Dissatisfaction with imageCLASS MF644Cdw

[jacquelynabrams]

I just am curious as to how many people hate this printer? I got this printer for my small business practically the day that my business shut down for Covid. This printer sat in the box for roughly 6/7 months before I got to hook it up and use it. When I finally reopened my business, I set it up, excited to see how fast it was going to print color. This was replacing my LaserJet Brother printer, which is truly amazing, but only prints in black and white.

I only use a printer for mundane purposes. Print out b/w documents, scan b/w **bleep**, and on rare occasions, I purchased this printer, in hopes of printing out colorful marketing material. Needless to say, I have never printed out anything using color that looked halfway decent, to the point that I will send what I need color printed to Walgreens (yes I totally said Walgreens) where their (not great) quality is better than what I have printed from this printer.

When looking up the specs to this printer now, I almost laugh. I have some decent knowledge on printers and I do know that I have it setup correctly and have it installed correctly. These issues below are not due to ID10T user errors. And I have contacted Canon a million times over these issues; they are never able to help, my call gets disconnected, they are supposed to call me back, I am unable to get through to them, they have me install/reinstall, they have me go online to search the community, etc. Here is currently and has remained ongoing issues since the mistake of purchasing this printer. I am unsure of what some of the options are available, as I have messed with every single one of them to help with any of the below or did it upon the advice from their support. I have uninstalled/reinstalled this device so many times as well as reformatted to factory settings. 

• the advertised 22ppm is ridiculous....I might get 3 ppm...on a good day
• Warm up? Mine takes over 5 minutes and then for some reason it just keeps making noise after noise, I have warm up either turned off or as minimal as possible
• I go through ink like crazy...even while on black and white
• settings love to change on me all the time
• constant errors for anything I try to do
• copy is the worst, it will copy for sure, but when trying out the new ID print....joke
• I also purchased this thinking it prints 10x13 or 11x17, I did not realize that you only get  8.5x11 or the feed for the longer paper, I am more than sure that it was advertised as such when I purchased it.
• for some reason I have yet to figure out why this printer makes freaking noises all the time. It will sound like its going to print something even though I haven't printed anything. AND even when you do print, you will sit there for the first 5 minutes questioning if it is going to print. 

This printer is the worst business decision I believe I have ever made. I have wasted so much time because of it. Because I didn't know about all these issues until almost a year later, I was unable to return it.

I have tried multiple things to get this to print faster. I have switched internet providers (I have fiber internet with amazing speeds), I have tried direct connect, I have tried direct to modem, I have tried cleaning every single option, I can go on and on of every single thing I have tried to get this to print faster, to save ink, to stop making noises like it is going to print, to get it to start up faster, to get the info to it faster....nothing works.

I saw that someone local to me was selling one exactly like mine, so I reached out and explained that I was not interested in buying theirs as I had one exactly like it, but was curious if they hated theirs as well. We spent hours talking about how much we hated this printer. If you ever have the honor of watching "Office Space" and see the "printer" scene....I dream of it.

And as for anyone who comes at me with, "why haven't you purchased a new one"? For the first couple of years, it was because this joke of a printer was so freaking expensive at the time I purchased it for my business, that I knew that I would never be able to sell it. But also because I kept thinking that maybe someday it will work correctly. Maybe someday they will come out with the exact fix it needs or maybe we all get lucky and there will be a recall and they will issue us all new ones...that was my initial thought. As of now, I am back to using my Brother and even though it doesn't print color, that thing has been kicking a** for about 10 years now with no issues. And the ink isn't pathetically overpriced. 

Plus, it burns the fire in my soul to know that I spew hatred all over the internet for all to see in hopes they don't make the same mistake I have.

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

Sorry to hear about your disatisfaction.  All I can do is share my experience.  It sounds like you have some serious issues that probably have logical explanations.  I really like my 644.  So much so I purchased a 656.  It's a great printer too.  

My printers both start to print in about 10 sec once the print button is pressed.  We occasionally print power points docs, some with 35+ slides which are often fairly graphics intensive and it only takes a few minutes.  Very speedy.

The color graphics are awesome.  Vibrant, perfect gradient and tones.  I was blown away by the broad color gamut I get from the 644 and 656.  Printed photos look good too.  If I use higher quality 96 brightness paper it takes things to another level.

Double sided stuff takes a bit longer, but no complaints doing that either.

Paper size support is not a problem.  I read the specs prior to purchase and knew what I was getting.  The ScanGear software can stich files together to, but I haven't needed it.  

I'm not using for business, but use the devices about 5 days a week.  Almost everyday except weekends.  

The printers sit quietly in sleep mode waiting for a job.  I am very particular.  One thing I don't have time for is printing problems.  It has to be fast and look good.  

My printer experience differs greatly from yours.  I'm sorry your printer hasn't lived up to your expectations.  

[jkytta]

I'm with you Jacquelyn, I hate my 644. I constantly have problems printing because it goes to sleep and I have to wake it at the panel. It takes minutes to communicate with the printer and the color sucks. I'm going back to inkjet and I am not buying Canon. I also purchased the expensive toner recently and the magenta was streaking. I had to take time to troubleshoot the problem which turned out to be the toner (the new toner could not be returned because the time was too long, so you'd better not have any just sitting around as a backup because you might get a defective (new) cartridge and throw away $100)! Then they expect us to return the empty cartridge which they probably use as a new one (sustainability). I'm done.

[cpdanish]

Hi there: I just purchased a variant of that printer: MF654CDW. I am curious if you were ever able to get it to print on 11x17, even if it was by feeding the paper through manually? Sorry you had such a bad experience over all. I am thinking of returning mine, since I also wanted to sometimes be able to print 11x17.

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

Printer specs including max paper size supported is on the devices support portal. 

https://www.usa.canon.com/shop/p/color-imageclass-mf654cdw?color=White&type=New&srsltid=AfmBOorppZIj...

The MF654CDW supports 8.5 x 14.

11 x 17 is considered large format.  Canon has these printers as well 

https://www.usa.canon.com/shop/printers/large-format-printers

[cpdanish]

Yes -- I think those large format printers are all ink-jet though. Epson also has a big line of those. They seem to always be inkjet. I was looking for a way to get it with laser printing. It is very difficult to find something laser without spending well over $1000. That's why I thought if there was a way to add the 11x17 function into the printer software/settings and then just feed it in manually-- maybe it might work. But alas, I have never found anyone who could tell me if they achieved that.

[mreg]

The printer making repeated noises may be the auto correction functions working.  They also use toner.  You can turn them off.  It's in the manual.  If you can you may want to connect it to Ethernet to see its full speeds.  I have the 656, which is not too different than your model, and have seen none of the problems you describe.  Sometimes a first print will take time -- maybe 20 seconds, but print speeds are as advertised.  If you're on WiFi, a lot of data is moving around, and your WiFi configuration can affect printing speed.