Customer Reviews

Brother MFC-240C Color Inkjet All-in-One Printer with Fax

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(32)

 

 

I was hesitant to purchase this based on all the mediocre reviews, but I am extremely happy with the 240c. I think its about the best multi-function you can get for under a hundred bucks (with the possible exception of tha Canon Pixma). First, a few of these reviews contain critical errors about the unit. First: It IS possible to scan multiple documents into a single PDF file. One simple way is to load up your documents into the top paper feeder, then scan to PDF, and every page it scans will be put into the same file. Another way to do it is to use the Presto Pagemanager software that comes on the installation CD. Second: the 240c DOES have incoming fax capabilities...you have to enable it in the Fax options on the unit's menu setup (not on your computer). It does not have a handset so you cannot use it as a phone, but at least on the 240c that I have, it can indeed receive faxes. Third: the reason the unit will not print anything even if only one cartridge is blank is because it uses a suction type cart (different from most inkjets), and damage to the unit will occur if an empty cartridge is left in. That said, here's my review.

Build quality is overall very durable, with the possible exception of the paper tray. It won't turn any heads with its bland utilitarian appearance, but its compact and sturdy for home or home office usage. It also looks like an office machine, as opposed to the flimsy Fisher-Price looking offerings from HP and Lexmark. The controls are laid out sufficiently and you should be able to figure things out by surfing through the unit's menu, although there are alot of setup options so you may have to do some searching. The only complaints about the design are the small, non-backlit display and the paper tray. The paper tray is more like a paper container with a lid, that loads like a cartridge. If you only print on one type of paper its fine, but if you want to switch and print envelopes, 4X6, etc., it can do it but you have to take the tray out, take out all the paper, adjust the slider, then put in the new paper and re-insert.

Print and scan quality are just fine. In fact, the scanner is very impressive and scans are much better quality than the Canon it replaced. Print quality is just fine...I dont see any washed out colors or anything else others have noted. Its prints as good as any unit will under a hundred bucks. The copy and scan features work just great and fast. You can either use the computer to make copies or you can bypass your PC altogether and use it as a standalone copier. Most of the features can be run either from the software or the unit itself, which is great. The top-feeding document accepter is a huge time saver. Also, the lid on the scanner is hinged allowing you to scan thicker items, like books, easily.

As far as ink usage, some settings must be adjusted to get longer life. First, disable "bi-directional printing" as it uses alot of ink and wrinkles the paper. Set the paper-type to "plain." This is huge, because if you dont, even if you select grayscale printing, it will pull ink from the color cartidges. Also, if you print mostly text, set the print quality to the "fast" settings, and it looks just fine. You want to conserve ink, since these cartridges run about 20-25 bucks for black, and around 12-14 for each color. But, the cartridges are huge so they should last average users a while. For heavy office use, you may want to look at a a higher end or laser model.

The fax feature I dont use so I cant comment much on how that works. It also accepts most major memory cards for photo printing, but without a preview screen your better off printing pics from your computer. It is also worth noting that this unit IS Mac compatible (many of the sub-$100 machines aren't), although I had to update the drivers and software from Brother's website after installing the CD to get some scanning features to work. I'm assuming this has something to do with the whole Intel / PPC switch. I'd highly advise you to do the same...their site is just their name, and the update offerings fixed the few bugs I encountered.

Overall I am very impressed with this unit. I had returned an HP c3180 multi-function because it couldnt hold a handle to this as far as overall quality and value. Highly recommended for home and light home office use.

Previously, I owned the Brother MFC unit that did not have fax and loved it so when this unit went on sale I grabbed it. All aspects work as expected which is great. The software tends to load a lot of stuff not needed (for us) so I removed the automatic loading functions from msconfig and simply call the printer or scanner as required. The adf feature (automatic doc feed) feature is a real time saver. Software is excellent too. No, I don't work for the company. It's just nice, for a change, to get a product that actually works. And if you need to call Brother, a human located in the USA actually answers the phone. Imagine that!

One of my friend bought this printer and still using now over 6 months without any problem. Now I also bought this same printer. It is excellent for the price and printing quality.

I cannot understand why some people pay low price for this excellent value for money product and complaining about the speed. Well.. for that price you cannot expect a lightning fast printing speed. It is a reasonably fast enough unless you are in a very busy office environment. I used Brother Products even before and I was very satisfied. Spare parts, support and refilling are widely available. Unlike some other brand cartridges, they are not sky high price.

Brother is a well made Japanese brand and it never let me down before. Exaggerated negative comments keeps people away from this great value for money product. What I bet is go and see for your self it is working demonstration in one of the stores and compare with other products. And don't forget check the prices of the new cartridges and after sale support too.

You certainly get your money's worth on this one! Small size and big capabilities. Faxes nicely, copies, prints, scans. What more can you ask for? The print is nice, the color copies are great and it fits almost anywhere. Highly recommend!

It's really rubbish, keep saying empty ink even you just installed a brand new genuine ink cartridge. Waste me lot of money and time. Don't buy it.

I've had this printer for about 6 weeks and have been happy with it's faxing and printing capabilities. However, when it runs out of ink, it doesn't seem possible to refill the cartridges as I have with most other printers so be prepared to shell out $60+ to replace all the ink carts. No generic carts are available for this one as of now.

UPDATE: according to the comments, apparantly there are generic cartridges available now. When I originally wrote the review there weren't any. But I did figure out how to refill them (snap the cartridge in two at the seem, poke a needle into the clear plastic inside, fill with ink, tape over whole and tape up the cartridge).

I bought this one and a Lexmark all-in-one at the same time. I hate Lexmark, or so I thought, so I assumed this was the keeper. However, I was wrong. Gripes:

1)no multipage scanning into 1 document. I thought the Lexmark had the same problem since it didn't come preinstalled with a pdf output, but once I set it up to scan to acrobat pro, it could scan several pages and output them into a single file. Perfect. This Brother one wouldn't do it no matter how I tried. Each page is it's own pdf. Sort of defeats the document feeder principle if my hands have to do the work elsewhere. BIG PROBLEM.

2)won't scan or fax or do ANYTHING else w/out the print cartridges installed. Sounds weird, but if it's a multi-function and one of the functions gives out, or isn't going to be used, the rest should still work.

3)REALLY slow head-cleaning process. Won't let you do ANYTHING else while waiting for it. Can't scan, can't fax, must wait.

4)bad software - whereas other scanners let you 'scan to application' and let you choose apps, this one has email, file, image and ocr as the only 4 choices.

5)is very controlling in general, you don't get many customized choices at all.

6)I think the ADF reverses the order of the pages you put it. Wouldn't be that annoying if you could put in more than 10. But if you're scanning a 30page doc and have to stop and manually reorder each of the 3 groups? That once again defeats the time-labor saving principle that anyone who wants a document feeder is going for.

7)really noisy after buzz after a scan is done. Takes awhile to shut up.

On the good side: ADF didn't seem to jam even with bent pages. Great price, although you get what you pay for. Easy to assemble, lots of features w/on-board card reader. Still, I'd rather have this scary Lexmark or my mom's HP we got her for Xmas than this. The HP software is WAY better, despite the fact I don't really like how babyfied it is. And the Lexmark software allows more flexibility as well. I'm a little disappointed in Brother on this particular model. I wonder if higher models have different software control panels?

Piece of junk. If it runs out of ink in any color, NOTHING WILL WORK. You cannot scan or fax. You cannot print in black if it is out of yellow. It also runs itself out of ink by constantly self-cleaning. The price seems good at first, but an inexpensive piece of junk is still a piece of junk.

I picked up the printer on black friday for $60 and I have to say it has tons of features for the price. Print quality is real good; I havent tried the scanner yet. When you photocopy you lose a tiny bit of the original quality - if you photocopy in best mode instead of normal mode then this probably wont happen at all.

My only gripe is that this thing is really slow. They advertise 24ppm, and this is an outright lie. On the lowest quality mode (called "fast") with all features turned off, printing just black text I got less than 13ppm and the quality is horrendous. On "fast normal" mode it goes about 9ppm and the quality is fine for non-important prints. On "normal" mode, I get about 7ppm but at least the prints are quite nice and bold. Keep in mind that the above is strictly plain text. On color mode, or even black and white with graphics, good luck - you have a nice wait ahead of you.

Overall I do like it and would recommend getting one.

This printer is excellent and the best for the price.

Pros: This one has all the features includes fax,print, scan and copy. Very easy to use and they have separate installation guide which tells you step by step how to install the printer when you buy it. I have to say that color printing is the best in this printer. But the white and black print quality is not that good as laser printer. But you cannot notice the difference unless you see it very closely. It faxes, scans and copies very well.

Cons: may be it is a little bit noisy but not too much and it prints very slowly..but who cares if it prints what I need and the way I need it.

I just have this for about a month and I really like it and highly recommend this product.