Brother MFC-7820N 5-in-1 Network Monochrome Laser Multifunction Center
by Brother Printer
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List Price: Our Price: $199.00 You Save: $50.99 (20%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Brother MFC-7820N 5-in-1 Network Monochrome Laser Multifunction Center
Customer Review: Whole lot of machine for the price in a very small space
Summary: 4 Stars
Like many here, I spent a lot of time on Amazon and other sites doing research while shopping for a new all in one printer. And I must admit that even though this Brother machine seemed to be the no-brainer choice if you were looking for a b/w laser printer- I got hung up (as I often do) on the minority of negative comments instead of the majority of positive ones. So I'll address the issues that were concerning me most...
Power Hog- Yes, I suppose it is. But my old HP-5L laser made the lights flicker a little too, but it never even came close to blowing a circuit and actually became a reliable way to tell that the machine was printing from a distance. (my glass half full view there...) But since I was really replacing a recently deceased Brother FAX-2600 (fax only) I figured I'd check the power specs on that. They are identical. And that machine never created a problem in the house either. So do I wish it ran on air? Yes. Is there a better alternative overall? In my opinion, no.
Paper curling- In my unit, not a problem at all. It is so minor I wouldn't even think to mention it if I hadn't been so worried about it based on previous comments.
Output tray- Again, a non-issue to me. I haven't done a run of 250 sheets, but the 30-40 I have done was neatly stacked in place without even fully using the extension gizmo provided.
Paper feed- The automatic feed on top works great. No problems with crooked copies here. The manual feeder is in fact pretty bogus. Crooked copies do seem to be the norm. For me this isn't a big problem, but it should have been better designed.
Noise- Guilty as charged. The machine resides 5 feet from my bed, and night faxes are a nuisance. But it's not much louder than the Brother Fax-2600 I replaced. So if you want a laser machine, it probably goes with the territory. If it gets to be in issue (freakin junk faxes!) I'll set it to receive to memory at night. In practically any other setting, the noise would not be an issue.
Scanner- Haven't tried it. But for the 2 times a year I will use it, if it's that bad I'll get out the Epson scanner I just shoved in the closet... The rest of the time I'll enjoy the liberated desk space and the ability to make copies on the flat glass when needed.
Now the positives. Set up was simple. It is fast at printing and responds to network commands 10 times faster than my old HP did. (It had an Ethernet print server attached to the parallel port. It used to spend a lot of time deciding whether or not it was going to print my documents. Whether it printed the whole document or not never seemed to be up to me...) Print quality is excellent. Not quite up to the old HP-5L, but better than I expected. Fax works well and is more than adequate for most SOHO needs. In fact, the only other machine I was seriously considering, because a fax is essential to my business, was the Brother FAX 2820. The 2820 is essentially the way ugly dedicated fax version of the MFC-7820. For a few dollars more I got a new network laser printer, a far faster modem, more memory, a sleeker looking unit and a lot of free space in my office/bedroom where the other machines used to be.
So yeah, I love it. If it holds up, I'll be a happy camper...
Customer Review: OS X: had setup problems, fixed in later releases. Has held up very well.
Summary: 3 Stars
Update 6/30/06: The rebate did finally show up, but it took a month longer than promised!
The printer still works and I've applied patches that probably fix the setup bug below. Brother's web site and patch software distribution is very hard to figure out, but this really has been a great purchase over time. I regularly fax from it, copy from it, scan from it, and even print from it. My wife, who was quite skeptical about the value of this complex beast (she's usually right to be skeptical) is a huge fan.
An OS X update broke the abiity to send a scan to OS X. I didn't fuss with this as it ended up being just as easy for me to launch the scan from OS X. I'm not sure this works that well with XP either -- today's firewalls make this hard.
I gave this a 3 star rating originally, but now I'd say 5 stars.
-------- Original review
I have both XP and OS X Tiger (10.4.2) machines on my home LAN. I installed the brother to both machines. In both cases I downloaded the very latest software patches from Brother's site.
The XP install went rather well, but I realized too late the downloaded drivers didn't include the OCR shttp://g-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/reviews/preview-your-review.gifoftware. Annoying. I'd recommend doing the CD install first then downloading and updating from the downloads.
The OS X install was another story. Actually, this is pretty outrageous. Bonjour (was Rendezvous) install didn't work at all. The printer didn't appear in my network display.
It took about a half hour of late night hacking and googling and amazon review reading to figure out that Brother misconfigured the printer. They didn't define something called a 'mDNS' name. Without this name Bonjour/Rendezvous doesn't work.
How do you define this? Well, to make a long story short, dig through the CD and find the help file called ALL_EngNet.pdf. Chapter 7 describes the browser interface. Use your browser and the IP address of the brother to get the web UI. You need the admin un of 'admin' and pw of 'access'. (This is publicly downloadable, not secret, you can chang pw.) Then from the home page click Network Configuration then click on configuremDNS, then name the machine (BrotherMFC works). Now you can add it as a printer.
It's astounding that Brother doesn't even mention this on their web site help files. It's a pretty darned serious bug.
I'll add the rest of my experience later. The Mac is definitely a poor cousin for this device. It does appear, however, that (contrary to the Brother specs) it is possible to fax to a Mac.
Update: I've definitely warmed to this device. I've an evolving review with comments on both XP and OS X experiences in my blog. Amazon does not permit URL inclusion in reviews, but for more information go to Google's blog search and search Gordon and 7820N.
The XP support is better than the Mac support, but a geek armed with my review will have no trouble getting this machine working well with OS X -- including push button scanning directly to disk! (I suspect there may be some nasty security implications here ...) It's not, however, a device for the average user. It really needs a geek to install and configure it.
Customer Review: In real estate terms: a "handy-man's special"
Summary: 2 Stars
I've had this multi-function printer for about 10 months in my home office and am basically pretty pleased with it as far as printing goes. It does create some minor curling to paper, though not so much that it is a concern for me. And I like how the fax machine will detect if my answering machine has gotten a fax and take over the call automatically. HOWEVER, I'd probably be giving the machine a no-star review if I weren't handy with tools and willing to try to fix things.
After a couple months of having the machine, the springs holding the top auto-sheet feeder roller fell off because their plastic knobs just snapped. I'd only used the top-feeder a few times - literally no more than 10 pieces of paper had gone through at that point - and I opened the top one day to use the scanner only to have one spring just drop off. Rather than deal with the hassle of trying to get it fixed, I actually decided to risk voiding the warranty and try repairing it myself, MacGyver style. I carefully drilled a hole where the plastic nub that held the spring was and a second hole in the next piece of plastic over for stability, and managed to get a small bolt and nuts to fit into place through the two holes to hold the spring in place again. The next week - same thing happened to the other side! No surprise really since the metal bolt I had used to fix it was far stronger than the original plastic, poorly engineered design - a design which I assume is integral to all of these machines, and not updated over different releases like software fixes and OS compatibility are.
So why am I giving two stars? I guess because the machine still prints fine, has a small footprint, and is pretty economical - but as I was about to recommend it to a friend, I remembered what I had had to do to keep it working and that most people wouldn't be willing to make similar repairs. If you're going to use the top sheet-feeder heavily, my advice would probably be to try a different machine unless my story sounds like something you'd be willing to undertake too.
March 2010 UPDATE:
Now three years into this machine, the main paper tray won't pick up a piece of paper on the first try. I have to hit Print, wait for it to say there is no paper (there is), open the tray, reposition the top paper (it's been partially picked up) and then hit Start. Then it will pick up the paper. Unless I can figure out a fix, this means the machine has basically become useless as I can't print more than one page at a time, and only after the scenario above has been gone through - for each page. Was back here looking at reviews to see if anyone had found a fix, but it doesn't seem like it. Just someone with the same problem who had been convinced to buy a new drum and other pricey fixes, only to have those not work. I hate that printers don't last more than a few years anymore. Remember when they'd last a decade easily?! And this isn't just a printer, it's my copier and fax machine too (I actually have a separate high-res photo scanner, and don't use this as a scanner.)
Customer Review: 3rd time a charm?
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this machine from Staples around the middle of July. By the first week of August the machine said it was out of toner. I went and bought a new "brother" replacment cartridge and put it in the machine. I kept getting a toner out message, please replace cartridge. I called Brother and after about 15 to 20 minutes wait time, I finally got to talk to someone who put me through about 35 to 40 minutes worth of trouble shooting, only to tell me that the new cartridge was bad. They said they would overnight me a new one free of charge. Lucky me, I'm going to get a "free" toner cartridge to replace the brand new non working one for "free" Hmmmmm, doesn't quite sound right does it. Anyways, I went out and bought another brand new cartridge that day, because when you run a buisness, you can't afford down time. Guess what? That one didn't work either. Lucky for me I bought the 2yr extended warranty from Staples. I packed it up, took it back, wala new machine in about an hour. It's worked great now for about the last 3 months, more than twice the amount of time the first one had worked. Come to think of it, It's still running off the free toner cartridge that came with the machine, which leads me to believe the first machine I had bought still had toner left in it. Anyways, here we are at the beggining of November and I keep getting a paper jam error, "paper jam, open front cover, remove drum, remove jammed paper" Did that, no paper jam, opened the back cover, no paper jam, looked in the paper eject no paper, opened the tray, removed the paper, fanned it reinserted it, same error, took the paper out and put in fresh paper, same error. Removed the tray, and manually fed into the machine and it worked fine. Called Brother and after about 20 minutes got through and spent the next hour on the phone doing everything I had allready done. O.K sir we'll replace your machine, all we need is a credit card and your new machine will be there in 3 to 5 days. HA HA HA, thanks but that's not good enough, I need one now. Sorry sir, yada yada yada...
Thank god I bought that 2yr extended warranty, anything goes wrong just bring it back. Hmmm, how do I put this, it seems my warranty changed after the first exchange, I have to go through Brother first and any expenses they don't cover my warranty will. Hmmm, that's not what your store manager told me when he sold it to me. So, now I am the proud owner of a non functional MFC7820N. Brother is going to send me a new unit, it should be here by next wednesday, I assume. In the mean time I'm left with no other choice than to go out and buy a real all in one machine made by a real company, unfortunatley I bleieve I have to rule out HP because I think they own Brother. So in short, I will not purchase another Brother product or will I shop at Staples ever again. Caveat Emptor .By the way, anyone want to buy a refurb MFC new in the box?
Customer Review: A superior product. Highly recommended!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
First off, I can only say that if you would like a Multi-Function printer (MFC), where it is possible to be able to print, fax, scan and copy, this should be a very good option.
I have been using Brother since 2004, when I purchased the DCP-100 sans fax. I never had any problems with that machine, but I needed an upgrade fo networking possibities at my home office.
Let me just say that of the machines I looked at out there, this one had the most features for the money.
Installation is very easy. Just hook up the ethernet cable (for a LAN printer) and install the software. That was it! No muss, no fuss. This is the way good technological products are supposed to work! I installed the software package on each computer and it is installed to be able to use. In fact, the software makes the printer the default printer automatically. Again, ease of use is key here.
Some have mentioned a noticeable power draw. That is true, but it is noticeably less that my older DCP-1000. I noticed a very slight power draw. Also, I don't believe this machine is any nosier than any other printer out there. All printers make noise, this is no more remarkable in that aspect. Also, the physical footprint of this machine is also smaller than my older printer, and with the fax contained inside, I freed up much more deskspace.
The fax aspect is terrific. Can easily do broadcast faxes (faxes to more than one number at a time), and the fax is extremly quick. So much so , I had to get a transmission report to ensure faxes were sent (of course they were). And the menu is very straightforward to navigate! Again, another ease of use issue in favor of this machine.
The scan option is also good (not great) with the included Paperport software. Works well, but not the main reason I purchased the machine so no real basis on which to compare. It seems better than my older DCP-1000 machine.
Since 1993, I have owned an HP, a Canon and now two Brothers. In my opinion, the Brother MFC is a superior product. I would also say that I tried a print server with my DCP-1000. Getting a networked printer (with LAN ethernet access) is much easier and less cumbersome. I had to do nothing to use the printer, AND instead of reserving the printer as the Print Server requests, this thing just spools the jobs.
One last thing that impresses me. This machine, is much more basic looking (read slick looking) that my older machine, and holds 250 sheets inside the printer. Also, the print jobs comes out of a slot and can sit there. No more sheets overflowing onto the floor.
All in all, I cannot say enough about this first-class machine. For a home-office or small business it is really a bargain considering the options and it is indeed a superior product.