HOT (at least, to me): Brother 5840CN multi-function dual tray fax/inkjet printer/scanner with USB and Ethernet

[Karaktu]

Item # 21193815

Link

(Get 2% cash-back at www.mrrebates.com)

Mine just died (well, the printing aspect of it) after several years of use. I was looking for a replacement, and stumbled across this deal.

I don't see how you can beat it for $40 (especially with a 1-year warranty). I think I paid $160 brand-new.

It's a great little home office unit. The quality is average, and I really wouldn't want to print photos on it, but generic ink is unbelievably cheap, which makes it very cost-effective to own. (Note that they often have combo packs of black and color inks for greater savings, not to mention emailed 15-25% coupons and cash-back at all your favorite shopping sites.)

:thumbsup:

 

[imported_K]

get 4% Cashback at ebates and stack it with shipping free for orders 50$ and over

 

[Delbert]

Thanks OP.

 

[imported_K]

includes any ink?

edit: the refurb on officedepot includes ink, so probably this one does too

 

[Furor]

Thanks! I bought one..cheaper than 2 ink refills of my current one

 

[Aarondeep]

Awesome price,
I know so many people buying new printers instead of getting new ink since the price for ink is so insanely high. Makes you wonder how many working printers are ending up in landfills.

 

[skyking]

Nice one Joe, and thanks for the cheap Ink Link!

 

[BATCH71]

I have 2 of these (one at work and one at home), while they are decent and the ink is cheap. Be prepared to change the ink CONSTANTLY. I go through at least a cartridge a week, and I never print color. It is the most annoying thing ever to have to change the colored cartridges in order to print black only.

Dave

 

[Freejack2]

Brother inkjets aren't so hot. Because it has non user-replaceable printheads, you can't really safely use third/generic party inkjet cartridges in it. Especially now that Brother is starting to deny printhead (error 41) warranty claims for printers where generic cartridges are used. If you plan on using third party cartridges, go with a manufacturer that puts the printheads on the ink cartridges.
Mind you $40 isn't a very expensive risk to take but be prepared to throw it away if it pops up an error 41 and you've been using generic ink carts.

 

[yazyazoo]

I have the 5440CN which doesn't have the card readers. It is a great MFC but does eat up the ink cartridges up quickly. It has died on me once and Brother replaced it for me. They did ask if I used 3rd party ink and said I didn't. I lied and they covered me. However I was lucky. I saved my original Brother carts and replaced them before I sent it back to Brother. So I would SAVE these carts in a Ziplock Bag and just store them.

Also another way to save on ink if you only print in B&W. Just buy a generic set of ink so you have all four colors. When it runs out pull out all the inks. Replace ONLY the black with a new one. The other three colors get some Black Electrical tape and go around the bottom of the cartridge once with the tape and put it back in the machine. The MFC thinks the color carts are full! So when you print just choose B&W! I only buy Black Generic ink!

Another trick is if you do have a laser printer hooked up this computer or a networked printer you can copy and have it print to the laser with the Brother software. Configure the Copy button to scan it to your computer but print to the laser. This will let you guys make copies that won't smear and look sharper! I use this option for the office for sending out contracts that you don't want altered or smeared! The feeder is great cause you can copy 30 pages at once with the feeder. You guys may think why not just get a laser MFC or even get this. Well for $40 you can't get a laser MFC for that much. I paid $80 when I got it years ago. I did move to a laser unit and gave this to my parents. No problems for the last year for them.

This also scans over the network. I hooked it up to my router and can scan wirelessly to my laptop. I love this unit and will get another.

 

[jiffer]

Originally posted by: yazyazoo
I have the 5440CN which doesn't have the card readers. It is a great MFC but does eat up the ink cartridges up quickly. It has died on me once and Brother replaced it for me. They did ask if I used 3rd party ink and said I didn't. I lied and they covered me. However I was lucky. I saved my original Brother carts and replaced them before I sent it back to Brother...

Does this mean that using third-party ink cartridges made your printer die?

 

[RMSistight]

Originally posted by: yazyazoo
I have the 5440CN which doesn't have the card readers. It is a great MFC but does eat up the ink cartridges up quickly. It has died on me once and Brother replaced it for me. They did ask if I used 3rd party ink and said I didn't. I lied and they covered me. However I was lucky. I saved my original Brother carts and replaced them before I sent it back to Brother. So I would SAVE these carts in a Ziplock Bag and just store them.

Also another way to save on ink if you only print in B&W. Just buy a generic set of ink so you have all four colors. When it runs out pull out all the inks. Replace ONLY the black with a new one. The other three colors get some Black Electrical tape and go around the bottom of the cartridge once with the tape and put it back in the machine. The MFC thinks the color carts are full! So when you print just choose B&W! I only buy Black Generic ink!

Another trick is if you do have a laser printer hooked up this computer or a networked printer you can copy and have it print to the laser with the Brother software. Configure the Copy button to scan it to your computer but print to the laser. This will let you guys make copies that won't smear and look sharper! I use this option for the office for sending out contracts that you don't want altered or smeared! The feeder is great cause you can copy 30 pages at once with the feeder. You guys may think why not just get a laser MFC or even get this. Well for $40 you can't get a laser MFC for that much. I paid $80 when I got it years ago. I did move to a laser unit and gave this to my parents. No problems for the last year for them.

This also scans over the network. I hooked it up to my router and can scan wirelessly to my laptop. I love this unit and will get another.

All in all, I think it's just worth it to spend the extra money to get a MFC laser B/W. I've had my Dell 1600n for almost 2 years now, and I've only replaced the toner once. When I bought a replacement toner, I bought the high yield 5000 page one and man the toner is going to last me a few years. While this printer is cheap and it's only $40, you get what you pay for.

 

[rayvenn]

Originally posted by: jiffer

Does this mean that using third-party ink cartridges made your printer die?

Maybe eventually. However, Karaktu said he was looking to replace his "after several years of use". Since he provided the link to the generic ink, I think it's safe to assume he used it in this printer. OK, maybe he JUST found the generic ink ..... How about it, Joe?

 

[yazyazoo]

jiffer,
Using third party ink didn't make it die. What happened was it overheated. I live in California and where I am from in the summer it gets really hot. My loft which is upstairs gets really warm upstairs. It probably was over 100 degrees up there. I sent a very large print job to the unit and halfway thru the job it gave an error. It wasn't the error 41 that the other poster was talking about.

I called Brother and they sent me a ticket to bring it over to a local repair store. I put my original carts back in and brought it there. They said it couldn't be repaired and replaced it with a refurb sent to my house. It has been over a year and is still working at my parents house. I would get this printer again but as RMSistight said above I got a Brother Laser MFC but paid a lot more than $80 and more than the $40 for this. For $40 this is a great deal if you don't have $200 to spend on a MFC with a sheetfeeder!

I always buy 3rd party ink and only black for my parents. What is bad about this printer is if one of the inks is out then you the whole MFC doesn't work. The trick with the electrical tape tricks the machine into thinking the color inks are full!

 

[BATCH71]

Thanks for the color ink bypass trick, I will try that. I really do like the printer and I have 2 that I have been constantly jamming 3rd party ink carts into it

Dave

 

[stockjock]

Speaking of cheap ink...this is the place I've always used and have never had any problems with my Epson printers...not sure about Brother printers, but they look even cheaper than the OP's link. Here is the SITE

 

[harrkev]

Note that I have almost this same unit at home. The only difference is that this one has the card reader built-in. I tried to use Carrot Ink in it one time, and it WOULD NOT WORK. So, if you get this, avoid Carrot Ink. The problem was that the brother ink uses a float to determine how much ink is there. It appears that Carrot Ink got it backwards. so a full cartridge appears as empty.

Nice, hot price for the unit, though.

 

[Karaktu]

Originally posted by: rayvenn

Originally posted by: jiffer

Does this mean that using third-party ink cartridges made your printer die?

Maybe eventually. However, Karaktu said he was looking to replace his "after several years of use". Since he provided the link to the generic ink, I think it's safe to assume he used it in this printer. OK, maybe he JUST found the generic ink ..... How about it, Joe?

I've been using the generic ink cartridges from 123Inkjets for just about the entire life of the printer.

There are good generics, and there are poor ones, for sure.

If you're concerned, even Brother's ink is relatively cheap (compared to HP, Lexmark, etc.).

I agree with BATCH71, needing to replace color cartridges is annoying when you never/rarely print color, but I think I've changed my black ones 3:1 versus the colors.

Edit: One very compelling reason NOT to go with a laser printer is the energy cost in running one.

Edit #2: I would be fairly confident in saying these refurbs are likely units that have had the print heads replaced. Mine finally went (right after printing an envelope), and I'll be dropping it at a Brother center so they can fix it and resell it, rather than adding it to a landfill.

 

[divide by zero]

Looks like the print quality may leave something to be desired:

http://reviews.cnet.com/multif...40.html?tag=prod.txt.1

 

[Karaktu]

Got my two units today. :thumbsup:

 

[harrkev]

I had my wife order one for her business. Really, the ink in the box is worth almost what they are asking. It is like buying the ink and getting the printer for $10.

BTW: I never did have any luck getting the thing to print under Ubuntu.

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: Karaktu
Got my two units today. :thumbsup:

So they do come with a complete set of ink?

I think I'm going to get this so my wife can scan and print wirelessly from her laptop instead of bugging me everytime she wants to scan something for her scrapbooking or craft projects (she has her own little 4x6 photo printers for her picture printing neeeds).

How's the software that comes with it?

 

[yazyazoo]

I think they come with a complete set of ink. I personally like the software. It found the MFC connected to my router instantly. The software gives you many options to configure the buttons. It has ScanSoft OCR and it also can scan to PDF files. From the MFC you can control which computer on the network to scan to. I thnk it's very versatile.

 

[Samyo]

Can it scan multiple pages to one document like PDF using the ADF? How fast is the scanning speed?

 

[child of wonder]

My wife and I were just looking for a printer that we could share on the network and would be capable of printing from Linux.

Although this printer seems to be low quality we'll roll the dice on it.

Thanks OP!