Canon PIXMA TR8620a – All-in-One Printer Home Office|Copier|Scanner|Fax|Auto Document Feeder | Photo, Document | Airprint (R), Android, Black, Works with Alexa

Excellent printer, happy after one year.
ETA: the printer has been working well. Recently, I had an unusual job requiring the printing of hundreds of pages. It worked flawlessly. Also, it is very easy to refill the ink, which Aoyama is recommended. Do not buy Canon cartridges, a waste of money. Just a few drops of ink will make the cartridges like new. Strongly recommend this printer.Previous review: The only requirement for a printer is just to work – to do its job when needed. This one has been tested for several weeks, not 20 years like one of my previous printers, thus, it is too early to rate. Nevertheless, I hesitated quite a bit because of negative reviews before buying; and this review with “nominal” 5-star is just to allay the fear of someone who might hesitate like me:1- Setting up isn’t that smooth, but it is hard to blame Canon, because the printer has many features, functions, so, smart things are usually a bit complicated. One has to be patient to go through and set it up correctly. Once it is done, with all the Canon software (just basic, not fancy) installed, it will do its job.2- Printing: since it is new, hard to know when “paper/carriage jams” will occur. I threw away my 3-yr old HP printer because even though it was hardly used, the “paper/carriage jam” problem was beyond tolerable, not to mention misprinting, misaligned on non-common media such as envelopes, checks, labels, etc. Hence, those are the things I tested on this Canon, and so far, with two trays, one cassette for letter-size paper, and one rear feeder for uncommon sizes, the printer works. It works, that was all to be asked of it. How many years (or months) will it work is a different matter.Bottom line, not fancy, but it works so far because it is new. Its print quality is decent for its class of inkjet printers in a similar price range. Photo printing on Canon glossy paper is quite nice looking. I don’t have a need for heavy printing, just occasional usages, less than a dozen pages at a time with regular black/color. So far, it is very nice and trouble-free. In particular, I recalled frequent problems with my previous HP inkjet printer when printing thick and odd-size envelopes. This one so far is very reliable. I only hope that it will continue working without HP’s classic “paper/carriage jam” troubles.A last note: it is well-known that HP makes money by selling very expensive ink. The rate of ink usage of this printer so far is much better than that of HP.So, if one is considering a low-end full-function, all-in-one printer, I would recommend this over any equivalent HP. I will never buy a HP again.

Look for replacement ink first!
When our eight year old Canon MX492 printer died in the process of printing a single page (and I couldn’t get it to work after two hours), I decided it was time to replace it. I queried Google and was offered the suggestion of a Canon Pixma TR8620a. Looking at the description it seemed to be an ideal candidate. It was described as an ‘all in one’ printer. It also listed as a special feature, “Five individual ink tank system, Wireless printing, 20-sheet ADF for scanning and copying, Borderless printing up to 8.5 x 11″ and square format printing, Built-in auto duplex printing”. Sounded great. I had decided some time ago that I would try to purchase a printer that used tanks instead of cartridges when I needed to replace the MX492. It looked like this was the time.When I installed the ‘tanks’, I noted that the instructions cautioned to not cover the “Y” shaped hole when installing them – I figured that the Y shaped hole might serve as a fill port. After I removed the orange cover on the ‘tank’, I saw what appeared to be a print head – odd that it would be on the ‘tank’. That’s because the ‘tank’ really a cartridge. What a bummer.Because that I was that far along, I went ahead and installed the software on two computers and managed to AirPrint from two different IOS devices. I figured that the five ‘tank’ (actually cartridge) system would be an improvement over the MX492 that used two cartridges – color and black. When any of the three colors was gone in the MX492 color cartridge, there was no way I could envision to get the use of the ink in the remaining two colors. The five cartridge system MUST be better. Perhaps it is, but while I haven’t spent copious amounts of time looking for single cartridges I haven’t yet found anything but a four pack or five pack for replacements. This is a disappointment.The setup instructions were brief and well written (as long as there was no need to connect the device to anything else (i.e., ready use it as a standalone copier or fax). When it was time to connect to WiFi, I tried the Easy Wireless Connect but it apparently couldn’t find the router (I waited more than two minutes before clicking on Alternative Methods). I ended up entering the WiFi password at the screen on the printer. Connection to the network was reported as successful, but the first time I tried to connect to it from the computer it didn’t work; second attempt worked.The printer seems to work OK. So far (two days later) the only things I’ve needed to print were black and they did fine; most on regular weight paper; one on card stock. The scanner seems to work OK from the operator panel (scanning to a computer on the same network; haven’t yet tried scanning from the computer). All in all, it seems to be a decent printer for the money but it is not a printer that has refillable tanks.