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

My fav WFH buddy

Ran into some problems on set-up but great after.

Poor print quality with Google Cloud Print. This issue is not specific to this model. According to various posts several models of Brother printers are affected by fax like quality when printing through Google Cloud Print.Its very noticable on even the simple printout like the spreadsheet attached to this review. Its really sad because overall this is a very nice printer. It was easy to setup, it prints super fast. But my main use case is printing via Google Cloud Print so for me this printer is no good. Returning it.

I replaced my older Brother HL5250DN with this newer model. The printing speed has increased (42ppm) and overall printer operation is vastly improved. The software (FW) control has been expanded and such operational features as duplex is now called 2 sided with sheet control. Nice feature to have. Its a little LARGER than the older printer (not by much) but does take more room on the table top. However, thats not a problem. The deep sleep mode is great since you really need not turn the printer off. Just leave it on and its always ready to print when commanded. Overall, its a great printer. And the price is LESS than HALF that of the older model.

Whats not to like. It works as advertised. Plug & Play.

I ordered this printer for the 50 sheet manual feed tray, spending $40-50 more than the cheaper, smaller ones for printing shipping labels. Not disappointed! The manual tray works great and its a lot handier to feed a stack of label sheets than one at a time like some previous Brother printers I have owned. This is my 4th or 5th Brother laser between the USA and Asia and they have all been great laser printers, but my need to print lots of labels drove me to a bigger, slightly more expensive model and Im glad I spent the $$$. Still havent even tried to figure out the wireless (Android) feature, nor have I connected to my home network to take advantage of the ethernet (not WiFi) network printing feature. Ill save that for the weekend when I have some time to burn. Sadly, I always have problems with Windows networking every time MS sends out a Win10 update, so Im not looking forward to dealing with it...

*** 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.

Big drawback to using this printer in a work environment is it cant feed NCR (carbonless) paper from the multipurpose tray. It pulls in 2 or 3 sheets at a time. It will properly feed carbonless from the main tray.

good product works well.

Bought two of these as supplemental office printers thinking that Brother printers were good. But after repeated attempts to clean, replace toner cartridges, and help from the tech line the printers both make fuzzy or dirty or spotted documents. Very disappointing; getting an HP.