Brother FAX-2840 High Speed Mono Laser Fax Machine, Dark/Light Gray - FAX2840, 17.750x18.125x16.625

This fax machine is excellent. However, the "deep sleep" mode problem is real. Pasting together several comments that appeared online, I learned the following. 1) The machine will spontaneously go into regular sleep mode when not in use. This saves energy. In regular sleep mode the machine will wake up and received faxes normally. So, that is good. 2) After a certain time (that you can set from the Ecology menu), left to its own devices, the machine will fall into "deep sleep" mode. This mode saves more power than regular sleep mode. However, the machine in deep sleep mode will only wake up and become able to receive faxes if: a) one physically touches a key, b) one lifts the handset, or c) if it received data from a computer or network. This will only happen if the fax machine is used as a printer, attached to a computer or a network. So, if one wants to use it as a stand-alone fax machine or one wants to receive faxes at all times, the deep sleep mode needs to be turned off. This is not an intuitive project.To turn off the Deep Sleep mode you need to do the following: Press Menu. With the up and down arrows select 1. General Setup, press OK. Select 4. Ecology, press OK. Select 2. Sleep Time, press OK. Then, with the two-digit sleep time still on the screen, PRESS TOGETHER the LOW ARROW + START keys. The Deep Sleep menu will appear. You can then choose yes or no with the up and down arrows. Enter OK, then press Stop/Exit to exit the Manu mode.As much as the deep sleep mode is ecologically friendly, it remains incomprehensible why Brother made the access to controlling the Deep Sleep mode so hidden and arcane.The machine makes excellent copies and is a great printer. As to durability and cost of maintenance, remains to be seen.

After dealing with an HP inkjet fax in my restaurant that kept jamming and having dried up ink from, I decided I needed a compact laser that would fit in the allocated area.This fit the bill, except that it was white and every other piece of equipment in the area was black.Once I unboxed the unit, I used masking tape to cover the black areas and any open electronics. Using a simple flat black can of spray paint, I was able to make it all black. Nobody can tell it was painted even when I point it out to them. First problem fixed.I have had the unit for about 7 months and it has performed flawlessly. It even uses the same toner as a wireless Brother printer I have which is a bonus as well. This past week of course, I encountered the DEEP SLEEP curse that so many people speak of. The machine will do half a ring and act weird, but will not receive faxes. After some research and playing around, there is a solution, even though Brother has decided to hide the feature.You ARE able to disable DEEP SLEEP.Go to General Settings, Ecology, Sleep Mode. When it asks you to change the time before sleep, simultaneously press the START and DOWN ARROW buttons. You will now get the hidden option to Disable DEEP SLEEP mode. Disable it and enjoy your fax for many years to come.

It was too big, but I didn’t have a choice. It was the smallest one I could find.

Easy to operate/compact/reliable

This is an excellent fax machine. In my home office, it replaces an HP FAX-900, which provided many years of yeoman service but finally reached the end of its useful service life. Before that, I had a thermal-printing Canon, for which, back in the day, I must have paid about ten times what I paid for this Brother unit. It's really quite astounding.You've read all the reviews. This machine delivers very high input and output quality. It's fast; it works; and consumables are affordable. I wouldn't haven't bothered you with yet another review were it not to report that the "deep sleep" issue seems to have been resolved. On my unit, at least, it is not a problem at all. All tests confirm that the machine comes out of deep sleep instantly and receives incoming faxes without missing a beat. Of course, I can't guarantee that you won't have the problem with your particular sample.I would also exhort buyers to RTFM (including the Advanced User's Guide on disk). Of particular importance, I think, is the telephone line compatibility setting (Menu, 2, 0, 1), which is actually an item in the quick setup guide. Many of you have VoIP service and don't even know it. Even if you have a traditional POTS copper pair, there might be VoIP involved in any given connection. So, if you're having problems, check that setting.There aren't a whole lot of options out there for dedicated fax machines these days. I'm really happy Brother has given me this choice.

After receiving this fax at our business we set it up and received a couple of faxes. Things seemed good to go. Then we started getting calls from people who said that they were trying to send faxes and the line just kept ringing and ringing. We didn't totally believe them so we tested it out. Sure enough - sometimes when we called (from a cell phone) it answered and then other times it didn't. This fax replaced a old fax on a dedicated fax line that has worked perfectly for years, so it wasn't anything in the setup up to the fax machine itself.When you look at the screen when it's not answering it's in "deep sleep" mode. This is apparently different than just regular "sleep mode." So you would think, "I'll just turn off deep sleep mode and that will solve the problem," except that you CAN'T turn off deep sleep mode. It's part of the "ECO" aspect of the fax and it's impossible to shut off in any of the menus.So there you have it: a fax that receives faxes . . . . sometimes. . . . Not a very useful quality in a fax machine. You might think that I just got a lemon but Google this problem and see what you find. I'm not saying it's 100% of the faxes that do this, but clearly the one I got isn't the only one.