Laser printer: Brother vs Ricoh

[thanhhuy123]

In terms of Inkjet Printer, many people suggest Brother for 4-color inkjet printer due to its durability, CISS-ready in printer design, easy of refill, less clogging issues....

How about in the world of color/monochrome laser printer? I seek around and found that Brother and Ricoh and the 2 brands that offer separated toner and drum, and the (OEM) toner is priced quite reasonable (cheap, vs HP's and Canon's). For example: Ricoh SP210 and Brother HL-1201

Anyone has experience with Brother and Ricoh laser printer?

Thank you!

 

[Vorkolor]

I have no opinion on Ricoh printers, but I'm quite happy with my Brother DCP-9015DCW. It's not perfect, but it's a decent document printer and it's fairly easy to override the toner gauge when it reports empty too early..

 

[thanhhuy123]

I have no opinion on Ricoh printers, but I'm quite happy with my Brother DCP-9015DCW. It's not perfect, but it's a decent document printer and it's fairly easy to override the toner gauge when it reports empty too early..

Can you share your own experience, tips and tricks with Brother printers? Btw, do Brother printers use chip, something like on HP toner cartridges that every time I refill I need to replace the chip?

 

[Vorkolor]

I found the reset instructions here: http://www.inkowl.com/?p=tnreset

No chip, only a mechanical indicator that tells the printer that the toner cartridge is new. The starter cartridges don't have this indicator, but you can buy it for a few euros on ebay. It's supposed to be quite easy to install and reset, search for "tn-241 reset lever". However, this lever doesn't seem necessary to fiddle with as long as I can do the counter reset procedure above.

This is for TN-241/245 cartridges, I have no idea about other Brother cartridges.

According to internet searches the cartridges are also fairly easy to refill, but I have no plans to do so, as clouds of spilled toner can be hazardous as well as hard to clean up. Aftermarket cartridges exist for around half price of OEM, no idea how to judge their quality without risking the printer. I'm sticking with originals until the warranty expires.

My main gripe with the printer so far is that the manual paper feed tray has a very short shelf, so it's difficult to feed the paper straight. All of my prints on "special" paper so far (admittedly, only 5 or so sheets) have come out slightly crooked.

There's a rear exit port for envelopes and thick paper (to minimize the number of turns the paper takes in the printer, but it's only a small hatch, nothing to catch the paper when it comes out. It also makes it inconvenient to put the printer in a corner.