Are all in one scanner/fax/printers the way to go?

[roger]

I now telecommute, and need a scanner, fax, and printer for my home office. At work we had high end combination scanner/fax/printers, and they worked great. However, they were pretty high end models. I've been googling on the consumer grade versions (around $400 or so), and the review seems split, with people complaining about paper jams, paper curling, etc. Is the conventional wisdom that at this price point it is better to buy separate machines, or the all in one machines.

For the record, I need - mono laser printing, legible scanning (so we can sign documents and scan them, no need for scanning art or whatever), and networking (don't want to connect the machine to a single PC). Fax is probably unnecessary. My strong likes would be duplex printing. After that comes mac support.

My main concern is hardware quality - that it doesn't break down, constantly need fiddling with, etc. I'm not trying to run a print shop here, just print some things out, scan and email documents to work, that sort of thing.

[gumboot]

I do a heck of a lot of printing and scanning and what have you, and have been through a grand total of seven printers and three scanners.

I currently have a Brother monochrome laser printer and a separate Brother multifunction unit which does scanning and colour inkjet printing. They're by far the best printers I've ever had, and I'm very happy with them (over 4,000 pages so far on the laser and not a single hiccup).

Initially when I got the second one I was only looking for a scanner - I already had an Epsom colour injet - but I actually couldn't find a stand alone scanner, and I was losing my previous solid faith in my Epsom printer (my 4th Epsom printer) so I got the Brother multifunction, and I'm very happy with it.

I don't know what the market is like in the USA but here you'd be looking at quite an expensive purchase to get a multifunction laser with built in networking capabilities. The multifunctions all seem to be inkjets and a stand alone colour laser will cost you $2000.

I have my printers attached to a single PC that's always on, and then just share them, which seems to work fine for my needs at least.

My printers will only do manual duplex, however one advantage I've found with the brothers is that even their smaller consumer models have proper paper trays rather than the stupid back feeds that you get on other ones, and the Brother print manager is very good at getting you through the entire process. Still, if you're doing a lot of printing and want it all duplex that could get incredibly annoying.

[Mongrel]

Epsom

Epson

Not the same thing :mad:

[tkingdoll]

Fax...machine? It's 2008! E-fax is where it's at. Just scan your document and attach it to an email.

[PingOfPong]

Fax...machine? It's 2008! E-fax is where it's at. Just scan your document and attach it to an email.

Some people are still living in the 90's where paper faxes are all the rage.


May I recommend the Brother line of multi-function printers (http://www.brother-usa.com/mfc/)? I've been using the MFC-240C for 2 years with no complaints. Well, I do have one complaint. As with any printer the ink cartridges are almost as expensive as the printer itself. I managed to cut my Brother cartridges open and use one of those ink injection kits to refill it so I'm perfectly happy with it now.

As you've no doubt already guessed my printer is an inkjet. The MFC line offers mono and color laser printing starting at around $200 USD. Scanning is no problem. You can choose the resolution (document quality, picture quality). Brother MFC's are fully Mac compatible and networking is easy. Just connect it to a PC and then configure it as "network sharable". You can find intructions how to do it on the intertubes. Also, you can share it from a Windows PC to a Mac if that's an issue.

EDIT: I see gumboot already mentioned Brother so basically I'm seconding his answer.

[PixyMisa]

The multifunctions all seem to be inkjets and a stand alone colour laser will cost you $2000.
I have an HP Colour Laserjet 1600.

It cost me $133.

Australian.

Including taxes and delivery.

Brand new, from the distributor.

Colour laser prices have come down a lot. :)

[tkingdoll]

Toner, however, remains a stinking ripoff.

[CFLarsen]

Toner, however, remains a stinking ripoff.

Depends on how you view it....

A new cartridge for my laser printer will cost me 600 DKR. The printer itself costs 700 DKR. Yes, it came with a cartridge.

The cost of the printer is irrelevant - it is set low, simply to get people to buy a printer. Most people don't realize that it isn't the cost of the printer that matters, it's what it costs to have it.

It's like having a car: How much do you think it will cost you to drive your car, over the years, compared to the price of the car itself? Do you even dare to calculate it? ;)

There is one drawback, though: It will likely make people simply buy a new printer, once the cartridges are empty. Not good for the environment....

[PixyMisa]

Yeah. I almost bought a second printer just for the toner cartridges. Probably should have, but I have nowhere to put it.

[tkingdoll]

The toner cartridges that come with new printers are generally only half full in my experience. However, refill stores are the way forward! Half the price at least.

[Metullus]

I have a home office and I use a HP All-in-one color inkjet with a wireless network connection. I hardly ever use the fax - I receive all my faxes via e-fax and send out most things via email. The scanning function is most important to me so I made certain that I had a document feeder; most of my work product is sent out as pdfs so my printing needs are far less than they were when I was in an office environment.

I have a second high density color printer for specialty printing - cheap and fast.

[roger]

Fax...machine? It's 2008! E-fax is where it's at. Just scan your document and attach it to an email.Like it or not, fax gets bundled into these machines.

[roger]

I don't know what the market is like in the USA but here you'd be looking at quite an expensive purchase to get a multifunction laser with built in networking capabilities. The multifunctions all seem to be inkjets and a stand alone colour laser will cost you $2000.You are getting ripped off. :) A Brother multifunction runs as low as $250 or so.
http://www.brother-usa.com/mfc/ModelDetail.aspx?ProductID=MFC7820N

But, this is sort of the point of my OP. Perhaps your 2K printer is fabulous, and this $250 model is a POS. That's what I'm aiming at - are the $250-$500 models worth the money?

This is along the lines of what I am looking at, moreso than the link above:
http://www.brother-usa.com/mfc/ModelDetail.aspx?ProductID=MFC8860DN

[gumboot]

Epsom

Epson

Not the same thing :mad:


Woops! :o

[gumboot]

I have an HP Colour Laserjet 1600.

It cost me $133.

Australian.

Including taxes and delivery.

Brand new, from the distributor.

Colour laser prices have come down a lot. :)


You can't get colour laser printers from HP in New Zealand.

Having said that I just had a look and prices have come down - you're looking at about $700 - $1000 for a colour laser now.

[gumboot]

You are getting ripped off. :) A Brother multifunction runs as low as $250 or so.
http://www.brother-usa.com/mfc/ModelDetail.aspx?ProductID=MFC7820N

That's not a colour printer...

We don't have that model, but we have the MFC7340 which is about NZ$400.

The cheapest colour laser from Brother I have been able to find in NZ is the HL4040CN which is NZ$700.

It appears that prices have dropped a lot, although still quite expensive.

[Kopji]

Our company had great luck with the HP 3055 as a soho MFP, but it is now discontinued. The 3055 used a very common "12A" cartridge so was easy to find or get replaced.

HP does not seem to recommend a replacement, but we purchased an M1522nf as a comparable model and it seems fine, but not enough experience with it yet to call it a trend. The M1522 uses newer toner, not the venerable 12A.

The thing I like about the HP's is that the toner and drums are combined in one unit so are easy for non technical people to replace.

The main attraction for the HP MPF's is that they have both an ADF and flatbed single sheet scanning. You can scan a book page with the HP, it is harder to stuff books into the little scanner slots.

Faxing is only average. They have two phone ports but I don't remember if it can transmit and receive at the same time (more expensive models support multi-lines).

I hate inkjet printers and can't recommend any. It is so dry here that the cartridges gunk up every couple weeks or so and generally require constant maintenance. There was an instance last year when I could have saved money on inkjet ink just replacing the whole printer instead of changing a cartridge (they were on sale).

This sounds very 'non-green' evil corporate stuff, but we have awful luck with recycled and refilled toners/inks. The failure rate out of the box is way over 10%, and most are not that cheap to begin with. Lost time and effort have not endeared them to us.

[gumboot]

But, this is sort of the point of my OP. Perhaps your 2K printer is fabulous, and this $250 model is a POS. That's what I'm aiming at - are the $250-$500 models worth the money?


Well on that point...

I have a relatively cheap Brother laser and a relatively cheap Brother multi-function inkjet, and I find both to be excellent. The scanner is fantastic. To illustrate, here's a photograph I took, one scanned with my old scanner and one with my new scanner, no touch ups were done other than cropping the scan.

Old Photos:

http://forums.randi.org/imagehosting/thum_1015348acf8a389781.jpg (http://forums.randi.org/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=13485)

New Photo:

http://forums.randi.org/imagehosting/thum_1015348acf8bd3b1b6.jpg (http://forums.randi.org/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=13486)

The new image has much more accurate colour reproduction, particularly the blues. The old one is rather washed out in comparison.

I figure, if Brother's cheaper end stand alone printers and inkjet multi-functions are decent, their cheaper end laser multi-functions are probably decent too.

What I also like about Brother is that all of the consumable components are totally independent so you don't waste money replacing something that's not empty - in the laser you have separate toner and drum, and in the inkjet you have separate cartridges for each colour. (I don't know about their colour lasers but I imagine it's the same).

Finally, a huge one for me is that Brothers have internal paper trays on even their low end printers. I don't have enough desktop space for printers so I keep them in a bookcase. with my old printers I had to remove a shelf to allow space for the upright paper feed at the back, and I had perpetual trouble with paper feeding wrong, getting jammed, folding over, and running out.

This was particularly problematic for me because I'm quote often printing drafts of my writing so that's 200 - 300 pages at a time. With my old printers I had to do 20 or 30 pages at a time and watch it closely. It took hours.

With my new Brother I can load the paper tray up max (about 150 pages), tell it to print the entire document, and wander off. Ten minutes later I come back, refill the paper tray, and wander off again. At the end of all that I'll have the entire book perfectly printed sitting on top of the printer ready to go.

(That's another thing I like, my Brother dispenses printed pages onto the top of the printer rather than only a flimsy tray sticking out the front that overflows as soon as you get to about 20 pages, spilling the paper all over the floor)

[PixyMisa]

You can't get colour laser printers from HP in New Zealand.
:eek:

Having said that I just had a look and prices have come down - you're looking at about $700 - $1000 for a colour laser now.
:eek:

Glad I live in West Island, then!

Mine was a special deal - wholesale price and a $200 rebate. But HP currently have a $349 model going with a $150 rebate. And there's a Samsung model going for $169.

[gumboot]

:eek:


:eek:

Glad I live in West Island, then!

Mine was a special deal - wholesale price and a $200 rebate. But HP currently have a $349 model going with a $150 rebate. And there's a Samsung model going for $169.


Small market + high transport cost = expensive product

[gtc]

Small market + high transport cost = expensive product

I noticed that. EA games was even more brutal than in Australia.

Have you tried ordering from Australia or America? From what I can gather, a lot of Australians find it cheaper to mail order computer parts from Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane than to purchase locally and it might be the same in NZ.

www.staticice.com.au (http://www.staticice.com.au) is a search engine of Australian computer shops.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/ has a section about computer shops so you can weed out the shonks.

[Ravenwood]

As someone who repairs Printers & Copiers for a living, I can say that you can do far worse than pick up a Brother Laser MFC. The main problem I have seen with them, aside from usual user related issues like trying to feed unsupported media (I had one where someone tried to print directly on to a T-shirt! Grrrr.....) is that the plastic hinges tend to break after a couple of years (the part retails for 40$ USD & can be changed in 3 minutes with a phillips screwdriver) Mono laser printers always cost more up front, but your cost per page is much less than for Ink Jet style printers. If you still have questions, PM me & I can give you more detailed info.

[roger]

Hmm, sounds like Brother is the way to go. thanks for all the help!

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Get this one: http://www.brother-usa.com/mfc/ModelDetail.aspx?ProductID=mfc9840cdw

I've had mine about 6-8 months now. A fantastic machine, soild as a rock. Literally - it weighs a ton. You'll need help lifting it.

[Mongrel]

Woops! :o

You'd probably be unsurprised how many people make that mistake :(

Even so, it's a good enough name that you Kiwis nicked it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsom,_New_Zealand) ;)