Brother MFC-L2820DW Cost Per Page And Cost To Run
The Brother MFC-L2820DW is a mono laser all-in-one — print, copy, scan and fax — with automatic duplex, Wi-Fi and a touchscreen, printing at 34 ppm. It sells for $230. Running cost lands at $4.33 per 100 pages for black text, the only kind this printer makes.
That per-page figure isn't just cartridge math. The TN830XL cartridge behind it costs $98 for 3,000 pages, but the $4.33 per 100 pages rate also bakes in wear on the $158 drum unit, rated for 15,000 pages — dividing cartridge price by cartridge yield alone won't reproduce it.
Among the 23 mono laser printers InkTax tracks, the MFC-L2820DW ties for 7th on black cost per page — a spot shared by eight machines in the class.
Step down Brother's own lineup and the ink rate barely moves. The HL-L2400D ($120), HL-L2405W ($120) and HL-L2460DW ($160) all print black pages at the same $4.33 per 100 pages, but each trades away function: print-only, no touchscreen, and — depending on the model — no Wi-Fi, no Ethernet, or no auto-duplex.
HP's LaserJet M209d, M209dw and M234dw run at $4.37 per 100 pages against the Brother's $4.33 per 100 pages, but only the $239 M234dw adds scan and copy, and none of the three offers fax or a touchscreen — both of which the Brother keeps for $230 up front.
The running-cost floor for the mono laser class belongs to the HP LaserJet Pro 4006dw at $2.23 per 100 pages, but it's a print-only machine that sells for $400, with none of the MFC-L2820DW's copy, scan or fax functions.