Replacing a Home Office Copier

[RJ Emery]

My old home office copier machine, a Xerox 5310 aka relabelled Sharp Z88, died on me. The problem apparently is a circuit board, and the cost of repairing it is too prohibitive. Also given the repair history of this low use machine, I would not consider anything offered by Xerox or Sharp again. A few testimonials I have received about Canon suggest I stay clear of that brand as well.

In my price range, approx. $500 give or take, the only alternatives I can find are laser-based b&w digital copier/printers, some with added multifunctions like scanning and faxing. These, however, have a platen no larger than legal size paper, a distinct disadvantage given my kind of use.

If I wish to purchase a multifunction machine, I have narrowed my selection to the HP LaserJet 3380 All-in-One or the Brother MFC-8840D. HP has a one year warranty, Brother three years. The 8840D also has auto-duplexing, a feature I covet.

The Xerox 5310 had a stationary platen 11 x 15 inches, which enabled me to copy oversized books reduced to fit onto an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. I do not need to copy onto legal size paper, but I do need at least a legal size platen if not larger from which to copy large bound originals.

Since dedicated copiers would cost me well over $1,000 and would be out of my budget, and multifunction machines don't have all that I would truly desire, I was wondering if anyone herein would have any other ideas I might consider.