Home > Support > How to assess the condition of a second hand or used laser printer
How to assess the condition of a second hand or used laser printer
If you are considering buying a second hand or a used laser printer that has not been
fully refurbished by us or another reputable supplier, the following check list will help you to access
its general condition. If you have already bought the printer, we will suggest some things you can do to
address any faults that you have identified. Many printer problems can be solved simply and relatively
cheaply eg by cleaning or replacing all of the feed rollers in the paper path.
The cartridge
We find that most second hand printers come with a toner cartridge that is either
almost empty or produces poor quality prints. Laser toner cartridges gradually deteriorate once
they are installed in a printer, particularly if the printer is not used for a considerable period
of time. You should check the print quality of graphics pages (half tones) as well as that of plain
text pages: graphics pages are much more likely to show-up print quality problems. Check that the
toner cartridge is not leaking as leaking toner can seriously damage a laser printer. If toner gets onto
the cartridge gears, you will hear a high pitched squeaking noise whenever the printer is operating.
If the printer makes loud groaning noises when operating, check that the noise is not coming from the
toner cartridge.
The easiest way to check on the condition of a toner cartridge is to swap it with a known
good cartridge. Investigate the price and the rated capacity of a genuine or a premium remanufactured
toner cartridge. See our pages entitled "What is a remanufactured toner cartridge" and "Why buy a
remanufactured toner cartridge from us?"
The fuser
The component that is most likely to wear out in a laser printer is the fuser. The role of
the fuser is to melt the toner and fix it (bake it) onto the page. After the toner is transferred to the paper, the paper
is fed between two fuser rollers, one of which is heated to about 180 degrees Celsius. In HP printers the fuser
is usually referred to as the fixing assembly. See our discussion on overhauling a fuser on our page entitled
"Does your printer need a service?".
A rebuilt exchange fuser will cost you around $250 for an average A4
commercial duty laser printer such as the models that we refurbish. A genuine, new fuser will cost you between
$400 and $800. We sell rebuilt exchange fusers and genuine fusers for Lexmark and HP printers. We also sell
spare parts if you decide to rebuild a fuser yourself. You may need to add an additional labour cost if you cannot
install the fuser yourself.
The memory
You should check how much memory is installed in the printer. There is a general
trend for the amount of memory required by a laser printer to increase as technology advances. One of
the significant changes between successive models is the amount of memory installed as standard by the
manufacturer. For example a Lexmark Optra S 1855N laser printer came with 8mb as standard whereas a
Lexmark T630N comes with 64mb as standard. Large PDF files and other files containing large quantities
of graphics require a lot of memory when the printer tries to convert your file into a bit map of the
page ready for printing. If the printer does not have sufficient memory, it will take it a long time
to print your graphics pages or it may not be able to produce the output at all. Colour laser printers
require much more memory than monochrome models.
We usually install an additional 32mb or 64mb of memory in every A4 monochrome laser
printer that we refurbish. We add up to 256mb to some of our refurbished colour printers. It can be quite expensive
to purchase additional printer memory. We sell an additional 64mb of RAM for most A4 monochrome printers for
$120 plus GST. You will find that prices are much higher elsewhere.
The page count
You should be aware that the page count recorded on many laser printers can be easily
changed. You should try to validate the reported page count by assessing it against the general condition
of the printer. Look at the amount of paper dust and toner that has accumulated inside the printer, the amount
of wear on the pickup rollers and the transfer roller, etc. We find that a second hand printer or a used laser printer
with a low reported page count is not necessarily a good buy. Firstly, the printer may have had its main circuit
board replaced and thus had its page count reset. Secondly, some leased printers that develop serious problems
early in their service life are not repaired but are put to one side until the lease expires: they may have a low page
count but they might require expensive repairs. Thirdly, printers (like cars) need to be used rather than left sitting
idle for long periods of time: the toner cartridge, the printer rollers and bearings can develop serious problems if
they are left sitting in one position for long periods of time.
The maintenance count
You should review our page entitled: "Does your laser printer need a service" in
our Support Section. You should note our description of a printer's maintenance count and investigate
the cost of a maintenance kit for your printer (parts and labour). We find that many printers are sold
to the second hand market just before the maintenance interval falls due. For example, a HP LaserJet 4000
has a recommended major service interval of 200,000 pages. In some situations, you may find that a printer
that has done 220,000 pages is a better buy than one that has done 180,000 pages because the printer that
has done 220,000 pages has already had a full maintenance kit installed.
You need to check the maintenance count that is recorded on the printer. For a HP LaserJet
printer, this is usually recorded under the heading "Pages since last maintenance" on the Configuration Page.
In Lexmark printers, the maintenance count is given in the Diagnostics Menu. When we refurbish a laser printer,
we reset the maintenance count and the page count to zero so that it is obvious that the printer is a fully refurbished
model.
A free quotation
We will be happy to advise you on the condition of your printer and give you a free
estimate of what it might cost to fix one particular problem or to restore the whole printer to a good and
reliable working condition. You should bear in mind that most of the selling price of our refurbished
printers reflects the cost of restoring them to prime condition: the purchase price of a second hand
laser printer is not a major component in our cost structure. Our selling price includes a premium
remanufactured toner cartridge, an additional 64mb RAM, a rebuilt fuser, a paper path kit, upgraded
firmware, a one month money-back guarantee and up to 12 months return-to-base warranty.
The following check list summarises the criteria that we use to assess the condition
of a second hand or used laser printer:
- Does the printer boot successfully and come to a "Ready" state when it is turned on?
- Are the on-board parallel, USB and network ports fully operational?
- Is the control panel and its LCD display in good working order?
- Are any of the exterior plastic panels broken or discoloured?
- What is the weight (indicative of the amount of toner left) and condition of the toner cartridge?
- How woud you rate the print quality produced by the printer for (a) text and (b) graphics?
- Does the printer make strange noises that are not typical of similar models?
- How many pages has the printer produced during its lifetime?
- Is the general appearance of the printer consistent with its reported page count?
- Are the page counts reported in the error log consistent with the reported total page count?
- How many pages has the printer produced since its last major service (maintenance count)?
- What is the manufacturer's recommended maintenance interval for the printer?
- What faults are recorded in the printer's error log? Are they difficult or expensive to fix?
- Does the print rub-off the page or is it well fixed to the paper?
- Are the printed pages creased or bent on one corner?
- Do you experience frequent paper jams even though you are using good quality paper?
- Does the printer feed multiple sheets of paper at the same time?
- Does the printer report a paper jam but you cannot find any paper caught in the printer?
- Can the printer produce a blank page that is completely clean and white all over?
- Can the printer produce a solid black page that is evenly covered with toner?
- Are there unwanted lines, toner shading, black marks, etc on the face side of printed every page?
- Are there dirty marks on the back of every printed page?
- Does it print repeated images (eg shadows of previous lines of text) down the page?
- Are there white gaps in the images that you print?
- Is the interior of the printer covered with paper dust and/or toner particles?
- Is the paper tray covered with spilt toner and paper dust?
- Is the primary charge roller covered with a loose black coating or sooty particles? (Lexmark printers)
- Is the cream plastic fuser wick cover turning brown from over heating? (Lexmark printers)
- Has the brown or grey/green Teflon coating on the upper fuser roller turned blue from overheating?
- Is the Teflon coated hot roller (upper fuser roller) scratched or scored? (Lexmark printers)
- Is the Teflon coating on the upper fuser roller almost worn away? Can you see bare metal showing?
- Is the fuser fixing film torn or are the edges of the film disintegrating? (HP printers)
- Is the surface of the silicon rubber pressure roller in the fuser torn or rippled?
- Is the silicon rubber pressure roller in the fuser out-of-round or noticeably deformed?
- Does the printer make thumping noises as the fuser rotates (out-of-round pressure roller)?
- Is the surface of the transfer roller starting to deteriorate?
- Have the rubber inserts on the paper pick-up rollers worn smooth or are they perished?
How to service your printer
- Remove the toner cartridge and take the printer outside.
- Remove the paper trays. Remove the fuser. Remove all plastic covers. Open all doors and access panels.
- Blow-out the inside of the printer, fuser, fan blades, etc. with compressed air (monochrome printers)
or use a vacuum cleaner (colour printers). Wear appropriate protective clothing and a mask to
prevent the inhalation of toner dust.
- Wipe out the interior of the printer using a micro-fibre cloth and methylated spirits.
- Wash all exterior plastic panels and replace any broken panels. Re-assemble panels
- Wash and clean the paper trays. Wipe and clean the paper pick-up rollers and all paper guide rollers.
- Vacuum the transfer roller to remove any embedded toner. Do not touch it with your bare hands.
- If necessary, replace the transfer roller
- Clean the primary charge roller (PCR) on Lexmark printers (refer instructions on next page).
- If necessary, overhaul the fuser or install a re-built exchange unit.
- If necessary, replace the paper pick-up rollers and paper separation pads in all input trays
- Check the operation of parallel, USB and network ports. Replace any defective circuit boards
- Update the firmware on the printer and the internal print server
- Add additional memory if required
- Install a new toner cartridge and fuser cleaner (refer to instructions in our Support Section).
- Print a series of test pages to check the operation of the printer and the print quality.
- Record the date and the page count (shown on the 'Test Menu, print menus' page for Lexmark
printers and on the 'Test Menu, print configuration page' for HP LaserJet printers.
