Ricoh MFP

[Mr_Jiminy]

Just wondered what peoples thoughts are with Ricoh MFP's.

 

We're going through a tender process, included in the mix are Sharp, Kyocera and the above.

[smithson83]

We have two here, they aren't terrible, but not had much else to compare them to. The engineers are quick to respond and helpful with queries.

[localzuk]

We have been running Ricoh MFPs for 6 years now. They're by no means perfect (the perfect MFP simply doesn't exist), but they're pretty good. Engineers are pretty good too, getting things repaired quickly when things do break.

 

Works well with Papercut MF too.

[Mr_Jiminy]

Thanks

 

I had experience with Sharp and found the user interface and web interface somewhat dated.

 

I've just come back from viewing a Kyocera, which although not the prettiest looking device, did seem to have an easy navigation UI.

[dhicks]

I had experience with Sharp and found the user interface and web interface somewhat dated.

 

As in you found the Ricoh interface somewhat dated compared to Sharp's interface? We have Ricoh machines here, and as pointed out above they work okay and integrate well enough with Papercut. The user interface on the devices could do with updating - people are used to slick, iPad-like interfaces, Ricoh's seems to be rather cluttered and confusing at times. In particular, the way it reports errors is causing confusion: the device will give a "warning, low on toner" message whenever toner levels of one toner (out of four) hits a certain level (20%-ish, I think). With four toners in each colour machine, each machine pretty much always has a "low toner" warning blinking away on the screen. It's annoying and distracting and confuses people when there is an actual error (a paper jam or similar) as the device beeps and flashes a red light next to a separate button you need to press to actually read what the error is. We get quite a lot of phone calls along the lines of "The printer is beeping and saying there is no toner" when there's actually something different wrong.

 

Will maintainance of the devices be down to Ricoh directly or down to a third-party company of some kind? If the latter, it's that company that you want to check out - the actual hardware is pretty reliable, but you need to know whether the maintainance company has parts available in stock for when things do go wrong or whether they have to wait a couple of days for delivery.

[Michael]

Out the four, Ricoh have the better/best drivers. The devices are generally pretty good too.

[Sagima]

We have 30 odd. They do the job and other than our primary teachers' uncanny ability to break the paper trays they are pretty reliable. We have papercut and use our door access cards to release prints from them.

Most of the time they come the same day to fix the problems but there aren't that many.

Our current contract is up for renewal in the summer but we aren;t looking to change the printer brand when we do

[jmak]

We're leasing direct from Ricoh - can't comment on long term reliability as they've only been in since September, but so far they're an improvement on the Kyoceras we had previously. The leasing agreements and account manager were straightforward to deal with and the pricing clear and competitive. Service requests have been dealt with very promptly.

 

As @Michael says, the drivers seem to be less problematic than others I've endured.

[MatthewL]

I had experience with Sharp and found the user interface and web interface somewhat dated.

 

I suspect you had older machines or the more basic models.

 

The machines with 10" displays that tilt all have this interface now:

http://aristadoes.com/wp-content/uploads/Sharp-new-color-copier-interface.png

 

It's just about to have an upgrade when the new machines are launched in the next few weeks, it based around the above but with some modern looks to it.

[ben_mayo]

We have two Ricoh MFP's which is used by all staff for printing off everything that is needed for the lessons. Not had any problems with them yet and especially driver wise I've not had an issue like I sometimes get with some other printers.

[PrimaryNetMan]

Have 5 MP C5503s for the past year with close to 1M pages printed across the fleet. Agree with some of the posts above.

 

Pros:

Cost - Lowest rental and cost per print when we went out to tender.

Support - Great initial training, engineers visit with 4h, however if you get any printers included as part of an agreement there will be lots of head scratching by them.

Supply Ordering - All supplies can be ordered with a couple of clicks via their portal.

Reliability - Only one of the devices has required engineer visits, and that's when one just spat all it's toner everywhere inside requiring 2 days engineers time and many many boxes.

Drivers - Drivers are hugely customisable. Being able to have only hold print available at the driver has reduced waste no end. Also works well with the Google Cloud Print beta installed on our print server.

 

Cons:

Managing address books across devices can be fiddly

Device Web interface is slow. Often get device in use please try again when trying to save changes. It helpfully forgets your changes so you have to go through the process again.

Warning Lights - As @dhicks mentioned, they like to flash lights when at 20% and yes with 4 bottles they will be doing it a lot.

 

Some of the cons may not be an issue with papercut though.

[LeMarchand]

One of my schools has been using Ricoh for a while, and the only problems we have had are that our LEA wants silly amounts to unblock ports for automatic supply ordering purposes and that if it's an unusual change, you need to get the "right" engineer/person to do it. I still don't think they've got AD integration set up and they've denied that using Google Cloud print is possible.

 

Also works well with the Google Cloud Print beta installed on our print server.

 

So I'd be interested in how this works!

[PrimaryNetMan]

So I'd be interested in how this works!

 

TBF you don't get the same functionality as when printing from a windows device, so depending on your requirements this may or may not be of use. The following has been enough so far;

 

Create a copy of the printer and set the preferences. If you want colour then this has to be the default as if the default is black Chrome wont override it. Our driver only has hold print and this is set in the driver to "chromebk"

 

Make sure you can print to it from your server as you would normally, make sure the above settings work as intended.

 

Install Google Cloud Print Service for Windows https://support.google.com/a/answer/3179170?hl=en and follow the steps to add the printer to Cloud Print for your GAFE Domain

 

From your GAFE admin add the printer to your managed Chromebooks

 

Your users will now see the printer available and when they print the job will be held at the copier for collection later under the ID "chromebk".

 

There is also this from Ricoh - https://www.ricoh-usa.com/products/software/product_details2.aspx?cid=148&scid=162&sid=2794&ptm=overview still waitingg on my rep to get back to me regarding costs.

Edited February 4, 2016 by PrimaryNetMan

[LeMarchand]

TBF you don't get the same functionality as when printing from a windows device, so depending on your requirements this may or may not be of use. The following has been enough so far;

 

Thanks! I'll have a play when I'm there next. At least the person you spoke to knew about that option!

[cheesits]

Personally I've found Sharp to be the lesser of two evils. But would recommend either them or Ricoh and they both come with apps for Apple/Android devices.

[witch]

We have a Ricoh MFP and the company were very helpful and sent out a nice engineer to rejig the drivers so the performance, hold, etc was exactly as we wanted as I couldnt get it right using the GUI.

The copier seems to break down quite often but the engineers are quick to come and sort it out.

[Edu-IT]

Managing address books across devices can be fiddly

In what way? I found exporting it out of one, and back in to others, a doddle. I believe there's also a program you can use to manage the address books.

[sonofsanta]

Slowly but surely our entire repro room has moved onto Ricoh machines. Repro lady loves 'em.

[truebluesteve]

We've got 13 Ricoh MFD's here and they have given us good service over the last 4 years however many of them have started to break down quite frequently over the last 18 months. This is mainly due to them being thrashed to death rather than any quality issues with the machines themselves. Our support company have been very good and engineers are here on almost a daily basis!

 

Our main repo copier is a 907ex which has a finisher unit that does everything bar making the tea, and has been out of action for 10 days now and is waiting for parts :-(

 

On the plus side we are about to go out to tender for a new fleet of copiers and printers...

[CAWJames]

We have 9 Ricoh MFP's of varying ages, from an ageing 2400 to a new 6003, all work well and I have worked plenty of ways to automate them, I have a powershell script that asks for name of user and ID number, it then creates a user and fires it off to all 9 over the VPN or LAN, takes about 30 seconds I can share if it helps anyone. We also used to have the drivers customised to show pop up for printing auth, but we now are rolling out PaperCut release stations so that is being removed slowly but surely.

 

James

[clodhopper]

We went Ricoh on a fleet of 8 & 2 larger devices in the print room. Integrated with PapercutMF & "Followme"and they just work.

 

Have an @Remote box so they call an engineer automatically & order toner when we replace them.

 

If you're in Hampshire / south coast area drop me a line & I'll put you in contact with our account manager who is really good.

[mikkydoos]

I've found Ricoh really unreliable in the past. Moved to Sharp. Pretty good, not perfect.

 

I'd advise to get shot of whatever you get within 3 years. I've found this is around when they start wearing out.

 

We use a company called Midshire Bus. Systems. I managed to get an (almost) free colour copier and wrote in a 3 year change of machine into a 5 year contract. I found them very easy to negotiate with.

 

Recommended.

 

Oh and PaperCut is excellent too.

Edited February 11, 2016 by mikkydoos