Business Multi-Function Printers - The Frustration is Growing

I am the reluctant IT manager for a 100 employee, 30 PC user manufacturing company and a few years ago I had a nice, stable, working fleet of HP Officejet x476 multi-functions. They lasted for 2-3 years and were about $500-$750 to replace. Then they all started croaking together and when I bought replacements the replacements would quickly die.

Then I tried a Canon. It sucked and croaked with 6 months.

Then a couple of Dell C3765's one of which just expired after 12 months of service and both have had to be serviced.

Does anyone have a non-home office grade make and model they are happy with and that lasts for 3 years? Again - a specific model # is what would really help - not just a brand suggestion. Thanks for any feedback!

With that many users, can't you get quotes from an office products company to lease you machines that are guaranteed to work?  If it breaks, they fix or replace.  Make it somebody else's headache.

Gotta be worth considering.  Might even be cheaper than buying new machines every year or two.

If you were in Virginia, I'd point you to a place like this:

https://www.cobbtechnologies.com/

1988RedT2 said:

With that many users, can't you get quotes from an office products company to lease you machines that are guaranteed to work?  If it breaks, they fix or replace.

Gotta be worth considering.  Might even be cheaper than buying new machines every year or two.

Ditto this.  It's at least worth finding out what the answer is.  The folks we've got contracted are providing Xerox machines.

They will want to know what kind of page counts you're running on your current equipment.

At my office we have a Kyocera M6536cidn (there are many slight variations in the M65xx series) which has worked decently for about 5 years now, although it doesn't get used heavily. The other small MFPs are home-office grade.

We have a number of Konica Minolta "bizhub" series printer/scanners. Probably a dozen of them scattered among various offices.  The one I currently have drivers for is a 554e. The model numbers we have varies by age/when it was purchased, but they all seem to function the same.

Multiple drawers. 8.5 x 11 and 11 x 17 paper.

Not cheap, but each one of them will crank out hundreds of prints every day, day after day for months on end with minimal service.  Double sided. Color or B&W.  3-hole punch and staple capable.  

A function I use a ton is the scan-to-PDF which can send those files directly to our network or a thumb drive.  It can scan both sides of a page if necessary.

They are beasts and miss not having access to them when I'm not in the office.

You say you have a "fleet" of printers and dont really say how many.  My simplified advice would be like others suggested which is to get real "pro" equipment with a service contract.  I think I would summarize my intentions with the phrase "fewer but better".  

In reply to John Welsh :

Agreed.  Each bizhub we have serves about 100 people. Very few employees have their own printer and only for special purposes - like when someone needs to print on special paper.  And we have a service contract for them as well.

We have a Kyocera, not sure of the model#  last time I looked it's not sold anymore, that has been a champ for years.

If you're replacing them that often I'd also suggest leasing them. Making it not your problem for a group of printers, as they are arguably consistently the worst piece of computer technology, is worth it. 

I bought this one for the house:

Linky.

It is basically the same as the one we use at the office, which I think has been discontinued.  Price per page for toner is practically nothing.  Something like 4K pages for a bill worth of toner.  The one here in the office has been in use for more than 5 years.

I've had good experiences with Brother home MFPs. They even put out Linux driver packages.

GameboyRMH said:

At my office we have a Kyocera M6536cidn (there are many slight variations in the M65xx series) which has worked decently for about 5 years now, although it doesn't get used heavily. The other small MFPs are home-office grade.

I also support two Kyocera machines and they have been rock solid for @ 5 years.  For home I got a Brother MFC-7820N  like 13 years ago when my wife was working from home.  It also has not skipped a beat, but it does not get used a ton.  I would not hesitate to get a business class Brother.

In reply to John Welsh :

3 of the multi-functions are group printers shared by 3-10 users each. These machines are printing and scanning all day long with an occasional copy task.

4 more are dedicated to "special" people in their office - can't change that and have just learned to let it go. 3 of these machines print occasionally, scan even less.1 is printing and scanning constantly and deserves to be dedicated to that user.

Give "the special people" another residential grade machine of their own but also give them access to the Pro machine. See what they use the most. 

It sounds like you really do need a commercial grade unit.  Any of the $500-$600 units just aren't made for that sort of duty-cycle.  There are many options: Canon (commercial - not the home stuff you've been using), Minolta I previously mentioned, Ricoh, probably some others.  I'd go to their websites and look for the commercial link.  Then talk to sales people. Someone should actually come to your office, see first-hand what your usage is and recommend a printer that will do what you want, along with a service contract to maintain it.   From a financial POV, you may not even buy the printer. It may be better to lease it.  Then when the lease it up, you give it back and get the latest version or upgrade to a larger model if needed. 

Cut the right deal and they may provide and service all of your printers.  Removing at least some of the headache from you.

In reply to Sparkydog :

I’ve been out of the business for 6+ years now, but if you’re taking about desktop MFPs the answer is “no”. 

However, if you’re willing to deal with - and pay for - a service contract from your local office equipment dealer, you can transfer the problem to someone else for about $0.02 per-page(B&W) or less. Probably including leasing the equipment. 

Edit: What’s your printing volume, color vs. B&W if you print both? I can give you some specific models from a couple manufacturers. 

In reply to Ian F :

I was Konica Minolta trained at the last dealer I worked for. Though I was also been trained on Kyocera/Copystar, Canon, Ricoh, Xerox, HP & Brother over the years. Konica & Canon were definitely the best of them all, but the good ones are several grand each. 

In reply to Pete Gossett :

Group MFP1 (HP X476 survivor) Engine page count 35,508. B&W 6,759, Color 28,742

Group MFP2 (HP X476 survivor) Engine page count 87,975. B&W 24,268, Color 63,711

Special Person1 MFP (Dell S3845) page count 37,651 activation date 11/17

Special Person2 MFP (Dell C3765) total pages 33,507 B&W 30,359 activation date 3/17 (now malfunctioning)

I don't know how big an office we are talking.  Having to stretch your legs and walk to a centralized pro printer is not a bad thing for everybody in the office.  I ran a bunch of individual printers for years, but I had enough of it and switched.  Now everybody has to exercise and we will probably live longer.  

Consumer printer ink cost is a bad joke..  I can print 90% black ink pages without cringing now because its a monthly lease.  Ink is included in the cost.

I'm running two Brother MFC-J4420DW printers for my company. One for the admin assistant, one in my partners office. They have been flawless for 2 years. They replaced a couple of HP printers that were constantly having problems. I also have a super cheap Cannon at my desk. It has worked fine for the last year but I don't do a lot of printing.

Now if only I could get something like Quickbooks that actually worked all the time and didn't cost $25k. 

I would add, the Brothers are cheap enough you could have a couple of spares on hand for when one fails. 

Toyman01 said:

Now if only I could get something like Quickbooks that actually worked all the time and didn't cost $25k. 

This is the software equivalent of wishing for a cheap and reliable new Maserati BiTurbo

(Maybe try GnuCash? That's like trying to assemble your own BiTurbo-inspired car...)

Toyman01 said:

Now if only I could get something like Quickbooks that actually worked all the time and didn't cost $25k. 

Fair warning: I sell one as part of our small business suite. If you want to talk offline about it I can give you some details.

I take no as an answer pretty well.

Sparkydog said:

In reply to Pete Gossett :

Group MFP1 (HP X476 survivor) Engine page count 35,508. B&W 6,759, Color 28,742

Group MFP2 (HP X476 survivor) Engine page count 87,975. B&W 24,268, Color 63,711

Special Person1 MFP (Dell S3845) page count 37,651 activation date 11/17

Special Person2 MFP (Dell C3765) total pages 33,507 B&W 30,359 activation date 3/17 (now malfunctioning)

You’re color page count is crazy on those two HPs. Are they in the marketing department?

You really should partner with a local vendor given the volume you’re printing. I’m not familiar with your area, but I’d search out an independent dealer for any of these brands & get some quotes: Konica Minolta, Kyocera(or Copystar, same thing), Canon, Sharp or Ricoh. Explain the situation to them, they may take your 2 HPs and put them under contract, or suggest you lease/purchase new equipment. 

Feel free to PM me & I’d be happy to review whatever options & quotes the provide. Or I’ll share my # and we can talk. 

After the fifth or sixth replacement machine died (or failed to work at all right out of the box), I threw my last HP all in one machine in the dumpster while it was still under warranty. 

In reply to Floating Doc :

HP is basically garbage at this point, and has been for quite some time. More than once I had to tell a customer their printer needed replaced because HP didn’t offer the part that had broken or worn out. 

In reply to John Welsh :

Our office had the big unit with all the repair type contracts.  Our corporate office got rid of it and bought some little desktop unit.  

When we had an issue in the beginning the edgy salesman started ranting to call in the repair guy to look at it 

We told him we’re the repair guy now.   There is no more repair guy to come in to our office. He loved that.