What's a reasonable life time for a consumer laser printer?

[NeoPTLD]

I just got a Samsung ML-1740 printer and even though they rate the printer as 15,000 page / month duty cycle, manual recommends replacing these internal parts at 60,000 pages, preferebly by a service center. I'm sure the cost of buying these parts as repair parts exceeds the purchase cost.

Paper Feeding Roller
Transfer Roller
Pick-up roller
Fuser Unit

 

[wisdomtooth]

If you are a typical home user who prints stuff only occasionally, a laser printer can last you YEARS.

While I was a high school and college student, I did put my laser printer through its paces, doing two or three papers (or more) a month. And I'm still using my original Epson ActionLaser 1500 that I purchased back in 1987! The toner cartridge is still half-full, and the printer still works a champ.

Best damn $700 investment I've ever made.

 

[NeoPTLD]

Originally posted by: wisdomtooth
If you are a typical home user who prints stuff only occasionally, a laser printer can last you YEARS.

While I was a high school and college student, I did put my laser printer through its paces, doing two or three papers (or more) a month. And I'm still using my original Epson ActionLaser 1500 that I purchased back in 1987! The toner cartridge is still half-full, and the printer still works a champ.

Best damn $700 investment I've ever made.

I'm sure the $100 Samsung printer isn't built to the same standard is a almost two decade old $700 unit though.

 

[wisdomtooth]

LOL, I thought newer things are supposed to be better, no?

 

[vegetation]

Originally posted by: NeoPTLD
I just got a Samsung ML-1740 printer and even though they rate the printer as 15,000 page / month duty cycle, manual recommends replacing these internal parts at 60,000 pages, preferebly by a service center. I'm sure the cost of buying these parts as repair parts exceeds the purchase cost.

Paper Feeding Roller
Transfer Roller
Pick-up roller
Fuser Unit

I don't understand. If you need a printer with that kind of duty cycle then you don't want the lowest end of laser printers because consumables will run you bankrupt. Taking a hint from inkjets, consumer laser manufacturer's have realized the money is in toner/drums and so low end units will eat them up for lunch, although still many orders of magnitude more economical than an inkjet.

 

[wseyller]

Typically the maintenance kits are much cheaper than the printer cost, although this may not be true with small home office laser printers, but cost can vary with different manufacturers. HP is very good compared to others with cost of printer parts and kits. It is recommended by the manufacturer to change these items when the maintenance interval comes around. The parts may last a lot longer than the interval though and you will not ruin your printer if you don't change them. This can vary for many different reasons such as the invironment your printer is in. A warehouse in high heat and low humidity with lots of dust in the air will quickly wear down parts. Using bad quality paper can destroy these parts. Using cartridges that drill and fill recyclers make when they use the wrong toner and the melting point of the toner and the flow characteristics is not correct and builds up on the fuser unit. Not trying to scare you about remanufacturered cartridges but some people out there don't do it right. I'm an expert in the electrophotographic process in laser cartridges so I know what is happening in that industry. The worst that will happen when delaying the maintenance is your print quality will slowly degrade and get worse over time. Normally transfer rollers last forever, only problem is when it gets soiled with toner or when people decide they to screw around with them and touch them with their oily, dirty fingers. The fuser unit does wear over time due to friction of moving parts, paper, and toner. It is possible with some fuser defects to clean the upper and lower fuser rollers from toner, but this can be difficult depending on the fuser and a persons machanical ability. If it gets to the point when you can't tolerate the quality then you can change the parts. The only thing I strongly recommend you do is clean the machine at least because cleaning is normally done during maintenance time and it critical that it is done. Another problem you may see is paper pickup problems due the the pickup rollers or separation pads wearing out. If not too worn you can clean the rollers with a rubber roller cleaner (not alcohol), because sometimes the rollers slip due to build up of paper dust.

 

[shortylickens]

To supplement what wseyller said:
You can order maintenance kits from fixyourownprinter.com.
These little investments can increase the lifespan of your printer.

My dads HP LJ 4L worked well for about 5 years. And he didnt even take good care of it.
My HP LJ 1000 has worked fine for 3 years now. Never a bad print. And suprising quality too.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Those old HP LaserJets are virtually un-killable, just like those old dot-matrix printers were. I have an OKIData "LED Page Printer" that someone gave to me, it was scheduled for a drum replacement (every three toner carts), but it's been running fine for lighter duty for me for quite some time now.