Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I've used mine for 4 months of constant office use and it's been to the shop once. It provides a good value for the money (and desk space) but has some important and needless annoyances and limitations that simply reflect lack of care on the part of Brother. Too bad.
While the fax, scanning, copying, and printing functions don't offer cutting edge resolution/speed, all are generally adequate for normal small-office needs, in my estimation. While it lacks a color printing capability, this was a good tradeoff for the better speed and economy of a laser for my purposes. It's not a particularly economical laser (due to small drum unit) but still costs a lot less to run than an ink-jet. If you do more than occasional printing/copying, it will quickly make up its slightly higher initial price through lower consumables costs.
Controls are somewhat complex just because it does so many things, but generally fairly logical. The 32-character LCD presents fairly helpful messages.
The printer's paper tray doesn't hold a lot, so you have to refill pretty frequently. This has not been a problem for me but be sure you have it in a place where you can easily reach the paper bin. It is necessary to be careful to remember to press the loading lever, and to be sure the paper stack is straight. Paper can jam in places that are very hard to get to, making it challenging to clear jams. It recovers gracefully from running out of paper.
The print software provides no help for duplexing (printing both sides). It can be done manually from applications such as Word or Acrobat that offer odd-even printing, or with some kinds of add-on software intended for making brochures. You need to be very careful, however, that the sheets have fully cooled from the first pass before inserting them for the second, and you have to anticipate that you may see some misfeeds even so. It's something I do sparingly.
The lid over the copier/scanner platen is hinged at the side and opens only about 60 degrees, which can be restrictive in some cases. You can get it to slide up a bit, but it's something of a trick.
On top of the lid is an automatic document feeder (ADF) so you can put a stack of up to 25 or so sheets in to be copied, faxed, or scanned. This is a useful feature that I use all the time, but it's also pretty frustrating. It's very prone to jamming and if you don't catch a jam instantly it can shred your input. It is also quite tricky to clear a jam, even if the sheet isn't shredded. (If it's not shredded by the mechanism, it may still be impossible to remove it intact.)
Scans and copies are stretched a little lengthwise and compressed just a bit widthwise. Note that even though the printer is strictly monochrome, the scanner is color. The scanning software is extremely basic and not adequate for serious graphics work. For OCR of documents (for which the ADF is nice) the scanner will work fine with the excellent ABBYY FineReader software package. What comes with it, however, is much less capable.
The print manual is useless and the electronic manual not much better. Both focus primarily on the fax functions. There's virtually nothing about the ADF and its tricks -- you're on your own there.
The ADF finally stopped working altogether -- it jammed on every sheet. I looked on the Brother Web site and could find nothing helpful. I sent them an e-mail and got an answer that addressed some of the ADF issues, but not what I was having trouble with. I called their phone help. Hold time was about 25 minutes (late afternoon -- the help operates normal weekday business hours, East Coast time). The person who answered seemed very, very poorly trained. It was apparent that she was entirely unfamiliar with the machine and was reading from a script. From the wrong part of the script (maybe there wasn't a right part) because she did not understand the difference between the printer paper feeder and the ADF. When I tried to point this out she became extremely defensive and unpleasant. No help from her whatever except that I finally got her to tell me where to find an authorized repair shop. They fixed the problem under warranty (and I presume charged Brother a hefty sum to do so). I would bet that I could have fixed it myself if Brother had provided adequate guidance in its manual or Web site, but they didn't.
If they had a decent manual and support I'd rate it 4/5 overall and 5/5 for value. But as it stands I can recommend it only if you are willing and able to put up with some unguided efforts at care and feeding, and have an authorized repair shop nearby for the problems you can't figure out on your own. You probably should figure that it won't last too long after the warranty runs out, since the first problem you can't figure out how to fix will be very costly to get help with. Don't count on Brother for anything at all, if my experience is any guide.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Brother MFC-6800 Laser Multifunction Printer, Scanner, Copier & Fax
The MFC-6800 is a 5-in-1 flatbed laser multi-function center combining performance, connectivity, and reliability. This full-feature fax, laser printer, and convenience copier enables you to copy objects such as books and magazines with both reduction and enlargement.Also included is a 9600 dpi color scanner with a "Scan-to" button directly on the front panel. PC Fax capabilities allow you to send and broadcast faxes directly. The MFC-6800 works with Windows and iMac /iBook, G3/G4 applications.
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