Reliability

[dckm]

How would you rank Kyocera in reliability? Muratec? Sharp?

How would you rank Kyocera in reliability? Muratec? Sharp?

Canon is reliable.

With the right service, but this speaks for all vendors.
There's that saying; The machine is as good and reliable as your technician..

[Jules Winfield]

Kyocera machines are good machines provided you use OEM supplies and they're usually cheaper to run than most. I've heard really good things about Muratech as well. I've heard nothing but horror stories about Sharp. But really, when it comes down to it, you should go with the dealer that offers the best service when purchasing a copier/printer. Usually you can figure out which service company is best by looking at how many technicians they have, how many machines they service and how large of a geographical area they cover. Basically you want the largest amount of techs covering the smallest amount of machines in the smallest geographical area.

[OMD-227]

In regards to 'Horror Stories' about Sharp, I can only agree with that for machines prior to maybe 2003/2004.
Sharp has done a complete overhaul of most engine designs, totally started from scratch with the MX color machines and have done heaps of R&D with the MXM Hercules series. I would say that these changes completely saved Sharp in this industry. Techs who know Sharp as well as I do, would completely agree that the color machines prior to the MX series and the B/W machines prior to the ARM series were a total PIG to work on. They were unreliable, short maintance counts and generally difficult at the best of times.
Having worked on Sharps for the best part of 15 years now, I would say that the current range, and everything produced in the last 5 years has been almost bullet-proof. This has been evident with the amount of machines we are putting out in the field, and major contracts we have been taking over.

I must add to this that I only work on the higher-end and color machines. In my role, I dont service the smaller range of machines, but from talking with the other guys who do, they have been pretty happy with them as well.

When I first started, I worked alot on Minolta's. I was at a dealership with Minolta & Sharp as the main products. We pushed the sales of the Minolta's probably the hardest, and they were a reliable beast I must admit. I worked on a fleet of the DI-520 & DI-620's. For their age and design, they were great.

I haven't had alot to do with other brands over the years. Guess I'm lucky to have an extensive background with just one or two companies, which has helped alot. I can only speak on the reliability of Sharp & Minolta. I honestly wouldnt touch anything else.

My 0.02.