Need Recommendations for a Printer (Work from Home)

Hi Everyone,

We’ve had a brother laser printer and it has finally broken down. Lasted for like 7+ years. It only printed back and white.

Now looking for a new one and need some advice.

I work from home 2-3 days a week and do use the print to print documents for my appointments. These documents are not in colour. I won’t say I print a very high amount of pages but definitely more than a normal person would use the printer.

This time I am also looking for the printer to print in colour. It’ll be good for my 6 year old for school activities.

It’ll great if the printer has wifi printing capabilities. Would love to print straight from laptop, Mac or mobile devices. No connecting of cables and all. That would be good.

Double sided printing function would be great to have. Will save cost on the paper.

Last thing, cheap ink replacement is a must.

Do you think I can get one under $250?

Any recommendations form your experiences?

Thanks.

Comments

  • +1

    Do you need a scanner? Or ADF? (I actually use these features alot)

    $250 is plenty of budget for an all-in-one unit and you'll get those features.

    I personally use an old Epson Workforce WF-3530 but there are much newer versions of the same thing in the <$150 range. Prints fast enough, double sided, supports printing straight from phone/PCs without setup over wifi, plenty of cheap ink, etc…

    Only downsides would be it's quite bulky given it's a home office printer (two paper trays, scanner, ADF) and it's also still an inkjet printer and not a laser printer.

    • Oh yes, totally forgot to mention that it should have a scanner and photo copier too.

      I checked few Epsons online last night. Too many options and got confused but good to hear they are nice.

  • +1

    I have a Canon mb5640
    I like it's double side single pass scan

    • Ok will check it out thanks.

  • +1

    No such thing as cheap ink.

    • Umm ya Ofcourse.

  • +1

    Colour is going to be the decisive feature that will eliminate a lot of good options or increase the price you'll need to pay. For work printing I would highly recommend sticking with laser (what you're used to). Toners are far better. Going back to inkjet just for random colour school printing (which will probably never occur) will just increase your per page cost, annoy you when printing large documents and reintroduce all the pitfalls of ink (cartridges drying up, wastage, streaking etc). Going Mono laser will be significantly cheaper.

    Brother DCP-L3510CDW $357
    https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/brother-co…
    will tick all your boxes and accepts cheap generic toners - just don't upgrade the firmware.

    As a curveball consider going paperless. My workplace and previous workplace implemented these schemes and 99.9% of tasks could be achieved with a decent tablet, laptop and email.

  • +1

    I got the HP Colour LaserJet Pro MFP M181fw @Officeworks for under $300.
    Made officeworks to price match a computer store who had it for just over $300.
    https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/hp-laserje…

    Currently Megabuy have it for $309.
    https://www.megabuy.com.au/hp-t6b71a-m181fw-mfc-p855262.html

    • Thanks will check it out.

  • +1

    How about HP Colour Laser MFP 179fnw Printer?

    It's about $300 or less. We have used HP's MFP printer at office for more than 15 years and one of their colour lasers as long, never had an issue.

    Replacement toners about $20 or so.

    • Thanks will check it out.

  • +2

    I have Brother HL-L3230CDW which I bought from ebay for $259 during one of the 20% off sales. Couldn't be happier with it.

    • +1

      Agree. Go Brother laser. I would never trust any other printer brand.

    • is the ink cheap?

      • No. But it lasts bloody ages (I think one toner can print 2000 pages).

  • I would assume that you would be looking for a laser printer as a replacement?

  • May I bump this and ask if anyone has seen any good deals on mono laser printers having popped up for click frenzy?

  • Keen to know what you end up buying ? I’m in same boat now

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