In Christ,
> Aaron Laws
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-- 
Cheers, Gene Heskett
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>