Canon MAXIFY MB2320 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer

I've maybe written one review before, but feel compelled to write this review for the Epson WorkForce 3640, Epson WorkForce 4630, and Canon Maxify MB2320 multifunction printers, all of which are late-2014 models I bought in rapid succession from Amazon. They were each intended to replace a Canon Pixma that began printing only blank pages after a year and a half in a very light duty environment (a homeowner association board member office). I was disappointed in Canon because my generations-earlier Canon Pixma printer at home is still going strong after more than 5 years. Being also reluctant to try HP because of high cartridge costs, I first tried Epson.The net is that:1. Both Epson printers had the same problem and were unable to connect to my Belkin F9K series a/b/g/n WiFi router via WiFi or Ethernet.2. My previous and new Canons connected with no problems.3. Epson tech support misdiagnosed my problems and was worse than worthless 9 of 10 times.4. The Canon MB2320 beat the Epson 4630 in features, speed and price.5. Amazon customer service continues to be the best I've ever experienced!The 3640 looked nice and has great features but would not connect to my 5-foot-away Belkin router via WiFi or Ethernet. I Spoke with Epson tech support about 10 times and spent the best part of two days trying to get the printer to connect. Most calls had to be re-placed by me because their voices were garbled/clipped and they would not call me back. I saw one review that said their support was out of the Philippines, but can't verify that. They could not explain a consistent E-9 error or why "Detailed IP Setup Check" showed "Unknown". They had me try several things, all with the same negative results. They thought my wireless phone might be interfering and had me move it. They had me call my ISP to ask if they blocked printers even though my computer and printer were going through my WiFi router. My ISP laughed. Epson had me call my router manufacturer to see if they were at 2.4 or 5, or whether there were no available addresses. My router manufacturer told me the router was way beyond the 6-month warranty, and I'd have to arrange payment for more info. I opted not to do that since I'd never had a problem with that router, and it was clear I had available IP addresses. I called Epson tech support back, and asked why the printer was showing itself assigned an IP address of 169.254.182.194. They told me my router had assigned that, both for WiFi and Ethernet. That didn't make sense, since the router uses 192.168.x.x addresses. Eventually, the last Epson guy I talked with told me that, contrary to what I'd been told before, the printer firmware assigned that 169.254.182.194 address when it couldn't connect to a router. After walking me through the same steps as previous tech support guys, he then had me swap Ethernet cables and Ethernet ports, which produced the same failure. He then concluded the printer was defective, and started to arrange for me to send it to Epson. I decided to instead return it to Amazon, who arranged free UPS pickup the next day and issued a full refund.I tried to order a replacement unit despite my frustration with Epson tech support (because I rarely have had to use printer tech support), but Amazon no longer had a unit with the same price and a Prime option. Amazon tech support was great, explained the unit must have gone out of stock, suggested and discussed many alternatives, and finally offered a promotion and next day delivery on a more expensive model, the Epson 4630. That unit looked even nicer and had more features, but also would not connect either via WiFi or Ethernet and gave the same E-9 error message as the 3640. I returned the unit to Amazon for a full refund, and ordered a Canon MB2320.The MB2320 looks just as nice as the more expensive Epson and installed quickly the first time. Hooray! The MB2320 has similar features to the Epson (e.g., two 250-sheet trays and auto-duplex printing/copying) but is faster and priced so much lower that I was able to order the MB2320 with replacement cartridges and three reams of paper for a few pennies less than the Epson 4630 alone. Printing results are fine so far. I just hope it lasts longer than the last Canon. I'd rather not have to come back to remove stars.

This is possibly the forth Canon printer we have owned. All but this one has delivered acceptable performance. The printer is used for routine printing in a home environment. No photo printing, just the normal documents one prints at home. Possibly a few sheets a day. However, the printer requires print head cleaning about once a week and deep cleaning about once a month. We are using non-Canon ink cartridges, brands that have worked without issues in other Canon printers, brands that get good reviews on Amazon. In my opinion, the problem stems from Canon's efforts to lock customers into using Canon ink exclusively. Like other Canon printers the ink cartridges have a chip. However, Canon upped the ante on this model. Canon warns users that if a cartridge is removed and reinserted into the printer, even if the cartridge is full, the printer will be damaged. An obvious move to prevent people from refilling ink cartridges. Based on our experience, it appears as if Canon has gone even farther by chipping their cartridges in such a manner to allow recognition of non-Canon ink cartridges. Using non-Canon ink results in the printer printing too light, streaked printing, or not printing at all. I realize that the non-Canon ink may simply be inferior. But, why does this printer have problems when other Canon printers did not? I understand the concept of selling a device at a very attractive price and making the real profit by sales of consumable, but Canon has gone too far this time. This printer is going to a local charity and is being replaced by an Epson EcoTank (ET) model. I have no affiliation with Epson, have never owned an Epson, but they get decent reviews and the ET models are the super-tankers of printers. ET models have self-contained, refillable reservoirs, not ink cartridges. Epson claims the ET printers ship with enough ink to last two years. Based on the reviews I have read, that is realistic. A complete set of ink refills sells for about $40. The ET models sell for almost 2X the Canon MB2320, but the savings in ink will easily pay the difference. I had rather pay more up front than be scammed by Canon.

I've had this printer for about a year and have generally been happy with it. The functions such as automatic duplexing and sheet feeder for scanning work well. It does goes through ink rather quickly, and it uses the #1200 inkjet cartridges which are less common and can't be found at Costco, for example. It has a nice touch screen on the front which includes the type of step-by-step troubleshooting instructions common on more expensive machines. The paper jam messages will tell you to look inside the front of the printer, which sometimes is where the problem is. It will not always suggest that you open the back of the printer (e.g., for duplexing jams) and it's not easy to figure out how to open the back -- it's all black parts and no label indicating how to open. Contrary to some reviews here, the process of printing via wireless works well with Windows 7, Windows 10, and Android. It can take a bit of patience -- following the instructions -- to get this set up initially, but that's common to many printers. The catch may be that it won't work if you're using wired and wireless networking: you have to choose one and go for it. However, once on the network, I haven't had any problems printing to it. I print to it with both the Canon supplied app for Windows and with Google Print for Android devices (which should also work for just about everything, if you've got Google print set up with your Google account.) A nice feature is that it supports networked scanning, so you can scan from a wireless laptop and it will deliver the scan back to the wireless laptop. So, overall this is a nice printer, although I wish they had used one of the more common Canon inkjet cartridges and did a better job labeling access points on the printer for troubleshooting.