Brother has a reputation for making
a wide range of inexpensive printers. The printers are generally very fast, and
they are widely available. Unfortunately, as with printers built by other
manufacturers, there are a variety of problems that repeatedly turn up among
users. Be aware that many of these problems are not unique to Brother printers,
and many users receive good service from them. These problems are reported most
often with lasers.
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Most printers experience paper jams from time to
time, but Brother owners tend to report this problem quite often. The paper
gets caught halfway on its route through the printer, and getting it out is
tricky due to the tight quarters inside the printer. Users often report that
they broke the fuser in the process. The fuser is the heating element that
heats the paper and toner during printing. This is often caused by poor paper
feeding from the trays. In addition, it often results in curled printouts that
do not stack well in the output trays.
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Getting the proper driver to match your printer
and your computer's operating system can be tricky, no matter what sort of
printer you own. Users of Windows XP (32- and 64-bit versions) have experienced
various driver and software problems with Brother printers, and Brother
maintains a special page at its site devoted specifically to rectifying these
problems. The site itself notes that incorrect drivers can cause severe
problems and lockups.
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Noise seems to be an especially common problem
with Brother printers. The printers are noisy at all phases of the print cycle,
but especially when warming up and when leaving rest mode to print a new file.
Some users find the noise particularly objectionable. However, it is important
to remember that some sacrifices must be made to build inexpensive lasers.
While noise may be an irritation, it will not automatically affect the quality
of printed output.
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Most inexpensive Brother printers do not use
Postscript drivers, so the ability to print any type of drawing beyond
black-and-white line art is automatically suspect. Postscript is a page
description language that tells a printer how graphics should look and helps
ensure that files will look pretty much the same, even if they are printed on
different printers. Because most inexpensive Brother printers do not include
Postscript, they are best used for printing text-only documents.
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Of all the complaints made against Brother's
inexpensive printers, poor construction is probably the most justified. While
the sometimes flimsy construction can often be worked around (albeit
carefully), it does limit the printer's capabilities. It prevents them from
handling paper much heavier than standard 20- to 24-lb copy paper. Given that
many people like to print light business card stock or envelopes, this presents
a serious problem for a home office.
