Tell HN: Brother printers no longer consumer friendly

by SimonPStevens on 3/4/2025, 9:47:22 PM with 16 comments
I dislike the tactics many of the other printer manufacturers employ such as subscription services, DRM on cartridges, etc. I've always used and recommended Brother laser printers as they seem to largely not employ these non-consumer friendly approaches. They have always let you continue printing even when one cartridge was empty. I've always brought official cartridges out of respect for their business model.

But no longer. I have a newish Brother HL-L3230CDW, and it refuses to print because one colour cartridge is reporting as low. I've followed the reset instructions here [0] which has worked previously on this printer, but it doesn't any more. I don't know if it's a firmware update, or a limit to the number of resets it allows.

So tonight I'm unable to print a black and white document I need for work tomorrow because my yellow toner cartridge is reporting low. And I'm going to have to buy new colour cartridges despite very rarely printing in colour.

So I revoke any past recommendation of Brother I've ever made. I hope others stop recommending them too, the new ones are no longer functional. These printers are now as useless as the rest.

(Also - I'm looking for recommendations for actually decent colour laser printers)

[0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkgak9S1h7U

  • by 57FkMytWjyFu on 3/4/2025, 11:13:35 PM

    Doesn't make it any less frustrating, at least Brother could say something in the manual, but this may be the proximate cause.

    https://www.howtogeek.com/how-your-printer-leaves-invisible-...

  • by muzani on 3/4/2025, 10:23:01 PM

    Similar threads:

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37825653

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31860131

    I occasionally do see people recommending Brother printers on HN, but maybe they too are unaware that they're like the other printers.

  • by JKCalhoun on 3/4/2025, 10:09:34 PM

    Look first for cheap 3rd party color inks. Then get the printer (probably off eBay) that they support.

  • by subsection1h on 3/4/2025, 11:54:08 PM

    > And I'm going to have to buy new colour cartridges despite very rarely printing in colour.

    I stopped buying color printers about 20 years ago because of this issue.

    Monochrome forever!

  • by toldyouso2022 on 3/5/2025, 1:53:59 AM

    I have a brother printer + scanner from 2016, because it's out of ink the scanner doesn't work.

    Very bad thing to do to clients

  • by rudasn on 3/4/2025, 10:14:51 PM

    Not sure if this trick still applies, or if it applies to your printer, but if you wrap the visible part of the cartridge with black tape the printer will think it's full and let you print.

  • by dudus on 3/6/2025, 7:07:56 AM

    Brother had denied this claim

    https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/brother-denies-using...

  • by markus_zhang on 3/4/2025, 11:06:54 PM

    I just print in office. Not many to print anyway.

  • by nwroot on 3/5/2025, 1:01:57 AM

    Make sure when you hit print it actually says “black and white” and not color. If that doesn’t work just pull out the yellow and put it back in. It’s usually enough to print the page. Good luck

  • by johannesrexx on 3/4/2025, 11:30:01 PM

    Details please.

    Does the printer refuse to print, or does the operating system printing subsystem refuse to print?

    What is your operating system?

    Have you given Brother support an opportunity to respond?