In October 2005, I bought a Brother 2070 monochrome laser printer. It was not my first laser printer or the first one that I bought from Brother, but it was the first one that I bought from them that was network ready. This printer was actually a high quality printer capable of printing at 2400 DPI, all for the amazingly low price of $135. And this would be a great story, in and of itself, and I would indeed stop right here except for one thing. Brother follows the HP model of marketing. That is, the printer itself is inordinately cheap in comparison to the consumables that are required to make the printer work. As I stated earlier, the printer itself cost $135, but the toner cartridges cost $45.00 and prints about 2,000 sheets. The replacement drum cost $90.00 and it’s only good for 12,000 sheets. Over the last four years, actually 3 ½ years, I have replaced the drum and bought about eight cartridges. Last Saturday the little drum light came on and told me that it was time to replace the drum – again. At that point, I threw my hands in the air and said no – not this time.
Last Saturday, I went to Best Buy and replaced my 2070 laser printer with the Brother 2170 wireless laser printer. This printer is also network ready and has the ability to be printed to wirelessly (a feature I will never use). Now the truth be told, the only reason I bought this printer is because I got a great deal on it. The purchase price was $109. The replacement drum and the toner cartridges are about the same price as the other printer. So, in the long run, the cost of operating this printer will be about the same as the one it’s replacing.
There was one thing that caught me off-guard about this new printer. It was surprisingly more difficult to set up that I had anticipated and I only got the advertise speed of 23 pages a minute after I’d turned off some of the inexplicable options that have been turned on by default such as IP v6, FTP, IPP and telnet.
I’m keeping in mind that I’ve only had the printer for a week, but I’m very happy with it and intend to follow the same fiscal course that I followed with my previous printer. That is, when I have to buy a second drum for this machine I will replace it. Here’s hoping that I won’t have to replace it for some time to come.