Product Reviews
Brother MFC-9840CDW
Color Laser Multi-Function Center® with Wireless Networking and Duplex
Average Customer Rating:
Rating Snapshot (127 reviews)
5 stars
45
4 stars
33
3 stars
22
2 stars
15
1 star
12
88 of 127(69%)people would recommend this product.
Customer Reviews for MFC-9840CDW
Review 1 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
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out of
5
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Brother's over promise, under deliever
Date:May 10, 2010
By captken
from Honolulu, Hawaii
We operate a busy home-office. I bought this unit as an escape from the ever-increasing costs of ink jet printer cartridges and a particular competitors all-in-one constant breakdowns.
To be honest I am disappointed with Brother's excessive toner consumption and poor photo quality printing. I have also found it impossible to print envelopes because of excess heat and wrinkles. Some serious engineering flaws. The toner consumption is much higher than expected. When one color cartridge runs low, the other two seem to run out at the same time. The replacement costs on these toner cartridges from Brother is excessive for the four cartridges at the local retailer I purchased the equipment at. I have since found an online source with remanufactured oem toner cartridges for less than 1/2 the price for all four which makes it considerably less painful. The warmup time for this unit is also, excessive. It takes anywhere from 30-45 seconds to run 1 copy from sleep mode.
On a good note I have not had the breakdowns with this Brother that I often had with a competitor's all-in-one equipment nor had to deal with an India-based customer service dept. The scanning features have been very convenient and the fax machine had worked excellently.
To be honest I am disappointed with Brother's excessive toner consumption and poor photo quality printing. I have also found it impossible to print envelopes because of excess heat and wrinkles. Some serious engineering flaws. The toner consumption is much higher than expected. When one color cartridge runs low, the other two seem to run out at the same time. The replacement costs on these toner cartridges from Brother is excessive for the four cartridges at the local retailer I purchased the equipment at. I have since found an online source with remanufactured oem toner cartridges for less than 1/2 the price for all four which makes it considerably less painful. The warmup time for this unit is also, excessive. It takes anywhere from 30-45 seconds to run 1 copy from sleep mode.
On a good note I have not had the breakdowns with this Brother that I often had with a competitor's all-in-one equipment nor had to deal with an India-based customer service dept. The scanning features have been very convenient and the fax machine had worked excellently.
Expertise: Professional or Expert
Use: Home Office (Business Use)
Brother products owned: 1
12 of 12 found this review helpful.
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Review 2 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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Stay away from this printer
Date:February 19, 2011
By middlejk
from Dayton, OH
Total prints so far 5527. 3rd set of TN115 high yield cartridges- and I would be the 5% yield. They lied badly about this. Also, it appears toner must be replaced not when expended, but by copies. Toner cartridge waste unit is ridiculous. I cleaned mine out manually, but it won't reset. So my printer is down. This printer is a huge disappointment. The color quality is not good enough for brochures to send to customers no matter what you do. Disappointed that Brother sticks it to you on supplies and the electronics that determine what you need and when. Would not provide me a repair manual either, which is a joke. It should be online. This is the most expensive laser printer to operate. I have now paid the cost of the machine again in toner cartridges alone,and only 5500 prints. Stay away from this unit and Brother, they obviously didn't make this for commercial use. It is a ripoff.
Expertise: Professional or Expert
Use: Home Office (Business Use)
Brother products owned: 3
9 of 9 found this review helpful.
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Review 3 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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Disappointing Product
Date:April 13, 2011
By Peter
from Philadelphia, PA
I have used Brother AIO printers for 6 or 7 years now. Until now, they have always been dependable workhorse printers. I even have 2 MFC-9840CDWs based on my prior experiences with Borther products. However, now I am very disappointed in the dependability of this model. My original purchase of the MFC-9840CDW was 18 months ago. The printer is not used hard. Since November 2010, I have had the printer to the local Brother authorized service center 4 times. The density sensor was reseated on 11/3/10. The paper was not feeding properly on 3/24/10 so I had to have the tray 2 roller and the cassette tray replaced. Upon getting the printer back from the repair shop, the printer would periodically give me the "PRINT UNABLE 2A" message. I then had to replace the waster toner cartridge. That did not fix the problem and back to the repair shop the printer went. Finally the drive frame assembly was replaced upon recommendation by Brother Technical Support. Apparantly Brother technical service update F1294 highlighted this problem. I have now put more money into repairing the printer than the initial purchase price. What scares me is that I am looking at potentially the same set problems for my new MFC-9840CDW that was purchased at the beginning of the year. I would have considered other competitive products had I been aware of the future issues.
Expertise: Advanced Amateur
Use: Home Office (Business Use)
Brother products owned: More than 5
2 of 2 found this review helpful.
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Review 4 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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Not as good as our old Brother printer
Date:May 5, 2010
By AustinOffice
from Austin, TX
Our office switched to a color laser printer but we often miss our old monochromatic Brother printer. We were happy with the low price but disappointed by a few key elements:
-The printer seems to jam a lot more often than our old printer when feeding envelopes or thicker paper.
-Print quality is terrible with cotton paper and any other slightly textured paper.
-Occasionally the toner won't set on the page and can be wiped off. This usually happens with the first print of the day or the first print using color of the day. The machine might not be taking enough time to warm up or something.
-The green color is too dark. It's a bit better when you print using the "vibrant" setting but it's still not as good as the other colors.
Expertise: Advanced Amateur
Use: Small Business (Up to 25 Employees)
Brother products owned: 4
5 of 5 found this review helpful.
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Review 5 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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Only a fair product
Date:May 5, 2010
By margo
We purchased our Brother multi function copier less than a year ago and have had one major repair and one total replacement. This took a month of service away while we waited for the repair and/or replacement. Also, even though the repacement was covered by warranty, the installation and packing of the old machine were not. I would not recommend it, but if you buy the machine, buy an extended warranty, you will need it.
Also the toner is very expensive and needs frequesnt replacing.
Also the toner is very expensive and needs frequesnt replacing.
5 of 5 found this review helpful.
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Review 6 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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Sub-par for purchase price
Date:April 4, 2011
By RockyMountain
from California
If you are looking for a good black and white printer, this one is decent. However, I have not been satisfied with its performance as a top-end "prosumer" model. My issues:
1. Operating costs. They are extremely high. The machine says toner runs out prematurely even though there is plenty left.
2. Color output. I cannot accurately reproduce colors, but more importantly I cannot print solid colors without some type of banding or shadowing.
3. Brother software is sub-par. I am constantly frustrated by the Brother Software locking up. Especially on the Mac it really needs some help.
4. Tray selection. This may or may not be a printer/driver issue, but it is constantly frustrating. Some programs will default to the manual tray with paper loaded there; others will ignore the manual tray with paper loaded unless it is specifically selected. Mostly switching between Word/Excel exhibits this behavior.
1. Operating costs. They are extremely high. The machine says toner runs out prematurely even though there is plenty left.
2. Color output. I cannot accurately reproduce colors, but more importantly I cannot print solid colors without some type of banding or shadowing.
3. Brother software is sub-par. I am constantly frustrated by the Brother Software locking up. Especially on the Mac it really needs some help.
4. Tray selection. This may or may not be a printer/driver issue, but it is constantly frustrating. Some programs will default to the manual tray with paper loaded there; others will ignore the manual tray with paper loaded unless it is specifically selected. Mostly switching between Word/Excel exhibits this behavior.
Expertise: Professional or Expert
Use: Small Business (Up to 25 Employees)
Brother products owned: 1
3 of 3 found this review helpful.
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Review 7 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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Some good things, some bad things
Date:April 6, 2011
By DaveA
from Miami
The machine works fine, except in two areas. The paper loader in scanning mode does not consistently take 20lb paper one page at a time. It often will take 2 or sometimes 3 pages at once. I have changed to using 24lb paper for documents I will need to scan, and that seems to work consistently. The other item is the very short life of the color toner cartridges, which are quite expensive. I have used two full sets of the color cartridges and still have not reached 5000 total pages printed, and the machine has told me to replace them. And MOST of my pages are black and white. In addition, it says that all 3 color cartidges have to be replaced, not just the one which is empty. It makes no sense to think that all 3 run out at exactly the same time. Decent quality of printed product, but I wouldn't buy it again, since the toner cost in less than a year are greater than the cost of the machine.
Expertise: Professional or Expert
Use: Small Business (Up to 25 Employees)
Brother products owned: 2
3 of 3 found this review helpful.
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Review 8 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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The good and the bad
Date:December 11, 2010
By SteveH
from Seattle Washington
I purchased this MF printer for our small business when we transitioned away from Windows machines to Macs because I needed to replace another MF machine by a company that appears to be Mac-phobic (driver wise). The set up and configuration went smoothy and all seemed to be OK until I needed to print an envelope. The machine severely wrinkled, then "ironed in" the wrinkles resulting in an envelope that was unacceptable to send to our clients. Discussions with Brother tech support revealed that the procedure was to move this 80+ pound beast away from the wall, drop the back panel, find and reset two tensioning levers, replace the rear panel then move the 80+ pound unit back into place, then print the envelope. After envelope printing is complete, the technician insisted that the procedure be repeated and the tensioning levers returned to their original position prior to printing regular letter paper. Seriously? Move an 80+ pound machine twice to shift from printing envelopes to printing the paper that goes in them?? And this passed Brother's Engineering Design Reviews??? After struggling with this for a SHORT time, I discovered that leaving the tensioning levers in the "envelope" position would indeed (contrary to 2 different technician's instructions) print both envelopes and regular 20 or 24 Lb. bond. Then the MP tray would jam after a random number of envelopes. BTW, this machine (although specs indicate otherwise) will only accept envelopes (standard issue #10- Security) if very gently fed ONE at a TIME. Many calls to the tech support between June and December FINALLY convinced Brother that this was an issue warranting their attention. By this time (2-1/2 hours to print 30 envelopes - over 4 hours total on hold and over three and a half hours in conversation with a tech and testing theories!) my lost time and productivity had cost me more than the price of a new printer. The result is that the retailer from whom I purchased this piece of equipment agreed to take it back for a nearly full credit on a different machine. This indicates the bonus of a long standing business relationship, which, alas, Brother will never experience with our firm. This is an OK machine IF A) you NEVER have to print an envelope and B) you have nothing but time on your hands if you need to work with tech support
Expertise: Professional or Expert
Use: Small Business (Up to 25 Employees)
Brother products owned: 1
6 of 7 found this review helpful.
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Review 9 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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Wrinkled Paper Solved
Date:September 7, 2010
By GreenBranchBuilder
from Boulder, CO
The refurbished MFC-9840CDW came on time and was inspected to be in perfect shape. Installing into my home office was fast and easy. The machine's setup quickly found my wireless network. After installing the drivers on my two laptops and one desktop, I was printing beautifully. I am running XP on two machines and Vista on a newer laptop.
About 25 pages later, the machine started spitting out crinkled paper. If I used the MP Tray, it did not occur. Brother support @ Tier 1 quickly shot me up to Tier 2 and was very helpful. Together, we quickly discerned that I would need a new part to start a trial and error process. Part arrived the next morning at 10am with a Pitney Bowes Tech arriving shortly after. Tech removed the "fuser" to replace with the new one that had been shipped to my doorstep overnight. Upon inspection of the fuser, we found that it had a broken piece that was most likely causing the creased paper issue.
Sure enough, I am 10 days into the replacement part and the issue has been successfully resolved. I am delighted at the simple, quick and friendly response that I received!
I was initially apprehensive based on website chatter and forum posts that had lead me to believe I was going to have to send the machine back. No need. In fact, the Pitney Bowes Tech was exceptionally knowledgeable and has been with that company for 32 years. Unbelievable!
He and his group maintain that the Brother Machines are, in their expereince, the most reliable on the market in this price range.
My experience to date leads me to believe that there is nothing better out the there without paying thousands more.
I intend to post a follow-up to this.
About 25 pages later, the machine started spitting out crinkled paper. If I used the MP Tray, it did not occur. Brother support @ Tier 1 quickly shot me up to Tier 2 and was very helpful. Together, we quickly discerned that I would need a new part to start a trial and error process. Part arrived the next morning at 10am with a Pitney Bowes Tech arriving shortly after. Tech removed the "fuser" to replace with the new one that had been shipped to my doorstep overnight. Upon inspection of the fuser, we found that it had a broken piece that was most likely causing the creased paper issue.
Sure enough, I am 10 days into the replacement part and the issue has been successfully resolved. I am delighted at the simple, quick and friendly response that I received!
I was initially apprehensive based on website chatter and forum posts that had lead me to believe I was going to have to send the machine back. No need. In fact, the Pitney Bowes Tech was exceptionally knowledgeable and has been with that company for 32 years. Unbelievable!
He and his group maintain that the Brother Machines are, in their expereince, the most reliable on the market in this price range.
My experience to date leads me to believe that there is nothing better out the there without paying thousands more.
I intend to post a follow-up to this.
Expertise: Advanced Amateur
Use: Home Office (Business Use)
Brother products owned: 4
2 of 2 found this review helpful.
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Review 10 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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Disappointed
Date:April 5, 2011
By Ellie
from Idaho
After careful research of all available products in our price range this machine seemed to fit our needs.
Wrong decision. I love my Brother printers - cheap, fast, dependable. This MFC is slow to warm up, gives a "no paper" signal when paper is still in tray (although low), and the color reproduction as to be adjusted every single time we print from Quark or Pagemaker, and even then the colors are not as they should be.
On the plus side, B&W prints are clear and very fine and cost per piece is excellent.
We purchased it mostly for color printing/copying and would not recommend to anyone for that purpose. Unfortunately as a small nonprofit, we don't have the funds to buy a replacement machine and are stuck.
Final note: we brought IT folks in from a research center and they had no success figuring out how to setup the wireless connection with one of our Apple computers, our other Apple is connected by hardwire. The PCs all connected effortlessly when these experts arrived.
We have only three staff members and don't have the time to go through the hoops with Brother support to try to get it all straightened out. We bought it because it was presented as basically a machine anyone could network and get to perform as advertised. As I said: Disappointed
Disappointed.
Wrong decision. I love my Brother printers - cheap, fast, dependable. This MFC is slow to warm up, gives a "no paper" signal when paper is still in tray (although low), and the color reproduction as to be adjusted every single time we print from Quark or Pagemaker, and even then the colors are not as they should be.
On the plus side, B&W prints are clear and very fine and cost per piece is excellent.
We purchased it mostly for color printing/copying and would not recommend to anyone for that purpose. Unfortunately as a small nonprofit, we don't have the funds to buy a replacement machine and are stuck.
Final note: we brought IT folks in from a research center and they had no success figuring out how to setup the wireless connection with one of our Apple computers, our other Apple is connected by hardwire. The PCs all connected effortlessly when these experts arrived.
We have only three staff members and don't have the time to go through the hoops with Brother support to try to get it all straightened out. We bought it because it was presented as basically a machine anyone could network and get to perform as advertised. As I said: Disappointed
Disappointed.
Expertise: Advanced Amateur
Use: Small Business (Up to 25 Employees)
Brother products owned: 3
1 of 1 found this review helpful.
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Review 11 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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Very Sound Machine
Date:May 1, 2010
By My2Cents
from Warminster, PA
I had been looking for a color laser PFCS machine for some time but was disappointed by the poor reviews most of the brands were receiving. I noticed the Brother reviews were on average one star better than the other makes so I took a look at the MFC-9840CDW in more detail and decided to buy it (on line from Newegg).
It is a large heavy machine (Brother recommends it is carried by two persons) but is is manageable by one person.
The appearance and quality are outstanding and setting up is easy through the software provided and the local panel. The web interface is excellent and enables change of settings and access to status information from any networked PC (settings are password protected).
I installed the software suite on one client PC and the printer drivers on all machines. I can scan from the machine control pad to a network folder so installing the software suite is not necessary.
The machine is silent in standby mode and noise level is acceptable when operating.
We've had the machine about six months now and it has worked flawlessly during the whole period (I've just checked the maintenance page through the web interface while writing this review and the jam count from all feed mechanisms is zero). Print quality has been consistently good throughout.
We're currently not using the fax functionality.
Overall I'm extremely pleased with the Brother MFC-9840CDW and would highly recommend it.
Expertise: Professional or Expert
Use: Home Office (Business Use)
Brother products owned: 3
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Review 12 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
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out of
5
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This loyal customer was disappointed
Date:April 2, 2011
By Drymar
from North-central Pennsylvania
The color quality is terrible. I replaced the drum early on to try to cure it, but no joy. Have replaced toner way too often. Sensor system is designed to waste toner and force replacement of consumables.
I chose this model because it promised ease of toner replacement and because it duplexes. And those attributes are present. I did not realize how much practice I would get, replacing toner.
Previous color laser printers by another maker with a hyphenated name cost far less and produced magazine-quality prints. They did not duplex.
I have four Brother multi-function printers in my office. The MFC-8820D is still working after many years and many cases of paper, still handling paper beautifully. The two inkjets are doing well too. The MFC-6490CW's ability to scan and copy and print in wide format is marvelous. But the MFC-9840CDW should be replaced by Brother whenever a consumer has received one of the many duds it appears have been sold to us. As a consultant, I could not possibly recommend that a client take a chance on this. As an owner whose business does a lot of color printing, including photos and short-run books and publications, I can't trust this machine to produce good quality, and find the costs of consumables prohibitive.
What good is superior paper handling (but not envelopes!) when the print quality is poor?
I still stand by the quality of Brother sewing machines, though! My two have never let me down.
Expertise: Professional or Expert
Use: Home Office (Business Use)
Brother products owned: More than 5
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Review 13 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
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out of
5
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Date:April 6, 2011
By BobS
I have been disappointed in the color quality when copying. Under default settings its muddy. When calling support they were not helpful. It was not until I sent them a sample that they acknowledge there was a problem. I had to set it to extreme settings to get copies that were barely acceptable. I still think the machine was out of specs. They would not send out a service person to check it out,
I also have not been able to get what I would call a vivid print. There is not much difference between regular and vivid. I think this is also a machine problem as every once in a long while it would print a vivid copy.
I basically like the machine and would rate it 4 stars if I did not have what I consider very poor experience with your tech support and customer service.
2 of 2 found this review helpful.
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Review 14 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
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out of
5
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Don't Try This At Home - Great Product
Date:April 2, 2011
By baysidemk
from Bayside, NY
Color multi-function lasers with duplex and networking are a rare breed and a tough product to get right. The same goes for their inkjet brethren, because they try to do so much and it's really hard to get the user interface (on the unit itself and on the client computers) right.
This unit is a big improvement over the ones I'd owned in the past from Canon (a laser) and HP (an inkjet). It has a very usable set of controls and shortcuts on the unit itself for scanning, faxing and emailing documents, as well as scanning directly to a server file folder.
Like most of these units, the more complicated functions like setting up phone books and setting the preferences are best done using the included browser interface and working from your computer. Trying to do this stuff using the buttons on the unit is like building a ship in a bottle. The unit is reasonably compact, looking like a beefy laser, rather than a refrigerator.
The hardware has performed well, very few problems with jams in paper trays or document feeder, which was the downfall of the Canon and HP models I tried. I've had trouble getting the unit to handle non-standard paper sizes. The interface/controls for this seem really difficult and don't act in a predictable/intuitive fashion.
All in all, a great option in a product space that does not have lots of great options.
Expertise: Professional or Expert
Use: Home Office (Business Use)
Brother products owned: 4
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Review 15 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
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out of
5
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Great Printer with one major flaw
Date:April 6, 2011
By Absolute
from Texas
I have had this printer to about 5 years. The print quality and speed are exceptional. The consumable cost is reasonable. The mechanism is very good. I use it to print mailings and the tray accommodates and feeds envelopes very well.
I have had very few problems with the unit.
I do however have two negative comments - one minor and one major.
Minor:
The output tray is not that well designed. If you print larger runs the output stack is a mess. Even using the little tab does not really help. The brand I had before this had a steeper receiving tray which worked better. But overall this is a very minor complaint and causes no real problems.
The output tray is not that well designed. If you print larger runs the output stack is a mess. Even using the little tab does not really help. The brand I had before this had a steeper receiving tray which worked better. But overall this is a very minor complaint and causes no real problems.
Major:
I discovered via some online research about 3 years into owning this unit that it calls for toner replacement (by calls for I mean it turns off and forces replacement of toner or reseting of counter) when your cartridges are somewhere between 40 and 60 percent full. This probably cost me 2 - 3 K over that time consumables.
I discovered via some online research about 3 years into owning this unit that it calls for toner replacement (by calls for I mean it turns off and forces replacement of toner or reseting of counter) when your cartridges are somewhere between 40 and 60 percent full. This probably cost me 2 - 3 K over that time consumables.
There is a way to work around this that I will not get into here. Since learning this method I am getting a significant higher number of copies from my toners without losing print quality.
I find this practice (which I can only believe is intentional) to be almost criminal. I buy onlly OEM products for quality. Buying toner is part of the deal. But the this is ridiculous. While the work around I mentioned does allow me to get the actual full life out of the toners, it does not allow me to know when I am running low, other than seeing the print quality degrade.
They should be able to manage this monitoring better. Causing consumers to throw away toner cartridges that are still half full is stupid, bad for the environment and poor quality in every way.
This may be a Brother issue on more models than this unit. It is too bad, because in almost every other way this is a absolutely great printer.
Expertise: Advanced Amateur
Use: Home Office (Business Use)
Brother products owned: 1
3 of 4 found this review helpful.
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Review 16 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
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out of
5
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Mixed Function Quality
Date:May 1, 2010
By Tried
from Orange Park, Fl
This machine is one of the best scanners and fax machines that I have ever used.. fast and efficient. The automatic document feeder is very reliable. The "booklet" feature is awesome.
However, as a printer, it leaves much to be desired. Color print quality is poor even after changing the default setting that saves toner. The machine takes too long to warm up to print, takes to long to print and is quite noisy. The machine gives off a lot of heat. Duplexing works well but is slow.
Black and white printing is acceptable quality. Color printing is not. I tried several things to improve color print quanity. I changed the print settings and purchased 24 pound paper. It made some improvement but overall color printing is unacceptable.
Expertise: Professional or Expert
Use: Small Business (Up to 25 Employees)
Brother products owned: 1
2 of 2 found this review helpful.
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Review 17 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
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out of
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Very Good, Not Perfect
Date:May 28, 2011
By TaiChi
from California Bay Area
I love having a color laser MP printer. This was a great value for the money. Of course, the cost of expendables adds up.
The one complaint I have is that the Brother toner cartridges have a bad habit of leaking blotches of toner on the output print when they get close to their end of life. I'm too cheap the jettison them early, so I put up with the blotches.
The one complaint I have is that the Brother toner cartridges have a bad habit of leaking blotches of toner on the output print when they get close to their end of life. I'm too cheap the jettison them early, so I put up with the blotches.
Expertise: Advanced Amateur
Use: Home (Personal Use)
Brother products owned: 3
2 of 2 found this review helpful.
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Review 18 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
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out of
5
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Very disappointed
Date:May 16, 2011
By RichardS
from Miami Beach, Fl
Despite good reviews this machine and Brothers has sadly not come through. The features are great, the duplexing works very well and except for envelopes which come out a bit wrinkled, the paper handling has been pretty trouble free. Unfortunately, the color printing/copying has been abysmal from the start. We have only purchased Brother cartridges, had several authorized repairmen come and called and wrote Brothers numerous time but no help by phone and no response to letters. Finally one repair man suggested HP or Lexmark.
Despite good reviews this machine and Brothers has sadly not come through. The features are great, the duplexing works very well and except for envelopes which come out a bit wrinkled, the paper handling has been pretty trouble free. Unfortunately, the color printing/copying has been abysmal from the start. We have only purchased Brother cartridges, had several authorized repairmen come and called and wrote Brothers numerous time but no help by phone and no response to letters. Perhaps it was a fluke or a "lemon" but finally one repair man suggested we dump this unit and purchase an HP or Lexmark. There goes $700 down the drain.
Expertise: Advanced Amateur
Use: Home Office (Business Use)
Brother products owned: 2
1 of 1 found this review helpful.
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Review 19 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
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out of
5
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A good color laser printer, but could be better!
Date:April 4, 2011
By clwrocks
While I like this printer there are many details that could be made better. It takes a while to warm up and since I am a home user I do not use it as frequently as an office user so when I need to print something and go this is inconvenient. The color print quality could also be better.
I have an issue with the way that Brother handles the toner cartridge when it is suppose to be empty. It is based on the number of uses and not of the fact that the cartridge is actually empty. There are ways around this which are posted elsewhere but I just wish they were more honest in their approach with an empty toner cartridge, it shows the integrity of a company.
I have had some problem when using Windows 7 with the printer being offline. I just checked my status monitor and it is offline right now. It may be attributable to a firewall but I don't think so as I have had the same security software for a while and the problem has been intermittent for a couple months now. Yes I have called tech support but still have the issue.
For the most part it has been reliable and that is appreciated. If they could work on some of the details this would be a great product.
Expertise: Advanced Amateur
Use: Home (Personal Use)
1 of 1 found this review helpful.
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Review 20 for MFC-9840CDW
Overall Rating:
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out of
5
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Best Printer for me yet
Date:April 13, 2011
By jdtz
from Mississippi
After suffering for some time with top-of-the-line inkjet printers from the major company, including supply costs and most of all crashes with large print jobs (forcing me to restart at an uncertain state), I paid the extra amount for the color laser MFC-9840CDW. I have never suffered any crashes with even longer print jobs and never have had a software problem. My only complaint resides with the supply costs. Perhaps, because printing is so easy, I use it rather extensively. I recently reacted to the Brother suggestion of using black and white as the default. It really helps since I was needlessly using color all of the time, even when not essential.
I wish there were a better way of determining the actual toner usage besides counting pages or allowing me to make adjustments, accepting a gradual decline in quality. Further, if a color toner is out, it still will not print - even if that color is not important in the print. However, using B/W as the default has really helped this problem. Relative to service, I have found Brother service to be quicker and better quality than from the competition ( a pleasant surprise).
I wish there were a better way of determining the actual toner usage besides counting pages or allowing me to make adjustments, accepting a gradual decline in quality. Further, if a color toner is out, it still will not print - even if that color is not important in the print. However, using B/W as the default has really helped this problem. Relative to service, I have found Brother service to be quicker and better quality than from the competition ( a pleasant surprise).
Expertise: Advanced Amateur
Use: Home Office (Business Use)
Brother products owned: 1
2 of 3 found this review helpful.
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