Printer / Scanner recommendations

denverpilot

denverpilot

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DenverPilot
I've already done a lot of research on this, but PoA has some excellent über-geeks so...

Looking for a printer/scanner combo. Requirements are high though...

Printing:
- Laser (required)
- Color (nice to have, would allow me to retire the Samsung but not a show-stopper)
- Duplex/double-sided printing (required)
- Inkjet (no f---ing way ever again... Grin!)

Scanner:
- Automatic sheet feeder (required)
- Legal sized paper scanning from sheet feeder (nice to have, but not required)
- Color (nice to have, but not required)
- Duplex/two-sided scanning from sheet feeder (required, this is the spec that drops hundreds of cheap all-in-ones)
- TWAIN compliant (almost required unless their drivers for Mac and Windows are spot on)

Networking:
- WiFi (required)

Operating System:
- Mac compatibility (required)

To me, it looks like the Brother MFC series are the way to go with the above requirements. Most of the other brands drop out with the duplex scanning requirement.

Fax:
- not required but almost everything in this class has it. Useless on my cell-provided phone line.

Reason:

Today I have a non-networked Color Laser from Samsung that's a little workhorse. Always works.

I also have a WiFi networked HP OfficeJet all-in-one that has a single-sided sheet feed color scanner. Wife is doing a paperwork scanning project of all our old paperwork and doesn't like flipping stuff over and scanning again. She wants to put a stack of stuff in and have it done in one pass. She is looking at those scanners the TV ads are pushing for $400 and I know from hunting just one evening that the Brother MFC series will replace both printers AND do the job she wants for about $600 for Letter sized, and $700 for Legal sized. And if we keep the Samsung Color Laser, or just forget about color printing altogether... Amazon has the B&W version of the networked, duplexed, Brother MFC for $409 shipped to the door.

Big complaint about the Brother printers is that they curl the paper pretty badly with their paper travel mechanism and 200C fuser. I can live with that for those prices.

Any other printer shopper geeks here have any other thoughts? HP seems to want you to go up to $1000 business printers for the above feature set. Many others simply don't support Mac.
 
I bought a Dell 2155N a little over a year ago. Very happy. The only thing it lacks is duplex. My Samsung carcass is still in the hall (must put by curb some night, it'll disappear).

If you can live without duplex, i'd recommend this unit highly.
 
One question I've learned to ask... How expensive is the ink/toner? And how many pages do you get out of one cartridge?
 
denverpilot said:
Nice printer, but doesn't look like it does duplex scanning.
Click to expand...

I use a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner for duplex scanning. Scans both sides at once (literally). Works great, very fast, straight to pdf.

Beats the snot out of the all-in-one.
 
wsuffa said:
I use a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner for duplex scanning. Scans both sides at once (literally). Works great, very fast, straight to pdf.

Beats the snot out of the all-in-one.
Click to expand...

Yeah, was looking at those too... and Fujisu appears to whallop everyone else in that market. Around $200. Mostly just didn't want to dedicate the desk space to it... a giant all-in-one can sit where the current color laser sits on Karen's desk.

Her desk is in the kitchen... seriously... she has another huge desk in the basement, but doesn't like to go down there, so she has a little desk next to the back door in the kitchen... where her Mac sits.

Me, I've gone mostly mobile... the ham shack (ham radio) desk in the basement is all torn up and an utter disaster, I only go down there for times when I need a radio that's hooked to the outside antennas... otherwise, it's the laptop in the living room, and handheld radios... haha...

I swear, we should just move back into a condo. We don't use most of this house.
 
wsuffa said:
I use a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner for duplex scanning. Scans both sides at once (literally). Works great, very fast, straight to pdf.

Beats the snot out of the all-in-one.
Click to expand...

Agree with severe prejudice.

Once you have used the ScanSnap, you'll forget all about any other scanning device. You have to spend five times the money to get close to the same quality, and ease of use is amazing. I have one at pretty much every desk in my office, some of the older 510 series, and some newer 1500s, all work wonderfully well, even the old ones. Only hitch in that gitalong is that the ScanSnaps are not Twain.

As for printers, I like my Samsung laser.

I would advise with all the fiber of my being against the Brother devices - Gosh-awful drivers and software, and built with quality reminiscent of Japanese products ... of the 1960s.

HP printers are workhorses, but they are thieves in the toner department, selling brand new machines with training-pants cartridges. Re-inking them costs more than the printer. I have found that we can get good-quality refilled cartridges for the HPs.

Many have said that the Dell colors are good devices. No personal knowledge.
 
Heh... when counsel says "with severe prejudice" I take notes. :)

I saw another review of one of the Fujitsu's by an Attorney on Amazon... if it wasn't you Spike, it said the exact same thing. And no offense, but you guys KNOW how to push paper! Heh...

So... maybe re-thinking this... hmm...

We'll talk to the Mrs. and see what she thinks... will show her the size of the Fujitsu and see if she thinks she can do some Feng Shui magic on her desk. LOL!
 
> HP printers are workhorses,

HP business-grade: Agree

HP SOHO-grade: Disagree

Warranty service for their SOHO products is between grim and none.
 
So, my configuration is the Dell networked All-in-One Laser (replaced my Samsung color laser) and the ScanSnap for any and all documents I need to do double-sided.

The ScanSnap is about 8 years old and shows something like 100,000 pages scanned. I recently replaced the roller & pads (still available from some sources) & it's good as new.

I'm happy all around. The Dell printer is less expensive to operate than the old Samsung & uses less power.

Oh, and Nate, it sounds like you need a new ham rig that's remotely controlled via IP network. Then you'd never need to go downstairs.... :stirpot:
 
SCCutler said:
Once you have used the ScanSnap, you'll forget all about any other scanning device. You have to spend five times the money to get close to the same quality, and ease of use is amazing.
Click to expand...

The lawyer I interned for last summer was trying to figure out what to do with a room full of old files. I told her to order a snapscan and I'd set it up for her the next time I was in. When I showed up, the scanner was installed on the secretary's desk, and the room full of files were gone.

I would advise with all the fiber of my being against the Brother devices - Gosh-awful drivers and software, and built with quality reminiscent of Japanese products ... of the 1960s.
Click to expand...
I don't agree with this. I bought one about five years ago and ended up using it to scan all my textbooks and print all my work. I did not let anyone else in the house use it, and I'm not one to monkey with drivers or upgrades once I have something working.

When I open my office, I plan to bring along my Brother all-in-one. When it dies, I'll replace it with a snapscan and Samsung laser.

Also, for duplex scanning, I put the stack into the feeder and scan. When it's done, I turn it over, place it back in the stack and repeat. Then I use PDFTools from PDFill to merge them into one PDF.
 
I am in the same boat, as my Brother laser printer just ate it in the last storm. And I do have it sitting next to an all-in-one inkjet that hasn't had its ink refilled in years, so am looking to replace both with one. The best I have found so far, price wise is the Canon imageCLASS D550, with the lowest price around $180 during Black Friday, or $220 on 'azon now. Anybody have experience with Canon laser printers in general, or this one in particular?
 
If you scan all that stuff, don't forget to back it up to Drop Box or something like that on line besides a local drive. Don't ask why I say that.:rolleyes2:

Cheers
 
rainsux said:
> HP printers are workhorses,

HP business-grade: Agree

HP SOHO-grade: Disagree

Warranty service for their SOHO products is between grim and none.
Click to expand...

No argument at all.
 
i bought Leah a Canon MF8380Cdw for her birthday and I've been very happy with it :D
 
wsuffa said:
Oh, and Nate, it sounds like you need a new ham rig that's remotely controlled via IP network. Then you'd never need to go downstairs.... :stirpot:
Click to expand...

Remote Ham rig... yeah... right now I'm working on the planning for a huge install in the Yukon. It's time to be able to do stuff mobile again... and be a real ham and drill holes in the roof. I'll have to give up my parking garage spot and move to an outdoor spot though. :)

I decided it's time to lose my cup holders...

http://www.havis.com/products/CON_VS_12TMS_0DG_HC_TAH_03_06-30355-64.html

Right now, it looks like at least a commercial APCO P-25 VHF radio, a scanner, the FT-857D, and some extra cigar lighter plugs will go in the available space... then see what room is left. Also have some GE RANGR 110W UHF radios that might be fun to remote head mount and have a monster UHF radio that sounds good... the stupid S550 control heads I have are too big and weird to put in a DIN rack, and the S990s are hard to find in working condition. They rack mount better.

X3 Skier said:
If you scan all that stuff, don't forget to back it up to Drop Box or something like that on line besides a local drive. Don't ask why I say that.:rolleyes2:
Click to expand...

Oh definitely... I recently found some problems with my home backups and that's being fixed right now too... always something... the backups work, but there's some screwiness with access to them that I shouldn't have had when I rebuilt the MacBook Pro with the Seagate Momentus XT 750GB as the main drive, and the 5400 RPM original 500GB drive in an internal tray (removed the optical drive)...
 
I can't stand the Dell 2155. Poor OSX support. Poor drivers. Had to perform manual registration several times for decent print qualit.

I've got a Brother MFC-9320CW and have been very happy with it. I've installed a few for clients, and they've been workhorses. The current model is the 9325CW and I've got no reason to believe it's any different.

Not sure if the Brother 9320 does Legal scanning. It definitely does color, but not Duplex scanning or printing. The Brother MFC-9840CDW does duplex printing and duplex scanning (letter size only for Duplex scan).

As for your requirements of playing nice with OSX, that's reason enough to skip the 2155. It does play with OSX (provided you're on 10.6 or 10.7) but it's a pain. On a few machines, the default install set it up as a fax server, not a printer. Poor user experience.
 
tonycondon said:
i bought Leah a Canon MF8380Cdw for her birthday and I've been very happy with it :D
Click to expand...

Thanks Tony, BTW... searching Canon's products is painful but that one looks like a direct competitor to the Brother stuff... hadn't seen that one.
 
i think it works with a Mac and i'm pretty sure it does double sided scanning...

i love it. it was Leah's birthday present and she actually does use it occasionally
 
Well, Tony's suggestion won out. Showed Karen all the options and we were leaning toward the ScanSnap but then Google turned up PCRush.com selling the Canon MFC8380Cdw for $399.95.

A quick search for a coupon code dropped that another $10, and they had free ground shipping included -- which for a 70 pound box, made comparison shopping the shipping important.

So I guess we'll have twin printers, Tony. Thanks for the heads up. If it somehow doesn't work out as a scanner it still looks like one heck of a printer.

Karen has already decreed,"I don't want the Samsung or the HP ending up sitting around in the basement" (gee, she knows my packrat ways all too well, because you know... everyone needs a spare of every electronic device, right? Haha...) so now I'm thinking about where their new homes will be.

Will start with family and see if anyone needs a printer and go from there.

Thanks for all the thoughts! I probably would have ended up with the non-color Brother if I hadn't asked here.
 
When I have "surplus" gear that works, I check local non profits like Habitat for Humanity. They are always happy to save money.

Cheers
 
denverpilot said:
Yeah, was looking at those too... and Fujisu appears to whallop everyone else in that market. Around $200. Mostly just didn't want to dedicate the desk space to it... a giant all-in-one can sit where the current color laser sits on Karen's desk.

Her desk is in the kitchen... seriously... she has another huge desk in the basement, but doesn't like to go down there, so she has a little desk next to the back door in the kitchen... where her Mac sits.

Me, I've gone mostly mobile... the ham shack (ham radio) desk in the basement is all torn up and an utter disaster, I only go down there for times when I need a radio that's hooked to the outside antennas... otherwise, it's the laptop in the living room, and handheld radios... haha...

I swear, we should just move back into a condo. We don't use most of this house.
Click to expand...
Second on the Fujitsu. It just WORKS. Duplex. Drops blank pages from the pdf. Reliable. Fast. I scanned 1,800 pages this morning- the blue ribbon medical records are getting out of control.
 
Pretty impressive list of supporters for the Fujitsu scanners. As noted, we went the all-in-one route for now, but I'm impressed with the number of folks saying a tech product works very well. Let's hope Fujitsu maintains that standard for a long time. It's rare in IT tech.
 
I set up the Canon MF8380Cdw tonight. Thanks for the tip, Tony. It plays well with the Mac, and the duplex scanning is working too. It's rather large!!

4b94241c-6400-3e68.jpg
 
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