what's a durable yet inexpensive printer these days?

I have and use a Brother laser printer, for over ten years now. A year or two ago, after quite a few reams of printouts, I had to replace the original toner cartridge that came with it. The only other care and feeding it has needed is a periodic dusting and refilling the paper tray when empty. The print quality has always been quite good, and printing is speedy.

Laser printers do require a large amount of power (for short periods of time), and many recommend against running from an inverter or through a UPS.

Nothing but Brother laser printers for me. Can get knock off toner for $10. My ink jets have all clogged after being left in the coach.

Never had any toner jump out of it, never had one break from bouncing down the road. After all it survived a ride in a container on a ship, then being loaded in a commercial truck bouncing down the road and then roughly handled by some monkey at the loading dock at the store. Living in my RV is dream for the printer.

I did have a hard drive die in a 12 year old Mac die from bouncing down the road.

Seeing where this thread is going, I would not recommend any laser printer for use in a RV (and I don't think that was the original question). Laser printers are not meant to be shaken, and their power needs are hard on the limited power availability typical of RVs. For RV use, an inkjet that packages new print heads with each ink supply, and if you don't use the printer regularly, expect to replace cartridges often. My experience here is mostly Canon and HP. I liked the office grade HP printers in the Deskjet 930 series (they shared cartridge tech with the 36-inch plotters we used to print 200-500 fett of maps per day) but I can no longer find drivers and the cartridges are starting to get scarce and very expensive.

Here, we are trying to sort out the difference between "durable," the original question, and "rugged," the mobile printer issue. There are inkjet printers designed specifically for mobile use, they travel well but are relatively expensive to use and are slow compared to office grade inkjet printers.

Our Canon pixma mx882 is five years old
The ink cartridges cost more than I like
But the printer has been perfect, been cross country and back, survived rough roads with no ink leaks, sometimes sets for months unused, then I will print a batch pictures and disc Labels , never a problem
Best printer I've had

color lasers rattling down the road will dump toner inside them as well. Not as messy as wet ink, but still messy.

Inkjets might be cheap to buy, but once you start making payments on the ink cartridges you'll wish you had a laser.

So it really depends on how much you print. Personally, I like the Inkjets that when you replace the ink, you also replace the head. Bit more expensive, but they tend to last longer. I bought into the Epson printers when they came out with there nice inkjets where you only replaced the ink cartridge. Problem was, once the head got clogged, it was a throw-away printer.

i am bookmarking this link for me & martha in future and, again, thanks.

i just found out my sister never checked email and bought another HP inkjet from costco. at least they said it was a satisfaction guaranteed item for whatevr that means

I went through a few color ink-jet printers. We do not print often, so the nozzles would clog or ink dry up. I've had a black laser printer with flat bed scanner/fax (Brother) for 7 years now I think. $100 and a single $40 toner so far. It just works. I highly recommend laser.

I'd like to step up to a new color laser, but we just haven't had that need yet.

burlmart wrote:
thanks, Tom. very clean explanation that i will pass along. my guess is they are very infrequent users.

can you point out a good unit?

I'm using the HL-L2360DW model which has a wired Ethernet connection in addition to the WIFi options and does double sided printing. Chose it from my daughter's success with the 2340 model, which is a bit lower on features but connects well to everything (Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android via WiFi). Turns out that I didn't use the Ethernet connection because to be wired to my router meant plugging it in to a 15 amp circuit already fully loaded with computers, TV, table lamps et al.

Power supply is a key requirement for modern laser printers. They used to be hot all the time or slow warming up. These newer ones sleep, keeping only communications open, and want to heat up fast to print right away. Mine will draw 9 amps warming up, somewhat more than a toaster or electric griddle (thus I moved it to a kitchen circuit).

thanks, Tom. very clean explanation that i will pass along. my guess is they are very infrequent users.

can you point out a good unit?

Brother laser printers, cheapest one that has connections you want.

Having gone through four inkjets (and used several more at work) I've learned the hard way inkjet tech is problematic if not regularly used. Heads clog, cartridges dry up. If heads are included with the cartridge, they quit working too soon; if separate, you can get into expensive head replacements. Laser printers, on the other hand, don't mind sitting there, and when the do print, they print faster, even if they have to warm up before the first page. They do need, however, to be on a circuit where they can draw a full 12-15 amps for a minute or two, without dimming lights or tripping backup power supplies.

If you do need color, printing photos, the only thing I can recommend are the photo grade Epson printers, usually 5 to 7 cartridges feeding a "permanent" printhead. I've been sorely disappointed by HP's premium 7 cartrdge printers when not steadily used.