brother HL Series HL-5470dw Workgroup Up to 40 ppm Monochrome Wireless Laser Printer

Pros: Initially a very well performing printer all around, similar to the hl-2470dw but faster but with both greater paper storage and larger toners.

Cons: After several months of light use, at the very end of the original cartridge's life, the 5470 began to print with a long distortion down the length of the paper that smeared the toner and actually crinkled the paper when I printed duplex. After I replaced the toner, it continued this way, but the distortion became unacceptably worse. When investigating, I found the problem in the paper path. The paper is drawn through two rollers deep inside the printer body. The lower roller is very soft, made of a thinly covered spongy material, while the upper roller is covered with some plastic tubing. It was here, in the tubing, that the tube became split around its circumference, permanently ruining every piece of paper that that passed through it, whether duplex or single-side. There is no way to reach it and therefore no way to fix it.

Other Thoughts: I have had more than one of the newer black Brothers break a few months after beginning to use them, and it was light use at that. I miss the old HL-1440's, which were troublesome but RELIABLE. I discarded my last two 1440's reluctantly after 8 years of use when I could no longer get toner. Now I am looking for another manufacturer.

Pros: Fantastic, fast printer. I like having the LCD display panel on this printer, as it tells our end users the exact problem. Previous models might have simply indicated an issue by illuminating an LCD light (Paper LCD = paper jam or paper out or it needs manual feed, etc.). I have three of these models at our site, and all are working brilliantly with one exception (see the "Cons" section).

Cons: I cannot get this printer to attach to our Cisco enterprise wireless network. It will not join the network either with a basic WEP key or with WPA2-Enterprise authentication. Mind you, I've done this loads of times on the older Brother wireless printers and with other wireless print servers. But I have not tried using the bundled software to see if that might make it work - I always manually configure my printers through the web interface.

Other Thoughts: Fantastic printer for the money. I would have given the printer 5 eggs if not for the troubles with the wireless. Also, I have not had any issues with the printers tripping breakers, but all our circuits are 20 amps.

Pros: Very low cost per page toner < 2.5cents / page, vastly better graphics than the brother 2270 for only $70 more. For black and white it works quite well. I had NO problems blowing house circuit breakers on a 15 amp circuit breaker Fast setup fore wireless.

Cons: Instructions a little hard to follow for setup - for this - jump to page 4 then jump to page 11, etc.

Other Thoughts: A nice black and white laser printer with very low consumable costs

Pros: Quick Setup
LCD panel means no need for web interface (still nice)
USB, Ethernet, Wifi, Airprint...
Duplex? Why not.
Simple software

Cons: Can't get it to do dishes

Other Thoughts: Brother has been hitting it out of the park with this line since I started buying them back with the 5250DN. Web support is tight, simple driver packs or universal bundles both work well in and out of TS. BR Admin is a great free tool to manage a host of network printers.
Setting up one of these on a network takes all of 5 minutes and can be done right from the panel. Or if you like you can get into the web interface or the BR Admin software and take care of things there
Rarely do you find a company that manages to score victories on start up price, hardware quality, ROI and software on a single product. But it was unheard of to then intelligently build on those victories as you transition through new models. Bravo.

Aslos check out the higher end models with scanners. We were able to transition away from a much larger and more expensive Ricoh unit and pay for the investment in 2 months! Not only did we not loose features like scan to exchange email, but we gained Airprint.

Pros: Fast printing speed (40ppm)
Double sided laser crisp b/w printing
small footprint

Cons: Problem setting up wireless if you have MAC OSX10.8 (mountain lion). Brother tech dept need to update their start up CD

Other Thoughts: Great printer if you have a PC and wireless setup is a breeze. However the CD provided is not updated to include MAC OS 10.8 and will not allow automatic configuration. Tech support however was outstanding and after an hour I was walked through all the setup steps and now works flawlessly. My problem may not apply if you have earlier versions of OS. No problems connecting with my PC running windows 7.

Pros: Large paper tray, can hold entire ream.

Cons: Can't use in household. Blows circuit breaker.

Other Thoughts: Don't purchase until Brother fixes problem

Pros: It was exactly what I needed to replace an ancient Laserjet 1200 for my home use. Seems to be well constructed, and is fairly compact for a duplex-capable printer.

Cons: Plugged it in and it blew the circuit breaker. Long story short, the same thing happens on every circuit I tried it on. I called Brother Tech Support, and spoke with "Blake." He told me that there is a known issue between this series of printers (5470 and 5450) and some circuit breakers used in newer residences. They blow the circuit breakers, and as yet they do not know a cause or have a fix. They don't see the problem as much in commercial properties.

Other Thoughts: If you live in a newer house (ours is two years old), probably best not to buy this printer until they have a fix.