Customer Reviews

Sharp AL-1551 Laser Copier/Printer

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

 

 

Love the machine. I wanted something simple for my non-technical office. I thought the Cannon would take too much training. The Sharp is great as long as it holds up. (So far, so good!) We have had it 7 weeks and employee response has been great and copies are clear and sharp. Sheet feeder works well and so far only one jam. Very easy to clear jams. Easy to take apart and replace toner and drum.

I will note a few down sides, even though at this price I would buy it again. Each paper drawer only holds 250 sheets. The duplex copying only will print one copy of the same page. And lastly, the starter toner cartridge went fast! Before the out of toner light finally came on, I thought the think had broken. I would turn it on and it would click and click and click. Once I replace the toner, no problems. In other words, buy a new toner cartridge with the machine.

Very good Price per Value ratio ---

Great copier for the small office / home office. The feeder is a must for any copier and this one works great with up to 30 pages. Two paper trays allows for either different sizes of paper or just twice as much of 8-1/2 x 11 to keep you going. The default standby time is too short if making copies at various times throughout the morning, afternoon, etc. Corrected easily to the 2 hour max will ensure no waits (even if just 15 seconds) during your work day. The fact that it has network printing capability is another plus if you haven't yet a laser printer. By far this is the most copier you can get for the money without going to a comercial rental / lease.

I purchased this machine a few months ago and have found it to be everything they promised. It is a very fast as a laser printer and the copier has enough features that I no longer make late night trips to Kinkos. The two paper trays are handy, especially if you have some forms or documents that you want on special paper.

Two things you should know:

1. The printer is a consumer of power (when in use). The lights dim slightly when it first activates - I believe power use is somewhere in the 10-15 amp range (peak). When not in use, it powers down and just sits there waiting to print.

2. I originally used this on a machine with Win98. The drivers installed nicely. I have since put it on a new machine with XP Pro, for which there is no driver. I wrote tech support only to get an answer that there is no driver for XP (which I already knew). Thanks! It works more or less, but XP continually thinks it is not installed when it boots up, i.e., "new hardware found." A minor annoyance, but if you pay this much for a printer, I don't think it is too much to ask for an updated printer driver.

From day 1 this printer seemed to LOVE jamming & shredding paper. It almost NEVER printed more than 3 consecutive sheets without a problem. There seem to be at least two distinctly different types of jams (one actually mangles paper; the other just stops with the jam light on after printing a page), and the printer chooses between them at random. It's now sitting in my garage, awaiting the next "heavy trash" pickup day.

Intially thought this was a great copier/printer and a great price. However, after 6 months of use the original unit I bought had a paper jam that could not be fixed in any manner other than sending it back to Sharp. I have received my replacement unit which after 1 day has had the same problem. To Sharp's credit they will send me a third unit but it is on backorder and they have no idea when they will have a replacement unit. I don't know if this is a chronic problem with this model or if I'm just unlucky enough to get two units with the same problem.

I bought a Sharp AL-1551 copier/laser printer well over a year ago. To date, Sharp still does provide a Windows XP driver for this unit. The Windows 98 driver provided requires manual intervention with every system start-up and the driver is very slow and bogs down my system every time I print.

Several calls and emails to Sharp have either provided a canned non-response or else have pointed to conflicting "alternate" drivers -- none of which are satisfactory. These alternates do not work and their installation is totally non-straightforward.

I think this proves that Sharp does not care about customer satisfaction and is out of their league in the printer market and it also demonstrates uncaring support for its users.

This is what I get for straying away from HP for printers.

Maybe others will read this and consider it before buying a Sharp printer.

I received the order and I opened today, but it does not working correctly,
I call for technical services and after they assisted me to correct the
problem but they cannot because they said it is a defected copy machine and
they tell me to call you for you to send to me an other new copy machine and call
tag this machine back please do so, and let me know. Thank you.