Advice on replacement for Brother printer MFC-235C

jollyfred

Our first post to this board so hope it's in the right place. We're looking to replace a Brother printer (MFC-235C) that's 11 years old but finally giving up on us - plastic bits have snapped off the paper tray and the black printer heads won't clean any more. We'd like a compact all-in-one that's not too expensive and doesn't use expensive inks (if that's possible) or does take compatible versions. It's been a long time since we bought a printer and the choice now is overwhelming.

The current model prints, scans, copies and faxes, although faxing may not be so important any more. We use it mainly for printing B&W text and occasional colour diagrams from presentation graphics software. It's never used for photos. It handles A4 only but it would be helpful to print in A3 as well.

Any suggestions on models to look at would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,
Fred.

Neil_Jones

A3 Printers push the price up dramatically. What's your budget?

Depending on how much A3 printing you do or want to do it could be cheaper in the long run to enquire as to how much it would cost at somewhere like the library for A3 prints and then maybe just get a cheap A4 capable one at home.

jollyfred

Hello Neil, thanks for the reply. The budget is a good question. There seems to be a lot to choose from under £50 but wonder what the quality is like and if the inks are expensive.

We've seen that A3 printers start at about £150 which, as you say, is a lot more than A4 ones at £50 - but if you have to pay £100 to get a decent A4 printer, if may be worth paying a bit more to get an A3 model.

Neil_Jones

To be honest even the budget inkjet A4 printers are every bit as good as the more expensive ones and to get an increase in quality you would have to move to lasers.

Laser printers provide wonderful print quality but cost a fortune both to buy and run in terms of toner (colour lasers are good at emptying wallets), however all other things being equal you should get more pages out of a laser toner than you'd ever get out of an inkjet and you can get an A3 all singing, all dancing one but they can be quite bulky.

jollyfred

Hi Neil, we'd love a laserjet but wouldn't use it enough to justify the price. We've been looking at the main brands' comparison tools and one in particular pushes you into refillable inks. I've heard mixed reviews of these with two friends saying 'never again' - way too messy. There's a well-known consumer goods testing website (not sure if it's etiquette to name it) which offers a free trial for a £1 and perhaps that might be a good place to start.

Thanks again for your interest and help.

Fred.