Brother HL-2040 Monochrome Laser Printer

Had it for a good two years. The only time it malfunctions, it's been my fault(when I reuse paper to print on the reverse and forget to take off a staple or scotch tape holding two sheets together). It's also rather forgiving when using paper other than the recommended brand/weight. Sure the toner cartridge is expensive compared to the cost of the machine, but you have internet sellers who ask little more than half the regular street price (say $35 vs. $60). I'm speaking as a home user - the oftmentioned curling problem doesn't bother me, but I can see the problem in an office environment.

This is a great little printer. We had 2 in the office already, and when we needed another I ordered this refurbished unit. They are very cost effective and easy to use.

I highly recommend this.

I have had this printer for over a year now and have, but for one thing, been greatly satisfied. The other day I printed out a 124 page report and it printed fast, without a hitch. When I was looking for a car, I printed reams of dealer information sheets; even with graphics, the images were great.

I print a lot of resumes and they come out sharp and clean. The one thing is that it prints envelopes and curls them around the roller which creases them badly. That ruins the looks of your envelope and when it contains a resume or a thank you letter, it better look good. My old HP printer had a little switch you flipped to have envelopes come straight out the back. I didn't think of checking this before I bought it. I assumed all printers did that straight print with envelopes.

It prints different sized paper, executive, from the paper tray without problems. Overall, I'm extremely happy with this printer.

Linnea

My company bought 5 HL2040s for different depts 6 months ago. Recent 3 of them got the same problem- " toner life end" even replace several brand new genuine toners. My company now is planing to buy a color laser jet to print catalog but no one recomand to buy Brother's product- cheap price cheap quality and it wastes too much time if we want to fix it by warranty. No more "Brother".

I've had one of these on my secretary's desk for less than two years. Initially it worked fine. Good print quality for text, which is 99% of what we print. About six months later, my secretary started getting paper jams. They became more frequent over time. Last week, the machine stopped feeding paper, both from the paper tray and the one-sheet-at-a-time slot. What would happen is that the paper feed mechanism would start and then abruptly stop before the sheet of paper was fully loaded. I have been unable to fix it, and am about to trash the unit.

Granted, the purchase price for this printer is very low ($50-60; ditto for the model that replaced it), and the print quality is good. I would recommend it only for low-volume printing.

By the way, Brother Cust. Service was of little help re the "does not feed" issue; they ultimately told my secretary to take the printer to a repair shop. Sure. It would cost me more for a repair estimate than it would cost to buy a brand new unit.

Some machines are designed and built in such a way as to be bullet-proof. They work well out of the box and continue working well for many years with little or no maintenance, e.g., HP4, IBM Selectric (okay, I'm dating myself), most Toyotas, etc. The HL-2040 is the exact opposite. It is not a durable machine and is destined for an early trip to the recycler/landfill.