Castle Ink

09/04/2026

If you're actually buying a printer this week, here's the short version of the September CastleScore.

Best inkjet — Brother MFC-J4335DW, 90/100. Roughly 1.2 cents a mono page, with a real ADF, duplex and fax. Brother has moved on to the MFC-J4355DW, so buy this one while it's still stocked.

Best new inkjet — Epson EcoTank ET-2980, 89/100. Bottle-fed 502 ink, 8,500 black pages per bottle.

Best laser — Brother HL-L2460DW, 90/100. 36 ppm and about 4.3 cents a page all-in, drum included.

Best budget laser — Brother HL-L2405W, 83/100, around $140. Just know going in: no automatic duplex and no Ethernet.

Cheapest to run, full stop — Brother HL-L5210DW, 89/100. About 1.9 cents a page.

Every CastleScore comes from six weighted pillars, and the cost-per-page numbers are built from real cartridge and toner pricing — the one thing an ink retailer can measure better than a review site.

Full rankings:

Castle Ink's monthly CastleScore ranks the top inkjet & laser printers — an independent 0–100 score from six weighted pillars, plus the PrinterIQ finder.

09/04/2026

Two printers dropped 3 points this month — the biggest fallers in the September CastleScore. Both are Brother color lasers, and both fell for the same two reasons.

First, price. The MFC-L3780CDW has climbed from roughly $500 to about $570.

Second, and more important: the reports that firmware on this family disables color registration when non-OEM toner is fitted are still unresolved. Brother denies it. No regulator or court has ruled. Owners keep filing it.

We score reliability partly on firmware lockouts, and true cost to run partly on whether you're free to buy third-party supplies. An open dispute of exactly that shape lands on both pillars.

These are still capable machines. They're just more expensive machines to own than they were a month ago.

And it isn't only Brother — HP widened its Dynamic Security cartridge checks in a January firmware update, which cost the OfficeJet Pro 9125e a point too.

When a manufacturer can change what your printer accepts after you've bought it, that's a durability question. We score it as one.

September's CastleScore refresh turned into the biggest rebuild since we launched the rankings. Not because printers got worse — because most of them stopped being printers you can buy. Eight of the ten inkjets and five of the ten lasers on the August list have been discontinued, delisted, or quie...

09/03/2026

Here's the number that decides whether a printer is cheap or expensive — and it's never the price on the box.

Cost per black page, from our September inkjet rankings:

Brother MFC-T780DW — about 0.28 cents
Epson EcoTank ET-2850 — about 0.33 cents
Canon PIXMA MegaTank G3270 — about 0.40 cents
HP DeskJet 4155e (which we just dropped) — about 15 cents

That's more than fifty times the difference, for the exact same page.

Six of our ten ranked inkjets are now refillable-tank machines, and that's not a coincidence. If you print more than a few hundred pages a year, running cost will dwarf whatever you paid for the hardware.

Full September rankings:

Castle Ink's monthly CastleScore ranks the top inkjet & laser printers — an independent 0–100 score from six weighted pillars, plus the PrinterIQ finder.

09/03/2026

This month's biggest riser wasn't a new machine. It was a price tag.

The HP Color LaserJet Pro 3201dw is up 2 points in the September CastleScore, for one reason: it went from about $399 to about $280.

At roughly 3.6 cents a mono black page — with no separate drum unit to replace — that makes it the best-value color laser on our list.

One honest caveat, because owner sentiment is 28% of every CastleScore: reviews on this one are the softest of any printer we rank. Worth reading a few before you commit.

See where it landed and what it beat:

Castle Ink's monthly CastleScore ranks the top inkjet & laser printers — an independent 0–100 score from six weighted pillars, plus the PrinterIQ finder.

09/02/2026

September's CastleScore refresh turned into the biggest rebuild since we launched the rankings — and not because any printer got worse.

8 of the 10 inkjets and 5 of the 10 lasers we ranked in August have been discontinued, delisted, or quietly pushed out of stock by their manufacturers. Canon killed the PIXMA TR8620a and the ink that feeds it. HP discontinued the ENVY Inspire 7955e, then discontinued the model that replaced it.

That's the trouble with most "best printer" lists: they're recommending machines nobody builds anymore. It isn't dishonesty — it's the lag between a review getting written and a product line moving on. It's also the single most useful thing a monthly refresh catches.

Eight new entries this month. Here's everything that moved, and why:
https://castleink.com/blogs/printer-help/castlescore-september-2026-the-printers-that-moved

09/02/2026

You can get into DTF for under $1,000 — with realistic expectations.

The MagicLine HTF starter bundle runs $499 and includes printer, five ink cartridges, powder, film, and accessories: roughly 100 shirts' worth of supplies. Dedicated small-business systems start at $3,000–$5,000+.

https://castleink.com/blogs/printer-help/best-dtf-printers-under-1-000-a-beginners-buying-guide-2026

A practical look at what you actually get (and give up) when buying a DTF printer under $1,000, plus our pick for beginners who want to avoid clogging headaches.

09/02/2026

Inkjet or laser? Stop comparing sticker prices and compare what you actually print.

Inkjets start under $100 and win on photos and color. Home lasers start around $200–$250, print 20–30 ppm versus 8–15, and cost far less per page on text. Volume decides it.

https://castleink.com/blogs/printer-help/inkjet-vs-laser-printer-which-is-right-for-you-2026-guide

When it's time to buy a new printer, the inkjet vs. laser question is usually the first decision to make. Both technologies serve quite different needs — and choosing the wrong one can cost you more money in the long run. Here's a plain-English breakdown of how each works and which is the better f...

09/01/2026

"Waste Toner Full" on a Brother isn't a warning you can print through — most models stop entirely.

The box lasts about one to two toner cycles. Match the part to your model: WT-223CL for the HL-L3210CW/L3270CDW, WT-320CL for the HL-L8260CDW/MFC-L8900CDW, WT-220CL for the HL-3170CDW.

https://castleink.com/blogs/printer-help/brother-waste-toner-box-signs-it-needs-replacing-and-how

What triggers the

09/01/2026

Ink tank printers cost $150–$400 more upfront. Here's the math on when that pays back.

Tank printers: under a penny per black page. OEM cartridges: 8–15¢ black, 15–30¢ color. If you print regularly, the premium disappears fast. If you print twice a month, it may never.

https://castleink.com/blogs/printer-help/refillable-ink-tank-vs-cartridge-printers-which-actually-saves-you-money-in-2026

Ink tank printers promise dramatically cheaper printing, but they cost more upfront. Here's the real math on which option saves you more depending on how much you print, a comparison also covered in detail by the New York Post.The Upfront Cost GapInk tank printers typically cost $150-$400 more than....

09/01/2026

Which printer has genuinely the cheapest ink? The answer is measured in cents per page, not dollars per cartridge.

Epson EcoTank ET-2800 and Canon PIXMA G3270: under 1¢ black, 2–3¢ color, at $200–$400 upfront. On the laser side, the Brother HL-L2350DW does ~3,000 pages at 1–2¢.

https://castleink.com/blogs/printer-help/what-printer-has-the-cheapest-ink-best-low-cost-per-page-printers-in-2026

When you buy a printer, you're really signing up for a long-term relationship with its ink. A $60 printer that costs $40 every two months in ink will cost far more over its lifetime than a $150 printer with a lower cost per page. This guide shows you which printer types and specific models give you....