Brother® Personal 575 Plain-Paper Fax

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I purchased this item through a “special deal” very cheap. I’ve read several of the comments about the machine, but there’s one thing that I do...Read complete review

I purchased this item through a “special deal” very cheap. I’ve read several of the comments about the machine, but there’s one thing that I don’t see explained, and I wish I had known about it before I had made my purchase.

This is indeed a “plain paper” fax machine. But it does NOT use “toner” or an “ink cartridge”. It uses a “ribbon”. What they call the “ribbon” is actually a looooong sheet (spool) of carbon paper (or something like it) on a roll. The number of pages you receive equals the length of “carbon paper” which will be used, no matter if the entire page is filled with print, or only two lines. I’ve also seen people complain about the quality. Again, I remind you that the machine uses “carbon paper” and you should expect “carbon paper” type results. Personally, I’m not looking for great detail in the faxes I’m receiving anyway, so it’s fine. Though I rarely receive faxes, and mostly just send them, it’s still going to use-up the roll of “carbon paper” when the machine is unsure if the fax you were sending to received the fax you were sending. . . because it prints-out a notice. Printing-out a notice takes-up one page on your “carbon paper”. I have read where some people have said that they rolled the carbon paper back onto the spool, so that they could get more use out of it. Well, the risk with that is that if you’re receiving an important fax, and it happens to be at the place on the spool where another fax came through. . . then you’re probably not going to be able to read your important fax because the “carbon paper” spools were meant to be used once, and there’s not going to be any “ink” left for the machine to print. The reason that this machine is so cheap is not because it’s a bad machine. . . but because you’re going to have to keep purchasing the rolls of “carbon paper”.

I think, in the end, you have to look at the overall cost. Compare the cost of this machine, along with having to purchase the rolls of “carbon paper”, and then compare it to a fax machine which uses toner or an ink cartridge and see. . . price wise. . .which is going to work best for you. If you’re only sending faxes, and never receive, then you and re-roll the “carbon paper” after it runs out from printing notices, and you should be fine.