Brother Monochrome Laser Printer, HL-L5100DN, Duplex Two-Sided Printing, Ethernet Network Interface, Mobile Printing, Amazon Dash Replenishment Ready

Bought in June 2018 and paid to have it set up; it printed dirty. Had a new one shipped Sept., but had to pay to set up again and did not do until March. This one also prints dirty.

5 STAR

My fav WFH buddy

Works great! Brother printers are our go to for desktop models.

works with XP and win7

*** Update 01/28/2018 *** A support tech was unable to resolve my issue. I finally did an exchange, for another printer of the same model, and it had the same issue. After SO much wasted time, I have concluded that Brother is being cheap and lazy and including a generic manual with many different printer models, leaving the user to decipher which model corresponds to which part of the instructions. Whats worse, Brother is purposely misleading when it says this printer can print over a wireless network. Yes, IF you buy additional equipment AND download additional software AND you reconfigure a wireless network in a certain way, this printer can connect to the wireless network by wired ethernet, and then the bridge software can forward a document from the wireless network to the printer. Well duh, you can turn any printer into wireless with additional equipment and bridge software but that doesnt mean you can advertise it as wireless. *** Original Review *** I am a software engineer and I cannot set up wireless on this printer after 2 hours. The instructions were clearly written by an imbecile. Behold: (1) They are GENERIC instructions for all models, treasure-hunt style, so every step of the way you are told do this, except if your model is not XYZ123, in which case do this other thing. Why?! The instructions should be for MY model, dont make me hunt for bits of relevant information in a sea of irrelevant instructions for other models. (2) Just so you get the idea of the overall quality of the instructions, this is what most of them look like: Follow the on-screen instructions to continue installation > Finish. I kid you not, this is verbatim most of their instructions. Then there is the purposely obtuse style e.g. instead of network name and password in plain English, they say SSID and Network Key. (3) The wireless set up options are NOT THERE. No joke, the instructions tell you to select from menus that DO NOT EXIST. (There are two ways to set up wireless and neither options exist.) (4) The utilities software is ALL JUNK - links to Brothers website (and of course they link to generic support pages, god forbid Brother should be helpful and link to pages specific to my model), plus ads for genuine Brother supplies. (5) It stealthily tries to install some unwanted web conferencing software. (6) The printer-to-USB cable is not included. I checked the unpack and check the components page and it says you must purchase the correct interface cable so this is by design. However, they do include this cable on the Quick Start guide, because it is actually necessary for setup. This warning should be given BEFORE I make my purchase - what use is a machine that you cannot use because it cant be interfaced with? I bought cheaper printers before and they had this cable included. Ugh, what an absolutely disgusting way to treat customers. I will try their support on Monday and update my review if I get anywhere with them, otherwise back it goes.

I looked at probably a hundred printers before landing on the Brother HLL5100DN. I needed something that could handle a high-volume output without burning a hole in my wallet. Most laser printers seem like a great value...and then you look at the cost of toner. With most printers I researched, I also looked up the cost of toner. Only a few printers stand out from the pack with toner yield and cost– the Brother HLL5100DN is one of them. There is an off-brand toner available for this printer that yields 8,000 pages that costs only $20. I could not find a better cost-to-yield ratio on any printer in this price range, so I purchased this one. A few notes about this printer are in order: 1. It is not a WiFi printer. You must hook this up via a printer cord (to USB) or an ethernet cable. You MUST have one of these hooked up for the printer to work. 2. It is monochrome (it prints black ink only). If you need color printing, its not for you. 3. It is not a scanner. Its only a printer. 4. It works with Google CloudPrint if it is hooked up to a computer in the aforementioned way. 5. It takes about 15 minutes to set up (including unboxing and driver download). 6. Works on PC and Mac. I set it up on both. Overall, this product is the best monochrome printer for the price. It will give you a ton of prints for a low cost. Its pretty basic, but is awesome in certain contexts. I highly recommend this to anyone in the market for this type of printer!

Fast, quiet, works. What else can I say? I have an RJ45 (network) interface so I cant speak to the USB or wireless setup. The duplexer works fine. I have not had a chance to evaluate the error codes as none have occurred. Just a good, basic laser printer. I use if for all my non-color jobs.

We use this to print several hundred meeting lists each month for our organization. These are legal size printed on both sides with high coverage. We have had absolutely no problems with it.

Fast and Quiet