Laser printer: What percentage of toner should I reasonably expect to use?

[The_world_s_most_deadliest]

I made another call to HP support today on our LaserJet 4600dn.

We’ve had issues with toner “leakage” previously with this printer. While the warranty was good, HP always sent us new toner to replace the faulty one. We got about 4 free toners this way, which is nothing to sneeze at, considering we pay about $400 a pop for the suckers.

Well, now the warranty is toast, and there’s black toner bleeding along the top of printed pages. (There’s also a feed problem from the manual tray, but I understand wear and tear will necessitate replacement of certain parts.)

The part of my conversation that astounded me was the HP tech stating that since we had about 14% of our black toner left - about 1500 pages worth - that we needed to put in a fresh black toner. “The cartridges are designed to work until there is 20% left” is how she stated it.

I’d love to debunk this to a customer service supervisor at HP tomorrow. At the very least, it seems grossly unfair to manufacture a $400 toner cartridge that you can only use 4/5ths of before having to replace it. We could easily get another month’s use out of what’s still left.

So, question time: is the 20% threshold pretty standard for toner? Or was this statement an attempted hosing by HP?

[beltbuckle]

I used to support the color laserjet 4500, which is basically the same printer you have, except your printer is a bit faster, having a newer formatter board.

The printers are designed to work until the cartridge is nearly out of toner, I think the 20% mark they quoted was not given to you clearly or they misunderstood it. At about 20% left, the printer flags a warning telling you the cartridge is low, thus giving you time to spend all that money on a new cartridge. However, the printer will still print until it detects a cartridge empty condition, when there is a minimal amount of toner left in the cartridge. If I remember correctly, warranty seldom covers replacing a cartrdige if it is in this low state, since in HP’s view you are about out of toner anyways.

Most of the pages per cartridge calculations are done based on a coverage rate of 5% per page - however this is usually a bit on the low side from my experience, especially with color printers.

As an aside, both of the problems you are having are very common. The carousel design of the cartridges on the 4600 series is prone to toner leakage. Color carts usually leak more than black because there is little magnetic material in the toner which helps it adhere to the various rollers in the cartridge and during the transfer process.

It has been a while since I have troubleshot these, but the black marking on the top of the page could be the black toner, but it can also be caused by a clutch failing that moves the transfer belt. If a new toner does not fix it, it will likely require some repair. The other possibility is you have a buildup of toner inside the printer, from the leaking cartridge(s). You can try some cleaning yourself by pulling all the consumables out and using a lint-free cloth with a bit of rubbing alcohol or warm water. If you get toner on your clothes, be sure to wash them in cold water as warm water will set the toner and make it impossible to get out.

As far as the manual tray goes, there are few replaceable parts there, and worst-case I believe it required a new middle drawer assembly, because there is a clutch and motor that can fail there. They are pretty expensive, IIRC. Best case is that your rollers are worn only. You can get a bit of life out of them, if this is the case, by roughing them up a bit with a nail file. But you would need new rollers as eventually the rubber gets a bit too hard to reliably pick up pages.

The 4600 does not have a really robust manual feed, it scews the page quite a bit and is not built to be used a lot.

If you have any other questions about this printer, just reply to the thread. It has been a while, but I have taken these things apart down to the frame and put them back together again many a time!

[astro]

I’ve never seen such bad reviews for any printer on Amazon. You might be better off getting a new printer. It seems like kind of a dog.

[The_world_s_most_deadliest]

@beltbuckle

I used to support the color laserjet 4500, which is basically the same printer you have, except your printer is a bit faster, having a newer formatter board.

The printers are designed to work until the cartridge is nearly out of toner, I think the 20% mark they quoted was not given to you clearly or they misunderstood it. At about 20% left, the printer flags a warning telling you the cartridge is low, thus giving you time to spend all that money on a new cartridge. However, the printer will still print until it detects a cartridge empty condition, when there is a minimal amount of toner left in the cartridge. If I remember correctly, warranty seldom covers replacing a cartrdige if it is in this low state, since in HP’s view you are about out of toner anyways.

Most of the pages per cartridge calculations are done based on a coverage rate of 5% per page - however this is usually a bit on the low side from my experience, especially with color printers.

As an aside, both of the problems you are having are very common. The carousel design of the cartridges on the 4600 series is prone to toner leakage. Color carts usually leak more than black because there is little magnetic material in the toner which helps it adhere to the various rollers in the cartridge and during the transfer process.

It has been a while since I have troubleshot these, but the black marking on the top of the page could be the black toner, but it can also be caused by a clutch failing that moves the transfer belt. If a new toner does not fix it, it will likely require some repair. The other possibility is you have a buildup of toner inside the printer, from the leaking cartridge(s). You can try some cleaning yourself by pulling all the consumables out and using a lint-free cloth with a bit of rubbing alcohol or warm water. If you get toner on your clothes, be sure to wash them in cold water as warm water will set the toner and make it impossible to get out.

As far as the manual tray goes, there are few replaceable parts there, and worst-case I believe it required a new middle drawer assembly, because there is a clutch and motor that can fail there. They are pretty expensive, IIRC. Best case is that your rollers are worn only. You can get a bit of life out of them, if this is the case, by roughing them up a bit with a nail file. But you would need new rollers as eventually the rubber gets a bit too hard to reliably pick up pages.

The 4600 does not have a really robust manual feed, it scews the page quite a bit and is not built to be used a lot.

If you have any other questions about this printer, just reply to the thread. It has been a while, but I have taken these things apart down to the frame and put them back together again many a time!

Thanks beltbuckle!!! That was immensely helpful! I plan on trying the suggestions for cleaning out the machine to remove excess toner, and I’d also like to try and get some more life out of the rollers. I have a feeling they’re just getting slightly worn, as the problem is not constant (yet). As far as HP support - well, we certainly got our money’s worth out of them when we had the warrenty. And the lady did give me a “free” tech call yesterday, probably because our account record was 15 pages long with all the calls we’ve made on the printer. Frankly, at this point I’m going to tell my boss that we get a new printer - NOT from HP - or he can call and make our case to the company when it constantly spits up problems.

And since you mentioned it… I have the LaserJet 4500 sitting right behind me. We used it in the offices next door until, suprise, the manual feed tray went kerblooey. I figured I’d use it at my desk to run test prints so I wasn’t walking across the office all day to the 4600 printer.

Except I can’t use the thing, because when it starts up it goes into calibration mode. Forever. As in, I started it up yesterday at 4:00PM and it was still calibrating at 8:30AM when I got into work today. :rolleyes:
astro, oh yeah, I’ve seen those reviews and a lot worse. We had the exact same magenta toner problem that one of the Amazon reviews describe. The color matching is absolutely ghastly, even with the PS driver - but I bite my lip because we’re not a printing company and it’s close enough for our purposes. My boss picked this up right when it came on the market, and all the negative reviews weren’t out yet. I make sure I tell all our clients when they ask for printer recommendations to stay the hell away from the HP 4600.

[Basandre]

We have a 4600dn where I work, and we pay about $150 for the black toner cartridge from Office Max. Even the color cartridges, which are more expensive than the black ones, aren’t much more than $200. Are you really paying $400 for a cartridge?

(The only problem we’ve had with it is that it will occasionally decide to tint the pages yellow. Not yellow like yellow toner, yellow like the paper has been sitting in a hot car for a couple of weeks.)

[The_world_s_most_deadliest]

@Basandre

We have a 4600dn where I work, and we pay about $150 for the black toner cartridge from Office Max. Even the color cartridges, which are more expensive than the black ones, aren’t much more than $200. Are you really paying $400 for a cartridge?

That’s the price that’s been tossed out when the office collective is bitching about the printer. I’m not sure, because I don’t do the ordering.

My office manager said a few days ago that she has a line on another supplier that will “cut the cost in half”, so the price aspect of it is hopefully going to become less troublesome in the near future.

[gotpasswords]

@The world's most deadliest...

And since you mentioned it… I have the LaserJet 4500 sitting right behind me. We used it in the offices next door until, suprise, the manual feed tray went kerblooey. I figured I’d use it at my desk to run test prints so I wasn’t walking across the office all day to the 4600 printer.

Except I can’t use the thing, because when it starts up it goes into calibration mode. Forever. As in, I started it up yesterday at 4:00PM and it was still calibrating at 8:30AM when I got into work today. :rolleyes:

We used to have a 4500, and abandoned it when it fell into the endless calibration and ejecting of blank pages routine. Cause was the transfer kit had gone out of whack and a printer tech old us that the things do that every so often, and the only cure is replacing the belt assembly.