Completely agree. HP printers are bloatware driven garbage. Brother is definitely a very cheap feeling printer and plastic is ubiquitous in the construction, but you know what? They’re cheap! And they have a simple driver that just lets me print without trying to interact with me like a 6 year old child with ADD. HP used to be the gold standard in laser printers. Now, I honestly wouldn’t take one for free.
My current printer is an Epson WorkForce Pro. It is an inkjet but I’ve noticed no difference from a cost or usability perspective over my previous laser printer. It was relatively easy to setup for WiFi use and prints from iDevices painlessly if you need it to.
I’ve been very happy with my Brother laser printers for many years.
Here’s a reason to avoid HP lasers.
"On September 13, owners of HP OfficeJet, OfficeJet Pro and OfficeJet Pro X began contacting third-party ink vendors by the thousand, reporting that their HP printers no longer accepted third-party ink.
“The last HP printer firmware update was pushed in March 2016, and it appears that with that update (or possibly an earlier one), HP had set a time-bomb ticking in its customers’ printers counting down to the date when they’d begin refusing to follow their owners’ orders.”
Inkjets are just awful for home use, really. Unless you are printing constantly, the dry air and household dust just seem to be a recipe for constant nozzle blockage, which wastes a lot of ink.
I experimented with refillable cartridges and continuous ink systems to try to make the cost of waste ink acceptable, but even then, it seems to be damn near impossible to maintain quality output from an inkjet across any span of time.
I eventually plumped for a Brother all-in-one colour laser (DCP-9020CDW) - it’s a bit of a beast (smallish for a laser, but much bigger than most inkjets), but it has been an absolute joy in terms of reliability - my kids print their college work to it and it just works. Previously, I always had to intervene because their prints came out with bands, or no yellow, or whatever.
‘Entry level’ laser printers can be quite expensive on toner, as they are starting to follow the inkjet model (cheapish printer, small, pricey cartridges), but In terms of durability and reliability of printing, they beat inkjets hands down. Photo printing onto glossy media is about the only remaining bastion of inkjet superiority now.
We have an Epson MFP and the temptation to throw it through the windows of an Epson distributor is hard to overcome. It is positively rare for it not to need ink. It seems to manage to use large amounts of ink (presumably for cleaning) even if you don’t print. Its software refuses to work with 3rd party inks reliably. Its driver software is less like printer driver software and more like inviting a particularly noxious and persistent Epson ink salesman into your home. It will not print if any ink is too low, which leads to the common occurrence of not being able to print a b&w page of text because the cyan is too low, or whatever.
I wouldn’t buy another Epson even if it were the best product on the market, as a matter of principle (and rage).
I too am very happy with my Brother DCP-9020CDW laser. I have a vague recollection of my recommending it to Mangetout or maybe he recommended it to me. It sits in the corner and prints perfectly every time.
We have a Brother HL-2270DW. Had it for 5 years. Never had any issues - not even a paper jam, as far as I can recall. Toner replacement is very simple - it’s just a big cartridge you replace, no potential for mess. It’s monochrome only, but it has wifi, and it has duplex (double sided) printing.
I’ve had MFDs in the past, but for scanning, my Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner is far better.
I can’t remember either, but yeah - nice, reliable printer. It does duplex printing too.
I bought a Panasonic laser printer in 1990 that lasted 14 years and replaced it with a Brother that is now in its 12th year.
At one point I needed color printing for a project; bought a Canon Pixma … went through the initial cartridge set in less than two weeks, replacement cartridges cost $99 and lasted three weeks. When the project was done the printer went on curb for trash pickup.
To put it as simply as possible:
[ul]
[li]If you need color, go with inkjet[/li][li]If you don’t need color, absolutely go with laser[/li][/ul]
And in regards to inkjets, never, ever, ever buy cheap, Chinese knock-off cartridges, you will always regret it. They leak, they smudge, they dry out, the printer can’t sense the ink level accurately, they’re just not worth it. And name brand inkjet cartridges have come down a lot in price (online).
Color laser is the best of both worlds, but, they are expensive. Both the cost of the printer itself and, even more, the consumables (toner carts). All toner cartridges have the print roller built into them which is why they aren’t cheap. And color laser printers use four toner cartridges*!!*
My cheap Brother 2200 DW black-and-white laser printer has served admirably over the course of 6 years, 3 high-capacity toner cartridges, and most of a case of paper. Total cost has been about $250, for 3000-4000 mostly double sided pages. Never gives any trouble.
Under $350, with free shipping. UPS says it’s a 90 pound package. :eek:
I’m not seeing a lot of love for Canon in this thread.
But the replacement cartridges for that color laser printer will end up costing more than the printer did.
My experience with Canon printers and AIOs (inkjet) is excellent. Quite reliable and good quality output, and the bundled software (as of the last one) was very good. But as has been said, you need to have the sort of usage that can justify it. (No experience with Canon lasers. )
Thanks everyone. Who would have thought printers would generate so much discussion? 
I bought a Brother mono laser printer this morning. It does duplex and has WiFi as well. I’ve printed a few items, and it seems to do the job without any fuss.
Thanks for all the recommendations.
Just so you know: Epson now makes a line of printers that have inkwells instead of cartridges. One bottle of ink will last for about a year, depending on how much printing you do. The printers are more expensive than your normal cartridge printer, but the cost is defrayed by not having to constantly buy refills.
That’s a slight exaggeration. A full four-cartridge replacement on my MFP is about 2/3 of the initial price of the printer. But (A) you almost never have to replace all cartridges at the same time, (B) you can find them at discounts all the time, and (C) you’ll actually get the full use of the toner cartridge, unlike throwing away a full ink cartridge because the heads irreparably clogged again.
Inkjet is a fool’s bargain.
I’m not arguing for inkjet printers. It’s just that based on what I’ve seen at work, the replacement cartridges for the color laser printers are astonishingly expensive.
Cartridges are how the manufacturers make their money. They’re always expensive. That’s why you look at the cost per page as well as the initial cost of the printer.
Does it dim the lights in half the house when it spools up? Or do I have a ground problem in mine 
The Brother mono lasers get the job done. Sure they lack bells and whistles and the case tends to feel rattly, but as a rule you don’t need to have a cage fight with your system to make the drivers play nice, it warms up and becomes ready to print promptly from sleep, the Brother brand is stable enough that you can reliably get consumables, and the more inexpensive ones are cheap enough that if they fail to give you 5+ years’ service you won’t feel so bad about replacing.
…
Going back over inkjets… IME the old HP Deskjets were great, but at some point in this century HP messed up a good thing; plus of course there’s the nonsense with programming the gear to make generic reloads unwelcome. Their MFPs OTOH have repeatedly failed to cooperate with my various systems (making it so I always went back to Canons).
I tended to prefer inkjets that put the inks in plain tanks rather than printheaded cartridges. But the experience of having the onboard inkfeed for one particular color fail, requiring actual servicing/replacing made me wonder how much was that worth it. While at it, I definitely prefer separate CMYK tanks rather than BW/Color so that I can replace what does run out when it does run out, but I’m not at all pleased with the ones that won’t print if even one of the colors is out or too low.