Brother MFC-9970CDW Color Laser All-in-One with Wireless Networking and Duplex

Product Description

The MFC-9970CDW is a powerful color laser all-in-one with wireless networking ideal for offices or small workgroups. It produces brilliant, high-quality output at impressive print and copy speeds of up to 30 pages per minute in color and black. Featuring automatic duplexing for two-sided print/copy/scan/fax, an intuitive 5” color touch panel display, legal-size document glass with high-quality color scanning and a USB Direct Interface. It has a generous standard paper capacity of up to 300 sheets, expandable to up to 800 sheets with an optional tray. Users with higher print volumes can use the high-yield replacement toner cartridges. It can help increase your productivity and efficiency with its fast printing and copying, outstanding color output, wireless networking and automatic duplexing for two-sided print/copy/scan/fax.

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 20.7 x 19.3 x 20.9 inches ; 62.8 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 77 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B004GXAY9E
• Item model number: MFC9970CDW
  

Price : $599.99
You Save : $100.00 (14%)

List Price : $699.99

Technical Details

• Print and copy at up to 30ppm
• Wireless, Ethernet and USB interfaces
• Automatic duplex print/copy/scan/fax
• 5" Color Touch Panel display
• Up to 2400 x 600 dpi resolution

Costumer Reviews

This printer is great and worth 5 stars based on the printer's abilities alone, seriously, but Brother is a apparently "very enthusiastic" about regularly (and frequently) replacing half-full toners with new Genuine Brother toners, to the tune of about $70-80 each. Yeah, right. I happily bought a refill kit which has worked fantastically in both volume and print quality. I'm not changing, nor am I wasting an extra $150-$200 every 2-3 months for my toners.

I'm writing this review because a Brother Customer Support Technician wouldn't help me reset my toners. After hearing his lecture on Genuine Brother Toners and his adamant denial to help, I offered him an analogy. I simply asked if he went to a car dealership for "Genuine" oil, brakes, service, etc. EVERY TIME he had his car serviced. He of course had no answer after recognizing his own hypocrisy. So, to help others that may end up in my situation, here's how to reset your toners.

If you have the starter cartridges, you will need to buy a refill kit of some sort, and a flag gear, or reset gear (see below for links). If that is done and you are still receiving the "Replace Toner" message, here's what to do:

1- Turn on printer

2- Open front door to access toners

3- Hit the "Start" button for the Black and White copies on the right side of control panel

4- Quickly type in the number "10" on the numerical keypad (1 then 0, quickly in succession)

5- You will see a toner menu. Simply pick you color(s) and capacities and reset as needed.

You can now refill your toners to a high capacity level for about $20 each, vs. $80 for "genuine brother" toners. Your cost per page probably dropped to about 3 cents each.

THANK YOU Brother Customer Support for motivating me to post this review.

All the best everyone!

ADDITIONAL INFO 2 MONTHS AFTER ORIGINAL POST:

Print quality on multiple types of paper is just as good as "Genuine Brother" starter toners. The photo print quality of this color laser printer is lacking, but that is true for most color laser printers.

I don't have any affiliation whatsoever with any of the following companies/entities, but they posted the info I originally found, so, here's some links to take you step-by-step.

You can get toner and a flag gear here:

[...]

OR, I'm sure if you type in "Brother TN-310 or TN-315 toner refill" into ebay or google you'd come up with some links, possibly cheaper, better, etc.

Here's instructions on changing the toner and reset gear (AKA "flag gear"):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9esBMg13ek;feature=related

Instructions on changing the flag gear only:

[...]

I have to say thanks to everyone who has rated this review as "helpful" on Amazon, it keeps it at the top of the listings and allows more printer purchasers to avoid getting taken for a ride on the Brother-Toner-Money-Train.

Take care-

I have two other Brother printers. One is an all-in-one inkjet and the other is a black and white laser printer. I've been happy with both of them and never had any problems. They did a fairly good job, but I wanted something a little better and thought a color laser printer would be the way to go.

This Brother MFC-9970CDW has good and bad points. First, the black printed letters are crisp and sharp. However, the color photos are only slightly above average in quality. Plus, there is some slight banding (lines) on solid prints. The banding is not too bad and hardly noticeable, but it should not do that. And I have tried everything the manual said to correct the problem, but nothing helped. Anyway, I can live with it.

The biggest complaint I have is the curling of the paper. Another reviewer is correct. The heavier weight the paper, the more severe the curling.

The speed for duplex printing is 6 pages in 1 minute and that is with plain text on one side and a map on the other side. Don't get fooled by the claims of fast printing under everyday normal conditions. In contrast, the scanner is extremely fast.

The OCR software with plain text is very accurate. Hand written text is another story and problematic at best. But then, that is to be expected.

Wireless setup was easy. The printer recognized the network then I just had to install the driver on my PC.

This printer can pull through heavy stock paper and the duplex printing is a real time saver. Plus, overall the printer does a fairly good job. However, if paper curl bothers you, then stay away from this printer.

Update on the page curling.

I discovered a way to help undue the severe curling caused by this printer. First take all of your blank paper out of the tray. Then place your printed curled paper FACE UP in the feed tray. Don't use more than about 50 pages at a time. And make sure the green sliding paper guide with 2 little hooks is in place on the end of the paper. This is necessary to hold the paper in place so the printer can pick up the sheets. Then launch a word processor. Tap the spacebar to fool the printer into thinking there is something to print. Set the number of pages to print, then tap print. After the paper runs through, the paper will curl in the other direction, but not as stiff. Take the paper in both hands and gently roll the curled ends back to straighten it. The result will be a nearly flat paper. Sounds like a lot of steps. But, try it and you'll find it only takes a matter of seconds to correct that terrible paper curl.