Laser printer and a drum?

[Noel8]

I would like to ask the following scenario.
questions on a color or black and white laser printers that are made
by Brothers. I was browsing Staples yesterday and a woman approached
me and warned me not to consider any Brother laser printers, cause not
only one has to replace a color toner when it runs out, but something
about a drum. She said once the drum goes, it gets pretty expensive to
replace...Does anyone know the truth about drums in printers? Do they
all have them? Are they that sensitive and expensive to replace? Who
can recommend such a printer without a drum? This was the first time I
ever heard of a drum in a printer.

 

[Benson Jordan]

hai,

It depends on what quality you want to end up with. If you have to buy another one, why not give it a shot. Do NOT touch the drum with your fingers, the oil from your skin is bad for the surface material , try and remove as much as possible, gently with a neeedle-nose pliers,

 

[firefighter4443]

It depends on the printer. I do not know anything about Brother's brand, but I do know a little about HP Color LaserJets, specifically the 4700dn and the 9500hdn (the 9500 has been discontinued). All LaserJets have drums, how the printer was built will determine whether or not it has a separate or combined cartridge/drum. The 4700's have a combined drum/cartridge, and when you replace the cartridge, you also replace the drum. The 9500 has separate Cartridges and Drums, and need to be replaced separately. In addition to the Cartridges/Drums, you have 2 to 3 more consumable materials. In the 4700 and 9500, there is the Image transfer kit, which is supposed to be replaced after a certain number of pages (200,000 pages for the 9500, not sure on the 4700); the fuser kit will eventually need to be replaced as well, and on some printers, like the 9500 there might be a cleaning kit that needs to be replaced.

Overall, it just depends on the printer. I've found the easiest way to find out if the printer has separate drums/cartridges, just look at the accories/spare parts or whatever for the printer on the companies website. If you see two different items for one color, it might be a drum and cartridge separtely.

As for sensitivity, i've never had any problems with printing quality on the 9500, but replacement is real easy and I've never touched the drum itself.

For cost, the retail price for the 9500 was around 8,000 USD, i think, and the retail price for the color drums was around $520, last time I checked, and they're supposed to last 40,000-50,000 pages each, whereas a $320 color cartridge would last 20,000 to 25,000 pages.

And to directly answer your question about drums in laser printers, yes, all laser printers have drums. Like I said above though, some printers have combined cartridge/drums.

Best thing to do is find as much information on the printer's you're looking into before buying anything.

Hope this helps you out.