- Prints up to 42ppm
- Built-in wireless 802.11b/g/n and Gigabit Ethernet network interfaces
- 550-Sheet standard paper capacity, expandable
- Automatic duplex (two-sided) printing
- Super high-yield replacement toner cartridge available, TN-780 Super High-Yield Toner (approx. 12,000 pages)
As an initial note, I''d like to acknowledge the 1 -Star review from Amazon member Dirk J. Krouskop about this product. I actually saw his review after I had ordered this printer, but before I received it from Amazon. His review describes how this printer caused his circuit breaker to trip. I found the review very informative and marked it as "Helpful."
My experience with this printer has been different than his. No problems with breakers, at all. Although, I admit to holding my breath when I first turned on the machine after having read his review -wondering if the room would go dark. I have this plugged into one of many power strips on a 15A circuit, and like many people, I''m probably plugging too many devices into that circuit through the use of power strips. When I first turned it on, running in room were three mac mini''s, an iMac, a router, two 8-port ethernet switches, two UPS battery backups, an HP inkjet printer, and three LCD monitors (along with random smaller things like external hard drives and AA and AAA battery chargers.) I''ve heard the Mac Mini''s don''t draw much power, but was still relieved. I don''t know if my lack of circuit breaker problems means that he has a normal system, and mine is robust. Or, there may be all sorts of other possible explanations, but I just wanted to share my experience, in case it''s helpful. My house was built and wired in 1969, but that room was an addition to the house from around 1996.
That said, I really like this laser printer. Here are some of the reasons:
A big factor in the purchase was the relatively low operating cost of this unit when it comes to toner. Lots and lots of pages from the large toner cartridges, which are also more reasonably priced than the other laser printer I have, an HP P2055dn (which is very similar in size to the Brother HL6180DW);
Easy Double sided printing;
Easily printed to it from my iPhone and iPad once it was on my network;
Print quality is professional. We did a side by side comparison of letters to a client that we printed on 24lb, 25% cotton business paper from the HP laserjet and the Brother. We thought they were both superb quality. Very clear and pleasant to read.
Fast printing. it''s plenty fast for our small office, as a shared printer.
Wifi and Ethernet. I''ve always preferred Ethernet connections to WiFi, but set this on WiFi. Easily joined my WPA2 Personal password protected network and still prints fast. It''s located just about 10 feet from the WiFi router, so the connection is probably excellent. Every computer on the network sees the Brother and can print to it.
Again, I really found Dirk J. Krouskop''s review useful. My experience with this printer, however, has been excellent. At this price, it''s such a great printer for a small business. Really can''t believe this quality is available without gouging us on toner replacement costs. Had I seen his review before I purchased, I probably would have missed out, so I''m just adding this review / experience and hope it''s also useful.
Buy Brother Printer HL6180DW Wireless Monochrome Printer Now
: 4:22 Mins
I love this printer so far! It''s smallish, economical, pretty quiet, and prints well. Watch my video if you want, but I''m not very good at video reviews yet... :)
The video just goes through the first time setup. I''m a computer tech who usually doesn''t need a lot of hand-holding. If you want all the help you can get, using the disk to install a printer will usually give you step by step instructions (but I never tried with this printer).
Setup:
-easy to setup: I followed the menus on the printer itself and setup the wireless connection.
-easy to install on the computer: I searched for a network printer, it found it, and it searched the internet for the driver--no need to install other bloated software (I''ve only installed it in windows 7).
Economical:
--economical: The TN780 Super-duper high yield is for up to 12,000 pages at just over $100 currently. (You''ll never get 12,000 since printer cartridges are rated for 5% coverage. If I just do general stuff without a lot of pictures, I would expect to get around 10,000 pages--20 reams of paper!)
--other consumables seem ok too--drum is just over $100 too and good for up to 30,000 pages--some printers have the drum built into the cartridge, but usually more economical printers have it separate.
--There are other parts listed, like the fuser and rollers, but I haven''t seen them for sale and I''m too lazy to call Brother. It''s good to know that Brother doesn''t consider the printer kaput when a roller wears out, but these things usually last pretty long--I''ve had printers that I''ve never changed anything other than toner and drums.
--duplexer built in! Print on both sides to save paper!
--there is a toner saver mode that prints just a little lighter. I''m leaving it on because I''m cheap. Doesn''t seem to effect quality. If you don''t want to install all the extra software from disk, you can set things like toner saver and quite mode by browsing to the printer''s ip address.
other:
--500 sheet paper tray! Oh yeah! I stuck a whole ream of paper, and I''m going to let it run out every time so I can just stick another ream of paper in it.
--upgradable memory... who cares, but you can!
cons: (none of these matter to me, but in case you need to know)
--you can use the multi-purpose for envelopes, but the books says it will only hold 3 at a time. May not be good for printing a stack of envelopes.
--Doesn''t seem to support anything other than "thick paper". Seems to be no support for even thinner card stock. (does support laser labels).
--can only do legal in the multi-purpose tray so this wouldn''t be good if you need lots of legal (who does these days?).
power issues:
--I see one review says it keeps throwing his breaker. I have it plugged into a wall outlet with my AMD performance desktop, bose ipod dock, 27" monitor, HP wireless speaker thingie, computer speakers, happy light, desk lamp, and sometimes laptop. It''s never caused electrical issues--no breaking tripping, no dimming, no nothing. I plug it directly into the wall and I plug everything else into a ups.
Read Best Reviews of Brother Printer HL6180DW Wireless Monochrome Printer Here
Over the last few years, we''ve been using Brother printers in our home office and have had excellent results. Our previous printer, the Brother HL-5370DW, definitely got the most use since our business is now to a point where we easily print a full ream of paper every few days.
The HL-5370DW actually worked fairly well; but, it did have some issues that were always a pain:
1) It was horrible at printing envelopes. As a result, we would always print envelopes on an HP Color LaserJet even though it isn''t as convenient.
2) The lights would dim every time the HL-5370DW would start up.
3) The input paper capacity wasn''t that great.
Regardless of those issues we went through multiple toner cartridges and a couple of drums before the printer finally just fell apart.
With that background, I''ve found the HL6180DW to be a very impressive model! It still fits in the same footprint as the older laser but does sit a bit taller because of the larger input tray.
Here are the things I like about the HL6180DW:
1) This is the first Brother laser printer I''ve owned that actually does a good job at printing envelopes! No more wrinkled envelopes, and no more trips up to the color LaserJet. :)
2) It starts up without dimming the lights. On top of that, the first page out is still a couple of seconds faster than the HL-5370DW.
3) Because of the little LCD screen, the wireless setup was a breeze. I did have to download drivers on each PC to get the network setup working; but, that isn''t a huge deal.
4) I like that Brother doesn''t bundle a lot of garbage with their network drivers but I wonder why the download package was so large since there aren''t really any apps included...
5) The print speed is excellent! Honestly, we''re on the verge of needing a truly professional-level printer; but, this will hold us over for the next few months until we get into a larger office.
6) I love having the option for a super high-yield print cartridge. That will definitely save both money and hassle.
7) The duplex feature works great although I''ve come to expect that from Brother printers in general.
8) I like that the paper tray will hold a full ream of paper.
Honestly, there isn''t much bad that I can say about this little printer. If you''re looking for a great laser printer in a compact package, then I would highly recommend this Brother HL6180DW!
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I''ve had a HL-5250DN since 2006, and it has been a great printer with hardly any problems and still going strong. Out of the box, the HL-5250DN was almost perfect in features and performance with less than 10 paper jams in the course of six years of use.
So I expected the same problem-free printer out of the box with the HL-6180DW, but there were a few snags.
First, I read another review saying this product does not dim the lights. Since the 5250DN did, I was hoping the 6180DW would be different. However, in my house, when the printer starts up, the lights in two rooms dim a bit. Apparently, this is enough to trip circuit breakers in some houses. My concern is how it affects other devices. With the 5250DN, one modem gave out in my house, but I can''t tell for sure whether the 5250DN had anything to do with it. Still, I wish the lights wouldn''t dim so harshly. I''d be willing to have the machine start up a bit more slowly in exchange for less dimming.
Second, I got the 6180DW over the 5470DW specifically for the super high yield 12,000 page TN780 toner option. I read one review saying that particular toner spews particles everywhere at around 7000 pages. Will be keeping my eye out on whether this is to be expected for the TN780. If there are problems with the TN780, this will cloud my 6180DW experience since the extra cost to get this printer over the 5470DW will no longer be justified.
Third, there is no simple way to switch from ethernet to wireless and vice versa. The printer actually has a software setting that allows switching from one mode to another, but it doesn''t work. I currently have wireless, but if I want ethernet, I have to uninstall the driver and reinstall the driver by connecting via USB. This isn''t a huge problem, but why not allow simple switching by a software setting, or even dual simultaneous mode since there is no hardware limitation on such settings?
Fourth, this is the reason why I returned the first 6180DW. Every once in a while, the printed paper would have specks and hollowed out areas. It turns out this is because not enough heat from the fuser was being applied to it to have the toner stick permanently to the paper, so the ink was smudging on the paper. Because I didn''t have such problems with the HL-5250DN, I thought this was a defect with the HL-6180DW since the papers that worked just fine with the 5250DN should work with the newer model. Fortunately, after some research, there was a setting via the driver software that allows you to turn the heat setting higher so that the ink doesn''t smudge. But it comes at a trade-off where the paper is more likely to curl. Likely, Brother wanted a setting that had less curling by default because of so many complaints of paper curling. However, the smudge was an issue on both typical 20lb and 22lb paper, so I find that the 6180DW''s default setting is not optimal. I''d rather have the paper curl slightly than to have ink that easily smudges on the paper.
Those are the snags. With the smudging issue out of the way, I''m satisfied with the product considering its features and price. The envelope printing is much better than the 5250DN. The 500 paper tray capacity allows me to put a full ream of paper in there, and if the TN780 is decently priced and works well, then for about the price of the HL-5250DN when it first came out, I have a printer that has more features and requires less maintenance. I''m hoping that the negative review on the TN780 about toner ink spewing out is an isolated defect rather than some design defect either in the printer or the toner.
***2/14/2013 UPDATE***
The printer still has some toner fixing issues. I hadn''t been using the printer for a few weeks. When I started it back up, the first page had smudges on it, and when I scratch the ink with my fingernails, the ink smudges. I had already had it on "Improve Toner Fixing" setting, so it looks like in some situations, the HL-6180DW has an ink smudge problem that the HL-5250DN never had. For this reason, I need to downgrade the stars to 3. It seems like once the printer heats up and gets a few pages going, then the smudge problem disappears, but where it starts cold, it smudges unpredictably. Many people probably use this for their business, and in those situations where the printer gets used very frequently, you may never notice it.
I have already done one exchange for this product, so I''ve seen this problem occur on 2 separate HL-6180DW machines.
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I have two Brother HL-5370DW printers. I believe that the subject of this review is the replacement for the HL-5370DW.
I set up this printer for wireless (WiFi) use. First, I attempted to set it up from an Apple Macintosh computer. I was prompted to enter my WiFi password directly into the printer, using its single line LED display and four pushbuttons. My password is long, so FAIL. Fortunately, I have a Microsoft Windows computer available, so I used it to set up the Brother printer. I have to say, this was excellent. I connected the printer and the Windows computer using a standard USB cable. The installer software was dead simple to use. I did not have to type in my WiFi password! Somehow, the password oozed out of the Windows computer and into the printer. Magic. Next, I removed the USB cable, and I installed the printer driver software onto my Apple Macintosh computer. Because the printer was already "talking" WiFi, this install was also dead simple.
I did have to download this driver from the Brother web site, because my version of Apple OSX (operating system) is too new. The install CD shipped with the printer couldn''t handle the Mountain Lion. By the time you get your hands on a Brother printer, I would expect that the included install CD from Brother will be updated, so you won''t have to do the download. If you use a Microsoft Windows computer, this is not an issue. In any case, downloading software from Brother was no big deal.
In actual use, the printer is completely trouble free. It stays (wirelessly) connected to my computer. It does double-sided printing without jamming. It prints envelopes without curling them. The printer can only hold four envelopes at a time; I suppose that this might be an issue for some folks.
I am completely satisfied with the speed and print quality of the printer. Software seems to default to 600 DPI density. This is great for speed, but I prefer print quality, so I changed that to the 1200 "HQ" density.
One improvement over the HL-5370DW model: you no longer have to change the roller tension when printing envelopes. On the older printer, you have to open the back door of the printer and flip a pair of blue plastic levers before printing on envelopes. No longer! A small annoyance is gone from my life.
After you remove all of the colorful paper labels, the printer looks quite nice, being almost entirely black. When handling the printer, you will notice a certain flimsiness, and this is the only real complaint I have to make. A printer needs to have several access doors, and the Brother parts feel thin, cheap, and wobbly. Will the printer stand the test of time?
Obviously I can''t answer that question at this time. I can share my experience with the old HL-5370DW printer. It is very similar to the printer under review, and that includes the flimsy plastic bits. I have two, one from May 2010 and the other from June 2011. Both of them are still going strong, and never call attention to themselves.
I don''t know of a better black and white printer. If you do, please post!
