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Thread ID: 47533	2004-07-29 05:39:00	Printer consumables, replace or upgrade..?	Exwesty (5639)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
256347	2004-07-29 05:39:00	Your thoughts please. I have a Brother HL laser printer and just lately the drum light has come on, denoting that the printer feels that it is time for a new drum unit. Ok the life cycle is approx 20,000 copies and sure it's probably done that. My thoughts are as follows and i'd like your opinions as well. A new toner cartridge for this printer is $150+ for the 5000 page at 5% coverage, i know i just bought a new one. A new drum unit is $250 However Brother are advertising a new printer for $400 which will have a new drum and a 3000 page toner cartridge + a warrenty and i'll even bet that the DPI rate is higher than the current 600DPI supported by my current printer. Whats more the same toner cartridge will fit it as well, meaning i could use my unopened brand new cart in the future. Ok do I buy a new Drum for my old printer or hop in to the shop and buy a new printer and get better quality, + more toner and a warrenty? Don't ask me how Brother etc justify their prices, a new HP cartridge which includes a drum unit can be had for most of their range for around $150. i guess it comes back to the manufacturers making their money on the consumables, whats interesting though is that the more you pay at the start the consumables are cheaper, so which works out better in the long run?	Exwesty (5639)
256348	2004-07-29 05:57:00	I would be inclined to go for the new printer. If you've had the 20000 pages from the drum, you have probably done pretty well. I'm surprised the Brother toner cartridge is so expensive. I was under the impression that their price/page was pretty competitive (even including 1/20000 th of a drum per page). The design differences are based on different philosophies, I suppose: HP have always tended to do the "buy a cartridge and you've got a new drom/inkjet head" argument that you always have top quality. It may not even be an HP descision ... they have always bought in their laser printer engines. Brother have said that it's a waste of resources to throw away a good drum every few thousand pages, when you can make a good drum last for a long time.	Graham L (2)
256349	2004-07-29 06:17:00	My experience with Brother and Panasonic lasers with non-replacement drum toner units made me go the HP way. Like you I saw the replacement cost of the drums as ridiculous given the cost of a new printer. I could not get 10,000 prints from a drum though. The quality fell off before it thought the drum was worn out. Probably OK for home use where quality is not a high concern, but for a small business it was too poor after about 6,000 copies. When the Panasonic needed a new drum it was cheaper to get a new printer. Got the Brother then, and it wasn't long before that was the same, so gave up buying printers to throw in the tip at that stage. My HP 2100 does close to 10,000 pages per toner/drum unit.	godfather (25)
256350	2004-07-29 06:44:00	I sort of agree with Graham in that yes I too would go for a new printer - only to get rid of the Brother and to buy an HP . Trouble is you will have 2 printers . However, the other way of looking at it is that the cost of the toner cartridges is like the petrol in your car and the drum is like the tyres - they are both costs incurred with running the printer and at 4 . 25 cents per page it is a little high but it isn't too bad . Unfortunately you can't push the Brother drums past the 20k mark because the print quality is absolute rubbish and if you do replace the drum then you will need to reset the maintenance count - I once found the instructions on how to do this for a client on the Brother website - the printer won't let you print once you get about 5% over the 20k page mark . In addition to the toner and drum, I suspect that the fuser will also need replacing after about 100k pages (someone correct me if I am wrong, but I'm pretty sure the Brother printers have fusers like the HP range) - you can liken this to the cambelt in the car that needs replacing every 100,000 kms . Fusers aren't cheap and if you do hang onto your printer and go through a number of drums, then the time to dump the printer is when the fuser needs replacing (if the printer is still going) . Lets say you do buy the new Brother and go through 3 cartridges before you need to replace the drum again, then the total cost will be about $850 ($400 + 3 x $150) to print 18000 pages = 4 . 7 cents per page, or if you use half of a 4th cartridge then the cost is 4 . 6 cents per page - as you can see there is not a lot in it when compared to the 4 . 25c/page . Personally, I would look for a better permanent solution - e . g . an acceptable personal laser printer is the HP1300 - the cartridges are about $120 for 4k pages but after 20k pages you have spent $600 on cartridges versus $850 for the Brother drum and cartridges . And as Godfather has correctly pointed out there are other options with HP printers (such as the 2100, 4+, 5, 5P, 6P, 1200 etc . - the 5P, 6P & 2100 were over-engineered and are bloody good printers) - I personally have seen many many many HP printers that have done upwards of 200k pages and they are still going strong - in fact the largest page count I ever saw was on an HP printer with 2 . 5 million pages and it is still going well to this day . And yes you are right, the cheaper the up-front cost (like an inkjet) then the more you get nailed on the consumables and vice versa . If you buy another printer then you will be trapped in the same cycle again . But the whole thing will come down to how much printing you do - if you only do 20k pages every 2 years then the cost savings are irrelevant given the increased upfront cost with an HP printer (and if you buy a used one you may need a new fuser) .	andrew93 (249)
256351	2004-07-29 21:31:00	From personal engineering experience printer manufactuers generally design printers around a life cycle of 18months, yes it sounds bad but they want you to upgrade to a newer model not sit on the same old thing for years and years like we all do :) most parts arent replacable these days, its usually easier to buy a new printer then fix one.	Budda (2736)
256352	2004-07-29 21:48:00	> From personal engineering experience printer > manufactuers generally design printers around a life > cycle of 18months, yes it sounds bad but they want > you to upgrade to a newer model not sit on the same > old thing for years and years like we all do :) > > most parts arent replacable these days, its usually > easier to buy a new printer then fix one. This may be the case for a brand such as Brother but some of the HP printers were over-engineered plus you can still get replacement parts for HP printers that are 8 years old or more.	andrew93 (249)
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