# Can I safely print both sides of a page using a one-side laser printer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 27, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-safely-print-both-sides-of-a-page-using-a-one-side-laser-printer/198062 "2003-08-27T20:46:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-safely-print-both-sides-of-a-page-using-a-one-side-laser-printer/198062/1 "2003-08-27T20:46:29Z")
I’ve got an old workhorse laser printer (HP LaserJet II) that only prints one side at a time. But I want to print on both sides. Is it okay to flip the printed sheet and send it through again? Or will it screw up one or both of the printed images? Or worse yet, will it ruin something inside the printer mechanism? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-safely-print-both-sides-of-a-page-using-a-one-side-laser-printer/198062/2 "2003-08-27T20:47:15Z")
Yep. I do that all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-safely-print-both-sides-of-a-page-using-a-one-side-laser-printer/198062/3 "2003-08-27T20:49:46Z")
There’s nothing wrong with that - and there’s no difference in workings between a duplex and non-duplex printer other than the first has a bit more hardware. As someone who takes stuff apart alot, duplex printers entertain me. Paper goes in the bottom, out the side, back in the side, out the top! I’m easily amused… ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-safely-print-both-sides-of-a-page-using-a-one-side-laser-printer/198062/4 "2003-08-27T20:57:25Z")
Sure you can do that you can do it with a copier too- the tricky part is knowing how to put the paper in the tray again. Upside down, left, right etc 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![emmaliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-safely-print-both-sides-of-a-page-using-a-one-side-laser-printer/198062/5 "2003-08-27T21:06:10Z")
YMMV but ours does just fine UNLESS there is a lot of toner on the first side through. Then all that toner may melt a little and get sticky, causing jams. I work at an office that generates a truly staggering amount of waste paper. So I salvage pages that have no proprietary or private or financial info on them, take them home, and we print our stuff on the backs. I have to weed out pages printed from websites with dark graphics because of the sticky factor. But plain text goes through no problem. ---
**Author:** ![fortytwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f9ae1b/32.png) [@fortytwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fortytwo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-safely-print-both-sides-of-a-page-using-a-one-side-laser-printer/198062/6 "2003-08-27T21:06:46Z")
I think I must be unlucky then. I have a HP Laserjet 4L (somebody has to have one) and every time I’ve tried to print both sides the paper jams up the works. Apart from that it’s a brilliant printer. Maybe it’s the paper I use? V ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-safely-print-both-sides-of-a-page-using-a-one-side-laser-printer/198062/7 "2003-08-27T21:48:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Vetch \* > \*\*I think I must be unlucky then. I have a HP Laserjet 4L (somebody has to have one) and every time I’ve tried to print both sides the paper jams up the works. \*\* My Laserjet 4 had very frequent paper jams, too. Very annoying after years of satisfaction with LaserJet II’s. Almost led me to switch away from H-P LJ’s entirely. But I bought a used HP LaserJet 6, and am very happy with it. ## Seems like the LJ4 line was just a lemon in the HP LaserJet series! I constantly printed on the back side of paper, with both the HPII and now the HP6. I tried to do so with the HP4, but it often jammed. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-safely-print-both-sides-of-a-page-using-a-one-side-laser-printer/198062/8 "2003-08-28T03:03:45Z")
Ditto on 2-sided working fine on LJ4s. But… make sure the toner if fusing to the paper properly. It shouldn’t smudge with a light wipe of a finger. If it does, you need to fix it anyway. I figure out scripts to do the pagination right on this. Odd-first/even-first, reverse or normal. Depends on the output stacking order. ---
**Author:** ![Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ebca7d/32.png) [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-safely-print-both-sides-of-a-page-using-a-one-side-laser-printer/198062/9 "2003-08-28T04:15:28Z")
For certain kinds of HP printers, you can order the free separation tool to prevent paper from sticking together or jamming: [http://195.92.173.150/en/HP\_request\_product.asp](http://195.92.173.150/en/HP_request_product.asp) ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-safely-print-both-sides-of-a-page-using-a-one-side-laser-printer/198062/10 "2003-08-28T05:37:18Z")
Success on getting both sides printed without accordianing or jams often depends on the paper type and (believe it or not ) humidity. I have used Laserjet 2/3/4/5/6’s and now a few of the “00” series. The high temp fusing + rollers process that helps bond the toner to the page also tends to curl the paper in a certain way. If the printer mechanism paper handling tolerances are right and the paper is not too brittle or dry you can generally successfully run it in the opposite direction and print on both sides, but once run through it s is far more susceptible to jamming going through the other way esp if the humidity is low and the paper a lightweight stock. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-safely-print-both-sides-of-a-page-using-a-one-side-laser-printer/198062/11 "2003-08-28T07:30:11Z")
One thing you shouldn’t do is use a mono laser printer to try to print on the back of a colour laser-printed sheet (not that you’re terribly likely to try this) - some colour toners have a lower melting point than the standard black stuff and colour-printed pages often have a lot more coverage - I unwittingly tried this once and the colour toner came off onto one of the rollers - everything I printed for the next 50 sheets or so had messy bits of colour toner on the back.