Great Copy Machine!

Just so you know, Xerox makes the Sharp Copier. In fact, the Sharp copiers are the same as the Xerox Work Center copiers and they also use the same mechanical innards, toner and drum. Xerox is a big company that has been around for years and their products are very reliable. We originally had a Xerox Work Center copier which lasted us for about 5 years. During that time, it had to be repaired twice, but this was due more to employee abuse than a fault with the machine. 2 weeks ago, ours broke down and I went out to look for a replacement. On the market, you only have 3 choices: Brother, Canon and Sharp. I don't know much about Brother except that they make excellent printers and typewriters. As for copiers, time will have to tell. I was going to get Canon, but they are priced to high. Then I went to Office Depot and saw the Sharp copiers they had. The salesman confirmed that Xerox makes Sharp copiers and with that, I was sold. We bought the copier on 5/5/05 (Cinco de Mayo)and are thrilled with it.
The AL-1631 model is a no frills copier. It is not one of those 3 into 1 models (copier, scanner, fax) that hook up to a computer. It's just a copier, period. Set up is a breeze. Just remove the pieces of tape from around the copier, install the toner , twist the dial to UNLOCK the scan head(This is important to do), insert paper and you are ready to make copies! The interface is very simple and reading the instruction manual is not necessary. With this machine, you can enlarge/shrink, set contrast to dark/light, set the number of copies to make, etc. But, what I find really innovative is that you can set whether or not to have Auto-Off on or off or set the time period that it is supposed to be on. Let me explain. The majority of copiers need about 8 - 10 seconds to warm before it can make that first copy. Then after about 1 minute of non-use, it goes into an Auto-Off power saving mode whereby, if you want to make another copy, the machine has to take a few seconds to warm up. With this copier, you can set this power saving feature to off so that there is no warm up time. Just press the button and the copy comes out quick. However, don't be tempted to turn this power saving saving mode off completely because 1)you will waste electricity and 2) when constantly on, the scan head filament is also on, but in a lower temperature mode. This is so there is no warm up time. But, with it constantly being on, this filament will burn out quicker and you will have to replace/fix your machine sooner. Instead, set the Auto-Off power saving mode to activate after 30 minutes (You can also set this value to!). So, how are the copies? They are crisp and clean. You do get about 15 pages per minutes to, so the statements on the box do not lie. All around, it is a great copier. It does legal copies as well and takes up to 250 sheets of paper in the paper tray. I would highly recommend this unit. To note, if you buy this machine at Office Depot,Office Max or Quills make sure to get a product replacement extended warranty. It is worth it, because if your machine fails, they will give you back the purchase price of the machine so you can get a new one.
To summarize: great machine, no frills, easy to set up and use, you can modify some copier settings to fit your use, Xerox makes Sharp. This one is a winner. Get it.