Customer Reviews

Canon PC 170 Personal Copier

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you're looking for a very basic copier to make the occasional black and white copy this unit is fine. It makes very clean looking black and white copies. If you can think of a question in the form of "Does this copier have _____" chances are the answer is no. It can do double-sided copies, but only manually. There is no multiple-original feed. No shrink/enlarge options. It does have auto-exposure with a manual override if it's needed. Knowing all of this I think it's a steal at the $25 AR I paid. Otherwise you're probably better off with a scanner and printer for most uses.

This user-friendly machine does exactly what it's supposed to do; turns out decent copies at a reasonable rate. I use it for copying in my home---may be adequate for small business owners who only need a few pages at a time, too. Was tired of the inconvenience of running around looking for a public copier, maybe leaving an important paper under the lid of the printer, etc.---and the latest threat---that the public printer may be retaining info from items being printed. This was a good purchase for me & I'd recommend it to others, too.

I use this instead of my scanner and ink jet and am very impressed with it. I wasn't expecting much for the price ($24 after rebates) but it surprised me with how well it works. It starts up within seconds and shuts down automatically. This is not something you would use for a business, it copies slow and does not feed multiple documents. It is nice and portable and is perfect for coping a few pages every week.

This is a cleverly designed compact copier, but don't buy it if you think you would ever need to copy a page from a book. In order to copy a page from a book one must push down on the book to flatten out the part of the page closest to the spine, and this copier would probably break under that kind of pressure. In addition, the surface (platen, I think they call it) where one places the book to be copied moves back and forth during the copying process, and even if one doesn't push down on the book, a considerable amount of patience and manual dexterity is needed to hold the book perfectly on the surface while it moves. We immediately saw that we would not be able to use this copier, since we occasionally need to copy pages from books, and Amazon was very nice about taking it back even though we had already begun to use the toner cartridge. Amazon even paid the shipping charges to return it.

This copier replaces a personal Canon copier I had for at least 14 years. Over the years I have found it very handy to have a copier at home and have used it quite often. The Canon PC 170 takes up very little space and performs very well. It makes excellent copies quickly with no warm-up waiting time. An additional feature which I did not have on my older copier, is that the PC 170 has a paper feed which allows one to make multiple copies. You can also set the number of copies to be made. On my old copier, each paper had to be hand fed. Another nice feature is that one can adjust the paper feed to make copies as small as an index card. I have used this feature many times over the years on my old copier and was happy to see this same feature on the newer model. This copier is an excellent value for the price.

This is the second Canon PC personal copier I've purchased. I gave the first one away as a gift to a small church that uses it almost daily. Since the church gave the copier such rave reviews, I decided to buy one for myself for occasional copying and to conserve the use of my computer ink cartridges.

The set-up was very easy to understand. The system warms up quickly with virtually no waiting and the copies are clear. Supposedly, you can make 1,000 copies before having to change the ink cartridge, which is good because replacement ink cartridges can run between $60-$70. I'm considering purchasing another copier for a senior citizen who has difficulty getting out to make copies of medical bills, etc.

This copier works clean, clear and fast for home use. My complaint is that it comes with a "starter" cartridge (not listed in product information page). As I understand it, the starter cartridge is good for about 1,000 copies whereas the regular one is good for 2000 copies. So it makes my cost 'per copy' 7.2 cents instead of the 3.6 cents it would have been had it come with the regular cartridge. It did not state that it comes with the "starter" cartridge in the listing and I think that is a bit of a "rip-off".

We have used a Canon PC420 copier for over 10 years. It has finally gotten so that it will not regularly pull the paper from the tray without coaxing. I have made good buys and I have made stupid buys...the Canon copier is one of the best buys I have ever made. Great price...great service...long life.

The Canon PC 170 is almost identical to the PC420. That is the MAIN reason we have purchased this unit...we have been extremely pleased with the PC420. We have only used the PC 170 for about a month, but I have no reason to believe that it will have any shorter service life than the PC420. Copies are excellent. No warm up time. Operation is swift and quiet. The unit fits on a small chest in our living room.

Incidentally, the old PC420 is still working, if a little tempermentally. I am figuring that if I get in there and rough up the now glazed surface on the rubber wheel that pulls the papers through, it will work as well as when it was new a decade or more ago. If you are interested in great b/w copies...you cannot go wrong with the Canon series of copiers. If you are GREEN...they carry the Energy Star symbol.

Jim McGahan
Grand Island, NE

I bought a new Canon PC-170 in April 2009. It broke in September 2009. The top part of PC-170 is a flatbed scanner that slides back and forth while making photocopies. The sliding scanner stopped working and made a clicking sound. I called Canon customer support, which did NOT informed me that I could have received a replacement via UPS or FedEx. Instead, Canon wanted me to take the machine to some contracted third-party repair center, where I waited for almost an hour to speak to a service technician. I left the photocopier at the service center, and waited for almost a month to get it back.

As I was told, PC-170 has one too many moving part. I used it as a portable copier for my work, so I carried it in a car trunk. As I drove around, the flatbed scanner was sliding back and forth on the main unit, which loosened and damaged the moving part over time.

Here is the REAL problem with this product: PC-170 was marketed as a portable model, but it was not designed to be portable. The footprint is too big. It is heavy compared to other portable units. And it has too many moving parts that can loosen and break if it is being moved around too frequently.

After I got the PC-170 back from the repair center, I used two belts to secure the slider onto the copier. In May 2010, the machine broke down again -- for the exact same reason. When I called Canon again, they told me it was out of warranty, and they could not (or would not) do anything with it. I was fine with it, because I had already decided I would never buy anything (photocopier, printer or camera) from Canon ever again.

Furthermore, the Canon PC-170 has a big footprint. It is too much of a hassle to be carried around. It took up quite a lot of space in my car trunk, and it was quite heavy to handle. The E20 toner cartridge is also quite expensive at $50 to $80.

If anyone is looking for a portable copier, a much better alternative is the smaller and lighter Brother FAX-575 Personal Fax/Phone/Copier. It uses a cheaper toner cartridge. Brother's services are also much better than Canon: I use a Brother multifunctional laser printer at home, and it also broke last year. Brother shipped a replacement unit overnight without the hassle Canon had given me. A brand new Brother FAX-575 costs only around $24. So if it breaks, I can just throw away the $23 instead of the $130 PC-170 whose toner cartridge costs another $50.

I purchased this for my mother so she could make simple copies from the comfort of her home. It's a bit on the heavy side for a personal copier and the light/dark exposure isn't great, but it does the job she needs.