Brother Multi-Function Center® MFC-3420C All-In-One InkJet Printer

great concept - multifunction machine - printer/scanner/fax all-in-one but poor execution. Designed to sell ink. As others have reported it "cleans" itself every few hours and in doing so it uses up the ink, so constantly getting messages that this cartridge is low or that one is - even if you do NO printing over a given time period! Now I have the dreaded error 41 and my "great deal" on a printer is now garbage - completely worthless junk that will cost me more to have repaired than it will cost to buy a new MFC

multifunction is a great idea and in fairness their optical recognition (OCR) software works pretty well

1 black and 3 color cartridges that "constantly" have to be replaced with "genuine Brother brand" cartridges (or warranty is void). Cartridges are small and relatively quite expensive.

Someone tried to send me a fax yesterday. The print head is apparently stuck in its docked (or cleaning?) position and it can't move itself. It just scrolls a message: "Error 41 Unplug printer and call Brother" More easily said than done. Why don't the people who setup automated attendants ever call them to see how they do or more likely do NOT function?

20 minutes holding and giving all my info to person resulted in me being transferred to the "fax" machine dept where I waited another 20 minutes. . . .

Anyway, long story short - "unplug and wait 30 seconds for a TEMPORARY fix" - doesn't work. Have to take to repair place. Called them. More to even LOOK at it than to buy a new one.
So now it's completely worthless - I can't even use it to scan - the thing I use it for more than anything else. It does this also when a single ink cartridge is empty. It goes on strike - refuses to do ANY of its functions, until I replace that cartridge. Stupid!

Oh Brother! Wherefore art thou? In the land fill.

For ratings I can only choose 1 star from the pop down menu. My choice would be 0 stars. Or a negative star - a black hole.

I've had my MFC3420 for a couple of years. It constantly cleans itself. I have replaced ink cartridges so many times (I don't print that often to warrant so many empty cartridges)
I got an ERROR 41 too. Now I'm buying a new HP printer. I want reliability for my $$ NOT MORE INK !!

I bought my MFC 3420 for the combination of copy, scan,print & fax

P.S> I never liked the quality of its prints, it showed lines throughout the pictures. I expected better quality pictures.

YES, DIDDO.This machine is a couple years old and has yet to have new cartridges put in it because the error 41 is the only thing you can count on to be consitant.......It has been set aside for a couple years (remember brand new) and yet I can get any help from brothers to fix this thing.I purchase printers for the company I work with.Guess what..NO BROTHERS. But I do have 33 various other printers mainly HP printers.At least they stand by there products.....I have undertook trying to get brothers to help me fix this for a hobbie.Model # MFC-3420C

ERROR 41 NEVER FAILS YOU.....YOU CAN COUNT ON IT......

YES, DIDDO.This machine is a couple years old and has yet to have new cartridges put in it because the error 41 is the only thing you can count on to be consitant.......It has been set aside for a couple years (remember brand new) and yet I can get any help from brothers to fix this thing.I purchase printers for the company I work with.Guess what..NO BROTHERS. But I do have 33 various other printers mainly HP printers.At least they stand by there products.....I have undertook trying to get brothers to help me fix this for a hobbie.Model # MFC-3420C PS ON THE RATEING BELOW---THERE ARE NO ZEROS..iF THEY RESPOND TO MY EMAILS FOR HELP I WILL COME BACK HERE AND EAT MY WORDS.(BUT I BET I GO HUNGRY)

Had this thing for six months, runs out of ink without printing anything, turns out it has a self cleaning feature that drains your ink and apparently doesnt even clean the ink well. This seems to be a brother feature in many if not all of their printers. I now have an error 41 and nothing works on it which others I see here are getting. Ink head bad or clogged. Im not going to buy a brother printer ever again!

Has all the good features with a good price, but the thing doesnt work. Not much strength there..

Uh, its broken.. apperantly everyone who has this printer also gets the error code 41 and also complains of it constantly cleaning itself and draining off the ink. I think this self cleaning and draining the ink off is a feature to sell more ink, most brother printer owners complain of their ink dissappering as well. I do wonder where the ink goes though.. Im not printing anything.