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Comment by pdog | Hacker News Reader

The Wirecutter[1] is a site that lists the best technology to buy. Like this article, it answers the question, "What is the best ____?". I wonder how the Hewlett-Packard Pro P1606dn competes with the Brother HL-2270DW[2].

[1]: http://thewirecutter.com/

[2]: http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/brother-hl-2270dw-best-lase...

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The HL-2270 was the first printer I had ever felt I needed to evangelize for. It was so good, so cheap, and had just the right features. Printed quick, toner lasted forever, toner was surprisingly cheap ($40 for 4k pages), auto duplex, wireless. Set up and forget about it until you need it.

So good. Replacement toner is $25 and there's a reset procedure available for the included cheapie-cartridge. What's more, you can print from Android, iOS, Win and Mac no problem. All for just over a hundred bucks. I own one, bought one for my fiancee and her brother. They love 'em.

I ran a HL-2070N from 2005 to 2013 when it finally died, my only question when buying a new printer was which one of Brother's budget laser printers supported double-sided printing. Went with the HL-2270DW, couldn't be happier.

I gave the old one to my 8-year-old son to disassemble. He demonstrated what finally failed was one of the platens had actually separated from glue holding it to the axle. It was orange foam rubber, still pretty soft, I think it was for post-heating press.

I've bought the (cheaper? uglier?) cousin of the 2270, the HL-2170W. It's a fantastic printer with a 'good enough' web UI for configuration. Works for months without grief.

Have an upvote for brother love.

Edit: Curiosity got the best of me. The 2270 is the new version of the 2170. Adding automatic duplex, dual simultaneous networking, faster printing, and... that's about it. Not quite worth the upgrade, but when mine dies it's good to know there will be a replacement available.

Brother seems to have picked up where HP left off about a decade ago. I bought my wife one of the low-end lasers when she started law & grad school. She ran through about 10k pages/year (she'd even print front/back/upside down to "save" on paper) which was about 1.5 cartridges. It doesn't jam, it doesn't make noise except when printing, although it does take a few seconds to warm up from sleep.

I think we've been on the same cartridge since she graduated several years ago. I usually two-bag consumables, so there may be a really sludgy unopened cartridge in a closet.

Had it been expensive, I'd say you get what you pay for, but I don't think it was over $300 or $400 at the time.

I bought a Brother HL-5140 back in 2004 which cost me around GBP200.00 including taxes. It's still going strong with 7000 pages printed so far. I managed to squeeze out just under 5k pages on the original toner cartridge with some judicious horizontal shaking despite the lifespan stated in the manual as ~3500 pages.

I've only replaced the toner cartridge once (cost: GBP ~50.00) and the "new" one still has another 2500-3000 impressions left.

The diagnostics report that drum is still good for another 13k pages, the fuser for 73k pages and the and the "PF KIT 1" (I think that's the paper lift foot) for 43k pages.

I would definitely go back and buy another HL series of similar capability, they're damn fine work horses.

I bought the HL-2270DW based on the Wirecutter's recommendation. It's fine for the price, but it has a LOT of fan noise, which means it's mostly turned off in my home office. It's also pretty bad at printing dark images (lots of white stripes in the black).

Wow, what a great site. Thanks!

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