[kwlug-disc] Brother Laser All-In-One, colour and monochrome

[Chris Irwin]

On Wed, Feb 10, 2021 at 11:31:07AM -0500, Federer Fanatic wrote:
>Any recommendations on best color laser printer that has an easy way to
>refill cartridges?
>It would seem there are no industry approved methods as they obviously want
>to recoup
>their loss when they sell printers so cheaply. I know of methods where one
>can put a hole
>in a cartridge and refill manually.

I've never bothered to investigate refilling lasers. As far as I know, 
it's as simple as opening (or cutting/melting a hole into) the toner 
cartridge, dumping new toner powder in, then capping the opening. 

If you are worried about consumable cost for special-purpose printing 
(i.e., high volume of 100% coverage colour photos) you probably don't 
want to look at a typical consumer laser printer anyway. There are 
printers targeting those markets (with refillable resivoirs, etc). They 
cost more than a printer from Best Buy, though.

That said, to get an idea of price vs refill for a consumer colour 
laser, I looked up my old brother HL-4040CDN:

I can order a remanufactured 5-pack of cartriges (2x Black, 1x each of 
C/M/Y) for $90, which are good for 10k pages in black (2x 5k) or 4k in 
colour. Or I can order the same amount of toner via refill kit for $35 

Sounds like a good deal for the refill kit until I remember that toner 
will last me over a decade. For me, I'd rather just pay and shove the 
new cartridge in every decade or two than fuss with a refill kit.

That's purely a YMMV situation though, as your printing might not match 
mine. I'm still on the original 1500 page cartridge in my Oki I bought 
eight years ago.

-- 
Chris Irwin

email:   chris at chrisirwin.ca
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