Brother MFC3220C Color InkJet Multifunction

by Brother

Product Details

Product Manual [3.30mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 17.1 x 14.4 x 10.9 inches ; 15.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 20 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000CA15F
• Item model number: MFC3220C
• Average Customer Review: 1.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 29, 2004

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The MFC-3220C multi-function center (MFC) is ideal for your home or home office, offering color inkjet printing (up to 12 ppm color, 14 ppm black), color copying, color faxing, and color scanning. It prints at up to 4,800 x 1,200 optimized dpi and copies at 1,200 x 1,200 dpi (maximum). You can reduce or enlarge your copies from 25 to 400 percent, generating up to 99 consecutive copies. You get color scanning at up to 2,400 dpi (interpolated) and 600 x 1,200 dpi (optical), with speeds of nine seconds color and four seconds black. Maximum scanning resolution with Windows XP is limited to 1,200 x 1,200 dpi (interpolated).

The MFC-3220C's 8 MB memory stores up to 200 pages so you can scan your next faxes while sending or receiving others. Fax features include manual, one-touch, and speed dialing, as well as remote retrieval, polling (retrieving faxes from another machine), and broadcasting (sending the same fax to multiple numbers; black-and-white faxes only). The unit is compatible with your phone company's Caller ID service, with which it displays the number and, if available, the name of the person calling or faxing you.

Compatible with both Windows and Apple computers (see technical specifications for limitations of each), the MFC-3220C connects to your computer using a simple USB interface (cable not supplied) a 100-sheet-capacity paper tray, and a 50-sheet output tray for letter-sized documents. It's backed with a one-year limited warranty.

What's in the Box
MFC, telephone handset, telephone line cord, telephone curled cord, ADF document support, ADF document output support, user's guide, and ink cartridges (black, cyan, magenta, yellow)

Product Description

Change individual cartridges with the four-cartridge ink system. Hermetically sealed packaging ensures longer shelf life. Increase productivity and reduce costs when each cartridge delivers value and dependability. Brother consumables are developed to maximize hardware performance. Device Types: Fax; OEM/Compatible: OEM; Page-Yield: 400; Supply Type: Ink.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Value, November 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Brother MFC3220C Color InkJet Multifunction (Office Product)

We have had the machine for about a week and have tried out all the gadgets. The fax is easy to use both from the machine and when sending PC faxes. The copier works great and is easy to use. Fast printing for text documents, color printing is okay too. The scanner is also easy to use and the text conversion software worked well when we scanned in an image with text and it converted it to a Word document with very few errors.

The easy setup instructions are just that, easy. The software allows accessing the MFC-3220c from your PC. Some parameters can be changed from the PC, but not all.

Three downsides that really don't bother us because of the great price of this machine.
1. Scanner is the type that feeds through so you cannot copy
anything thicker than paper, like a book.
2. We printed an 8 1/2 x 11 photo that took about
10 minutes to print. It is photographic quality but
good, not excellent.
3. Only USB connection.

So if you want a great Fax, Scanner, Copier, Printer and don't mind slow photo printing, and don't need to scan a book, and have a USB connection to your PC...this is the one for an unbelievable low price.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This machine really got to me...not in a good way, November 17, 2004

By 

M. Mersman (Santa Cruz, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brother MFC3220C Color InkJet Multifunction (Office Product)

I am generally a reasonably patient person and not too fussy about the equipment I use, but this machine really got to me.

I bought this machine about a year ago. All was well for the first three months...then the ink issue reared its ugly head.

Like other reviewers, all my printing is with black ink. Despite this, the color cartridges run dry every three to five months, even with absolutely no use. That is a pretty big deal to me already, but the real clincher is, get this....you can't print anything, even in black, even with a full black cartridge, if any of the color cartriges are empty. So, even if you just print in black, you have to replace the color cartridges, all three of them, on a regular basis. In my mind, this is either the ultimately stupid feature on a printer, or a blatant attempt to increase ink sales. Either way, it has come to bother me beyonds words.

I can't imagine what happens to all that color ink. The machine does have a disturbing habit of "cleaning" itself at all hours of the day and night, when not being used, so maybe that's when it gobbles up all that ink, but where does it all go?

I decided to try to get around this unexpected expense, which I had come to view as a regularly recurring and involuntary Brother surcharge, by buying bottles of ink and refilling the cartridges myself. I did this yesterday and boy, what a mess that was. I don't recommend this to the average person. My fingers may be stained for days. The worst part was, after replacing the ink in all of the cartridges, the MFC 3220C kept telling me that the cyan cartridge was empty, even though it was clearly full. This, if you have been following the story you will know, means the printer still wasn't going to print a thing.

At this point I had finally had it and I did what I had been fantasizing about for several weeks. I picked up the machine with my yellow, cyan, and magenta stained hands, took it outside, and threw it off our second story deck onto the driveway below. Boy, that felt good. This machine is now, finally, where it belongs.....in the garbage!

Now that I have that off my chest...and desk, I will indulge in some due diligent research and make sure I get a less aggravatingly stupid machine next time. I won't by the way, be looking at another Brother machine, now or EVER.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't be fooled by the low price - BEWARE of INK SCAM!, September 17, 2004

By 

topangajack (Los Angeles, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brother MFC3220C Color InkJet Multifunction (Office Product)

My machine SHUT-DOWN and refused to print in Black, supposedly because one of the Color ink cartridges was "empty." This seemed impossible.

I had the machine for less than 6 months and I only used it occasionally to receive B&W faxes (fewer than 100 text pages). I NEVER, EVER printed anything in color! NOT ONCE! Yet, the color ink was used up before the black ink.

Brother's Customer Service sheepishly explained that the unit's frequent (and loud) "maintenance cyles" consume ink by squirting small amounts of ink through the print heads. There is no way to disable this function. They also claim that they intentionally designed the machine to stop working when ANY of the cartridges go empty, in order to prevent "damage" to the print heads(?). This sounds like nothing more than a marketing ploy. Brother forces you to continuously buy their (very expensive) ink, whether you use it or not. Diabolically ingenious!

Where does all this ink go? After spraying entire cartridges of ink inside the machine (not on paper) you would expect to see large gobs of ink all over the place, yet there is no sign of it. Maybe there is a secret compartment that will someday overflow all over my desk. Or perhaps the ink is vaporized into the air. Breath deeply if you dare, brother.

Brother Customer Service didn't have a clue about where the ink goes. I know this all sounds unbelievable, but it is true.
This machine seems to be designed for one purpose, and one purpose only: to sell you unnecessary, high-priced ink cartridges. Shame on you, Brother! I have tried to get a refund from Brother, but so far they have ingored me.

I refuse to play their game and am shopping for a HP replacement product. So far, the HP 4215 multi-function looks promising - and if one ink cartrige runs out, you can keep on printing with the remaining colors. From past experience, the HP units do not wastefully consume ink doing needless "maintenance cycles." Their print quality is superior as well.

Until I buy a replacement, here is my, admittedly awkward, workaround to keep my FAX capability functioning. To receive faxes, I set the Brother to pickup calls on the 4th ring, and I set my computer's Microsoft Fax software to pickup on the first ring. That way, incoming faxes are received by my computer, bypassing the Brother. If my computer is turned off when a fax comes in there is no practical way to retrieve the fax from it's memory, therefore, I have the Brother set to Forward all incoming faxes (it won't print them, remember) to a free "efax" account on the internet (long distance telephone charges apply). The faxes are then converted to emails that I receive back when I turn on my computer. I can still send faxes with the Brother, but naturally it won't print out confirmations.