# Canon Laser Printer



## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 4, 2020)

I decided that my two 20 year old Xerox laser printers were going to die soon, so I shopped for a new printer. I saw good reviews for a Canon Color Image Class MF743 so I decided to replace one of my printers with that one. I went to my employee discount store and it was $246, a bargain price. I ordered it and it arrived yesterday with a cracked scanner glass.

So, since I had bought it directly from Canon thru their employee discount store, I called them (30 min on hold), thinking someone could come out and repair it, or a local repair place could put in new glass. No, they wanted me to repack and ship the 70 pound monster back, and when they received it, I was supposed to call and let them know they had it so they could replace it. I had checked to see if I could just buy another and return it, but the sale was over, and the price backup to about $500 with my 10% discount.

So, I reluctantly agreed to send it back and wait 2 weeks for a replacement. Normally they said a refurb would be sent, but they would send me a new one. So, I spent 40 minutes getting it packed back up with all the accessories and marked it with the RMA number. However, I did not receive a return shipping label as promised. Later, UPS came by, but with no label, they could not pick it up. As of this morning, I still have no label and I was planning to rive to Spokane this morning and could drop it off.

They did say it might take 24 or more hours to get the label, but its getting towards that. The whole experience has not been a good one. I could also have bought it from Amazon for a extra $60, but they would have sent someone out to pick it up, and shipped a replacement as soon as it was picked up.

Since its basically less than today's Amazon price of $530, I'll just wait. I wheeled my Xerox back to its customary place.

I did try the canon printer, being over 20 years newer, I expected speed improvements, and its about 10% faster. Prints were very good, but not noticably better. I can get OEM toners for that old Xerox for $10 ea while ones for the new printer are $250 and only a couple of places sell 3rd party ones for $25 each. You have to move the Canon chip to them each time. They are 6,000 sheets rather than 8,000 like my Xerox. I'm beginning to woder about the whole deal, but I wanted a new printer. I also need to buy a 500 sheet add-on tray for $200. My Xerox has 3 trays holding 500 sheets.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 5, 2020)

I finally got the return label this afternoon, its attached. I'm debating about taking it to the UPS store. or trying to get the driver to take it when he delivers tomorrow evening. I'm no longer very strong, and lifting a 70 pound box is difficult. That used to be nothing, but I seem to have become pretty frail. I used my handtruck to move it around. I could do it, but spraining a back that is not used to lifting is no fun. I've had back surgery for a collapsed disk.


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## AlanF (Mar 5, 2020)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> I finally got the return label this afternoon, its attached. I'm debating about taking it to the UPS store. or trying to get the driver to take it when he delivers tomorrow evening. I'm no longer very strong, and lifting a 70 pound box is difficult. That used to be nothing, but I seem to have become pretty frail. I used my handtruck to move it around. I could do it, but spraining a back that is not used to lifting is no fun. I've had back surgery for a collapsed disk.


Do not handle it yourself.


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## Del Paso (Mar 5, 2020)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> I finally got the return label this afternoon, its attached. I'm debating about taking it to the UPS store. or trying to get the driver to take it when he delivers tomorrow evening. I'm no longer very strong, and lifting a 70 pound box is difficult. That used to be nothing, but I seem to have become pretty frail. I used my handtruck to move it around. I could do it, but spraining a back that is not used to lifting is no fun. I've had back surgery for a collapsed disk.


Out of a similar experience (disc hernia): wait for UPS !!!!!


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 6, 2020)

Del Paso said:


> Out of a similar experience (disc hernia): wait for UPS !!!!!


I was able to use my hand truck to get one side into the rear of my Subaru, then my wife and I lifted it up and slid it in with no problems since we were only lifting 20 pounds or less each. Then, I took it to the ups store and helped the young woman unload it and hoist it up on their scale. It xame to 72 lbs. Its going to take a week to get back and most of another week to replace it. HP would have expedited a replacement and took back the damaged one later.

I'm considering finding a HP model I like and just telling Canon to keep it.


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## AlanF (Mar 7, 2020)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> I was able to use my hand truck to get one side into the rear of my Subaru, then my wife and I lifted it up and slid it in with no problems since we were only lifting 20 pounds or less each. Then, I took it to the ups store and helped the young woman unload it and hoist it up on their scale. It xame to 72 lbs. Its going to take a week to get back and most of another week to replace it. HP would have expedited a replacement and took back the damaged one later.
> 
> I'm considering finding a HP model I like and just telling Canon to keep it.


I always go to HP for laser printers. Canon scanners are fine.


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## LDS (Mar 7, 2020)

AlanF said:


> I always go to HP for laser printers. Canon scanners are fine.



You may want to know HP is the biggest Canon customer for laser printer parts.... 

Canon said it may stop selling parts to HP if it's bought by Xerox.


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## AlanF (Mar 7, 2020)

LDS said:


> You may want to know HP is the biggest Canon customer for laser printer parts....
> 
> Canon said it may stop selling parts to HP if it's bought by Xerox.


Fortunately, Canon doesn't provide HP's customer service if Mt Spokane case is typical.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 9, 2020)

I remember when the first Apple Laser printers came out and we managed to get a few in our office. They used Canon tech, of course. Then, the HP laser came along, again using Canon tech and parts, and literally captured the market. 

My first printer was a Epson serial printer that was used with my son's Atari 800. 

After I bought a PC, I bought a serial Epson and then, a inkjet from HP. It was great. 

It was a few years before I bought a HP personal laser and I've had several since, and one now, all were monochrome and reliable. 

About 1999, I bought a Xerox Color Laser that was business quality and cost a bundle. Supplies were a bigger cost. I used it to print color brochures for my products. Over the years, as companies retired theirs printers, the consumables have become dirt cheap, so it runs at very little cost. Its rated at 19 pages per minute which was fast 20 years ago. It virtually never jams, a great printer with little maintenance. It takes a relatively long time for the first page, and it won't collate documents, so if I print a bunch of 40 page documents, I get 40 copies of each page and have to put them together manually. I even bought a 2nd one 6 years ago for peanuts so I could use it for parts if needed. I plan to keep using it in my warehouse where I don't print much except for a occasional 1000 page job. 

The new printer would be in my office next to my HP monochrome. I have two dedicated scanners, a Epson V700 for high quality photo jobs, and a Fujitsu for high speed high volume scanning It can and has done over 100,000 scans. There is a scanner on my HP MF Laser but it just gets used when I make copies. 

I'm looking now at a new Xerox and debating on it instead of the Canon. HP does not have a mid range Multi Function Color Laser that I particularly like. I bought the Canon because of its reviews and the half price sale, it made beautiful prints, maybe better than my old Xerox, but pretty close. It was only slightly faster. I'd really like to get the time to first page down, a inkjet is great for that, but I hate dealing with clogs.

One of the big drivers for a printer is cost of consumables, so I am looking at models that work well with low cost 3rd party toners. LD toners and Inks have worked well for me.

I keep looking for used high quality laser printers, but those don't show up until they are antique's like mine. I have been able to use my old one with Windows 10 which is another plus for Xerox. I don't want one of the huge production printers or I could have my choice, I want one to sit in my cramped office. The Canon is a nice fit.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 11, 2020)

The Printer finally was returned to Canon today, but their promise to immediately send a replacement was not honored, they want to wait a few days until its checked in and evaluated. It was ending up taking 3+ weeks to get the printer. Their sale is back on again, so I told them to refund me and I'd order another new one. I think its probably by far the best deal for a printer in its class, and the software is all installed on my PC and working. I could have bought one at Staples, Best Buy or Amazon for $60 more, but getting direct from Canon makes warranty claims easier because they have the purchase records.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 19, 2020)

I installed the new printer and its working. Configuring it was frustration, it turns out that the web interface with the printer is the best way. However, the instructions are poor at best. I bought the optional 500 sheet paper tray, so I have two kinds of paper with plain paper in the 2nd tray. I had no problem configuring the printer as to which paper was in which tray, but changing the default to use the tray 2 and turn off 2 sided was difficult. I ended up installing the printer 4 times before finally getting it working. Then getting the scanner to scan to my choice of locations as well as scanning from my computers was a headache, but eventually, it worked. I still can't update firmware from the printer control panel, but then there is no update anyway. Finally, I set up my phone to print to it using Canon Print Business. That was quick and easy. I also setup my wife's phone. Next is my daughters pc and phone.

For $260 (employee purchase plan thru my company), it is a good deal. I have 3rd party toners coming Friday, but I hope the starter toners last a while. They are only 1000 sheets while the high capacity ones are 5900 sheets. I'm used to 8,000 sheet toners but I can live with 5900 pages, the black has a slightly higher capacity.

In order to use 3rd party toners, I have to remove the Canon chips and put them in the replacement ones. I'm sure that figuring out how to reset the chips to start counting from 0 will be fun. I can set the printer to ignore counterfeit toners and low toner warnings and just print until pages start fading. I may end up doing that.


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## AlanF (Mar 21, 2020)

By coincidence, my new HP Laserjet was delivered on Thursday. There was a fault of the magenta toner bleeding through. The phone support patiently talked me through several cycles of calibration and cleaning. Very good service.


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## YuengLinger (Mar 21, 2020)

Thank you, Mt. Spokane, for sharing your experience and thoughts. About three months ago I replaced my Epson 3880 with a Canon Pro-1000. It was a real learning curve, and I also thought the setup instructions were pretty poor. The website never worked exactly as expected.

But now I'm very happy with the quality of the images; using the same papers as the Epson, I'm getting significantly nicer prints in color and B&W. The downside, of course, is the crazy use and price of ink.

But as we are beginning homeschooling, and even considering, perhaps, going with it beyond this year's forced situation, a good color laser printer that might also work for my primary business is something to consider. So, again, thank you!


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 21, 2020)

I still have my 3880. I have large ink tanks and use cone inks. Those are expensive too. I also bought a old 7600 wide format. Its a 6 ink printer, but most people are happy with the big prints and 3rd party inks are cheap. I only paid $100 for it, I can use it on windows 10 by turning off the check process for a approved driver. Staples sold out a bunch of rolls of various 24 inch wide rolls and I bought a couple, so with my low usage, the paper will last and last. Even though I go for long periods between prints, head clogging is not a issue.


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