Serious design problems

The Brother intellifax 1820 seems to have been badly designed; it has a decent print quality but it 'breaks' easily and uses ink at a high rate. This model is no longer in production by Brother; documents and drivers still seem to be available from the Brother website.

One of these machines was bought for family use in 2004. The first one failed after a few weeks; a replacement failed this year, resulting in a purchase of a better reviewed Brother fax machine.

The first one failed with some curious error message ( perhaps the "error 41" that people have mentioned ); as long as the error was occurring the machine would not print. The manual stated the machine might be put back into temporary operational capability by turning it off, removing the power plug from power, then having it powered up again. The fix did not work, so it was sent back to Brother ( still under warranty ); the company sent a replacement that arrived in a few days.

The replacement machine worked until this June/July; this one was past warranty so it could not be sent back without repair cost. The temporary fix also did not work on this machine. The failed machine has been sitting while a 2820 machine has replaced it.

Another problem with this model ( 1820 ) is that uses ink at a high rate. Even though there was very little printing using colors the yellow/cyan/magenta cartridges needed to be replaced every two or three months.

The amount of usage of these two 1820's was modest; on average i'd guess it was used once every four or five days.
A well designed machine shouldn't have such problems with such modest use.

The message screen is a single line LCD readout; it is hard to read in bad lighting.

Using some options requires multiple steps, though sending a fax is fairly instinctive: pick up the handset, dial a phone number on the keypad, wait for the receiving signal, push a start button ( color or black ).

Features and capabilities

( Just in case you are still thinking about buying one )

One year limited warranty
Multifunction machine that can print ( stand alone ), print through a computer ( both Windows or Mac OS ), scanner, and fax machine
Connects to computer by USB cable ( not included )
Uses ink cartridges ( black, yellow, magenta, cyan )
Original document size allowed is 3.5-8.5 inches wide, 5-14 inches long
Maximum 20 pages can be held in the document feeder
Copies can be made on letter, legal, and photo card paper
Faxes can be printed on letter or legal paper
Paper tray holds up to 100 sheets of plain paper, less for other types
Machine memory can be set to hold the date, time, fax number, and name
Machine can be set to pulse or tone dialing
Beeper volume and speaker volume have three levels of loudness
Handset volume can be high or low
Clock can be set to auto-adjust for daylight savings time

Four different receive modes:

Fax only
Fax/tel ( machine answers fax, rings for non-fax; cannot use answering machine or voice mail )
External TAD ( use when answering machine is used )
Manual ( wait to hear fax tones on handset, wait for machine to take control, then replace handset )

Ring delay ( 0-4 rings before machine answers in Fax only or Fax/Tel mode )
Polling capability ( retrieve fax from other fax machines )
Distinctive Ring ( machine recognizes specific phone number on dual number lines )
Caller ID
One touch dialing ( storage for ten phone numbers )
Speed dialing ( push two digits to dial; storage for 40 phone numbers )
Fax contrast ( light or dark )
Fax resolution ( four settings )
Color faxing
Fax storage ( allows retrieval from outside source )
Verification report ( for fax attempts )
Journal setting ( machine prints report of faxes in a certain time period or amount of faxes )
Automatic print head cleaning
Ink volume check
Weight: 15.4 pounds
Dimensions
Width: 19.7 inches
Depth: 23 inches ( including output tray )
Height: 13.6 inches ( including document platter )
Power use: 5 watts minimum, under 35 watts peak

Copy settings:
Three print quality choices
Enlargement or reduction
Variable contrast

Print speed: up to 14 pages per minute ( mono ), 12 for color