Replacement printer .

[Av Gorritt]

I'm currently using an HP officejet pro 6970 multi purpose inkjet printer , and a Brother colour laser HL 4150 CDN for general printing . The HP has gone T$ts-up and despite my efforts with HP print doctor and the HP support forum , I've had no success in fixing it . I'm now looking to bite the bullet and replace the pair with a multipurpose colour laser printer . I've been quoted for , and recommended to buy a Kyocera M5526 CDW . to do both jobs . Now - Question - has anybody used or had experience of such a printer - reliability , paper feed non jamming , print quality etc. BTW this quote was from "printerland " and comes with a 2 year on site warranty . £265.00 + vat. doesn't seem a bad price ? as long as the printer is OK . Anybody ?

 

[sjt01]

I'm currently using an HP officejet pro 6970 multi purpose inkjet printer , and a Brother colour laser HL 4150 CDN for general printing . The HP has gone T$ts-up and despite my efforts with HP print doctor and the HP support forum , I've had no success in fixing it . I'm now looking to bite the bullet and replace the pair with a multipurpose colour laser printer . I've been quoted for , and recommended to buy a Kyocera M5526 CDW . to do both jobs . Now - Question - has anybody used or had experience of such a printer - reliability , paper feed non jamming , print quality etc. BTW this quote was from "printerland " and comes with a 2 year on site warranty . £265.00 + vat. doesn't seem a bad price ? as long as the printer is OK . Anybody ?

We have been using Kyocera printers for many years. The one next to my computer was bought in 2007, a b&w multifunction. We also have a slightly younger colour FS-C5150DN. from 2013. We use cheap remanufactured toner from Cartridge Save, no other costs than paper. We had to retire a 15 year old Kyocera a couple of years ago as the paper pickup rollers had some wear, but that was still pretty good. With that experience I will not contemplate other brands.

 

[upnortheast]

As usual with printers more important than purchase price is running costs. Adverts often quote an ink cost per page.

 

[snarling bee]

We have a Kyocera M5526. Can't say I would recommend it. Bought about 6 months ago. Print cost and quality is good, but the interaction with the PCs and laptops is in the dark ages. Had to have our 'computer man' out to sort it as our collective minds were stuck. Even he was tearing his hair out at one point. He recommended an HP. Just buy a good one.

 

[J B]

Why do you need another printer?
What won't the existing Brother one do?

 

[Timbo]

The brother is a colour laser which will be £hundreds cheaper to run than any inkjet.

 

[Av Gorritt]

Right -- the existing Brother laser printer is only "colour /B and W / print " and will not scan or copy , but has given yeoman service over it's life - and VERY easy to operate as well . This was why I told the salesman that whilst it was not set in stone , I would prefer another Brother , but with the demise of my inkjet printer/ scanner / copier , it would need to be multi- functional . He still quoted and recommended the Kyocera one . I have read a few comments , assessments, reports on this one , and the reading puts me right off . I think I would need a degree in IT technology to operate it , with the different settings , codes , re- settings etc ---- I don't think so . I need a printer that prints when I press the print button , copies when I press the copy button , and likewise scan . surely that isn't asking too much ? So I'm back in Brother territory again . I've looked at a Brother 3770 but that is a bit oversize for my "man - cave" and probably a bit OTT as well , for the job it has to do . Again , one of the advantages or the Brother Marque is that they seem to thrive on non- OE cartridges / toner cassettes , they JFDI without fuss , which is more than can be said for the likes of Epson etc. So ------- ?

 

[Steevo]

You won’t go wrong with Brother!

 

[milkloss]

I have a 3150 brother and the fuser roller is slowly disintegrating so printing Braille as well!

I was considering a brother multifunction based on the old printer...... should be good.

 

[J B]

Have you considered keeping the Brother and just getting another 'cheap and cheerful' all-in-one inkjet
This one is thirty quid

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/6514222

 

[Av Gorritt]

I wonder if a current Brother could be bought with the same toner cartridges as those used in the one I have .? I ask because I have a full set of toners on the shelf , and it would be a bonus if the toners were compatible .

 

[Av Gorritt]

Best solution of all . I'd despaired of getting a reply from the HP support forum , but last night one of HP employees came up with a complete delete and re-install , with step by step instructions . these amounted to a full page of closely typed "how to's" . I printed it out (on the laser !) and very carefully followed it through . It worked - I even printed a photo on it when I was away from home ! (not that I normally want to do that , but just to see if it would)

 

[Av Gorritt]

Well, that didn't last long ! It's printing colour items now , but not black . I've "relocated" the black cartridge , it shows half full now , but it showed exactly the same before . I've tried several times to get it to clean printheads but it won't do that at all , and I've got a sheaf of test printouts with the 4 colour blocks OK but with no Black items at all . So , I'll have just one more go at the HP support forum , and after that if there's no success , it's the bin !

 

[Av Gorritt]

Just to put an ending to this problem . I had another go at "clean printheads " which for some reason wouldn't work before . This time it did work , but I had to go to the third level of cleaning , with much buzzing and to-ing and fro-ing and finally the test print came out in good order . It prints , scans and copies too , so I'm back on the road again , but we'll see for how long it continues . Good job I don't have a job to do as well

 

[Av Gorritt]

That didn't last long either . Back to square one again . that's final - I'm considering it knackered and I'll replace it - should have done that in the first place , it would have saved me a lot of paper , never mind anything else .

 

[gmgmgm]

How much do you scan and copy, and to what quality? I don't need to do it very often, and an app on my phone (GeniusScan) does that very well, to a good enough quality for even lawyers. The app then prints straight to my Brother colour laser, from my phone.

If you /need/ another printer, I'd get another Brother with scanner etc. "MFD. Brother have generally good running costs compared to others.

 

[JeepJeep]

Have you tried cleaning the jets with the fluid? I used rubbing alcohol a couple of times on the Epson and it worked for a while then the 3rd time it went in the bin at 9 month old and bought the Brother laser.

 

[Av Gorritt]

There's only so much you can do with a printer that won't behave . I would do a "printhead clean" and it would be OK for a short time , then another clean - two or three times up to the 3rd stage even , and again OK for a time , then back to printing half a doc. and missing the rest . I decided that the black printhead was knackered after a deskful of test printouts that were rubbish , and spending too much frustrating time on it. There's a new one on the way for Monday morning , and I've gone against ALL my best advice and ordered an updated HP Multi function inkjet - I have to say if it does as well as the one it will be replacing , it will probably see my time out , and I've kept my Brother colour laser printer . We'll see !

 

[JeepJeep]

I used to set mine to do printhead cleans wouldn't work half the time... There are tiny nozzles that clog I used to blast them through with rubbing alcohol and it would sort it out..

Was normally on a Monday after it had sat idle for the weekend it would play up. They're busy during the week

Hope the new one does the job for you.

 

[Av Gorritt]

Did you fill an empty cartridge with alcohol to do that ? I agree that , like many other items of equipment that we deal with , lack of use is almost as damaging as overuse .