Which brand laser printer is good for you?

There are so many brands for laser printer to choose, like HP, Lexmark, Brother, Samsung, Canon, etc.. So which one is good for you?

It’s hard to see this in a short answer. But based on the design and performance, here are some clues for you to help you decide:

1, HP brand printers always have all-in-one toner cartridge, which gives you less headache when you purchase the consumables. And it’s almost the most popular brand in printer business, it’s much easier to find the supplier for this brand. The bad thing is HP printers are more expensive than other brand, even the entry level printers. The other thing I should mention here is HP printers are designed to perform precisely, sometime if you need to print some rough job, it may not go through well, like print labels, non-regular size papers, you may experience more paper jam then other brand printers.
2, Lexmark brand printer is popular in medical industry, retail industry, they can handle different kind of paper like labels, preprinted media properly. Especially their high end models, like T640/T642/T644 series. The small printer, like E260 series, small work group printers, or multifunction machines, their toner and drum are separated. it’s expensive to run for it, also they are not so reliable.
3, Samsung, they have lot of choices for the entry level MFP, monochrome or color, and their printer has all-in-one cartridge, it’s not bad if you don’t print a lot. Reliability is bad for this brand, you may use the printer to print 20-50K pages, then it will retire.
4, Canon has lot of choices for entry level MFPs, most are monochrome. They are good, and have all-in-one toner cartridge, cheap to run and easy find the toner cartridge. But no much choice on the printer parts, so consider to use it only when it has no problem. The same thing as Samsung printer, almost impossible to find parts supplier.
5, Brother machines always have very good choice for the functions, especially on the fax side, I really like their fax. But you choose this brand, just because it is cheap to buy the machine. The bad thing is the consumables are expensive and the printing is not that good compare other brand.

Personal experience, hope this will help you.

When your or your customer’s printer quits to work, you need to figure out the problem first. HP is the most common brand, their printer has very good interface to communicate with the user. I am writing this guide based on the HP brand printers.

Here are some clues to help you.

First, you need to figure out the problem first. There are some kind of common problems you may encounter:

1, Paper jamming;

2, Poor printing quality;

3, Printer error.

Paper Jam.

If you got paper jam, first you need to know where is the paper jam. It can be in the paper tray, in the registration assembly, under the cartridge, in the fuser or in the output bin. There is another chance, there is no paper jam in the printer at all.
If there is no paper in the printer, but the printer reports paper jam, mostly 13.01, then it’s the printer pick up roller or separation pad has problem, they can’t pick up the paper. If the printer reports paper jam before you submit any job, then there must be something in the paper path blocking the sensor.
If the paper is in the registration assembly which is in the printer before the toner cartridge, most of the case is the cartridge not right, try another cartridge.
If the paper is under the cartridge, most of the case is the fuser defective.
If the paper is in the fuser assembly, most of the case is the fuser; but sometime it may be caused by the second page mispick up, and the printer stops the first page in the fuser. To determine which case you are in, submit a job with one page only.
If the paper is in the output bin, which is not common, it should be caused by the delivery roller/assembly, like HP 4, 4+, 5. HP 4000, 4100, 4200, 4300, 4250, 4350. For most of the HP models, you can flap down the back cover, then the paper will come out to back, then you can figure out where is the problem. For HP 8100/8150/8000, you can set up and let the paper out to the left side.

Poor printing quality:

If the printer can’t print well, it should be caused by the toner cartridge, fuser assembly or the scanner assembly. First you can change the toner cartridge, this is the easiest way to do. If it prints the same result with different cartridge, then it’s not the cartridge problem. If you don’t have any spare cartridge to switch, you can do a half print diagnosis, here is the steps to do it:
1, Submit a job for one page to the printer;
2, Feed the paper from the manual tray which you can see the motion of the paper;
3, Once the job submitted, the paper moved in the printer, open the top cover, stop the printer working;
4, Carefully take out the cartridge, the paper should be under the cartridge, before the fuser, carefully take the paper out. The printing on the paper is not fused yet, so don’t touch the printing,
5, Check out the printing, if it’s clear, good, then the problem will come from the fuser. If not good, then it should be the cartridge or the scanner assembly. Scanner assembly only can be bad if it’s in the dusty environment and dust is in the assembly, covers on the mirrors, in this case, you may need to change a new scanner assembly, it’s hard to clean up the mirrors in the assembly. If the scanner is multifunction, the printer should report error.
If it’s the fuser problem, you can just change another fuser assembly. If you want to save money, you can buy the fuser rebuilt kit to rebuild the fuser by yourself. Most common problem from the fuser is: Side or middle lines, ghosting, shadow, or not fusing properly.

Error code:

There are so many error codes, I can’t write to much about this, you always can search for the code, there are some common codes for your quick reference:
Error 13, paper jam; 13.01, 13.02, 13.03—paper input; 13.20—in the registration or output;
Error 50, fuser error; 50.01, 50.02. Be aware: For HP 8100/8150, if you have 50 error, most of the case is the low power supply failure, not the fuser itself.
Error 79. Communication problem, check the network card first.

Thanks for reading. Hope this will help you!

Five reasons for buying a refurbished laser printer

1, Reliable: We only choose the most reliable models to refurbish and put them in the market again. They are designed and proved to last, will perform as good as when they were new!
2, Saving: You are not only saving money for buying the printer, but also save money on running it, as the comsumables and parts will be much cheaper than the new models.
3, More choices: You will have more choices to choose the right printer for your business, and find out that it is more easier to get the cartridges and parts for your refurbished printer than the new models which were just released and the consumbales may not be available in the market for a while.
4, Go green: Save our world by reusing the valueable equipments, reduce electronic waste.
5, Compatible: You can keep use your existing computer systems if you replace with the same model of refurbished printer. Even you place with diffrent model, most of the refurbished printers were in the market for a while already, it’s much easier to find the driver or software than the new models.

Welcome to Printer Ready Corporation Blog!

Printer Ready Corporation is a dedicated printer company, provides customer refurbished laser printers, remanufactured toner cartridges and printer parts.

This blog is designed to service our customers and anybody who may need help on their printers.

I, Tai Liu, has been working on laser printer for nine years, evolving printer repairing, refurbishing and toner cartridge remanufacturing, have extensive experience on all kind of laser printer, especially on HP and Lexmark brand printers.

We also have few other experienced technician who may write some thing for your reference in the future.

If you encounter any problem with your printer, or just want to know some thing about it, let me know, post a comment or shot me an email, I will be glad to help you, regardless you are our customer or not.

Thanks again.

Tai Liu