HP 4350 fuser unit replacement x 2

[wila]

Hi all,

My company bought a HP 4350(faster,hopefully the same reliability) to replace our aging HP 8100(very slow). The service manual states that a new maintenance kit will be needed on 225000 pages. I have done on this printer only 194700 pages and the fuser unit is again going to be replaced by HP. That will make it the 2nd unit to be replaced under the claimed 225000 pages - i think i printed about 95k since it was last replaced. What concerns me is the fact that it is claimed that this printer is a high volume printer, but that the fuser unit is defective well before it's stated end of life.

The warranty will be running out in September 2007 and if I am doing 225000 pages a year it is going to mean that i am going to buy 3 fuser units for that year at a small price of only 3000.00 Rand ($375). If I am looking back at the old 8100 that have done now over 1.6mil and the fuser last a lot longer than it's replacement value of 350000(i replaced about 4 fuser units - all recons). I am using normal laser paper 80gsm and use only genuine hp cartridges.

The problem is the ghosting effect every 85mm and is only visible on the left hand side of the paper if you are standing in front of the printer. If you look on the fuser roller the teflon coating are badly worn and loose on the roller - is this a design fault from HP?? - and the black toner is burned into the fuser roll. (Before a new print run i always print a cleaning page to ensure good fusing quality) Is this a common problem or was this fuser units just maybe made on a Monday or a Friday??

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks!

[hampton01]

Unfortunately, the 4350 is not the workhorse that the 8100 was. If you were going to relace the 8100 you should have bought the 8150. It has the same capacity as the 8100. The 4350 while faster will just not hold up. Also I have a question. Are the fusers that you are buying new or refurbished? That makes a big difference also. The refurbished fusers do not hold up as well as the new ones. The bottom line is that no matter what HP says the printers that they make rarely live up to the page counts that they claim.

[wila]

Thanks for the quick reply hampton01

The fuser units in question is from HP South Africa itself. So I hope that they are not using any refurbished fuser units.

Do you think it's worth it to take out a extended warranty from HP for just this problem that I am having?

Thanks!

wila

[hampton01]

If you can get an extended warranty that covers maintenance kits, it would probably be more cost effective but in my experience extended warranties don't cover maintenance kits...

[Manuals]

They don't make em like they used to. HP isn't the company it was when it built up it's reputation. Now I know you mentioned the HP 4350 but next time your tech comes by, you might want to ask him about the 'swing plate assembly' problem. HP has a service note on this problem. This is also a fuser 'related' problem. You can view it at my site at:http://www.manuals4you.com/free.htm

HtH
Paul@justmanuals.com

[woodss]

This is the thing people do, buy printers newer and faster but not high enough duty cycle, it would been better if you have purchased a 9000 at least the 4350 is not built for high volume, two 4350 printer would been good too.

Running printers over the duty cycle is deemed printer abuse.

[wila]

Been been doing 194700 pages from last year September until April this year, hardly abuse, only on average 24000 pages per month.

The printer specifications from the HP website states:

Pages per month Up to 250,000

The other reason we bought this printer because we never use the A3 option on the HP8100 and had actually phoned HP South Africa to find out what printer they recommend that only uses A4 paper,is fast and have a relatively high monthly duty cycle.

And after this trouble that we are having with this printer, I am sure glad we don't have two (i know what you mean - split the load accross two printers)

Is it possible to buy only the teflon sleeve for the fuser roller and replace it yourself.

Thanks for all your help and recommendations, appreciated it.

[MichaelTech]

Yes, but not cheap! Plus you will need the special grease for under the sleeve.
Sleeve:PN# RM1-0015 {for the 4200\4300}
Grease: Krytox GPL204 by DuPont.
Not that tricky to refurb fusers as long as the heater element is still good.
Pins on the fuser: wire pins on bottom row, right two= thermistor 1.3Mohms
Heater 1=lower right flat pin , top left is ground.25.0ohms
Heater 2=top right flat pin , top left as ground, 18.0 ohms

Pressure roller PN# RC1-0070
Swing plate can be just replacing the large gear only. Remove formatter pan to access the screw holding it in. There is a metal pin that slips inside gear.
Use a pointy thing to align both gear and smooth plastic spacer when putting on plate.

[ptjeff1]

A note on the sleeves -- you can't buy genuine HP sleeves from HP unless you are authorized and buy a gazillion dollars worth of parts every year. So you'll probably end up with an aftermarket sleeve, and quality varies widely on aftermarket parts. And the grease is expensive, approx. $150 USD per .5 kg. I don't know if you can buy Krytox in smaller quantities.

I've noticed HP has started putting disclaimers on their website below the monthly duty cycle and the recommended monthly print volume. They must have started to realize the numbers they were claiming were absolutely ridiculous. The LJ 4250 has a rated monthly print volume of 3,000 to 150,000 pages, 200,000 monthly duty cycle. If you print 150,000 per month on a 4250 you would quickly realize that claim is purely marketing.