Customer Reviews

Panasonic KX-FL501 Plain-Paper Laser Fax/copy Machine

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

It performs reasonably well. It can be fussy about feeding multiple pages to send, so it's generally best to feed them through one at a time. That's really a pity, because the quick-scan feature, when it works, is total gold.

But the toner. Oh, god, the toner.

I'm used to laser printers whining at me on the message display about low or "out" toner, and I'm just as used to ignoring them. The helpful people at Panasonic have decided that they don't like people ignoring those messages, so they include a pleasant beep. And when I say "pleasant", I mean it gives me nightmares. When the time comes for the machine to be replaced (and it will come, oh yes, it will come), I may run an extension cord outside so it can actually be actively beeping as I go Office Space on it.

Anyway, toner. To guard against the possibility of someone with super-human will tuning out the beeping (or perhaps to guard against the deaf), they also have included a helpful print out. On this print out are several large bars of varying shades, designed, presumably, to illustrate visually to you exactly how low your toner is.

I have never seen this page print in anything but a perfect, pristine manner. The bars are wonderful in their consistency, with nary a hint of lightness. While this would be an excellent demo of print quality, as a notification that the toner is low, I must admit to some confusion. It's *perfect*. It *never prints light*. So as far as I can tell, the only function it actually serves is to *use more toner*. Quite a bit of toner, considering the large black and near-black bars.

In amusing phone conversations with Panasonic, I've determined that either A) there is no way to disable this helpful function or B) there is, but they require a more substantial bribe than I've offered to offset their loss in toner revenue.

It gets better.

After it's printed two or three of these frame-worthy gems over the course of a week, it decides to play hard ball. Now it claims that the toner is gone. Out. No toner remains. This is communicated in two ways. One, the beep. Only this time it's incessant. The beep just goes on and on until you replace the toner, unplug the machine, or throw it out the window (and perhaps even then). It also...*prints out a notice*. That's right, you read that correctly; to inform you that there is no toner, it *uses toner*. I'm sure you've guessed the best part already - this notice, like the joyous banners of greyscale earlier, also prints perfectly. It's never been even a little light.

Now we engage in a little off-broadway production for the benefit of the fax machine. "Ahh, pity," we say, opening the machine and removing the toner unit. "We're out of toner. Guess I'll have to get more toner. I'll just open this package over here," we continue, as one of us makes crinkling noises in the background, and the other grimly shakes the toner unit from side to side. "Ah, good, I'll just pop that in, then," we say, winking, as we remove the toner drum, whisper an incantation over it, and pop it back in. "Whew, good as new. I'm sure glad we don't have to worry about any light printing thanks to the Panasonic engineers," we shout with glee, as we put the toner unit back in and close it up.

If we've said the incantations correctly, the fax machine accepts our tribute and pretends everything is ok for a couple days, when the process is then repeated. Usually we perform the ritual twice successfully before it tires of our blandishments and insists the toner is out, despite the repeated evidence of our eyes. At this point we surrender to its whims and put a new drum unit in.

We lived with it...until we upgraded to the KX-FL511, which works *exactly the same way*, except it is much better at scanning in multiple pages unattended.

This machine looks and feels flimsy. Panasonic technical support is excellent, but unfortunately you will need it if you buy this machine. Also you'll need an extended warranty since you can expect problems.

The instructions on how to set this up are confusing, and its easy to go wrong, and easy to make a mistake in putting in toner.

I bought this for home use and wanted a plain paper laser fax to save on consumable costs and get good quality copies.

My first unit didn't work at all. Panasonic sent a replacment without charge.

After about 18 months of very light use (as a home fax), it started to make lines on every copy and fax sent out.

Panasonic technical support tells me this is a problem with a bad chip and it will have to be sent back for repairs which which will be expensive and take time and effort.

I am very disappointed with this machine. I liked the idea of a laser plain paper fax, but this one just isn't very good. I'm sure you can find a more reliable machine out there.

Purchased a Panasonic KX-FL501 from Amazon.com on August 01, 2001 and replaced it 06/13/02 with a Brother IntelliFAX 2800, which so far has been an infinitely more satisfactory machine for exactly the same price. The KX-FL501 was complex to set up, program, and use beyond absolutely basic functions, copy quality was barely adequate for a machine in its price range and it gave constant problems with multiple page FAXes; both sending and receiving. Sending, it would feed several pages of the original at once. Receiving, it would pull several blank pages from the paper tray, often so many it would jam. Adjustments did next to no good. Essentially, it was non-functional.

I've used this machine for almost a year now. It works great. It's very reliable. The toner lasts a very long time. I'm still using the starter toner. The only cons would be setting it up. It has some unfrienly menus you have to learn to do things like mute the ringer and set the time. The manual walks you through it. But, it's not something you would remember. Also Panasonic really pushes their IFax service with this machine. I use this machine fine with out their IFax service. The jog dial comes in handy for preset fax numbers, saving time. Overall it's a good fax machine.

This is a fine fax machine, but it's not appropriate for home office use, because you cannot turn the ringer off. It always rings at least once, and even on the lowest volume setting, it's very loud.

Excellent phone fax laser copier. I have had no problems..copies are clear and crisp. Complex..yet user friendly. I am very pleased with this product.

Our office has this laser fax machine and it, too, occassionally jams the paper in the accordian style. Here is what we do to stop it. Take a cotton ball or a couple of 4x4 gauze pads. Soak them in rubbing alcohol. Wipe the fusion roller until the black stuff is all off. This will keep the paper from jamming, as it sticks to the burned on toner. I do this about once a month and it has solved my problem. Do be careful, as it can be VERY HOT if the machine has been in use. Hope this helps someone.

I love Panasonic products. All my phones, TVs, etc. have been Panasonics. So I purchased this. It is a MONSTER. The print quality is excellent, but replacing the toner is complex and confusing. I broke something inside when I tried to change the toner (which BTW is very expensive). The support was subpar and not available on weekends, plus being limited to PST.

I'm practically in tears because it was such a waste of money.

Unless you are a rocket scientist and can figure out how to load the replacement toner, DON'T, PLEASE DON'T BUY THIS PRODUCT!

Paper jams all the time.Lost many important fax info.I can no longer fax out. Half the page is solid black on the receiving end.I just replaced the cart&drum unit.(Expensive) Now this breakdown.This is my second Panasonic fax machine and my last.

I bought this fax for light to moderate home use. It has never worked properly. I have to stand at the machine and feed multi-page faxes one page at a time--otherwise the machine will pull up to 5 pages into the feeder at once. Similarly, when printing multi-page faxes the machine often pulls multiple sheets at once, sometime jamming.

Panasonic customer service has been absolutely unacceptable. One rep. told me, with surprising candor, that these were design flaws common to this machine and there was nothing Panasonic would do. A second rep. told me she would do nothing unless I fed sheets into the machine and let her LISTEN to it over the phone. In neither case was I offered repair or replacement.

I strongly recommend against buying this machine.