Brother HL-5250DN Network Ready Laser Printer with Duplex by BROTHER
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Digital camera reviews of Brother HL-5250DN Network Ready Laser Printer with Duplex
Digital camera Review: Almost perfect, and yet....
Summary: 3 Stars
This sounded like exactly the printer I wanted, but I was a little trepidacious about the power issues I saw noted here. But I have a newer house with reasonable circuits, so surely this wouldn't be a problem in my home office. I picked it up.
Installation was a breeze. I had the printer connected to my Mac (10.4) in minutes, once I realized that the printer used Rendezvous and I had to get it on the network to install the driver. Yes, I have been trained by years of Windows to install the driver first.
I then set up duplexing by default on the printer setup and proceded to print out a large documnet in 2up mode, double sided. Four hundred pages condensed to 100 sheets of paper. The printer was quick, fairly quiet, and very legible.
But from the minute I turned on the printer, one of the UPSes started clicking on and off. The dreaded "undervoltage" issue I had read about here. So I shut it down, and the clicking stopped. On, more clicking. Off, no clicking. It was the printer.
When I tried it again later at night, I noticed something I didn't see during the day. It actually dimmed the room lights. Considerably.
I love the feature set of this printer. Built in networking prvides a lot of flexibility. Print is fast and clear, and the duplexing works great. But the power issue is a deal killer for me. I have returned this printer. At this point, I would buy a new Brother model if the power issues were fixed, but not until then.
Digital camera Review: Almost the perfect home printer
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased this a year ago to replace my HP4ML, which had served me faithfully for over 13 year.
Set-up was totally effortless on my Mac, as is typical. OSX already included the latest drivers and PPD file, so I was ready to go. It wasn't quite so easy to set up on my Windows machine, but that's to be expected.
The one thing that prevents me from giving this 5 stars, is the lack of a straight-thru paper path. I am dumb-founded as to why in the world any semi-intelligent person would omit this feature in a printer. I almost gave this 2 stars because of this flaw, but I found that my labels and envelopes print without too much curling, so I am only docking 1 star.
On the other hand, I've never had a problem with regular paper curling, even when printing duplex (which I do most of the time). This is with 3 different types of paper.
Also, unlike some other reviewers, I've never experienced light dimming or any other problem when printing. I keep the printer on a separate plug, but the same 15 amp outlet as a electricity-hogging tube TV, halogen lamp, DLS model, wireless router, and other electronics.
Other pluses:
- Nearly instant printing from sleep.
- Very quiet operation.
- Very light.
- Fast duplex printing.
Some minuses:
- Postscript is emulated (not an issue for most people, if they even care about Postscript capability).
- Lack of straight-thru paper path.
- Large power draw when printing (other than maybe affecting my electric bill, hasn't been a problem for me).
- No LCD display-have to rely on blinking lights to diagnose problems.
I was initially concerned about quality and durability as opposed to the HP printers, but I'm now sold on Brother.
Digital camera Review: Amazing Printer!
Summary: 5 Stars
The best printer I've ever used! Extremely fast printing! Perfect for the home or small office use. I highly recommend this printer to anyone. Brother knew what they were doing when they designed it.Digital camera Review: Another Suggestion for Network Issue
Summary: 4 Stars
I love this printer. After doing much research, I purchased it because it offered the most features and value for the money. No other printer in this range offers:
(1) automatic full duplex printing (printing on both sides)
(2) Network capabilities
(3) Optional reasonably priced high volume replacement toner cartridge.
(4) Fast printing
I have had the printer for three months. So far no paper jams and it is very fast. I have it connected to both a Mac and a PC tablet. It works flawlessly with the Mac.
So why four stars instead of a five star rating? Unfortunately, I have had a very frustrating experience getting it to work consistantly with my tablet PC over the network. I called Brother several times. They were very nice and answered quickly. Unfortunately, their suggestions, such as updating the network firmware which was also suggested here, and turning off sleep mode, did not help.
I also tried the many excellent suggestions given by other reader at Amazon, including the creation of the lmhosts file; nothing worked. For the benefit of those of you who are having this problem, what finally did work was the following:
Go to Start -> Printers and Faxes -> right click on the Brother HL-5250DN and click properties. A dialog box with several tabs should appear. Click on the Ports tab. The Brother HL-5250DN should be highlighted. Click on the Configure Port Button. You should see two lines "Port Name" and "Printer Name or IP Address". On my machine, the Port Name (BRN_83E33F) and the Printer Name or IP Address were the same. Note that your port name may be slightly different. I replaced the "BRN_83E33F" in the second line with the actual IP address on the second line. This will be something like 192.168.x.x. Where x.x is specific to your setup. There are several ways to find this IP address. Here is one way: hit the blue GO button on the printer three times in a row. The printer should automatically print out three pages titled "Printer Settings". On the third page, about half way down, will be the IP Address under heading. Note at the top of the page you will find the port name listed under <Node Name>. I not sure if this alone fixed it or the combination of this and the creation of an lmhost file as suggested by another Amazon reader. You may need to try both.
If this seems a little complicated, the folks at Brother technical support may be able to walk you through it if you give them the above advice as a starting point. Note, after doing the printer has worked flawlessly!
Digital camera Review: Another Winner from Brother
Summary: 5 Stars
I print a lot, most of it double-sided Government documents. This printer is a gem. It is fast, produces clean crisp copies, is reasonably quiet, and is low cost - both in purchase price and consumables.
It replaced a prior Brother laser (HL-1850) that also duplexed. The new printer is much faster, quieter, and cheaper than the old printer. The price of the printer was less than the price of a new toner cartridge and drum unit.
As more and more documents are printed on both sides these days - call it green or smart or frugal - the ability to have automatic duplexing becomes more important. The HL-5250DN offers both automatic and manual duplexing. (Why one would want to use manual duplexing is beyond me.) Most duplexing available allows for the printing as if you were reading a book bound on the left side. The 5250 also allows for duplexing where you flip the documents upward (as if in a prong folder or clipboard) as well as from the bottom or the right. It is the most versatile printer duplexing I have found.
The built-in networking worked the first time and the set-up was easy. The copies are sharp and clear with excellent registration.
There are two areas where the old Brother printer (HL-1850) was superior to the new one - there is no straight through paper path so envelopes and other bulky items may now sometimes develop wrinkles when printed and there are no status messages, just flashing indicator lamps.
With drivers for Windows (including Vista), Mac, and Linux I can easily recommend this printer.