Brother HL2240D Monochrome Printer Save 36% off

• Prints up to 24ppm
• Automatic duplex printing for two-sided documents
• Adjustable 250-sheet capacity paper tray
• Compact size fits virtually anywhere
• Up to 2400 x 600 dpi resolution

Setup time: minutes

Ease of use: straightforward

Print Quality:

Cheap paper good

Quality paper very good (nothing beats my old HP1 but it cost $3000)

Envelopes: worked flawlessly

Cost: If you don''t need to duplex, you can find cheaper models that may suit you. Otherwise it''s low priced. Came with startup cartridge good for 250 pages. Cost of replacement cartridge: High yield, 2,600 pages, $54 at Amazon. $40 elsewhere.

Portability: The weight is no problem but it''s too bulky to be considered portable. It''s substantially bigger than my photo printer but smaller and lighter than any of my other laser printers.

Out-of-Toner Problem this printer, like the HL-2140, will indicate that it''s out of toner after a designated number of pages have printed, even though it may still have hundreds of pages of reasonable print quality remaining. To overcome this limitation and get it to keep printing, tape over the sensors (do Youtube.com search for Brother HL-2140 Toner for instructions).

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We weren''t so lucky. This printer did not work out of the box. In our business, we have four older Brother printers and several competent IT people. Not only that, we read directions so we know we assembled and connected everything correctly. The connected printer did a great job of feeding blank pages but printed nothing. After trying the unit on multiple computers we called Brother support. Short version they told us we were stupid and accused us of lying. They made us send them the toner cartridge that came with the printer and insisted that we buy a new cartridge. The new cartridge didn''t work either no surprise there. They made us send them the new cartridge so they could confirm that we had not purchased off brand. They did send a free cartridge to replace it with the assurance that once we installed it and sent them a test page, it would prove that we had actually printed thousands of pages and used up the toner. Sadly, there is no test page because the third cartridge didn''t work. Almost 60 days later, we have not printed a single page on this piece of junk and Brother is no longer returning our calls.

The worst part is that we let the one week return window pass based on the false assumption that Brother would back up their product. We wanted a working printer, not a return merchandise credit. Live and learn I suppose. I have started the process of decommissioning the rest of our Brother devices so they do not get another penny in the way of toner cartridge purchases from our business.

My advice to anyone considering any item from Brother if you decide to purchase after reading my review and the new items arrives non functional, pack it up and ship it back IMMEDIATELY. Return windows are short and Brother seems to have modeled their customer support division after Monty Python''s "Abuse Clinic." No one should have to go there.

Read Best Reviews of Brother HL2240D Monochrome Printer Here

This is a replacement for my six-year-old Samsung ML-1740 (USB port problem, not mechanical). OK, so the Brother

does look cheap, but it does the job well. First of all, the 2240D is much, much, much quieter than my old

Samsung. The Amazon reviews did have me concerned about the 2240D''s noise level, but this is a huge improvement

over what I used to suffer! It really isn''t horribly noisy and the fan shuts off after a few minutes.

Print quality is good and is more than adequate for my needs (I''ve actually set it to 300dpi and Toner Saver mode,

and text is still perfectly readable).

The HL2240D also works great with my existing NetGear PS121 USB print server (why shell out extra for a network-

ready printer if you already have a print server?). A tip for those intending to use this printer with an

external print server the Windows driver is located on the CD under \install\driver\gdi (so select "have disk"

when asked for the printer driver during the add printer process don''t try to pre-install the driver).

Oh, and the 2240 does have a power switch (some reports indicate that it doesn''t). It''s located on the right

hand side at the back by the power connector.

When deciding which new printer to buy, I considered those with separate toner and drum kits(HL2240D), and those with combined (e.g. Sumsung ML-1915). After six years of use my old Samsung has printed 10,300 pages. The HL2240D''s drum requires replacing after 12,000 pages. Therefore I know it will be quite some time before I need to buy a new drum! Also, I tried refilling the toner in my old Samsung''s combined cartridge, but the integrated drum would wear out long before the the refilled toner had been used up. So perhaps separate toner and drum units are more suited to toner refills.

If you are looking for a nearly no-frills (auto-duplex is definitely a frill!) laser, and built in networking is

not one of your requirements then the HL2240D is a great choice! Note: Check to see if the HL2270DW (faster and has networking) is cheaper, which is the case at the time of me writing this.

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I researched laser printers when the local office supply chain store had a Samsung laser for $49.99, single sided non-duplex unit.

A few years back, I had an issue with a Samsung camera where the door on the batter compartment had a "cold set" and cracked so that the door bulged out and the batteries would not make an electrical connection. Contacted Samsung and customer service immediately accused me of dropping the camera. I assured him that the camera had not been dropped and it was 3 weeks old. Also that I worked in manufacturing and engineering (20+ years) and have seen this type of defect before and it was a bad injection molded part. The customer service rep raised his voice, practically yelling, and repeated that I had dropped it and a mechanical defect not covered due to customer abuse! If I didn''t like that to take it back to the store purchased. I DID! To make a long story short, I haven''t bought Samsung since! And never will!!!

During my research I found that Brother had an excellent reputation in customer service, so I started looking into Brother laser printers. When I found the duplex was on sale for $79.95 at a local electronics dealer, I took the ad to another office supply super store which matches the price and a additional 10% off, which covered the sales tax. I did have to wait 2 days for the item to be delivered from the warehouse to the store, but it was worth the wait.

So far, I have printed on-line coupons with barcodes which were a bit fuzzy, but that could be the image from the retailer''s website. Also printed a double sided report for my daughter and that was of good quality more of what I expected.

The only complaint, but this goes for most laser printers, is that the switch is in the back (on right side). I would have liked the switch on the front, like the Kodak printer we have. I love the Kodak printer for pics; have photos that are 5 years old and have never faded (unlike some of my friends who use other inkjet printers).

I bought this printer because my children are getting older and writing more reports using up the ink in the Kodak printer, not that it was expensive, but wanted more economical printing; which a laser printer provides.

Also found that genuine Brother toner cartidges cost about $20 less than genunie Samsung. Generic knock-off cartridges run about the same. Toner refill kits are less expensive for Brother because there is no "chip" that has to be replaced on the cartridge, but there is a tool that one refill kit has to reset the "toner used gear". At my work they purchase remanfactured cartridges and the vendor does not always replace the "chip" so the printer constantly says "used cartridger installed". What a pain in the you know where! (The IT guys figured out how to make the computer ignore the "used cartidge" message.)

HINT: When toner is running low, remove cartridge and shake well, then replace cartridge. You can do this several times and use up the last of the toner and get good copies.

UPDATE 7 Feb 2012: Finally after 6 months the start cartridge stopped printing. Print quality was good until printer just refused to print anymore (there was still toner left inside cartridge--read another hint below). I had purchased a two pack of generic replacement cartridges 4 months ago when low toner warning came up on computer. I installed the cartridge and prints as good as genuine cartridge. FYI ASIN: B0050NNUH2. The shipping is free and worked out to be $17 each when I purchased them but they are now $15.50 each (or $31 for both). I am expecting the high capacity cartridge to last a year or more, so I will not be buying toner soon. (High capacity cartridge is rated for 2600 copies at 5% converage.)

Currently you can buy a single cartridge for around $12 with super saver shipping, but I did not have anything else to buy at the time and shipping was almost $9 or $21 total, so I bought the two pack with free shipping instead. If you can make the $25 the single cartridge is the better deal.

ANOTHER HINT. DO NOT THROW AWAY and SAVE the protective guard and box replacement cartridge comes in. Install the replacement cartridge in printer. Put shipping guard on starter cartrige and put in toner box. Wait for a couple of days then remove the replacment cartridge and put the starter cartridge back in the printer. Printer thinks you put a "new starter cartridge" in and you can use up the remaining toner in the cartridge. Do not forget to shake up the cartridge and to clean the wire with the green slide.

When the toner is completely gone, you can convert or change the original starter cartridge into a "TN-450" high capacity cartridge with refil kit ASIN: B004WSO73W from AAA Toner for around $16.

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The printer is great! Duplex is awesome! It also holds a lot of paper, prints in very high resolution, and prints very quickly.

Also, keep in mind that this printer is USB only, and not network. If you want it to be on a network, there are adapters you can buy which will accept the USB cable and connect it to a network hub, bringing it into your home network. The one I''m using is an old little box called Airlink. I''m sure there are many more out on the market nowadays.

For Mac Users:

The driver for this printer is already installed on your Mac. Just plug the printer in and go into printer settings -> options -> driver, then from the menu select the Brother HL-2240D series CUP driver. Also, it was confusing for me to first figure out how to print duplex. When you File->Print from something such as Word, go into the drop down menu and select Layout. Then you can enable two-sided printing.