Brother FAX-2840 High Speed Mono Laser Fax Machine, Dark/Light Gray - FAX2840, 17.750x18.125x16.625

This is an excellent fax machine. In my home office, it replaces an HP FAX-900, which provided many years of yeoman service but finally reached the end of its useful service life. Before that, I had a thermal-printing Canon, for which, back in the day, I must have paid about ten times what I paid for this Brother unit. It's really quite astounding.You've read all the reviews. This machine delivers very high input and output quality. It's fast; it works; and consumables are affordable. I wouldn't haven't bothered you with yet another review were it not to report that the "deep sleep" issue seems to have been resolved. On my unit, at least, it is not a problem at all. All tests confirm that the machine comes out of deep sleep instantly and receives incoming faxes without missing a beat. Of course, I can't guarantee that you won't have the problem with your particular sample.I would also exhort buyers to RTFM (including the Advanced User's Guide on disk). Of particular importance, I think, is the telephone line compatibility setting (Menu, 2, 0, 1), which is actually an item in the quick setup guide. Many of you have VoIP service and don't even know it. Even if you have a traditional POTS copper pair, there might be VoIP involved in any given connection. So, if you're having problems, check that setting.There aren't a whole lot of options out there for dedicated fax machines these days. I'm really happy Brother has given me this choice.

For several years now I've been getting by with cheap fax machines but when my last one ( a cheap HP) just died after barely a year I decided to spend a little more money and hopefully get something that will last. And so far this one is working really good, the print quality is really good, much better than my previous fax machine and it prints fairly fast, 2.5 seconds per page.It was fairly easy to hook up and only took a few minutes for me to have it up and running and this was with a few telephone interruptionsAlso while it does come with everything that you need to get started you're probably going to want to order an extra toner cartridge right away, the one that comes with it is only a starter and if you receive a lot of faxes you might just find yourself without any toner.I'll update this review after I've had more time to use the printer.

Pretty easy to set up. Nice option to use to make photocopies.

After dealing with an HP inkjet fax in my restaurant that kept jamming and having dried up ink from, I decided I needed a compact laser that would fit in the allocated area.This fit the bill, except that it was white and every other piece of equipment in the area was black.Once I unboxed the unit, I used masking tape to cover the black areas and any open electronics. Using a simple flat black can of spray paint, I was able to make it all black. Nobody can tell it was painted even when I point it out to them. First problem fixed.I have had the unit for about 7 months and it has performed flawlessly. It even uses the same toner as a wireless Brother printer I have which is a bonus as well. This past week of course, I encountered the DEEP SLEEP curse that so many people speak of. The machine will do half a ring and act weird, but will not receive faxes. After some research and playing around, there is a solution, even though Brother has decided to hide the feature.You ARE able to disable DEEP SLEEP.Go to General Settings, Ecology, Sleep Mode. When it asks you to change the time before sleep, simultaneously press the START and DOWN ARROW buttons. You will now get the hidden option to Disable DEEP SLEEP mode. Disable it and enjoy your fax for many years to come.

This fax machine is excellent. However, the "deep sleep" mode problem is real. Pasting together several comments that appeared online, I learned the following. 1) The machine will spontaneously go into regular sleep mode when not in use. This saves energy. In regular sleep mode the machine will wake up and received faxes normally. So, that is good. 2) After a certain time (that you can set from the Ecology menu), left to its own devices, the machine will fall into "deep sleep" mode. This mode saves more power than regular sleep mode. However, the machine in deep sleep mode will only wake up and become able to receive faxes if: a) one physically touches a key, b) one lifts the handset, or c) if it received data from a computer or network. This will only happen if the fax machine is used as a printer, attached to a computer or a network. So, if one wants to use it as a stand-alone fax machine or one wants to receive faxes at all times, the deep sleep mode needs to be turned off. This is not an intuitive project.To turn off the Deep Sleep mode you need to do the following: Press Menu. With the up and down arrows select 1. General Setup, press OK. Select 4. Ecology, press OK. Select 2. Sleep Time, press OK. Then, with the two-digit sleep time still on the screen, PRESS TOGETHER the LOW ARROW + START keys. The Deep Sleep menu will appear. You can then choose yes or no with the up and down arrows. Enter OK, then press Stop/Exit to exit the Manu mode.As much as the deep sleep mode is ecologically friendly, it remains incomprehensible why Brother made the access to controlling the Deep Sleep mode so hidden and arcane.The machine makes excellent copies and is a great printer. As to durability and cost of maintenance, remains to be seen.