Brother !@#$!@#%^ Printer

[Jabulani Jonny]

So, after refusing to spend another $50 on printer cartridges for our 10 year old, originally free Canon Pixma 410 printer, I decided to bite the bullet last week and buy a color laser jet printer.  After a lot of research, I settled on the Brother MFC-9130CW multifunction printer.  Ordered on 5/6 and received on 5/9.  Was doing my first decal prints tonight and made sure to set the paper for glossy paper, manual feed, etc., etc.  First couple go through fine, then next one....FUSED TO THE FUSER ROLLER.  Done, just like that.  You gotta be $hittin' me.

Man, I'm pretty ticked, so I needed to vent to somebody.  I've reached out to B&H Photo, which is where I purchased it from.  Let's hope I can get it returned.  Of course, I just put all the original packaging in the recycling today.   

[HamSandwich]

You'd think you'd be happy with something fused to the fuser roller?

Just kidding, I know nothing about printers, but it sound terrible and my condolences. Surely there has to be some kind of warranty, it's only been 5 days.

[Haberdasher]

oh man, that's terrible.  I'll share some stuff i recently learned:

first, you should never put inkjet decals through a laser printer, nor laser decals through an inkjet.

when using laser decals with a laser printer, it's crucial to find the correct paper setting to use for them.  start with plain paper setting and slowly work up to bond, recycle, etc- and gradually increase the fuser temperature in that way until you get acceptable results.  too high a temp can melt the decals to the fuser as you've now seen, and then you may have to contend w a costly repair.  it's a tricky thing to find the right paper setting because different manufacturers may not use similar terminology for them, and it can be pretty nerve-racking to guess what their corresponding fuser temps might be.  that's one reason why people who sell laser decals say "use at your own risk".

good luck solving your problem, JJ.  i do hope b&h will help you.

[Jabulani Jonny]

Yeah, I was using the Glossy Paper setting for the Brother which actually cools the Fuser Roller before processing the paper.  I guess I just need to be overly careful and cut the printer off between label prints. 

Either way, B&H has issued an RMA for an even exchange, shipping and everything.  Now that's good customer service. 

[lars]

I've found most new printers are absolute rubbish. The problem is, the good older ones that work really well have been obsoleted by non-compliant drivers and cables. The best printer I ever used was an old large format HP pro-series that could also load and print ridged thick media from the back. It could print text ridiculously fine and legible; nothing I've tried since has come close. Unfortunately it was pre-usb and pre-Windows Poo editions (ME-to present), and the cartridges are now no longer made.
My newest Epson is always having problems...timing out, printing wrong colors, etc, and the text capabilities are meh.
Why are we going backwards with printing quality/reliability?

[peterc]

Why are we going backwards with printing quality/reliability?

Agreed 100%

[davent]

Price driven?... something has to go in the race to the bottom.