Samsung Laser - Cleaning Sheet Function - Is it harmful?

[idbit]

Hi, my old Samsung ML-1450 has a Cleaning Sheet function, where you hold down the Demo button for a few seconds. It then spits out a page with a bunch of specs, streaks, etc.

The manual says "This printing sheet cleans the drum of the toner cartridge. Use this process if you are experiencing blurred, faded, or smeared printouts."

I'm wondering if repeated use of this function will damage the drum? I try not to overuse it, especially now that I bought a new oem cartridge that was quite pricey. But every now and then, prints do get a little dirty - and the cleaning sheet does help with that.

So what do you think? Does this do any damage to or reduce the life of the drum or other parts of the cartridge assembly? Who knows, maybe that is why my last oem cartridge started printing light on me long before it should have.

Thanks!
IB

 

[Simon R.]

Since the ML-6060D6 toner/drum cartridge has it's own number of print outs , I assume each cleaning equals 1 printed page. By specs ML-6060D6 has 6k pages, so one cleaning every 700-800 pages wouldn't reduce the life of your cartridge that much.

 

[idbit]

Since the ML-6060D6 toner/drum cartridge has it's own number of print outs , I assume each cleaning equals 1 printed page. By specs ML-6060D6 has 6k pages, so one cleaning every 700-800 pages wouldn't reduce the life of your cartridge that much.

Thanks Simon. I think you're missing my point though. I'm wondering if the act of printing the cleaning sheet is a destructive act, moreso than the simple act of printing a normal sheet of text. I'm wondering if the cleaning mechanism the printer uses might somehow do damage to the drum or cartridge.

It is an obscure question I must admit. To know the answer to this would require specific knowledge on the issue. Maybe past experience with a cartridge that was ruined through overuse of the cleaning sheet. Or at the least, you would need to know how the cleaning sheet function works. Maybe that's the place to start. Does anybody know how the cleaning sheet function does its job? It does it's job well. But I know there's never a free lunch. Everything has its price.

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

It sounds like your toner cartridge has the drum as part of it? I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's when the drum is a separate replaceable part that I would be wary of doing too many cleaning cycles.

In the end it really comes down to whether or not if you don't do it, the printer's not usable anyway. If the prints are messy you have to do it. I don't know much about Samsungs but all the aftermarket carts for my HP P1505 have worked just fine so far, so they've been used for (at least) twice their normal lifetime. I wonder how many people end up with carts that have been recycled/refilled half a dozen times or more (though "this one doesn't have a HP label/already has a fill hole" may be taken into account... or not). I wonder whether I should bring my used aftermarket carts in to get Staples credits or if I should just put them in the "used electronics" pile I bring to the local hazmat place.

 

[idbit]

Yeah, the drum is part of the cartridge. Okay, I wont worry abou then. Thanks!

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

You may want to look into aftermarket carts, too. These days it's easier to search Amazon than to find the best deal amongst various websites. The first aftermarket cart I got on a refill website, one for $25. I even got 2200 pages out of 2000 rated on it before it finally gave up. On Amazon I got 3x 2000 page yield carts for mine for $33. Even if one of them ends up not working I still won't complain since the HP one is around $80 or more.

Because the drum is part of the cart you don't have to worry about ruining a drum with "bad toner" either. As long as you get one that has decent reviews you should be fine.

I looked into refilling myself but most of the refill kits I found were around 75% of the price of a brand new cart so it was only "moderately cheaper", while the prefilled ones were a much better deal with less mess.

 

[thanhhuy123]

Should we get laser printer with integrated drum or seperated drum? How can we know if it's integrated or seperate?

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

It's usually based on price. Cheaper printers tend to have the drum in the cartridge but this is not always the case. Full color lasers are more likely to have separate drums. Just look up the manual online or look for supplies for that model and it should tell you if the drum is a separate purchasable item. I'd just check out reviews on Amazon or Staples' website for whatever you are looking at. Also check that there are multiple reviews and not just one five star (or one star) review.

I often sort by "lowest rating" and see if the bad ratings are due to actual problems, or due to the consumer complaining about the wrong things, such as the price of the cartridges (they're ALL expensive) or misuse (a $75 printer is not meant for a 1000 page/day office)..

 

[thanhhuy123]

Amazon or Staples websites are just useless in Vietnam since we have many things different from the rest of the world. Even the series of printer we have on the market is different and nowhere has it! Maybe the specs is the only source we can use.

 

[thanhhuy123]

After searching a little, it comes out that HP has cartridges with toner+drum!! Brother has toner and drum separately.

BTW, cartridges with toner+drum sounds similar to inkjet cartridges with printhead, I think. And the other is similar to inkjet with fixed-printhead.

So, because in inkjet we prefer fixed-printhead --> separated toner and drum prefer??? --> Say no to all HP! Hello to Brother!! (people still love HP since it's the best branch in laser printing, just like Epson in inkjet printing -- although inkjet printing was not invented by it??)

Some say that the cartridge type (ink+printhead or toner+drum) is for low volumn use. The other is for high volumn use.
Both are refillable but the later seems more friendly, I think!