Recommend a color laser MFP?

[etherealfocus]

Use case is a small office, probably under 10k pages a month but may grow - I'd rather overbuy than underbuy. Current top options:

Canon MF726Cdw: https://www.amazon.com/Canon-imageCLASS-MF726Cdw-Wireless-Printer/dp/B0148OFPAS

HP M277dw: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TVACKEE

Brother 8600CDW: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K7CIM38

Primary concerns
-reliability/low maintenance hassle
-TCO/minimal BS like needing color cartridges to print B&W
-halfway decent quality (only need color to print precise details like red pen in signatures and legal documents - no pictures beyond maybe a thumbnail in a web page here and there)

Needs ethernet, wifi, ADF tray >= 35 pages, and scan to network/PC functions. Does not need duplex or creature features, or scan to email.

Options above are probably a little overkill... I tend not to trust the cheap consumer-focused models so aimed for the low midrange of the SMB offerings. Had good experiences with Brother but the 8600CDW has a lot of nasty reviews complaining of cheap build quality, premature failure, and poor support. I dislike HP's toner gouging... even the 3rd party cartridges cost twice what the Brother ones do for 40% fewer pages (2500 vs 4000 with the Brother). The Canon is bulky but otherwise seems to have an agreeable mix of no consistent pain points in reviews and mostly reasonable pricing so I'm leaning that direction...

 

[pimpin-tl]

I personally own the HP M477MFP as I am with you and don't like the lower end products. I had an Epson MFP that I took back a week later because it already clogged. I will no longer buy inkjets. This printer has been 100% reliable for everything we need it for. Color prints come out great, fast printing, duplex for both printing and scans. We print from our iOS devices all the time to it. I've scanned documents to both our PCs and MACs with no issues. The only slight concern I have, it's picky with how you put the paper in the adf feeder to scan. Sometimes it may go through slightly crucid. I just make sure the sides are pushed up against the paper each time and usually its fine.

I actually got ours on sale for $399.

I still have 100% ink on all the cartridges (starter cartridges). I would say we have printed at least a few hundred pages already.

Brother printers have a tendency to cost more in the long run for supplies because they don't include the drum with the toners like they do on HPs. Canon actually makes HP printers so quality will be fairly close to the same.

 

[sdifox]

300 page a day is not a whole lot of printing. How many percent of it is colour though?

Just read op again, you should be fine with brother.

Or go to a staples and look at actual print samples.

 

[sdifox]

I personally own the HP M477MFP as I am with you and don't like the lower end products. I had an Epson MFP that I took back a week later because it already clogged. I will no longer buy inkjets. This printer has been 100% reliable for everything we need it for. Color prints come out great, fast printing, duplex for both printing and scans. We print from our iOS devices all the time to it. I've scanned documents to both our PCs and MACs with no issues. The only slight concern I have, it's picky with how you put the paper in the adf feeder to scan. Sometimes it may go through slightly crucid. I just make sure the sides are pushed up against the paper each time and usually its fine.

I actually got ours on sale for $399.

I still have 100% ink on all the cartridges (starter cartridges). I would say we have printed at least a few hundred pages already.

Brother printers have a tendency to cost more in the long run for supplies because they don't include the drum with the toners like they do on HPs. Canon actually makes HP printers so quality will be fairly close to the same.

Third party toners and drums make brothers great budget printers. Though I am not familiar with the colour performance since I don't have a colour one.

I have a MFC-8840DN.

 

[pimpin-tl]

Third party toners and drums make brothers great budget printers. Though I am not familiar with the colour performance since I don't have a colour one.

I have a MFC-8840DN.

Well, I use to repair all those printers. Brother, Canon, HP, Epson, Samsung, etc. Recycle Toner is okay to use in b&w printers. We never saw many issues there. But it was the color printers that showed issues. Colors didn't match, leaking toners, etc. Also remans toners on brothers were pretty awful. The company I worked for wouldn't sell remans because of it.

 

[sdifox]

Well, I use to repair all those printers. Brother, Canon, HP, Epson, Samsung, etc. Recycle Toner is okay to use in b&w printers. We never saw many issues there. But it was the color printers that showed issues. Colors didn't match, leaking toners, etc. Also remans toners on brothers were pretty awful. The company I worked for wouldn't sell remans because of it.

If colour match is important, you wouldn't be using a budget printer to start with. I like the solid ink phasers.

 

[pimpin-tl]

If colour match is important, you wouldn't be using a budget printer to start with. I like the solid ink phasers.

Printers should not have toner that looks faded on the paper. Remans will do that. No printer will match the picture you have on the screen perfectly.

 

[etherealfocus]

Thanks guys. Color quality isn't huge here - it's for getting red ink on signatures, letterheads, other minor stuff that might be important in legal documents. We don't need a bullseye on color; we just need to hit the board.

I ended up going with the HP. There were some pretty nasty reviews on the Brother about it failing shortly after warranty expiration, terrible to nonexistent warranty support, and general poor QC and build quality even compared to other Brothers.

The Bro is a bit cheaper $/page but this is fairly low volume - just a couple sales managers flipping contracts. I figured #1 goal is reliability since I'm on the hook if it breaks, but not on the hook for cost of toner especially for a difference of probably under $10/mo.

I found some well-reviewed reman toner for it too... more expensive than Bro ($70ish vs $130ish) but not terrible considering drum unit included and somewhat larger capacity. If it works great, if not lesson learned. Will post back with results in a couple weeks after they have a chance to try it out.

 

[pimpin-tl]

Thanks guys. Color quality isn't huge here - it's for getting red ink on signatures, letterheads, other minor stuff that might be important in legal documents. We don't need a bullseye on color; we just need to hit the board.

I ended up going with the HP. There were some pretty nasty reviews on the Brother about it failing shortly after warranty expiration, terrible to nonexistent warranty support, and general poor QC and build quality even compared to other Brothers.

The Bro is a bit cheaper $/page but this is fairly low volume - just a couple sales managers flipping contracts. I figured #1 goal is reliability since I'm on the hook if it breaks, but not on the hook for cost of toner especially for a difference of probably under $10/mo.

I found some well-reviewed reman toner for it too... more expensive than Bro ($70ish vs $130ish) but not terrible considering drum unit included and somewhat larger capacity. If it works great, if not lesson learned. Will post back with results in a couple weeks after they have a chance to try it out.

Definitely post back and let us know your thoughts after you use it. I love mine!