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OT: Brother HL-L2380DW or 2390DW printer

Apologies for the off-topic post; I don't see any more suitable newsgroup.

My trusty old HL-L2380DW is getting near to replacement. I see some new (unused) ones, but in the $350-$400 range. The current model seems to be HL-L2390DW, at about $190, or 2395 at about $220.

But the 2390 and 2395 have a "Brother Refresh" toner subscription, which of course is a bad deal for the consumer. Two questions:

  1. Can you run a 2390 or 2395 successfully on a Brother toner cartridge without getting the subscription?

  1. Can you run a 2390 or 2395 successfully using third-party toner, or does the printer sense a non-Brother cartridge and not allow it?

Reply to
Stan Brown
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IANAL, but from my reading of the Brother printer website, the subscriptions are options. There doesn't seem to be any requirement that you sign up for one. You can instead just buy toner cartridges when you need them.

This is, of course, not addressed by Brother. But from looking at other places, there appear to be 3rd-party toner cartridges for sale, so they would presumably work. One example. (No endorsement intended. I haven't used them):

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Reply to
Tom Russ

I was rotating among a number of older laser printers, swapping them out as they needed replacement cartridges. Yes, I stopped using the Brother when the chip in the toner cartridge reached zero, despite there being plenty of remaining toner for perhaps a couple hundred sheets. I didn't want to put up with that nonsense and didn't buy a replacement cartridge.

Your suspicion that the chip in the cartridge will defeat your ability to buy it from another manufacturer is probably correct. Even if Brother cartridges are drilled and refilled, the chip must be reset somehow.

I reverted to using the workhorse HP LaserJet 4050N. I have two of them. They are more than 2 1/2 decades old. They were intended to be high-volume printers for an office environment (17 pages per minute, a great innovation for the era), or could be used in a mailroom with various attachments. I've got envelope feeder attachments for them. They are overkill for my use but they never die. There are third parties happily providing high-volume toner cartridges and the printers do not complain.

Reply to
Adam H. Kerman

I have a Xerox printer. As long as I get toner cartridges from them, they give me tech support. They once even replaced my printer (no charge) when it broke down and couldn't be repaired (after I'd owned it for more than four years). For me it's a great deal.

Reply to
Stuart O. Bronstein

I have been using an HP Laserjet Pro M118 for a few years now and have had no trouble buying clone toner cartridges off of Amazon. They are considerably cheaper than the HP cartridges and they work just fine. I haven't used Brother printers in literally decades, but I don't see why you couldn't use generic cartridges, as long as the printer is out of warranty.

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Reply to
Rick

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