Need a recommendation for a multi-use printer/copier for very small office

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am looking for recommendations for a replacement for our office’s copier/printer/scanner. At the moment, we have an older standard office copier/printer/scanner that is just, frankly, a piece of crap. We don’t really want to spend $650 to renew our service contract if it would make more sense to spend that money on something that is a smaller scale that would suit our needs.

Here’s our situation: There are only three of us in this office. We need one printer we can network to that can also scan to email. We have pretty minor need for a copier. We’d take larger jobs (largest being printing out 12 copies of our 84-page training manual, for example) to Staples. It would be nice to have the ability to do minor copying jobs on this machine (ie- one or two pages of a document).

I suspect, although I do not know, that a standard multi-use printer/scanner like most folks have at home would be too… small for us.

Are there options between a standard copier and a Lexapro multi-use? Which one would you recommend?

Thanks again, SDMB. As per usual, you’re my IT department.

2

What kind of budget do you have? We use a number of HP M4345 MFPs here and I’m pretty happy with them.

They start at around $2500 (and HP had a $500 off deal for a while, not sure if that’s current). They also make smaller models like the M3035 which starts at $1600 and the still smaller M2727, beginning at $600.

I would definitely recommend against any inkjet-based system, get a laser unit.

3

I don’t like the multifunction machines that require you to install a bunch of software to be able to scan documents. At worst, this can mean 500MB or so of programs that need to be installed.

So the one that we bought recently for my department (a Xerox Phaser 6180MFP, which is a color laser printer), can scan documents and send them via email to each user. So nothing needs to be installed on any of our systems. At home, I have a Brother multifunction machine (monochrome printer) which I selected partly because it’s fairly compact at less than 15" tall, and I wanted to put it under my desk, on a small cart.

4

The HP MFPs (well, the models I’ve worked with) manage all this onboard the device - there’s an embedded web server and you can configure all the scan to email stuff right there. Set it up once and it’s ready to go.

The one thing I can think of that might be a gotcha for a small office is how your mail server works - if you’ve got an SMTP server in the office or hosted by someone in a way that you have direct access to it from your LAN then the HP MFP is no problem at all.

5

We don’t have a mail server in the office. We have third party email (hope I’m using that term appropriately). IOW, one company’s email is done via exchangemymail. The other is done through… somebody else. I forget the name right now (I’m at home).

I would pretty much be the one managing/setting up/trouble-shooting the scan to email. I’m pretty good with computers, but I’m no IT guy.

I would definitely say our budget is more in the $600 - $1000 range, and more towards the cheaper end.

This printer, BTW, would sit in the hall where the copier is now, so no need to be small enough to be on a desk or a cart.

6

Regarding the HP multifunctions for the home market… I have found the software to be beyond infuriating, and the firmware to be flaky. At one point the network card broke and I had to hack the device to disable it, else it would keep power-cycling endlessly. I will not be purchasing an HP device for my future hardware needs.

7

Ok, so I’m looking at the HP M2727 and it looks like it would suit our needs.

Can someone tell me what this means: “10/100Base-T Ethernet network port”? I assume that means that it is network-able and that all three of us can connect to it, me via my desktop and my two bosses via the wireless cards on their laptops?

8

That means it has a wired Ethernet port, meaning that it will need to be connected to your network via an Ethernet cable, one end plugged into that port and the other into your office’s switch/hub/router.

9

Thank you. Ignorance fought. Grey matter enlarged.

10

By the way, I just looked at that HP model and it’s OK. What I don’t like about it is that it’s very tall, mostly because they just put a scanner with an automatic document feeder on top of a printer. Other brands have multifunction machines that are better integrated and more compact. The height may not be a problem for you, but in some places here, it wouldn’t fit.

11

We wouldn’t have that issue. But what other models would you recommend? Or brands?

12

I have a Brother multifunction machine at home, selected because space was at a premium. And we have a Xerox machine in the office, selected because we needed a color printer and we’ve had issues with HP scanners so we were staying away from HP. (Sometimes they seem to go to sleep and you need to do things like power-cycle them to get them to respond.)

13

HP OfficeJet 6500. Best that I have had in 15 years of working at home. (Where space is always at a premium.) I have distributed about 40 through my work group and they are performing satisfactory.

14

Interesting. Honestly, there’s a huge difference in price between that and the other HP and the Xerox. (Say $600 vs. $150.) Is a $150 printer sufficient for a professional office? Is a $600 printer too much?