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printer to repair or not repair

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TaoPhoenix:
I'd put a voice in for at least getting some info. (These examples assume the repairman is legit, no scams etc). It sounds as if you don't know exactly what's wrong. So I'd at least get a quote. And with that quote, ask if there is a *warranty on the repairs*! In other words, done right, you don't expect the thing to conk out next Tuesday.

Other types of repairs are really cheap proportionally - you know it won't last forever but a lot of printers have some dumb little piece of plastic, or the guiding metal bar gets crooked, or whatever. So then you can escape with say $100, and then *next year* you finally have to bite the bullet and buy new, but as we say in accounting, "next year is next year's problem".

TaoPhoenix:
Mouser, I can partially agree with if we are talking about a hundred dollar printer, then yeah, repairs probably wont be worth it.  But brand new the P3005 and 4100 HP are many hundreds of dollars.  The 4100s are known to be real workhorses and some probably have a million or more pages.  Te older ones tend to have heavier and possibly more metal parts in them than the newer plastic printers.
-techidave (September 07, 2013, 05:58 PM)
--- End quote ---

And the Kyoceras we used to have at work ran to several *thousand*! So see above, at least see if you get lucky on a quote.

techidave:
most of the time they need a good cleaning and maybe new feed rollers, possible a transfer roller or fuser on occasion.  Fusers are expensive and the others are not that bad.  The company i use is legit and very good.  the do repairs for lots of companies and I do trust them.  Usually it cost me the parts plus an hour or so of labor ($75).  My users don't put lots of pages through them so journally repairs last quite a while. 

Stoic Joker:
Mouser, I can partially agree with if we are talking about a hundred dollar printer, then yeah, repairs probably wont be worth it.  But brand new the P3005 and 4100 HP are many hundreds of dollars.  The 4100s are known to be real workhorses and some probably have a million or more pages.  Te older ones tend to have heavier and possibly more metal parts in them than the newer plastic printers.-techidave (September 07, 2013, 05:58 PM)
--- End quote ---

Agreed! I still miss the LaserJet 4100 I used to have in my office...it was fast, quiet, and never missed a beat...even though it already had over 1.2 million pages on it.

Consumer grade laser printers do tend to be like Pezz dispensers and are frequently not worth repairing. This is due to the service hostile way in which they are designed. However true business class laser printers allow for the fact that the fuser has a semi-predetermined service life expectancy, and are designed to allow for easy tool-less (or very few) fuser replacement. The only tricky part is usually clearing/resetting the (easily googled) maintenance count error message so it stops giving the fuser maintenance required message.

One thing you may want to look into is the Managed Print Services (MSP) trend in the industry that had been gaining popularity over the last ~5 years. Our company has been into it for 6 or 7 years now, and it is extremely popular with companies that have large printer fleets and an IT department that is feed up with servicing them. Short version is that prints are only paid for on an as printed basis (billed monthly at a rate of ~.4-1 cent per page mono and~ 7-10 cents per page color), and toner, parts, and service are provided free of charge (as part of the contract). This way cost is better controlled because you only have to pay for the toner that you use, as you use it. Which means that the days of trying to budget $1,000 for a set of color toner cartridges for a business class color laser printer are over. Now obviously a certain print volume has to be maintained for this to be profitable for the MPS provider. But a good one will be able to allow for the obviously seasonal nature of a school.


Many of the better MPS providers will also provide the printers at no cost (or cost deferred over the life of the contract), if you sign a contract for a 3-5 year term. We currently have over a 1,000 printers in the field now that are generating print revenue, but didn't cost the client a single dime to have delivered and setup.

Edvard:
My rule for deciding to fix anything is very simple:
If I can fix it (1)myself with (2)readily available parts (local store or online) for (3) less than the cost of a new [insert object here], then proceed.  
Otherwise, I initiate replacement discussions with my Wife.  ;)

In your position, Techidave, I would advise to not underestimate or overlook costs of downtime as the machines age, along with your long-term projections of potential repair costs.  A few hundred on repairs is not that much if the machines are actually reliable and repairs are easy, in which case you've got a good argument for repairing vs. new.  Just don't ignore how quickly things can add up when repair visits become more frequent over the next 2-5 years, and how much time (money) you'll be losing waiting for repairs to be done as parts become more scarce.
Hopefully you (or somebody responsible) has been keeping reasonably detailed records of repairs, supply usage and costs (newer machines are often more efficient with materials usage), and duration of downtimes so that a solid case can be made to justify either choice.

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