Customer Reviews

Brother MFC-7820N 5-in-1 Network Monochrome Laser Multifunction Center

5 star:		(88)
4 star:		(56)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

I have been using this printer heavily for about three months. We are both teachers so we use it a lot to print mostly text documents. We use it on a network using the ethernet connection, and do not use the USB connection.

Install/instructions:
The installation of this printer will be easy if you're used to adding network printers. I was able to assign it an IP address easily and get it working without even looking at the instructions. The printer has a web page where you can adjust settings and so on, very easy to use. HOWEVER, to install the scanning functions was a totally different matter. That required the instruction book, which refers you to the electronic manual if you're doing a network install. The instructions are incomplete and leave out some XP settings you need to adjust in order to use it. I had to call tech support to resolve the issue, but it was relatively quick and painless. They really need to make the instructions for this process more complete.

Print quality:
Print quality is excellent. The one problem, one that you've probably heard about, is that it curls the output paper. For small jobs this doesn't tend to create issues other than the annoyance of your paper curling up at the ends. When printing ten pages or more though, they tend to fold over while outputting, thus jamming up the output tray and/or spilling papers on the floor. Sometimes this is just annoying, and sometimes it creates an internal paper jam. This gets to be a hassle when printing 30 copies of a 5-page test and the pages get all scrambled by the jam. This effect is always there, though certain kinds of paper seem to curl more than others.

Scanning:
There's a really frustrating problem with the scanner feature. It auto-detects the edge of your paper such that you can not scan a larger area than the paper occupies on the glass. At first it seems like that wouldn't be a problem, however the software forces a 1/8" blank margin around the image, which cuts off anything close to the edge of the paper. So if you have documents or photographs with important stuff close to the edge of the original, it will be lost and there's no way to compensate. You can't stretch the scan area, move the paper on the glass or anything else I've tried. You just have to give in to losing an eighth inch around the edges. Argh!

Toner:
On my first toner cartridge I got 2215 pages. Exactly 2215, and no more. Why does that matter? Because with most printers, when the toner gets low you can pull it out, rotate it a few times, put it back in and keep printing as long as you can tolerate the results. Not with this printer. Once it senses that the toner is low, it will never print another page from that cartridge. It displays a "toner low" message and refuses to print. This is especiallly irritating for a couple reasons. First, the pages still look perfect so I know there's more toner in there and I'd like to use it until the pages look bad. Second, if it's not a convenient time to run out of toner and you don't have the replacement standing by, you're not going to print a single page. You get NO warning, the printer just quits. This is unacceptable design in my opinion. When the pages start to look bad, I know the toner's low. I should be able to keep printing as long as I can tolerate the results. Unacceptable.
[update 2/20/08: On later toner I have managed to remove the cartridge, rotate it to redistribute the toner inside, then put it back in the printer for a few more pages. Inevitably it does detect that toner is low and refuses to print until you repeat the process, but at least you can finish the print job without being stranded. This really is an unacceptable 'feature'. A warning that toner is low might be nice but refusing to print when the pages still look fine is just bullying us to waste money, and I resent that emphatically.]

Telephone Answering Devcice (TAD):
This multifunction printer will allow you to connect to a telephone answering machine. It automatically detects if an unanswered call is a fax or voice call. It will route the call accordingly, either to the fax or to the TAD. The one thing about this that they bury in the fine print is that in order for this to work the TAD has to be plugged into the jack on the printer itself, thus meaning the printer and answering machine must be located together. I find this to be a significant drawback because I would rather have the TAD in the kitchen where we've always kept it. Now instead we have to keep it way back in my office wiht the printer where we don't spend a lot of time, and especially not convenient when returning home to check for messages.

That's my roundup of the important issues you might not know by reading the specs. Other than these I am very happy with the printer and would reccommend it as long as you can live with these few shortcomings.

UPDATE:
After using this printer for 6 months, the curling problem has gotten worse. The printer jams much more easily in the output tray than it did originally. Also the pickup mechanism often jams when pulling fresh paper from the tray. It is working OK, but it seems that it's not going to last too much longer without crippling problems.

3-year Update:
I am now quite impressed by this printer. After three years of pretty heavy use this guy is still doing great. It has lasted much longer than I expected for a 'cheapo' consumer grade laser printer. The paper curling is still a hassle, but the low toner warning problem has improved somewhat. It now lets me remove the cartridge, shake it around and re-insert for more printing, however it will only do a couple pages at a time before it senses the low toner and stops again, forcing me to repeat the process--but at least I can work at it and get my job printed instead of being stranded. It tried an office-depot brand cartridge last time which was total crap, it made streaks and uneven print density on anything that wasn't text. Just buck up and get the real Brother toner, the 'equivalent replacements' are no such thing.

After months and months of market research and reading endless reviews of Brother multifunction machines, I am so glad I chose the Brother 7820N as my business machine. All my friends and associates said to stick to HP for laser, but I am telling you... HP should stick to 1 function laser printing and ultrasound machines as Brother is the KING of multi-functions!!!!!

I have had this machine since the beginning of March and even with fairly heavy daily use, I have not had one single complaint. The unit is small, but performs better than most of the Canon and HP monstrocities that I have worked with in offices. I guess this proves that bigger isn't better.

I run an outsource admin and bookkeeping company and this machine keeps up just fine. The set-up was easy and the functions are user-friendly. Faxes are clear, photocopies are fast and printing is crisp. The unit seems to take a lot of the heavier card stock and labels through the manual feed just dandy - it hasn't choked yet! I have not had to clear any paper jams so the only time I've been into the front panel was to load the start-up toner, which by the way I have yet to replace!!!!

I highly recommend this machine. I've worked with printers, scanners, copiers and faxes for 16 years and I can tell you... when it comes to multi-function - Brother knows what they're doing. Do yourself a favor and buy one.

Oh yeah... the best part - I already received my $50.00 rebate from Brother!!!!

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.

'Old Reliable' -- aka my Samsung ML 1210 -- was wheezing more than a climber at the top of Everest. My Panasonic fax was as feisty as ever, grabbing 4 pages at a time while sending/receiving faxes Jackson Pollack-style. It was time for an upgrade. Wow; what a step up.

Of all the companies to offer 'true' OS X, Mac-compatibility, surprising to see it from a traditionally fax machine/label maker one. Brother's MFC 7820N software functionality is flawless for my wife and I's iBook's, running 10.3 and 10.4, respectively. True 'touch controls' power this unit, the Control Center software allows seamless and intelligent faxing, copying and scanning to customizable folders, email locations, etc. I did a double-take when spotting PC Fax capability LIMITED TO MAC's(!). Control Center is so Mac-friendly, it even comes with software for folks running OS 9.

Moreover, setting up this unit to print wirelessly from a network was a snap. It quickly linked up with my Belkin Wireless Access Point, finally allowing affordable printing AND faxing (from local files) without being tethered to a desk. The Remote Setup function is likewise very clean; a nice break from endless scrolling across the sharp LCD. I still, however, face the occasional (once every month, on average) software glitch in print jobs not communicating wirelessly with the printer. Turning the system off/on again solves the problem pronto.

Hardware-wise, the MFC 7820N is standard quality for multifunction units...hardened plastic with decent give...although with a much smaller footprint than competitors (including several from Brother). To put size into perspective, the MFC 7820N is approximately 1/3rd wider than standalone, monochrome laser printers, same height. Dig the large slide out paper try + print output at the center of the unit. No paper mess spewing from this one. Related, the paper feed (at early review) is outstanding. Take that, Panasonic fax.

Cost-wise, the MFC 7820N is a steal, a couple hundred bucks less than similarly featured units. Toner can be had at 1/2 the price of most conventional laser units -- $40 or lower.

Nearly 8 months in, I am left wondering why I stomached the high pitched squeal of my ML 1210 for this long. This Mac user finds the MFC 7820N a winner.

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...

I've purchased 80 of these printers and have been quite happy with them. They are a great business solution and provide better speeds, and much better reliability than the HP all-in-one printers. The use of laserjet tech. improves the problems with jamming and ink drips that you get with inkjet printers.

The biggest downfalls to these MFC's are short-life drums, and a drastically different result with how long toner lasts compared to Brother's claims. They claim up to 6,000 pages when we find that it is actually 2-3,000 at 5% coverage.

Great printer for the price and the best all-in-one we've used over the last few years.

I have a Canon inkjet that blows because it uses up a lot of color ink *even when I only print in B&W*. And it won't print at all without color ink carts that have ink in them.

So I started looking into lasers. I found little that looked very good under $200, but there were a few.

Then a friend of mine said he had the MFC-8840DN, and loved it. After reading reviews and looking around, I found the MFC-7820N was basically the same thing, but around a couple hundred less, for $300.

As the name implies, it's multifunction: print, fax, copy, and (color) scan. It's also networkable: it lives on its own on the network, and has a web server to configure it etc. Also, it does all of the functions over the network, including scanning. It has a paper feeder, so I can put in a whole bunch of papers into the feeder, then scan from my PowerBook wirelessly.

You can send faxes from the computer too, by selecting "fax" instead of "paper" in the print dialog. The one thing you can't do with the Mac software that you can do with the PC software is *receive* faxes. So I'd have to print them out and then scan them to the computer. Or, just receive them with my computer in the first place, like I've always done to now.

I want to share my experiences using a new printer today.

I know, I know. it sounds dull. But I was so impressed with this unit that I thought you all would like to know about it.

The unit is a Brother MFC-7820N B&W multi-function laser printer/copier/fax/scanner and is $[...] at Staples & Office Depot, with a $[...] rebate until Saturday.

I picked up the unit for the following reasons:

* I needed a new printer and a new fax machine and have been in need of a copier for the studio.

* I hate inkjets and will only purchase a laser printer for B&W usage.

* I should not have to replace ink/toner for less than 1000 pages.

* It reportedly has decent Mac support (10.2.4 and up through Tiger).

* It has built-in network support.

* It's inexpensive.

I brought the printer back to my studio and set it up. It's all one piece, so physical setup is easy. Pull it from the box, put it on a table, remove the clear tape, plastic coverings, and paper spacers, install the toner cartridge, plug it in & blow it up!

Configuration on the Mac was a little less easy. I rarely use CDs that come with peripherals, since they tend to be 1.0 versions that have likely been updated since. I went to the Brother website and looked for the drivers. After about 10 minutes of searching and not understanding what I was missing, I realized that Safari wasn't displaying the "Download" button, but switching over to Firefox solved that issue. I D/Led the four DMGs from the support site and installed them on my laptop (under 10.3.9).

Once I rebooted, I wasted about 30 sheets trying to get the printer to print out my taxes. It kept having problems which looked like driver issues. It turns out that I had selected the BRScript driver, but the CUPS driver was better and more reliable.

Here's how I config'd the printer:

* I first went through the menus on the unit's front panel and set it up for DHCP on the network. I also named it and set a few other minor settings.

* I went to Print Center and added a new printer. I used the Internet Printing Protocol and chose the printer via Rendezvous (Bonjour)! It came up with some bizarrely-named print queue, but it has printed flawlessly from then on.

So, the printer prints. That's cool. And I tried the copier function and that works, too.

One of today's tasks was to print contracts and W-9s that had been sent to me by clients and fax them back. Now that I have a printer, I can do that! But I started playing a bit with the ControlCenter software that Brother provides and discovered that I could setup my machine to be named as a recipient for scanning! (Scanning over the network!? Who would have guessed?)

Unfortunately, I did run into a snag using the network scanning from my laptop. I have two other TWAIN drivers installed on the laptop (Epson & Canon) and the ControlCenter software kept trying to use the Epson TWAIN driver instead of its own. Instead, I installed the Brother software on an iMac G4 that resides in the studio, which is available for client use and configured the ControlCenter. When I went back to the MFC and selected Scan-to-file, the iMac came right up in the list and I successfully scanned the document (to a PDF, as I configured it)!

To make this even cooler, the MFC's scanner can make use of the 35-page Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) that is present for the fax machine and will auto-scan all those documents into a single PDF for you. Can this get _any_ cooler!?

Actually, it can. The fax machine can also collect faxes to memory rather than to paper and send them to your computer! I haven't tried this functionality, as I didn't use the fax at all, nor do I need that feature (since I have an eFax).

One more killer thing: the unit supports Rendezvous (Bonjour) and can even be addressed directly from a web browser. Nearly all the configuration can be done in that window, although I found that setting the time & date from the browser still didn't set the front panel's time & date (which defaulted to the year 2084!). The web browser config center _does_ show exactly what the front panel's display is showing, though, which is way cool for me, since the unit lives in my machine room, with 3 doors between the unit and any computers.

Overall, I'm extremely impressed with this unit. Years ago I probably wouldn't have considered a Brother printer, as they didn't support the Mac and were making pretty cheap crap. But my dad got a similar MFC from Brother and has loved it.

I figured it was worthwhile to pass along just how killer this unit is.

Thank goodness my HP all in one finally stayed down for the count and gave me the opportunity to buy this machine! Like other reviewers, I have struggled with HP multifunction machines and have been constantly frustrated by poor design and unreliable performance. In contrast, the Brother machine does everything the HP does, and does it better and faster. I was especially impressed with the fax function. I write a lot of reports and have to wait for them to finish faxing before I can file them and start on something new. With the HP, you are a slave to however slow the receiver's fax is, with a tendency to draw multiple pages in at once. With the Brother, the machine scans and stores the material in memory before attempting to send it. What a great machine and what an improvement over the HP "industry standard". I highly recommend it.

I like this printer. It does what it is supposed to do with minimal fuss. It is MUCH better than the Dell product, which I started with and sent back. I have not had any problems with the document tray or paper curl and the unit was very easy to set up and use. The network connectivity is great if you have more than one computer.

My two issues: (1) while printing and while the fan is running, it draws so much power that it causes some lights to flicker a little bit. This was a problem with our old laser, too, so maybe it is just a wiring issue in our house. (2) the document feeder can be a little quirky. It jams a little more than it should.