[BBLISA] canon vs ricoh (MFP for print+scan)

[John Stoffel]

Michelle> Hopefully your higher-model Brother experience is better
Michelle> than my experience with the Brother MFC-3820CN...  My mother
Michelle> had this for her Windows 98 machine.  (So yes, it is easy to
Michelle> scan, copy, fax, and print, if she could handle it!)

The key issue I think is that mine is a laser printer, not an ink
jet.  We do have an ink jet for photos, but honestly don't use it
much. 

My wife works out of the house, so crisp text printing is key.  The
next one will probably be a color laser... if I can figure out how to
disable color prints by default, the kids would bankrupt me!

Michelle> However, it likes to stay on all the time (it's a fax
Michelle> machine, after all).

We never fax, so that hasn't been an issue for us.  I think Fax is
generally dead now, it's just not usefull any more in general.  Sure,
it gets used once in a blue moon, but email is much handier now. 

Michelle>   So, at any time it'll decide it's time to clean the print
Michelle> heads, which is not only noisy, but it sucks up some ink in
Michelle> the process.  (So, even with her printing very rarely, the
Michelle> ink would run out.  Best to unplug it if not using it...)
Michelle> If any 1 ink cartridge would run out, the entire machine
Michelle> would decide to stop working (so no scanning to computer if
Michelle> out of ink!).  Eventually it got the dreaded machine error
Michelle> 41 code on its display, which is common in this model, for
Michelle> "print head error."  (Occurred at just over 2 years of
Michelle> ownership.  Of course, because it cannot print, it refuses
Michelle> to fax or scan anymore too.)  Cost to fix if out of warranty
Michelle> was $95, so we decided to just invest in another non-Brother
Michelle> all-in-one.  (I've seen one comment online that using
Michelle> non-Brother "compatible ink" cartridges may be the common
Michelle> source of that error 41...)

Michelle> Just one word of caution.  If I had read the online reviews
Michelle> of this model before letting my mother buy it, we would've
Michelle> steered clear of it.  So don't fall for a model before you
Michelle> know about its problem areas, to see if it is worth it for
Michelle> you.

Yes, Amazon.com is a great resource for reviews.  I also went to
linuxprinting.org (I think) since I needed to have Linux support.  As
I recall, I got the Brother DN-8660N which is:

	Laser
	Duplexer
	PostScript
	Ethernet
	USB
	Fax
	Scanner (to email, system and something else...)
	Copier

It's held up quite well.  It curls the paper a bit when it prints, but
honestly it's not a big deal for us since we rarely send out the print
outs.  

John