mongomad1's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Officejet 4215v All-In-One InkJet ...
Yes, I probably bought this for the same reason many of you may be considering this add-on: it is inexpensive, acts as a fax machine, scans pictures/documents, makes copies and prints in color. Well, that sounds very good until you try to use it for a while.
I have had this for several years and it worked just ok in the first few months, quirky, though, to say the least. Why have I not bought a new one? Well I did get a Brother Laser Printer that does not have any function rather than printing. I just really do not use the other options that much, especially since adding the Laser device to my arsenal.
The Good
This should be short. It is an inkjet, and it will print color on a page if it wants to do so. If you need to fax, copy or scan one, and only one, page that is standard in size, usually it comes through.
It can be set to listen in to your answering machine and will occasionally decide to pick up the electronic feed and reproduce it. I would never advertise it as a fax number based on its reliability issues, but it can save you a trip somewhere to pick up a document if she decides to cooperate that day.
The Bad
First off, it is not very sturdy. Just picking it up, you notice it feels flimsy. I believe this reveals its craftsmanship, which allows for the issues it has. It goes haywire based on the slightest imperfection in your giving it paper.
Like what? Well, let us say you decide to fax something. The tray at the bottom is for printing and the feeder tray at the top is for faxing, copying and scanning. The upper tray has a nasty habit of: 1) taking all the pages you set in the feeder as the first page (if you are lucky) 2) it will take the first page and then the second page half way through scanning the first (no telling what the person on the other end is looking at) 3) it simply will take the first page and no more.
The above is true for any function running off that particular paper feeder atop this oversized paperweight: copying and scanning in addition to faxing. The fix? Put in one page at the time, BUT make sure you have the next page ready just at the right moment or the session is over. This means you call back for faxing, use the slow software to press scan again and wait for it to be ready or press copy again on the device.
Oddly, sometimes it will work well for a couple uses and you feel guilty for despising it so. Not for long, it is pure luck whenever you successfully manage multiple papers to go through and all actions requested of the all-in-one actually are performed correctly.
There goes troubleshooting. Since you can not always reproduce the issue, it is hard to find the root cause. I believe it to be from a lapse in development time spent on the plans for the device itself.
The Ugly
Given the rather steep angle the top feeder sits at, you need a lot of space for this thing vertically. Otherwise, the paper you put up there will DEFINITELY not feed right unless you have placed the contraption either without anything above it up to your ceiling, on a shelf that has 2 feet from it to the next shelf or you just count on losing 3 of the things you probably bought it to do. At issue is the paper hits anything under around 2 feet of space, it bends and certainly will not feed right with this finicky device.
Also, even when you DO have space, the nearly upright feeder tray does not support the paper well. It is not as long as a standard 8.5” x 11” sheet, so the excess flops over, pulling the other end back a tad and prevents it from reaching the feeder by a hair. There may be an ideal paperweight to use, but I have not found it, nor am I going to pay for the best paper when this thing is very capable of destroying sheets by the hundreds.
The bottom feeder is only slightly more reliable, though it causes bigger issues when it malfunctions. Sometimes it feels like taking the entire stack of blanks you have recklessly supplied it, and others it will yank a page at a slight angle, leading to a paper jam the likes of which would cause the Pope to scream vulgarities, funny hat or not.
The quality is marginal at best, and you can forget about using it as a printer for pictures. You will be bitterly disappointed of what it spews forth, if anything. Clean the inkjet nozzles, realign it with the software and you will see you just lost that 10-15 minutes of your life. You are VERY likely to get the EXACT same results before you exercised due diligence. It is a mini version of the printer in the movie Office Space and mine shall meet with a similar demise before all is said and done.
Bottom Line
I am not even going to waste space for the specs since I am telling you that if you are dead set on getting this, nothing else matters to you. Please re-read the above and other reviews and you will see I did not just get a lemon. It simply does not work for any sustained period of time, and it will lead you to your wit’s end. I have owned and used many HP printers that were of very nice quality; this one has made me a firm believer in never buying an HP again. If I do, it will be out of morbid curiosity more than anything else in that decision. I am unsure what makes it such a piece of junk, but it sure does work whatever it is.
I need negative stars, as 1 star does not begin to tell the story…
If this review was informative, please feel free to visit my other Computer Hardware reviews:
Prints, copies, scans, and faxes; factory-reconditioned to like-new condition Up to 17 ppm black, 12 ppm color 600 x 1,200 dpi hardware scan resolutio...More at Amazon Marketplace
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