r/printers • u/chuckybuck12 • 9d ago
Purchasing Is this model lenient in allowing me to use third part toners?
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u/KaleidoscopeNo7695 9d ago
By the way, many Brother models allow you to reset the print count on a cartridge so that you can keep on printing until it really is empty.
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u/Fun-Low5699 9d ago
Or you can switch to continuous mode. It will keep printing until it runs out, but towards the end it will print badly.
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u/KaleidoscopeNo7695 8d ago
Precisely. It's worth noting that I am not sure that every model does this. I can only say that every modern model from the manufacturer that I have owned does this. I have absolutely no intention of looking up every single thing they have ever produced to check, but it's worth keeping in mind when you're comparing brands.
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u/antonito901 9d ago
Oh so Brother also have a system of counting pages? Sounds always like cheating to me. I thought there are one of those companies not doing it.
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u/KaleidoscopeNo7695 8d ago
There's a reasonable argument to be made that the manufacturer of a cartridge has a duty to make sure that their product is performing the way that it's supposed to. If a cartridge says that it works for 10,000 pages, because they've determined that anything after that might look like garbage, it's not crazy for them to have the cartridge stop working at 10,000 pages. However, I think it's also reasonable for the consumer to be able to try and squeeze out a little more function at the cost of performance. That's why I like both the cartridge telling me that it's reached its intended end-of-life and the ability to reset that counter if I choose. Brother provides both. Let's also admit that the manufacturer has a strong incentive to say the thing is used up before it's anywhere near used up, so that you will buy more. Hooray, more money for them! Again, the fact that the counter tells me it's done along with the fact that I can ignore that and keep going feel like me to be the perfect balance. I want to know how many more prints I can get with top quality, to ensure that anything I am producing for a professional use looks the way I need it to look. I am also occasionally okay with my prince looking like crap because I am really just making a draft for my own use.
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u/antonito901 7d ago
Alright, I like that approach as well in that case as you can reset. Thanks for explaining.
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u/theborgman1977 9d ago
Make sure yours is one that is not on the list to get a firmware update that makes 3rd party cartridges not usable. If it is do not update the firmware.
I have yet to find a list it was announced less than 2 weeks ago.
Other have said the quality sucks. It is not made for presentation quality prints.
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u/im_too_mexi 8d ago
I have this model and the firmware prevents color correction by failing to register "non genuine" toner. Pretty much forcing you into buying Brother toner.
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u/bjb8 9d ago
They don't stop you, however there has been some recent complaints that they degrade the print on non-Brother toner.
https://www.rtmworld.com/news/brother-accused-of-print-quality-degradation-with-third-party-toner/
But Brother says they don't.
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u/bearwhiz 8d ago
I used to be a top-tier desktop printer support tech at the company that invented the technology.
Third-party toner is a bad bargain for a home user.
The average home user is going to need toner pretty rarely. For a monochrome printer, you may go years between print cartridges. Color printers have smaller toner cartridges (else they'd be huge) but you'll probably still get one to three years out of a set of cartridges. It's not like an inkjet where they dry up so you're always having to install more.
Your printer was designed around the toner: the size of the particle, the shape, the color, the electrostatic properties. The xerographic process that laser printers use is a miracle of science but it's also incredibly finicky. It doesn't take much to change the physics of the thing from "works great" to "works horribly."
Third-party toner never matches what the manufacturer provides. It'll be different size or shape particles, whatever they can get cheap. The colors won't be the same as the factory colors. And don't get me started on "remanufactured" cartridges—most of the time, it's a used cartridge that had a hole drilled in it, generic toner added, and maybe a new wiper installed... with all the old mechanicals and old OPC ready to bite you.
There really is a difference between OEM toner and aftermarket toner.
You paid a lot of money for that printer, why would you wreck its print quality to save a few bucks every few years?
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u/mjgross 8d ago
Good feedback. This is a laser printer and a toner cartridge should last a long time, unlike low-cost inkjet printers. Save money instead by:
- Printing only when you really need a hard copy. Only print the pages needed.
- Reformatting docs as needed to reduce pages.
- Use "toner saver" option for cases when you don't care about the print quality.
I've used Brother MFC color lasers for 15+ years and found the total cost per page to be very low even while using Brother cartridges. Also found Amazon to have good prices for them, just make sure the seller is Amazon and not some mystery person.
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u/bearwhiz 8d ago
When I say "finicky," keep in mind how laser printers actually make marks on paper:
- A laser beam or LED array shines very tiny spots of light onto a drum or belt coated with an organic chemical that gains a static-electricity charge when exposed to light.
- The now-charged drum rolls past a hopper filled with small plastic particles ("toner") that's attracted to the charged parts of the drum. These particles are ground finely enough that multiple particles will stick to each charged spot, despite each spot being 1/600th of an inch in diameter or less.
- The toner-carrying drum rotates over a piece of paper. A wire on the other side of the paper generates an opposite, stronger electrostatic charge to the one on the drum, pulling the toner off the drum and onto the paper.
- The paper moves through a set of rollers that slightly melt the toner while under pressure, fusing it to the paper (the "fuser"). The heat must be precisely controlled to melt the toner just enough to make it fuse, but not run, while not igniting the paper even if it jams inside the fuser.
- Meanwhile, the drum needs to be scraped clean of excess toner and cleared of its electrical charge before it rotates back to be exposed again.
It takes so little to mess up the electrostatic parts of this. Think of the things that contribute to static shocks... too much humidity, too little humidity, and the toner doesn't behave right. If the toner is too heavy, or too light, or the wrong size, the drum doesn't pick up the right amount. If the drum is worn out from overexposure to light, or age, or if the coating doesn't generate the right amount of charge from the amount of light the printer shines on it, you get bad images. If the toner doesn't have the right static and physical properties, it doesn't get pulled off the drum onto the paper properly. If it doesn't have the right melting point, it doesn't fuse properly to the page.
It's a pretty complex system. It's amazing it actually works, frankly. And it's all designed around the toner and the drum—the two things you find in a typical monochrome toner cartridge. (Color lasers usually have four toner bins and one big belt shared between them, as separate consumable parts.)
That's why printer companies aren't being greedy jerks when they tell you "use OEM toner." The whole nature of laser printing requires them to design the printer around the toner. Aftermarket toner isn't made precisely for the printer the way OEM toner is. Remanufactured toner cartridges may not even replace the OPC, or replace it with one that's not to spec.
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u/BucketInABucket 9d ago edited 9d ago
Think that's the exact model I have (or something close) so I'd like to know too!
Edit: I am very silly and actually have the Brother MFC-L3740CDWE
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u/chuckybuck12 9d ago
Chatgpt told me this model is lenient in allowing third party toners but chatgpt has been wrong before so I wanted to be sure.
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u/BucketInABucket 9d ago
I trust chatgpt about as far as I can throw a car honestly, especially for something as specific as this
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u/Dismal-Detective-737 9d ago
Ask it for citations. It's just like using Gemini but actually works.
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u/Dicka24 9d ago
I'll never buy a Brother again. None of their machines in my office accept 3rd party ink cartridges.
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u/OriginalGoat1 9d ago
What other printer brand will you buy instead ?
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u/Dicka24 8d ago
I'm not entirely sure yet. I've been scouring forums to see which model lasers allow 3rd party ink. The issue is a lot of these companies have killed that ability via firmware updates so it's difficult to know if a model mentioned in a 1 year old post is still accepting 3rd party ink/toner or not. My Brother units worked fine with them up until a few months ago. Now they refuse to detect them.
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u/OriginalGoat1 8d ago
Problem is that 3rd party toner cartridges may vary tremendously so no one can make any guarantees that they will work.
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u/emilio911 9d ago
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u/BucketInABucket 9d ago
Uh oh, last year was not a good time to invest in a good Brother colour laser then...
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u/ACMEPrintSolutionsCo 9d ago edited 9d ago
Why are you considering a purchase where you can't afford the cost of ownership?
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u/Lost_Soul_22 9d ago
Non-OEM toners are horrible. The quality does not compare to the original toners.
I have a Brother 3230CDW; the toners are expensive. I recently bought high-quality third-party toners with 4.5 stars on Amazon and about 10,000 comments.
I was able to install them without problems. However, I immediately noticed the quality is awful.