Panasonic KX-FHD331 Plain Paper Fax

• Caller ID compatible
• Answering machine interface
• 9.6 Kpbs modem speed
• Uses plain paper
• 6-month warranty with exchange program

I bought this item largely based on the two 5-star reviews on this site and of course its very low price. I''m now feeling a bit disappointed.

After setting the machine up, I discovered there are a couple of things I''m not crazy about. First, the unit uses thermal heat transfer, so you need to buy "ink film" instead of ink cartridges. An entire page worth of film gets used every time you receive a fax or make a copy, regarless of whether the page is BLANK or totally BLACK. This can add up to a lot of waste. Sometimes I like to make a copy of something that doesn''t take up a whole page, like a shopping receipt, and I''m paying for a whole black page with this machine. (Faxes work out to about ten cents a copy, depending of course on what you pay for ink film refills.)

Second, the used ink film serves as a negative of every fax you''ve received and every copy you''ve made. If you receive anything confidential or sensitive, you''re going to want to be careful about how you dispose of your used ink film because you can read every letter printed on the film.

Third, the page-feed mechanism used for scanning documents seems incapable of handling anything other than a regular sheet of paper. I have tried several times to copy a 3x5 inch shopping receipt with this unit, and so far I haven''t succeeded. My old unit could handle that task easily.

I''m left to consider returning the unit for one that can handle smaller pieces of paper and that doesn''t use the ink film technology.

In fairness, I should also point out the things I do like about the unit. An advantage of the ink film is that it is actually water-resistant, unlike the ink supplied in some cartridges (like the one my old machine used). The set-up for this machine, while not as simple as some units, was doable within a few minutes. Note however that I didn''t like the fact that I had to enter a two digit code from the manual to set up some features -I couldn''t just flip through menus to get what I wanted. There are lots of options for setting up distinctive ring tone answering, and you can choose the number of rings before fax pick-up (between 1 and 3 rings, inclusive). It''s a small machine which is nice for small workspaces. You can choose three different ring types (though they are all pretty similar) and you can alter volume both for rings and for the handset.

Bottom line: this affordable machine will be great for some users, but unfortunately I''m not one of them.

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When I first got the machine I sent a 1 page fax and it worked okay, so I threw the packaging away. After that every time I send a multi-page fax The pages get stuck & go through together. I use good quality paper & fan it out, but even after multiple attempts I get the same results. Now the new thing is, even when I put the documents in one at a time, some of the pages don''t get acknowledged and I get an error message. I tried calling the help line but they don''t have weekend coverage. Now I''m trying to figure out if I''m better off sending it for repair, or just throwing it in the garbage where it belongs and trying again with another make and model. I really don''t know if this thing is worth any more of my time. Take my advise, stay away from this machine. By the way, this machine doesn''t deserve close to one star, but they don''t have zero stars as an option for the rating.

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should you buy this machine. it has been a disaster. after two months, it failed to automatically feed pages-they all get stuck. it is hard to load. i thought i would save a few bucks by getting a cheap fax, but now, less than a year after buying it, i am giving up and buying another one. this was plain awful.

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fails to properly feed sheets (they appear to stick together); can''t print for s---.

Enough said; saved you $89.95.

Have had this unit for about 5 months. Have had no problems and it has all the features I need. Salesperson recommended this one over Sharp and Brother. I doubt if there is much difference between the three in this price range but I have no reason to wish I had bought a different machine. I love the integrated phone system and use it as my main phone at home. If you are looking for a fax machine in this price range I think you will find this one is a good choice.