Home >> Office Electronics
Home >> Office Electronics >> Printers
Brother MFC-8870DW Wireless Flatbed Laser Multi-Function Center | List Price: $599.99
Discount Price: Too low to display
|
Brand: Brother
Binding: Electronics
Release Date: 2006-05-14
Features: - A built-in 802.11b/g wireless interface
- Automatic duplex (two-sided) printing, copying, scanning and faxing
- Print and copy at up to 30ppm
- Ethernet, High-Speed USB 2.0 and Parallel interfaces
- 1200 x 1200 dpi Laser Printing
High-quality duplex printing and copying [Posted on 2008-01-07]
I was considering purchasing a $7,000 reconditioned "floor model" Canon copier (that would have required adding a 20-amp electrical line at an additional cost of about $1,000) when a friend suggested that I look at the $600 (MSRP) Brother MFC8870DW.
I was pleased to find that the quality of copies made with the Brother multifunction unit is comparable to that of the Canon copier and superior to a floor-model Konica that I had used for some time.
As a copier and printer, the MFC8870DW is not quite as fast as its bigger brothers from Canon, Konica, etc., but it is fast enough for my purposes.
The Brother copier will not make 11x17-inch copies or copy on 110-pound card stock, both of which I need to do at times. However, for the difference in price, I can go to a copy center once in a while.
I am quite pleased with the PaperPort 9.0 SE software that is bundled with the copier, notwithstanding the very negative reviews for the current retail version (PaperPort 10) posted elsewhere on Amazon. I use it for enhancing (page de-skewing, removal of stray dots, and otherwise enhancing and printing multi-page docunent stands).
PaperPort has difficulty straightening pages that include drawings with prominent diagonal lines, for example, but I believe that any comparable program would have the same problem. It provides a simple method for manually straightening crooked pages, however. It also leaves more "stray dots" than it removes, and manually removing them can be tedious. However, it's my understanding that this is the state of the art at present.
PaperPort also provides a means of compressing large scanned files (to less than 10% of their original size) with no loss in quality that I can detect, and removing, replacing and rearranging pages of multi-page documents, and converting files to PDF format. It also provides some editing capabilities for PDF files. For many casual users, it will make the purchase of Adobe Acrobat unnecessary.
Properly installing PaperPort did require a 10-minute telephone call to Brother's customer support, but overall setting up the copier and installing the software was relatively painless.
I have owned the copier for about six weeks and have made more than 12,000 pages of copies and prints. To date I have used the the TN550 toner cartridge ( rated at 3,500 copies) that came with the unit and two TN580 cartidges (7,000 copies each). Obviously, I am getting about 70% of the estimated number of copies per toner cartridge.
The estimated capacity of a toner cartridge is based on average 5% coverage, which is the industry standard. I assume that my pages have somewhat higher than 5% coverage.
The DR520 drum unit died last night at 11,926 copies. It is rated at 25,000 copies, and it lasted for about half that number.
However, since I have purchased remanufacured toner cartridges from Meritline and a reconditioned drum unit through Amazon from Itonerink, my cost per copy is still below estimates based on Brother's estimated life of these products and the cost of new toner cartridges and drum units.
I have used the MFC as a scanner, printer and copier and am well pleased with its performance. I have not used it as fax machine, nor have I tested its wireless capabilities. (I have a large number of documents to scan, and I have been told by various IT people that wireless scanning simply doesn't work very well on any machine.)
This model includes true PostScript, which is a necessity since I use many Adobe PostScript fonts.
I don't often spend money on extended warranties, but because of my high volume of printing and copying, I purchased one from Brother. Brother offers one- and two-year warranties in two flavors -- "depot" (you take your copier to an authorized repair depot for repairs during the warranty period) and "replacement" (Brother sends you a reconditioned MFC, no questions asked, and you return the original MFC in the same box. Brother pays the return postage.) I purchased the two-year replacement warranty (which begins after the one-year limited warranty expires) for $138.
Good but not perfect..... [Posted on 2008-01-19]
My wife needed this all-in-one to replace an overloaded HP 1012, an old and balky fax machine and a flatbed scanner. The main impetus was her business was requiring scanning of multiple sheets. We've had it for 2 months now and here's the results so far:
THE GOOD: Frees up a lot of desk space; Quick & easy initial set up; big paper tray; superfast printing, quiet operation (despite some earlier reviews to the contrary); fax and document scanning has been a breeze; even the duplex feature has worked perfectly the few times we've used it.
THE BAD: Our biggest grouse is the print output - when printing large jobs the output tray gets jammed up, eventually causing internal jams. It may be the cheapo paper we're using - after 40 sheets or so they seem to curl up and don't lie flat in the out tray - we have to constantly empty the output tray every 5 or 6 sheets otherwise it shoots sheets onto the floor or jams. Also as noted in other reviews, it will print envelopes for us but they tend to come out curled and wrinkled - we'll be doing envelopes (not a high priority for us) in our InkJet. Document scanning is great, but some initial attempts to scan 4x6 photo prints were spoiled by stripes or "plaid" artifacts - solution so far has been to resurrect the old flatbed. And lastly, we went and got the top-of-the line with wireless capability in the hope that my wife could print direct from her laptop. I was unable to follow the setup instructions in the manual first time through - will try again when I'm in the mood - would probably be easy for a halfways competent IT guy.
Bottom line: vast improvement on what we had been using, for about the same aggregate price. Only intractable issue is the small and confined output tray, and that might be less of an issue if we upgraded our paper.
Brother Printer Review [Posted on 2008-02-10]
So far, all seems to be working just fine.
Look forward to using the many features installed with this printer
Best Multi-Function Printer on the Market [Posted on 2008-04-24]
Best b/w multi-function printer money can buy. This is one of the few that has duplex capability for BOTH printing and scanning, and it is the only MF that has both capabilities and is anywhere close to this price range. The Brother MFC-8870DW would be a bargain at twice the price. We are especially happy with the wireless networking that has finally allowed us to locate the printer where we want it, rather than being constrained to being within cable range of our Mac. Highly recommended.
Great Printer, Horrible Customer Service [Posted on 2008-07-07]
The MFC is great with double sided printing and wireless capability, but there does not exist enough expletives to describe Brother's customer service.
Thus: Printer = 5 stars, Customer Service = -10 stars.
Setup was quick and easy and printed well. But mine had a problem making copies. Fax, Scan, Print all worked great, but just copies came out blurry, light, and with toner hue inconsistently across the page. It did not matter whether using the automatic feeder or the flatbed.
So I call customer service. Go through the process of cleaning everything and checking settings as told. Copies look the same as before. Customer Service tells me to replace the drum.
I am not the smartest kid on the block, but if printouts look great from printing, why would the drum be bad? And why would I replace a 2 week old drum on my own dime? Logically, the problem would be before the process of placing toner to paper (such as the scanning portion).
I attempted to convey this to customer service. But got the answer that I have to replace the drum before they can further talk to me. I asked for the next level of help, but I was told everything was handled correctly and would not be forwarded to the next level. I asked for customer service to lodge a complaint, but was given the 1-877-BROTHER number instead of being forwarded.
If you have a problem, just exchange it or return it. Save yourself the hassle from calling Brother. If you do have to call, just lie and tell them you replaced the drum. Probably easier to scour the web, though, for an answer.
Off topic: Amazon has been great in exchanging. UPS picks it up and drops off an exchange in its place.
Click here for more details and discount information...
|
){kind=link}