Brother MFC-3240C All-In-One InkJet Printer
- Black Print Speed: 20 ppm
- Color Print Speed: 15 ppm
- Output Type: Color Printer
- Technology (Detailed): Inkjet
- Printer Type: All-In-One Printer
- All-in-One Functions: Copier Fax Machine Scanner
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Brother MFC-3240C-Does MFC stand for Magnificently Flagrant Crap?
Pros
Cheap as dirt, great features
Cons
It's gonna break. There's no way around it.
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
It seems too good to be true and it is. They aren't reliable.
Why I picked the 3240C
Let's face it. The Fax machine is 1980's technology. With the advent of email, the PDF and scanners selling a dime a dozen, there really isn't a good reason for anyone on the planet to own a fax. Yet, they are still a staple of our technology impaired business world. Thus a few months after starting my business I was forced to take a step back twenty years.
This in mind, I returned to the twentieth century under protest. The only reason that it took me three months to get a fax machine was that I was too busy complaining. When I saw the Brother 3240C on sale for $45 I figured that I might as well stop waiting for the world to catch up and just get one. Call me cheap if you want. I call it a refusal to pay a large amount for a stopgap piece of technology from my teens.
Features
Brother claims that MFC stands for Multi-Function Copier. The machine is essentially a sheet feed scanner, copier, printer and fax machine all in one unit. It operates with or without a computer (although you will likely find the scanner and printer features a bit difficult without a computer).
Scanner
As mentioned the scanner is a sheet feed. It feeds reliably and smoothly. I haven't had any issues with the scanner pulling more than one page at a time or skewing the pages by feeding them unevenly. Most importantly the pages haven't stuck or jammed creating any lines or spaces in the scanned images.
Resolution is up to 2400x2400 dpi. This should be more than enough resolution for most users since Windows XP only supports 1200x1200 dpi. Scanning time is reasonable as well. My results varied between 5 and 15 seconds per page for color scans.
A flat bed scanner is a bit more flexible for use than the sheet feed that is included on the 3240C. Pages smaller than 3x5 inches simply won't work in the sheet feeder. It also won't scan thick or irregularly shaped items. On the plus side it is a nice feature for scanning multiple pages as it will easily hold twenty or more sheets and feed them through in succession. Brother claims up to 99 sheets will fit, I haven't tried that many.
Copier
Copying is pretty simple. You put the page or pages you'd like to copy on the sheet feeder and press the color or black and white copy button. Copies are pretty fast and reasonably high quality.
Copying speed is not bad either at about 10 pages a minute for black and white and 4 pages for color. Brother claims a max speeds of 17 and 10 for copying, but that is quite a bit higher than the averages that I observed.
Other functions include the ability to grayscale a color copy in order to turn it into a more legible black and white copy. You can also enlarge or reduce a copy in 1% increments from 25% to 400% of original size.
Printer
The printer offers a number of options for printing on various paper types at a number of resolutions. In the lower quality modes the printer operates at a fair speed and the output is legible. There are a couple of photo quality modes for glossy paper. These are agonizingly slow at about 3 to 5 minutes a page. The output is excellent on either setting. I generally used the faster of the two resolutions as the difference was minimal and I hate to wait.
In black and white mode, the printing speed approaches 11 pages a minute (Brother claims 20). For color in draft modes I observed about 4 pages a minute (Brother claims 15 here, that's a whopper).
The paper tray holds up to 100 sheets of paper, enough for most uses. Oddly, the output sheet tray only holds 50 sheets though. It doesn't take a math degree to realize there is a potential for problems here.
Maximum print resolution is 1200X6000 dpi. The 3240 is capable of borderless printing on sheets up to A4 sized.
Fax
The fax is certainly the most confounding of the functions. (This is 1980 technology remember). There are a large number of setup options, the most confusing of which are probably those affecting how the phone is answered. In order to set up the fax to work on a regular phone line with an answering machine, the answering machine must be plugged directly into the fax.
The fax can be set to answer after zero to four rings. Theoretically, the fax will be able to differentiate incoming fax calls from voice calls. I have yet to see this actually work properly. I did however manage to get it to stop picking up the voice calls and to allow the answering machine to pick up.
Outgoing faxes are pretty simple. Put the fax in the output page. Dial the number. Press color of black and white. Yes, the 3240 sends color faxes (but only to color fax machines, duh).
Fax modem speed is 33.6 on the 3240C. There are three resolution modes for the fax ranging from standard to superfine. The actual stats on these are Standard – 98 lines to the inch, Fine – 196 lines to the inch and Superfine – 392 lines to the inch.
Fax broadcasting can be set up for up to 100 numbers. Please don't use this function, the only thing worse than a fax is a spam fax. The 3240 has 10 one touch dial numbers and 100 speed dial numbers available in storage.
Ink usage and prices
I've found a number of complaints about the ink usage on this particular model. The issue in question is that the printer cleans itself a couple of times daily. While the obvious reason for this function is that the inkjet head would become clogged, a number of complainants are of the belief that this function exists solely to use up ink.
Frankly, I didn't care since I generally refill my own cartridges. Instead of spending the going rate of $20 to $25 a pop to replace each of the four cartridges in the 3240, I can refill them with quality ink for about $4. It's hard to justify paying $100 to replace the ink cartridges on a $50 printer.
Further, the top problem that I've had with inkjet printers in the past is that the head get clogged from lack of use. One that cleans itself even when I'm not using it sounds like a good idea.
My experience has been that the 3240 doesn't really use that much ink. I suppose if you didn't use the printer for a long time that you might find that the cleaning process did use a surprising amount of ink. However, I cannot imagine that the printer could empty all four rather large cartridges of ink in less than a year without creating a huge mess. It isn't as if there's an ink incinerator in there and it has to go somewhere, right?
Impressions
I've been very happy with the print quality of the 3420C. The warranty is an issue though. I found that my unit was refurbished. This was not clearly indicated on the box or the price of the unit. Nor, should it have been a problem save for the fact that Brother doesn't offer a warranty on their refurbished machines. The regular machines have a one year warranty.
Something to consider with this printer is the large number of refurbished 3240C's on the market. Obviously there is something wrong with the design that Brother has so many of these being returned and placed on the market as refurbished.
Mine failed after about 6 months. The problem is a clogged print head. Now, I know what you're thinking—It's that crap ink you used instead of buying new cartridges, Scott. Maybe, but I don't think so. I refilled the red ink several times before the print head partially clogged. The other three colors still print just fine and I've refilled all of them as well.
Repairing the machine would cost significantly more than buying a new fax. Brother doesn't warranty this piece of junk so I'm stuck spending more money to stay in the twentieth century.
Dull Stats
The Brother is fairly compact as all-in-one fax printers go. The approximate measurements of the unit are 14 inches wide, 12 inches deep and 8 inches high.
Connection is via USB 2.0 port. Drivers do need to be installed to run the 3240C from a computer. Brother includes both Windows and Mac drivers with the unit.
The 3240C does not have a handset.
Memory is 8 MB (approximately 200 fax pages).
Parting Thoughts
Magnificently Flagrant Crap may be a little extreme for how I feel about this piece of equipment. Certainly if I had paid more money for it I would be upset. However, at $45 this is a pretty full feature machine. Had it lasted more than a year, it might have been a decent deal.
As it is, my feeling is that the 3240C is pretty much junk. Yes, its feature filled. It has a great scanner, sends a fax and prints pretty well. But this is a piece of business equipment and it needs to be reliable. Judging by the number of refurbished 3240's that I've seen on the market, they are anything but reliable. Let's keep them out of the landfills by not buying them.
Let's face it. The Fax machine is 1980's technology. With the advent of email, the PDF and scanners selling a dime a dozen, there really isn't a good reason for anyone on the planet to own a fax. Yet, they are still a staple of our technology impaired business world. Thus a few months after starting my business I was forced to take a step back twenty years.
This in mind, I returned to the twentieth century under protest. The only reason that it took me three months to get a fax machine was that I was too busy complaining. When I saw the Brother 3240C on sale for $45 I figured that I might as well stop waiting for the world to catch up and just get one. Call me cheap if you want. I call it a refusal to pay a large amount for a stopgap piece of technology from my teens.
Features
Brother claims that MFC stands for Multi-Function Copier. The machine is essentially a sheet feed scanner, copier, printer and fax machine all in one unit. It operates with or without a computer (although you will likely find the scanner and printer features a bit difficult without a computer).
Scanner
As mentioned the scanner is a sheet feed. It feeds reliably and smoothly. I haven't had any issues with the scanner pulling more than one page at a time or skewing the pages by feeding them unevenly. Most importantly the pages haven't stuck or jammed creating any lines or spaces in the scanned images.
Resolution is up to 2400x2400 dpi. This should be more than enough resolution for most users since Windows XP only supports 1200x1200 dpi. Scanning time is reasonable as well. My results varied between 5 and 15 seconds per page for color scans.
A flat bed scanner is a bit more flexible for use than the sheet feed that is included on the 3240C. Pages smaller than 3x5 inches simply won't work in the sheet feeder. It also won't scan thick or irregularly shaped items. On the plus side it is a nice feature for scanning multiple pages as it will easily hold twenty or more sheets and feed them through in succession. Brother claims up to 99 sheets will fit, I haven't tried that many.
Copier
Copying is pretty simple. You put the page or pages you'd like to copy on the sheet feeder and press the color or black and white copy button. Copies are pretty fast and reasonably high quality.
Copying speed is not bad either at about 10 pages a minute for black and white and 4 pages for color. Brother claims a max speeds of 17 and 10 for copying, but that is quite a bit higher than the averages that I observed.
Other functions include the ability to grayscale a color copy in order to turn it into a more legible black and white copy. You can also enlarge or reduce a copy in 1% increments from 25% to 400% of original size.
Printer
The printer offers a number of options for printing on various paper types at a number of resolutions. In the lower quality modes the printer operates at a fair speed and the output is legible. There are a couple of photo quality modes for glossy paper. These are agonizingly slow at about 3 to 5 minutes a page. The output is excellent on either setting. I generally used the faster of the two resolutions as the difference was minimal and I hate to wait.
In black and white mode, the printing speed approaches 11 pages a minute (Brother claims 20). For color in draft modes I observed about 4 pages a minute (Brother claims 15 here, that's a whopper).
The paper tray holds up to 100 sheets of paper, enough for most uses. Oddly, the output sheet tray only holds 50 sheets though. It doesn't take a math degree to realize there is a potential for problems here.
Maximum print resolution is 1200X6000 dpi. The 3240 is capable of borderless printing on sheets up to A4 sized.
Fax
The fax is certainly the most confounding of the functions. (This is 1980 technology remember). There are a large number of setup options, the most confusing of which are probably those affecting how the phone is answered. In order to set up the fax to work on a regular phone line with an answering machine, the answering machine must be plugged directly into the fax.
The fax can be set to answer after zero to four rings. Theoretically, the fax will be able to differentiate incoming fax calls from voice calls. I have yet to see this actually work properly. I did however manage to get it to stop picking up the voice calls and to allow the answering machine to pick up.
Outgoing faxes are pretty simple. Put the fax in the output page. Dial the number. Press color of black and white. Yes, the 3240 sends color faxes (but only to color fax machines, duh).
Fax modem speed is 33.6 on the 3240C. There are three resolution modes for the fax ranging from standard to superfine. The actual stats on these are Standard – 98 lines to the inch, Fine – 196 lines to the inch and Superfine – 392 lines to the inch.
Fax broadcasting can be set up for up to 100 numbers. Please don't use this function, the only thing worse than a fax is a spam fax. The 3240 has 10 one touch dial numbers and 100 speed dial numbers available in storage.
Ink usage and prices
I've found a number of complaints about the ink usage on this particular model. The issue in question is that the printer cleans itself a couple of times daily. While the obvious reason for this function is that the inkjet head would become clogged, a number of complainants are of the belief that this function exists solely to use up ink.
Frankly, I didn't care since I generally refill my own cartridges. Instead of spending the going rate of $20 to $25 a pop to replace each of the four cartridges in the 3240, I can refill them with quality ink for about $4. It's hard to justify paying $100 to replace the ink cartridges on a $50 printer.
Further, the top problem that I've had with inkjet printers in the past is that the head get clogged from lack of use. One that cleans itself even when I'm not using it sounds like a good idea.
My experience has been that the 3240 doesn't really use that much ink. I suppose if you didn't use the printer for a long time that you might find that the cleaning process did use a surprising amount of ink. However, I cannot imagine that the printer could empty all four rather large cartridges of ink in less than a year without creating a huge mess. It isn't as if there's an ink incinerator in there and it has to go somewhere, right?
Impressions
I've been very happy with the print quality of the 3420C. The warranty is an issue though. I found that my unit was refurbished. This was not clearly indicated on the box or the price of the unit. Nor, should it have been a problem save for the fact that Brother doesn't offer a warranty on their refurbished machines. The regular machines have a one year warranty.
Something to consider with this printer is the large number of refurbished 3240C's on the market. Obviously there is something wrong with the design that Brother has so many of these being returned and placed on the market as refurbished.
Mine failed after about 6 months. The problem is a clogged print head. Now, I know what you're thinking—It's that crap ink you used instead of buying new cartridges, Scott. Maybe, but I don't think so. I refilled the red ink several times before the print head partially clogged. The other three colors still print just fine and I've refilled all of them as well.
Repairing the machine would cost significantly more than buying a new fax. Brother doesn't warranty this piece of junk so I'm stuck spending more money to stay in the twentieth century.
Dull Stats
The Brother is fairly compact as all-in-one fax printers go. The approximate measurements of the unit are 14 inches wide, 12 inches deep and 8 inches high.
Connection is via USB 2.0 port. Drivers do need to be installed to run the 3240C from a computer. Brother includes both Windows and Mac drivers with the unit.
The 3240C does not have a handset.
Memory is 8 MB (approximately 200 fax pages).
Parting Thoughts
Magnificently Flagrant Crap may be a little extreme for how I feel about this piece of equipment. Certainly if I had paid more money for it I would be upset. However, at $45 this is a pretty full feature machine. Had it lasted more than a year, it might have been a decent deal.
As it is, my feeling is that the 3240C is pretty much junk. Yes, its feature filled. It has a great scanner, sends a fax and prints pretty well. But this is a piece of business equipment and it needs to be reliable. Judging by the number of refurbished 3240's that I've seen on the market, they are anything but reliable. Let's keep them out of the landfills by not buying them.
