Drums and toner in laser printers.

JohnD

JohnD

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i have been using laser printers for donkeys years. I am used to having a large cartridge that contains the drum, wipers, gears and rollers, which is replaced at infrequent intervals, and a separate toner cartridge that attaches to it.

on my current machine, the drum is rated at 25,000 pages and the toner at 7,000 pages. I can reset the drum page counter if it's still working well at higher usages.

I was looking at a change to an HP LaserJet Pro MFP M28w printer, and the "toner" cartridge is larger, and I don't see a replacement drum listed. Is it in the same assembly? What's normal practice in home printers? Or is the drum not treated as a "consumable?"
 
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The lower end cheaper printers have a single cartridge that contains everything. There are no other replaceable parts.
 
I have a HP Laser Jet Pro M252dw, which I assume will be somewhat similar to yours in some ways.

Mine has four separate cartridges - black, magenta, yellow and cyan. Each of these includes drum, roller, gears and who knows what else inside. (I've never dared to take one apart to look, as even empty I'm sure I'd get covered in unremovable powder!)

Each cartridge is a complete unit and I cannot replace any component parts, which is good for the above reason.

I think the printer contains at least one more drum which, I believe, is heated to fix the powder, though I don't fully understand the complete workings.

Where I used to work, however, we had a more professional printer in which you could remove and change only the containers of the powders. Usual practice was to take them out, give them a bit of a shake to redistribute the powder, and put them back in. They would certainly last longer and, of course, save money.

I haven't tried the 'shaking' procedure with my home unit, though. I might do so next time.
 
I think the business/expensive home/cheap must be the difference, as Flameport says.

My previous ones have all been ludicrously cheap to use, just bung in a toner refill occasionally, but now the drum and its wipers are worn out.

I thought I had a spare drum cartridge, but found it is for my previous model and doesn't fit.
 
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