Customer Reviews

Refurbished Brother MFC-8860DN Flatbed Laser Multi-Function Center with Duplex

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My office was full of hardware overdue for consolidation. A 10-year-old B+W PostScript laser printer (Apple 16/600 PS) with a fax card was retired. It received laser-quality faxes while using a daisy-chained Brother InteliFAX thermal-paper fax machine to send pages. An HP 290 inkjet color copier rounded out the triad of devices within the crosshairs of the BROTHER MFC-8860dn. As a bonus, this printer includes network scanning capability and drivers for current operating systems like Mac OS X and Microsoft Vista. My aging CanoScan flatbed scanner included Mac OS 9 software -- limiting its use with current configurations.

Some competitors charge more for a network card which is included with this BROTHER MFC-8860dn. I most appreciate the PostScript Level 3 emulation, high-resolution duplex printing, 30-page per minute reproduction, and network scanning. Even more impressive features are being discovered in the manual, like fax forwarding, remote control from other locations via a phone keypad, and the ability to share a fax number with a voice line. The automatic duplex feature is well integrated. It is possible to copy single-sided documents to duplex, split duplex into single-sided, or make duplex copies of duplex originals. To save paper, faxes can also be received and scaled (if necessary) with the duplex option.

For a great price, this one product sent many other devices to the recycling bin and released much valuable desk space. I look forward to becoming even more familiar with the breadth of features.

[EDIT Jan 6, 2009: Still holding up well. I purchased a replacement toner cartridge but have yet to use it. Color scans are of poor quality (pixelated with moire at high resolutions). Other features are great.]

July 2007 -- I have been using Brother printers/multi-function machines for 10 years. When I needed double sided capabilities I decided to get the refurbished 8860 and it more than does the job for me. In reality a refurbished unit is more likely to be without problems than a new one as it has been checked and re-checked. Coming from a consumer product engineering background I know that most products returned to the vender are as a result of buyer remorse or other non-technical reasons. I have been using this machine for about a month now and have already printed more than 2,000 double sided pages. It has worked like a charm and it is definitely easier than trying to double feed your printer to get a two sided copy. The way the page comes out and then goes auctomatically back into the machine for the second side is kind of weird to watch but it does it very fast and with total reliability, at least so far.

Sept 2008 - I have now had this printer for over a year and have exceeded 45,000 pages and it continues to work wonderfully. I has almost never jammed and continues to entertainingly flip the pages for the other side. Brother Printer are on my lifetime "buy" list.

Received machine last week and I am pleased.

These all in one machines are NOT well reviewed. The reviews lump all the AIO machines together and do not allow features to be isolated. I bought this machine because it has laser printing (better for business purposes), full duplex scanning, full duplex printing and, I think, full duplex faxing. I could not find any other company that has all these features at a reasonable price. Rather than repeat other reviews, following are a couple of comments that might be useful.
1. Documentation is fair. There is a bound manual included with the machine but all too often you are referred to the CD Software manual.
2. Phone service is good. Unlike the situation with most software today, there is actually human phone support. Have a speaker phone ready because accessing a person can take 5 - 10 minutes. On the other hand, the service people are patient and provide good quality support.
3. Crinkled envelopes. The remedy is actually in the manual but phone service pointed out that two plastic levers at the back of the machine have to be switched to "up" to remedy the crinkling problem. I view this as "poor" design because the levers have to be switched back to print flat paper - regardless which tray is being used (they should allow separate settings for each tray and if the switch has to be accessed that frequently, it should not be at the back of the machine).
4. Scanning. I purchased the machine largely for scanning and printing (I use Internet fax). The scanning is slower than I thought it would be. It is nowhere near 30 pages per minute.
5. Another comment on scanning. Brother produces a Scanner/copier/printer (DCP-8065DN) but the MFC-8860DN which is similar also has fax capabilities. The 8860DN is less expensive than the 8065DN. I assume this is because the 8860DN is produced and sold in higher volume.
6. Warrantee. Amazon confirmed that the refurbished machine has a one year warrantee from Brother. A new machine also has a one year warrantee -- go with the refurbished machine.

I really will not know how solid this machine is until I have had several months of hard useage on it. However, so far I am more than satisfied. I have other Brother products and think highly of the brand. I expect a similar experience with this machine.

I have used several brother multifunction machines over the past ten years and have been very pleased with the quality and economy of use. This machine is no exception. Copying, printing and faxing are a breeze and duplexing is cool. The paperport software is not supported by Vista and brother has not made a deal yet to allow an upgrade to paperport 11 as some other companies have. The native applications in vista work well with the machine but for multi-page scans to email you will need an outside application (I like pdf machine). The other reservation I have about this machine is that printing #10 envelopes does not seem to be supported and I have not been able to print any envelopes. I will do some more research on this and try to come up with a solution.

I previously owned several Brother MFCs, and each one has improved upon the others. My MFC-9700 has worked beautifully but I purchased this one because I have been doing an increasing amount of duplex printing & scanning, and it does the job just as I had hoped. The other thing I wanted was legal sized scanning. This will allow me to replace the MFC-9700 and a Xerox 105DF with one better unit.

I did have a problem with the refurbished drum unit on the first one I got (small nick on the drum causing a blob every 3.7" - manual diagnosed quickly) but was pleased with how quickly Amazon sent me a replacement unit, which I used to swap the drum, and Amazon provided a free UPS pickup - all at no cost to me.

Here's some points answering previous posts & questions:

Drum & Toner - These are refurbished and there's a sticker on them saying you get at least 90% of the stated rating. My first unit came with a standard 550 toner, but my replacement actually had a refurb 580 high-yield toner - Bonus!

Warranty - Brother does warrantee the printer, but they don't warrantee the Drum & Toner. That's why I had to have Amazon send out a whole other unit.

Crinkled Envelopes - Yes, by default it will crinkle your envelopes. The manual quickly shows you the solution - raise two blue levers on the back of the unit. That fixes it quick. The manual says to restore them to do normal printing, but I haven't seen a problem with them in the modified position for regular paper or envelopes.

Scan Speed - The scan speed is never the same as the print speed. This unit does scan much faster than my previous MFCs and you'd pay as much for a scanner of this speed alone. Single sided scanning is 16ppm, double sided is much more complex so it does about 4ppm (200dpi B&W - much slower for higher res & color).

Duplexing - Fantastic! No more shuffling papers back into the paper tray and figuring out which way to turn them. Printer dialog & scanning dialog has a duplex option.

Software - Paperport 9 Deluxe is the way to go. When I tried paperport 11 a year or so ago it was a disaster - very buggy. Search on the internet and you'll see many similar reports. Possibly it's better now. I had full Paperport Deluxe 9 on my system and made the mistake of using the default MFL-Pro Suite installation which blew away PP 9 Dlx and installed Paperport 9 SE. I couldn't even install PP 9 Dlx afterwards because the SE version is newer?? Luckily I use Norton Ghost so after a full restore I chose the "suite w/o Paperport" option and it worked beautifully.

Scanner Driver - Scanning from Paperport brings up a "TW-Brother Scanner Setup" dialog which stays around after the scan and you have to close manually. That dialog lets you choose photo/web/text, res, b&w/color, Brightness, Doc size, Duplex, and gives a PreScan to select cropping. It's improved over my last MFC 9700 driver. The only problem is that Paperport also has some of the same options so it's a bit confusing. I wish the Scanner Setup dlg went away after the scan. Better still I wish it let you configure the scanner setup once and then it should just scan it without going there at all. The hardware button (see below) does avoid the scanner setup dialog but doesn't scan correctly.

Scanning hardware buttons - The 8860dn has hardware buttons for scanning, then you choose from a menu on the unit for file/OCR/email/image. Unfortunately it's very complex after that because then it fires up a Brother "ControlCenter2" which you have to configure, and it's not intuitive. Worst of all, the scans don't conform to the settings so I could never get it to scan in 200dpi B&W PDF correctly. I think it was storing it in color or something because the files were 10x larger than what it should have been. You can tell it to show the scanner setup which does scan correctly, but then you might as well not use the hardware button. Unfortunately that feature seems to be useless unless there's a newer version of the driver. However, I usually scan from Paperport anyways so it doesn't impact me.

Legal sized paper - My MFC-9700 didn't have legal sized glass so I'd have to use an old Xerox 105df to reduce it before scanning. (There was a driver option to do it from the ADF but you had to reboot the PC??!!) Now, you just choose legal sized paper in the scanner setup dialog and you're in business. Just be sure to remember to reset it for the next scan.

Connections - I used the USB connection to my main computer to make the scanning, but I've hooked up two other computers by using Windows printer sharing, and direct ethernet. All worked great and all printer driver features carried over.

I ordered this multifunction unit to replace an HP Laserjet printer, an Epson scanner, a Canon Photocopier, and a very ancient Panasonic fax.

Straight out of the box it was easy to use and worked without a hitch. The duplex option is exceptional, and works across the fax, copy and print functions. Best of all it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it all out.

My old HP Laserjet had a nice straight path for envelopes so they never came out crinkled, the only fault I can find with the Brother is that it does crinkle my envelopes while they are printing. It's not really a major problem as nothing gets jammed.

The print quality is exceptional.

I have not had a chance to scan any photographs yet so cannot comment on the quality, I have scanned a number of two sided documents to PDF into my computer. I love the 'load it and leave it' duplex feature. It saves so much time and effort. The quality of the scans is excellent but it is a tad slow in comparison with my old scanner.

Overall I am very happy with this item, and have been able to dispose of a lot of extra stuff on my desk with the minimum of fuss and learning curves!

I will try not to repeat others' praise (too much!) Instead I will start with a tip: Upgrade the Firmware! I was having two very frustrating problems: 1) Scan-to-email would suddenly not work (all the jobs got stuck in the fax queue); and 2) I couldn't make "1" copy from the glass. It beeped at me when I hit start. Increasing the quantity to '02' worked, but not '01'. So I went through the brother support site to no avail, and finally on a random google came across the fix on the Brother UK site. It's just a firmware upgrade. Hit '*' and '#' at the same time- the first letter on the top left is the revison. (you may have to jump around in the menus a bit to find one which gives you the rev- I'm sure there's an explanation, but I haven't figure it out). I was running rev 'K'. So I downloaded and installed rev 'L', and everything works perfectly now. They even added authentication capabilities for SMTP (the FAQ page still says this isn't possible....get with it, Bro!) A little tech savvy may be required to do the firmware upgrade- you need Java, and must install if you don't have it yet (or aren't up to the proper level). But it was really not a big deal- took about 10 minutes, and, VIOLA! ;)

Now to the rave...it's replacing my workhorse Laserjet 5siMX. I really like my laser duplex printing, but it was never afforadable enough in a contemporary machine. Then to see I also get scanning/faxing (a scanner was on my wishlist, too) and something that is ethernet-ready (now everybody can use the machine from their own computer!). And I forgot copying!!! No more scanning/printing cycle on the PC- and a duplex feed tray to boot! And the scan-to-email feature is way cool. The only thing I'm sacrificing from the 'ol LJ is 11x17 printing, but, oh well. It's just as speedy and much more versatile, and I've cleared up a whole lot of space in my home office (note: it's not as big as it appears to be in the picture!)

All in all, a super machine. And the price point is amazing! I should have bought two before the rebate expired!!!! :)

Flawless installation, crisp, clear and sharp copies, easy to use and the first scanner I've had which actually works. I am so happpy with this piece of equipment. I swore I would never own another multifunction device (I switched from an HP). I can't say enough positive things about this machine and purchasing it through amazon.com was fast and easy as well.

I bought the MFC 8860DN refurbished. Got a great price through Amazon with $[...] rebate and free shipping. Even though free shipping said it would take 1-2 weeks, it showed up at my door in 3 days!

This machine was a replacement for a MFC 8840DN that I burned out through too much use by printing several 1000s pages in a single 5 hour period. Obviously I liked it enough to by the follow on model, which is basically the same machine with some minor changes (mostly cosmetic).

My 8860DN arrived just fine. Looks brand new and everything works okay. If frequently buy refurbished items and have yet to have a problem. Some random points in response to some other reviews/comments:

* Noise. Not a problem. It's a little noisy when running, but nothing terribly distracting. Neither this one or the previous 8840 never made any noises that some complain about.

* lots of features at a good price.

* Install was a little confusing. I have MS Vista and the CD didn't auto run. So I had to find setup.exe and run manually. There are lots of folders for different languages so you just had to find "eng" for english. Also I forgot to turnoff my firewall the first time and the install program couldn't find the printer (connected to hub on LAN). Otherwise the install went okay. Oh yeah, I first did an "uninstall" of the old 8840 drivers/software. Got 3 install CDs in box: Vista, XP, Mac.

* Envelopes: Works just fine so far. I followed the tips from of of the other reviews about flipping up the 2 blue levers on the back panel and that fixed everything. I've just left them up and so far everything else (plain paper) prints okay. I can't see any difference so I just leave them up. Now envelopes and Avery labels go through just fine. Interestingly, this is where I see an actually phyical difference with the 8840. The 8840 had a straight pass through and you opened up the back panel for envelope output. But even withe back panel open the still come out the top/main output tray. In my view its not a problem, just different. I still get my printed envelopes and in some ways is less work as you don't have to open the back panel.

* Auto Forward fax via email: Great feature. The old 8840 had this too. It's very nice especially when traveling.

* Minor bug (maybe with Vista?). Scan from machine front panel to PC email doesn't work properly. Maybe I messed up the setup? No big deal to me. I just used the Control Center and click Scan to Email button and it works fine calling up MS Outlook and emailing. I choose the multi-page TIF format. Seems to work best and produce relatively small file sizes. I initially chose PDF as the email attachment format as most people have Acrobat Reader. This works OK but the file size is 10x larger. So I went back to TIF.

* Compared to 8840 I think this one is slightly quieter, has a nicer/easier to use front panel, LCD screen is easier to read.

* Auto duplex printing. I just "add printer" and set up a separte print queue with duplex printing as the default. That way I just select the "printer" queue I want for single sided or duplex, rather than flipping the advanced feature settings fromt he print screen.

* Overall a lot of features and decent print quality at a great price.

The refurbished came like new, and not different from a brand new. Printer is a little bit noisy when printing but works very well. It was like plug and play, installation over the local network was easy.
Have only used it for about 2 weeks, and satisfied overall.