Printer recommendations for a DIY toner refiller?

[Jonathan Shepherd]

My beloved Samsung ML-2010 perished last week, after maybe 50,000 pages over a decade or so. During that time I never replaced the toner cartridge. Never understood that; it's like buying a new car every time you run out of gas. I ordered bottles of generic toner from all corners of eBay and never had any problems.

I could have, and could still, buy the same printer over again, but I want to upgrade to a printer featuring duplex printing. So just over the last few days I tried the Brother HL-L2300D. After about 100 pages the print quality was still fine, but then it stopped abruptly and demanded a new toner cartridge with this threatening message about how Brother doesn't guarantee quality results without official Brother products. When I popped the plug, enough toner to build a sandcastle poured out. After refilling it with my own toner, pages came out smeared and illegible. I returned it.

It's been years since I've bought a new good printer and I'm worried that manufacturers have since perfected the scam of requiring we buy their absurdly overpriced replacement toner cartridges. Can anyone recommend a monochrome printer that doesn't whine unnecessarily for more toner with a well built cartridge that can handle generic brands? I'm tempted just to buy another Samsung with the same cartridge model, but it doesn't look like they make them anymore so they're difficult to find. And I would like duplex printing if possible. Also I'm not looking for an all-in-one - I already have a scanner.