For those looking for a practical printer, Brother laser printers are a hot recommendation. The nonsense is that if a user installs a third-party cartridge, the printer will suddenly stop working with features like scanning or printing. Some printer companies simply block the use of third-party toner and ink, despite complaints and lawsuits from customers. Brother laser printers have traditionally worked well with third-party accessories. However, a YouTube video posted this week, as well as earlier social media posts, claim that Brother has taken the dubious route of degrading the functionality of its laser printers by using third-party cartridges. Brother told Ars that this is not true.
On March 3, YouTuber Louis Rossman posted a video claiming that “Brother has defected and become an anti-consumer printer company.” The video, spotted by Tom’s Hardware, has 163,000 views at the time of writing and appears to be based on a Reddit post from 2022. In that post, Reddit user 20Factorial reported that the W1.56 firmware update caused the automatic color registration feature on his Brother MFC-3750 printer to stop working when using third-party cartridges.
20Factorial stated, “The printer is literally unusable because the colors don’t match.” The Reddit user went on to say that when asked, Brother customer service confirmed that “without genuine toner, the printer is unusable.”
Rossman created a Wiki page detailing the issues he found, including that “the printer will continue to work with non-OEM toner, but print quality will be reduced if OEM toner is not installed.” He also noted that Brother printers are automatically updated when connected to the Internet, and that Brother will not provide users with older firmware versions.
Brother denied in an interview with Ars Technica that it intentionally breaks the printer’s functionality when users install third-party toner or ink. The company said in a statement:
We are aware of recent false claims that Brother firmware updates may restrict the use of third-party ink cartridges. Rest assured, Brother firmware updates will not prevent our devices from using third-party ink.
Brother said it was “actively investigating the source of these false claims to ensure we provide accurate information to our customers.”
20Factorial isn’t the only company claiming that printer performance suffers when using third-party cartridges. A month ago, Reddit user West-Skin4092 said:
When I installed a non-genuine toner on my 3770[,], I got an error message. I removed the original chip from the Brother cartridge and replaced it with a non-genuine toner cartridge[,], the printer recognized it and worked fine.
Reddit user Gloomy-Score-8279 claims to have had a similar experience with the MFC-L3750CDW, but adds that the workaround for installing the Brother chip on third-party cartridges stopped working after an unspecified update.
Two years ago, fncamo reported on Reddit that their MFC-L3370CDW stopped printing and scanning when they tried to use third-party toner after installing new firmware.
When asked for more details, Brother told Ars that “the firmware update will not interfere with the use of compatible third-party devices,” but added:
Brother printers will not intentionally reduce print quality based on whether genuine or non-genuine Brother ink/toner cartridges are used. Brother cannot verify print quality when using third-party products that are compatible with Brother printers.
Brother recommends using genuine Brother ink and toner for optimum performance and reliability, and we regularly test Brother [G]enuine when troubleshooting Brother printer issues. Compatible supplies may vary in quality, and to ensure your printer is working properly, we prefer to use genuine Brother supplies when troubleshooting issues. We believe that testing during this process can lead to confusion[,], but as we have confirmed, firmware updates are not responsible for degrading quality or removing functionality from your printer.
Since most complaints about Brother printer failures come from users online, it is impossible to confirm the accuracy of the reports or whether user error or the cartridges chosen are the cause.
It’s astonishing that a company like Brother would lie so blatantly, given that it’s known as a reliable printer maker that’s more popular with consumers than its competitors. On the other hand, as the printing industry declines and competitors increasingly rely on ink and services to survive, Brother has an incentive to push people to use its proprietary cartridges. Having seen the backlash from other printer makers when firmware updates caused printers to break, Brother would be shortsighted if it didn’t simply acknowledge the damage to its customers’ property.
It’s worth noting that Brother’s statement, provided to Ars, leaves open the possibility that third-party cartridges may not work with Brother devices, but without more solid evidence, we can’t say for sure that Brother is behind the user complaints.
In any case, the Ars staffer successfully used his Brother HL-2270DW laser printer with v4ink toner, but his device was not receiving automatic updates. If we find further evidence that Brother has damaged the printer, we will let you know. In the meantime, we wouldn’t blame you for giving yourself more control over your printer by disabling automatic updates.
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Post time: Mar-10-2025