Customer Reviews

Canon L170 Laser Fax Printer

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Now that it's up and running it's so reliable and easy to use that we don't even think about it. It's great to have a really fast fax machine that also doubles as a USB laser printer and a copy machine.

Three "heads ups" for you:

First, there might be a learning curve if you've never owned a fax machine before. You have to put this together and it takes a few minutes. The pieces seem flimsy and you might wonder if it's going to work but once you get it together if it works fine.

Second, the manual is printed in a very small font that's hard to read even with my reading glasses on.

Third, with this machine you get a "starter toner cartridge" that is good for about 300 pages. To get a "real" toner cartridge you have to spend well over another hundred dollars. The toner cartridge costs more than half the price of the machine. You may also have to buy a USB cable.

So, with the toner cartridge and the service contract (which I think you're foolish not to buy) and sales tax in my state included it was upwards of $500.00 to get this thing up and running, but now it's a faithful servant that just sits there and works. So far so good.

The fax function works well enough, but is not outstanding; I like it as a network printer except that it has a tendency to lock up with an error message if the print job indicates legal size paper; then it takes too much of an effort to clear out the message and reset the machine. The front door opens poorly; cheap design. It would have been great to have an easier way of feeding legal size paper than having to open the lower tray, taking out the paper, expanding the tray, then placing the legal size paper, then repeating again to place letter size paper. Otherwise I believe it will serve me well.

I've used this machine in my small office for almost two years. Setup was a cinch. It worked flawlessly for over a year. Now I have problems with paper jams. Continuous paper jams. Sometimes I stand over the machine for 30 minutes at a time pulling out a jammed paper and restting the machine only to have it jam on the next piece of paper. For that reason, I am now shopping for a new machine.

Notwithstanding attractive reviews elsewhere, our office experience
with the Canon FaxPhone L170 is that incoming faxes cause the
machine to jam. If we were doing it again, we'd elect another brand.

Really works beautifully in an office environment. Print quality is excellent. Quiet and fast. Prompt shipping, no hassle purchase at great price. You won't be disappointed.

This is a wonderful fax machine for the price. It scans 50 pages at a time super quick and faxes when the line is free. The print quality is great and the speed of all is fantastic. It is very space efficient also. I would recommend to take the time to learn all the features and put it together properly. The instruction guide is a little convoluted, but you can find everything you need if you really search for it. Only negative is the cost of the toner. The trial cartridge ran out in less than a month (we use it heavily), and the cost of replacements is high. No wonder they offered a $135 rebate...

I only use fax transmissions every now and then, maybe once every few weeks. I've been through 3 fax machines in the past few years, 2 of them Panasonic which I bought because of the good experience I've had with Panasonic products in general. The Panasonic fax machines were not up to par at all; I had trouble with them from the start. Canon, on the other hand, and this specific model I purchased, is fabulous. Fax works perfectly both ways and the print feature is faster and better quality than any of my standalone printers. I've had no trouble whatsoever with any of the usual fax snafus we all run into from time to time. This model is very simple to install and get up and running quickly. I'm thrilled with this model and would highly recommend it. It's worth every penny, in my opinion.

I really didn't have good luck with this fax printer. It would try to send a fax once and then give up if it got a busy signal or other interruption. It would then make this really annoying alarm sound that basically meant "tough luck buddy". I tried working with the settings but couldn't figure it out. I tried using it as a backup printer but the driver I downloaded didn't work. The wizard software wouldn't recognize the printer being plugged in even though the computer did. It did make copies okay. If anyone wants one, they can have mine.

During three months of light use the machine has jammed three times. This time after opening up the printer I can't find the jammed paper anywhere. This thing jams worse than any other printer I've ever owned. Avoid it.

The Canon L170 is by far the most dependable fax machine for a mid-volume office. I have used this unit for at least four years without a problem, and when I set up a home office recently, it was the first unit I purchased. It faxes and prints quickly and effortlessly, and with the inexpensive all in one cartridge, it is also the most economical fax out there.

Most people don't realize that Canon makes most of the engines for HP. So if you're eying an HP solution, chances are it's a really a Canon.

BTW, the print quality is superb. Like any machine, if you want to avoid jams, use a good quality paper stock. Almost every jamming problem that people have with their copiers and printers are due to inferior paper products with high moisture content.