Printer w/ (auto) Duplex Scanning?

Jim Rosenow

Jim Rosenow

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Jim Rosenow
Time to upgrade the office printer from the old, old HP. Relatively low-use, but duplex scanning to computer/email a must. Not locked into HP brand.

What say ye, office-types? Thanks!

Jim
 
I bought a Canon mf8520 quite a few years ago. It is a color laser all in one with duplex scanning and printing. I've dumped entire two sided document sets (the documents for our trust) and scanned them without a hiccup.
 
We just got a Brother Canon750C at the office. Color Laser all in one.
The only thing I don't like is the garbage scanning software. It always appends 0001, 0002, 0003 etc to a file name if you put it in a folder with today's date, or gives it it's own file name if in a non-sub folder. But I wrote some VBA code that cleans that up.

Edit: Canon. Brother printer is at the house.
 
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The Canon software dumps it in your pIctures directory under a folder with the date. However, you have the option of just having it email the scan to you and it just shows up as a PDF in your mailbox.
 
We recently replaced our last throwaway inkjet printer with a Canon MF656. Relatively affordable full color duplex laser printer/copier/scanner. It took a small, but not bad, amount of setup in their computer app to get it scanning documents where and how I wanted, but now I love it. My accountant recently went paperless and we had to scan all of our tax documents into a folder and send to them, and the new printer made this painless. I just stood at the machine scanning each document separately (my choice), and magically they all showed up on my PC downstairs nice and neat in a folder.
 
My HP 9015e advertised scan to email but the machine will not do that. No apologies from HP, not even a shoulder shrug and a half-hearted “sorry”. Other than that, it is a great machine!

-Skip
 
I'm kinda wondering about moving into the 'laser' class. HP9135 ink-jet should do what we want for $300-ish, but @midwestpa24's Canon MF656 moves us into laser and single-pass duplex scanning for $150 more.

Not finding EdFred's Brother on Amazon...

Hmmmmm! <scratching bald spot>
 
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There are 2 ways to do duplex scanning. One is to mechanically flip the page over and the other is to have 2 sensors so that you can scan both sides in one pass. If you are serious about duplex scanning, make sure you get the latter as it is much preferred over the former.
 
asicer said:
There are 2 ways to do duplex scanning. One is to mechanically flip the page over and the other is to have 2 sensors so that you can scan both sides in one pass. If you are serious about duplex scanning, make sure you get the latter as it is much preferred over the former.
Click to expand...
That's how we came to be looking to upgrade. Current printer will scan a page to a usb stick, then ask if there's another page in the doc. Tedious...
 
Jim Rosenow said:
That's how we came to be looking to upgrade. Current printer will scan a page to a usb stick, then ask if there's another page in the doc. Tedious...
Click to expand...
I've used one that mechanically flips the page. If it takes N seconds per page to scan single-sided, it would take 3xN seconds to scan a page, suck it back into the feeder and then scan the other side. With larger jobs it would be much faster if I scanned the stack single-sided, flipped the stack over, scanned the other sides single-sided and then used software to re-shuffle the files together.

But speed aside, the act of sucking the page back into the feeder to flip it over would often result in jams.
 
My Canon flips the pages and I've not sure I've ever had it jam in normal operation. It does do poorly if you leave a sheet on the glass and then tell it to start scanning from the document feeder, but that was my fault.
 
I was really happy to find a multifunction printer that can
-print
-copy
-scan
-duplex (both sides) printing and scanning
-connects to server at work
-networkable (all computers can use all printers)
-can scan using the printer display or using the desktop controls
-has not bricked with non-oem toner
-holds almost a full ream of paper

I bought 4 of these.

So I will share the make/model but there are downsides:
-constantly trying to go online to get "firmware" (the last HP that did this went online and downloaded software that did prevent the use of non-oem toner so the HP went in the bin and I bought these Brothers; never again with HP)
-they all scan everything canted 2-3 degrees, the image detector must not be straight.
-occasional jams with new paper
-occasional 'runs out of ink' messages but still printing fine - that might be a toner thing not the printer
-have been unable to make the wireless work.

Unless I found a better one, for the price these were pretty good and I'd buy again. I've learned to live with its deficiencies.

Brother MFC-L2750DW
 
Jim Rosenow said:
I'm kinda wondering about moving into the 'laser' class. HP9135 ink-jet should do what we want for $300-ish, but @midwestpa24's Canon MF656 moves us into laser and single-pass duplex scanning for $150 more.

Not finding EdFred's Brother on Amazon...

Hmmmmm! <scratching bald spot>
Click to expand...

We were able to find our Canon MF656 on sale for $299. I was done with ink jet printers. We only print occasionally, and every time we needed to the nozzles would need to be cleaned again and again. We would burn through half an ink cartridge and multiple sheets of paper to print one page correctly. I'll never own another one. The laser can sit unused for a month and still print crisp and clean.

We bought the Canon almost a year ago and have had no issues with it. Haven't even made a dent in the original toner cartridges. We liked it so much, I recommended to my parents to replace their old inkjet and even found it still on sale for $299 for them as well. We have it wirelessly networked at home, and can print from any of our computers, phones, or other smart devices. I haven't done a scan to email, just to the document folder of my choice on my computer. I find it actually works better than the much more expensive Xerox I have at work.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I was really happy to find a multifunction printer that can
-print
-copy
-scan
-duplex (both sides) printing and scanning
-connects to server at work
-networkable (all computers can use all printers)
-can scan using the printer display or using the desktop controls
-has not bricked with non-oem toner
-holds almost a full ream of paper
Click to expand...
My Canon MF8250c does all this as well.
 
Five years ago now I splurged on a HP LaserJet MFP M477fdw. From day one it had a couple problems. Sometimes on the first print of the day I have to reboot it before I can get to it on the network. It very frequently will refuse to print a pdf document on a Mac. It's a known bug that after 5 years they've still not fixed.

After 5 years of sporadic heavy usage, those are the only two problems I've ever had with it, and both of those persist to today.

So, I can't really recommend it, but it has lasted longer before I got fed up with it than any other printer I've ever owned.
 
Pulled the plug on a Canon MF656 on Amazon. Good reviews on several of those 'best 'fill-in-the- blank'' sites, a 3-year warranty, and no questions asked returns. Considerably more pricey than midwestpa24 paid, but appears to be the going rate currently. C'est la vi!

Will report back on the install and initial impressions...arrives Thursday.

Thanks to all who participated!

Jim
 
I am not a fan of all in one devices. I have a Fujitsu Scansnap ix500 document scanner. You put in a stack of docs, you hit the button, it scans both sides in color... it has a few functions but all I ever do is save as PDF, obviously you could print copies from there depending on needs. I'm mostly just putting stuff people send me in paper form into digital form so I can find it easily later when I need it.
 
Jim Rosenow said:
Pulled the plug on a Canon MF656 on Amazon. Good reviews on several of those 'best 'fill-in-the- blank'' sites, a 3-year warranty, and no questions asked returns. Considerably more pricey than midwestpa24 paid, but appears to be the going rate currently. C'est la vi!

Will report back on the install and initial impressions...arrives Thursday.

Thanks to all who participated!

Jim
Click to expand...
Crap, you took my advice! Now if you have problems with yours it will be my fault! :dunno:;)
 
First impressions of the Canon MF656...it's heavy! Not gonna blow away in a stiff breeze.

It will do what we want for scanning, plus. Duplex page scanning in a single pass, with options to save multiple loaded pages in the feeder to a single file or each to a separate file in .pdf, .jpg (or another format I can't remember right now).

Options to save anywhere on the computer, local network storage, or directly into an email. Good print quality, and fast!

Those were my impressions. My wife says, "It's loud" ‍

You're off the hook midwestpa24!
 
Jim Rosenow said:
Time to upgrade the office printer from the old, old HP. Relatively low-use, but duplex scanning to computer/email a must. Not locked into HP brand.

What say ye, office-types? Thanks!

Jim
Click to expand...
We're running two of the Epson external ink well (no cartridges) printer/scanners from Costco. The non-sheet feeder is off the kitchen. The sheet feeder one is in the office. Love 'em, and ink is cheap!

Paul
 
About five years ago I went to the Oshkosh Walmart and bought a $30 Epson printer/scanner. I figured it wouldn't last that long and I'd just buy another the following year. It was still going strong in our little unheated operations building by the hangar cafe. The aircraft repair guys would come down and make copies with it from time to time even. I've sent ten times more in ink than I did on the printer.
 
Jim Rosenow said:
First impressions of the Canon MF656...it's heavy! Not gonna blow away in a stiff breeze.

It will do what we want for scanning, plus. Duplex page scanning in a single pass, with options to save multiple loaded pages in the feeder to a single file or each to a separate file in .pdf, .jpg (or another format I can't remember right now).

Options to save anywhere on the computer, local network storage, or directly into an email. Good print quality, and fast!

Those were my impressions. My wife says, "It's loud" ‍

You're off the hook midwestpa24!
Click to expand...

That's a relief!

Yeah it's a monster, but it has a lot of capability. As I mentioned in a previous post, we have a $1,000+ Xerox machine at work that this Canon can run circles around. It does make a little noise, but we keep ours upstairs in my wife's office, so it's hardly noticeable.

We especially love the ability to print from our cell phones. If we have an email or attachment we need printed, it is super easy versus having to fire up a computer.
 
midwestpa24 said:
That's a relief!

Yeah it's a monster, but it has a lot of capability. As I mentioned in a previous post, we have a $1,000+ Xerox machine at work that this Canon can run circles around. It does make a little noise, but we keep ours upstairs in my wife's office, so it's hardly noticeable.

We especially love the ability to print from our cell phones. If we have an email or attachment we need printed, it is super easy versus having to fire up a computer.
Click to expand...
We put it in my wife's office initially, and after her 'it's loud' comment I offered to swap it back for the old printer, which I had taken to my office. No way she was giving it up ! . It's a winner! Thanks!
 
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