Review: Brother MFC-9840CDW Multi-Function Color Laser Printer / Scanner / Copier / Fax
Ok, I’m about to go on and on about how much I love the Brother MFC-9840CDW Color Laser Multifunction Center with Wireless Interface and Duplex
, but before this turns into a giant love fest, let’s start with the bad news. Software installation is a bit of a nightmare.
Software Installation
I installed the printer to work on three different Windows machines and one MacBook laptop. The MacBook installation went best, but not without issues. However, the Windows installations were all three a nightmare.
On two laptops the installation completed successfully and during the setup I was able to see the printer and select it. The problem is, even though the software can easily and routinely find the printer… it could never connect to it using the printer name. I had to go in and manually configure the printer port to use the printer’s IP address. This was the case regardless of if I used the wired Ethernet or WiFi to connect the printer to the network.
On the desktop Windows machine, the install failed mid-way through and gave a cryptic error message that was less than helpful. I had to fully uninstall the software, and then I had to use an almost unnoticeable setting in the install CD to “repair” the installation. It at least allowed me to get the software installed, though I still had to make the manual modifications to the settings.
By the time I had wasted about 3 hours on the machine I was able to use all of the printer and scanner functionality except one thing. The machine has a “Scan to…” function which allows you to walk up to it, put in a document, and from the menu on the printer choose to scan the document and send it to one of your configured computers. I was able to get this to work on the Mac with no problem, but could not make it work on any of the Windows machines no matter what I tried.
If I compare this software installation process to the Canon multi-function printer’s software, I’d give this one a “D-“. It works… kind of. And only if you are a power user who is really good at solving networking problems.
Hardware Installation
Ok. Things start getting better here. With the exception of the fact that this printer is about 80 pounds, physically setting it up is actually pretty easy. You unbox it, put it where you want, and plug it in for power, and optionally ethernet or USB. Personally, I recommend the Ethernet route over the wireless, because wireless configuration can be a tad finicky at times.
Adding the toner cartridges is as simple, or more, than other color lasers. Open the front door, slide the tray out and insert the various color. You’re done! The only bad news is, the cartridges that come with it don’t seem to last very long. Either that, or I was doing a lot more printing than I thought I was doing!
Print Speed
You know, they claim that this printer can do 21ppm in either color or black and white. Guess what. They aren’t lying! I kid you not, this sucker is so fast you can print hundreds of pages in minutes! I LOVE it! Now, if you try and print them two sided, it will really slow things down because of the changing mechanism.
But then again, if you had to print a lot of two sided printouts of the same thing you could always feed the paper through on side one first, then on side two for a second pass.
Print Quality
The black and white text is fantastic. And in general, color printing is quite good. However, this laser doesn’t seem up to the task of printing realistic photo quality prints. I’m not complaining because I’ve never seen a color laser printer print a photo I like. Inkjets are far better at this task, or if you really want to do it right, get a dye sublimation printer like a Xerox Phaser
. Solid wax printing is truly amazing!
Scanning
One thing that I really love about this machine is that it makes a great scanner. Everyone in the household can share it because it works right through the wired or wireless network. It has an auto page feeder, and will scan stacks of documents that are either one sided or two sided. It’s quite fast, and the scan quality is excellent!
Copying
Yes. It makes copies. Black and white, color, whatever! It will do them one sided or two. And it will enlarge or reduce things if you want it to as well.
Faxing
Faxing? Um. This is 2009. I don’t do faxes. But I’m sure it works. You can probably use it for that right after you answer your pager.
Summary
Yes, you should buy this machine! If you can in any way afford it, it will spoil you rotten and you won’t want another machine for years! That is all. Buy it. Now.
What are you waiting for?…
One email per post. Twenty years of this, still going. Unsubscribe whenever.
How do I configure fax forward to e-mail on the MFC 9840 CDW? Brother’s support on this is a major joke. I had it set up and called Brother for another (Wireless) problem and they changed some settings and now it does not send to email any more.
I have spend about 8 hours this week on this. 6 on hold with brother. They are smoking good stuff in Memphis and no one knows anything but to jerk you around.
I just got put on hold by Latrice because after explaining to her the whole situation she told me she was a Windows supervisor.
Can anyone help me?
Thanks
Ron
One thing about the MFC-9840CDW that sucks compared to say the MFC-8880DN is the lack of a CIFS client meaning there is no scan to network storage (other than FTP).
Ewing,
I am not aware of the device having this automated functionality. However, someone could print it then scan and email it to you. There are also online fax services that do this for you which may be much more economical than purchasing this device if faxing is your primary concern.
Cheers,
John P
I have been watching this printer with alot of interest – Brother printers seem to work very well and i am very happy with my B/W printer – But i need to be able to receive faxes once in a while – and i have a question…..
Can it receive a fax then turn around and email it an account?? This would be VERY useful as i am on the road All the time.
thanks for any info..
EJ
I can not get the paper feeder to work when I scan, it always default to the glass to scan. How do I make the tray feeder the default it says the feeder is ready but scan the glass, please help, thanks
I’ve been fighting my printer for days. Then I looked up your report and saw the notice to change the Printer name to the IP address. That did it! Thanks John! I was this close to sending the printer back and giving up on having a color laser. (up till now I’d been using a Lexmark z12).
My advice to anyone considering this printer is don’t buy it!
I bought two after reading great reviews on Cnet (just shows what they know!) andit was the worst buying decision I ever made :(
They print poor quality images (fuzzy round the edges) which is a huge no no for a real estate agent’s needs!
They are slow.
They break like every other week.
Brother support sucks…
They use up toner like it’s going out of fashion (previously we had an HP and an Epson).
If I could get rid of them and replace them I would but Brother just wants to replace parts (after long fights) and they are less than a year old :(
Hope that helps?
Katie
I just bought this multipurpose about a month ago and I love it. I used to have a separate fax, scanner, printer, but this thing combined them all. I also bought something to make it print wirelessly from my notebook computer. Thumbs up from me.
Dude, I just installed this thing today, on WIFI and to my MacBook Pro and my wife’s old MacBook. Other than having to guess at which encryption algorithm (AES, btw) is used by the Airport Express, and having know what I was doing with the WPA2-PSK string to connect to the WIFI network, everything was golden. Installation on the MacBooks was a freakin snap and I was printing over WIFI within a half-hour of unboxing it.
There are 2 frustrations I have with it.
1) I had to find the stupid default admin user/password combination (admin/access) on someone’s blog via Google because it’s invisible in the documentation.
2) There are a massive number of configuration and setup options available over the thing’s built-in browser-based admin console (bet you didn’t even know it had one!) that aren’t explained in any detail that I can find, anywhere, in any of the damned doco. It even supports internet-based faxing, fax-by-email, scan-to setup, FTP scanning profiles… but there’s almost no info to be found on any of them.
Beyond those two issues (which aren’t so much a big deal, really) the thing is the single best deal, and single best printer, I’ve come across in a long time.
How come you required such a heavy duty printer? What printer did you previously have?
Hiya John – Congratulations on your new purchase, colour lazers are just the berries. Have you gone through a second set of cartridges yet? MY only gripe with my colour lazer exzperience is the cost of replacement cartridges, and the alarming frequency this occurs at. After two sets the purchase price of the printer has already been surpassed, and it happens far too quickly for my likin.
That is quite a big printing machine? HP makes some good and well trimmed ones.
Hi John, I really enjoyed your in-depth review. I am not too aware of Brother company printers, but have heard some good things about them. I have had an HP as well and it has served me well thus far. I will definitely check out Brother MFC-9840CDW when I plan on getting another printer because of your positive review.
I’ve had installation problems with Brother printers in the past, so I’ve stuck with HP. (I’m a PC user.) But maybe it’s time to give Brother a try again. It seems like they are getting their act together. Also, Brother’s prices are generally much better than HP.