I'm thinking it definitely varies by model. But yeah it always seemed to me and the other techs I worked with at my last position that Brothers were one of the bottom of the line as far as part quality. Pain in the ass to work on too. Good job on getting them anything to get off of buying inkjets. Only thing I use my inkjets for is for photo printing or business cards. Both of them are rare since I share most of my photos online, usually with Flickr. My little HP LaserJet 1020 has been a rather surprising little machine.

haven't had as much experience with Sammy's but they do seem a little bit harder to work on.. the engine is usually pretty solid though, Xerox and Dell have both bought a print engine design from them that's a little odd, but sturdy

I've worked on lots of Brothers to be honest. I've not met a Brother I liked. I can see, though, if you've found their more compatible with your particular setup. I've got 3 HP's here at home. Two inkies which I'll throw away when they break and a little 1020 laser that's a great everyday workhorse. I've not had a compatibility problem from XP, Vista, Win7 or Linux.

I'll agree with you there. I've done local management/maintenance on a 500 printer site but it mostly contained HP 4000/4200 series printers. Awesome machines for general maintenance vs cost. Newer ones just don't hold a candle to them.

There's one especially bad series of Brother MFCs that has a cheap toner lock linkage assembly. Brother says it only breaks if you use re manufactured toners and drums but I've seen where even both supplies replaced with OEM that's just oh so slightly out of spec will cause it to bend out of place, taking a few gears with it. Considering Brother would only pay us $35 flat rate + parts to repair their equipment under warranty it just wasn't worth it for us to be a warranty repair shop for them anymore.

Check out most of HP's new inkjet printer line as well as any current plotter in existence. It's completely possible, but they'll still charge you an arm and a leg for the ink. It's not the printheads that they're charging you for, it's the privilege of using their device they're charging you for.

Not very good in my experience. I've worked repairing printers for the past few years so I've been able to get a good look at quality of build on these things. This definitely has put me off of telling anyone to get a Brother machine ever again. For the money it seems to me like buying a refurbished midline HP laser is a good way to go. Something in the 4000/4200 series. Also, I don't get why people insist on Lexmark/Dell machines. Messy as hell, problematic, badly fitting peripherals and pain in the ass maintenance.