I have a Brother MFC-L2700dw laser printer. A couple of weeks ago, it started sending me messages to replace the Drum Unit, but I’ve been ignoring that and have not noticed any bad effects. (I get these messages about once per day, even though I use the printer all day long.)
I know what the drum unit is, because I replaced it a few years ago. But now I’m wondering if I can save money by continuing to ignore the messages. Or maybe I’m asking for trouble, risking real damage that won’t be easily fixable.
What does the Drum Unit actually DO? How will I know when it REALLY needs to be replaced?
The drum is where the image is written. You can ignore the messages indefinitely, but the print quality may suffer - unevenness or banding or too light or dark.
But, when it gets to the point that the print is unusable, then replace it.
“Low ink” means two things: On the one hand, it is reassuring to know that it is NOT empty. On the other hand you don’t really know how much ink is left. With experience, one can estimate how much longer he has from when the “low ink” message began, and then buy more ink when you get around to it. But NEVER install the new ink until the print quality actually goes bad. (The only exception is if you’re printing something very important, and running out of ink in the middle of printing would be bad. In such a case, install the new ink before printing, and then go back to your almost-empty cartridge after.)
I agree with beowulff. Your printer is keeping track of the number of pages printed over time, and I suspect that the counter just hit a point where Brother thinks it’s time to replace the drum. If you use the printer for important correspondence and it’s important for you to maintain high quality print, I’d replace the drum soon. If you look closely, on images that are relatively “dark”, you may already be seeing some banding or other print issues. OTOH, if this is a “print the shopping list” printer, you can probably ignore the message forever. I don’t think Brother ever put in the self-destruct mechanisms in their products that other manufacturers (cough… HP) put in their devices so your device will probably continue to run without incident.
The OP asked what the drum does and that was briefly answered. A more detailed explanation is:
Every copier (including laser printers) “writes” or projects the image/text onto a photosensitive drum. Think a film negative. Different mechanics, but same principle. The drum with the image is then coated with a fine powder which sticks to the spots on the drum corresponding to the text (static electricity and photosensitive material makes this happen). The drum then rolls over a piece of paper where the powder transfers from the drum to the paper. The paper is then heated melting the powder onto the paper. The static electricity is then discharged from the drum and excess powder scraped off. On to the next page.
All that for $200!
The inventor, Chester Carlson back in the late 30s, would be impressed. Incidentally it took most of a decade for Mr. Carlson to find a company interested in the idea. Companies like IBM and General Electric didn’t see a market for making copies of existing documents. If you needed copies you used carbon paper when you created the document, no reason to waste money on a machine to do that.
The drum lasts a long time- but eventually starts to be less than pristine. When you are dissatisfied with the print quality time to replace the drum. Of course any damage to the drum, a scratch or nick, requires replacement.
If the prints go bad, buy a new printer. Just checked the price of a genuine Brother drum and its ~$100 vs <$150 or a new printer with toner. Unless you don’t care about print quality, say away from generic drums for any laser printer. The print quality is usually bad and they don’t last anywhere near as long as OEM.
Trivia. Never leave your drum, even those built in like on HP lasers exposed to light, especially sunlight. The exposed section can be burned and leave a streak across your page. I used to work in the print department at OfficeMax and accidentally ruined the drum on a color laser (there’s four) because I left the drum drawer open too long while trying to clear a jam.
On the other hand, drums are not as extremely delicate as the techs make them out to be. I’ve carefully scraped stuck toner from a drum (home and copier) without any issues.
Most laser printers today incorporate the drum into the toner cartridge, so you get a fresh drum along with a new supply of toner. I have no idea why Brother sticks to 1980s technology.
Not sure if you post is tongue in cheek. But some people like the savings of having to pay for an integrated drum that is nowhere near end of life when the toner is gone. You can easily refill the toner on an cart at least 2-3 times before the drum starts have issues. Same concept of people choosing inkjet printers with built-in printheads instead of HP carts with integrated printheads.
I agree.
And if the message annoys you, just open the printer up, remove the drum, and then put it back in there again. Most times, that will reset the counter, so that it won’t give that message again until another 50,000 or so pages. Easy enough to do, since you already replaced a drum once.
Because the useful life of a drum is about 4-6 times that of a toner cartridge. So in these combined packages, you are throwing away a barely-used drum when you run out of toner.
(That’s why the companies ask you to return ‘used’ cartridges to them, and there is such a market for non-OEM toners – the companies just check the drum, then refill the toner part and sell it over again.)
On the printers I’ve dealt with in the past decade or so, there is a one time fuse that plows once the new drum is inserted, which is used to “recognize” that a new toner has been inserted. Because of this, removing and re-inserting the drum won’t have any beneficial effect. You can buy, for many printers, a “cheater kit” that is usually a resistor with some sticky tape on the ends that you tape over the relevant contacts on the printer so it always thinks it has a brand new drum inserted. They are available on ebay for a few dollars, if you do some searching.
OTOH, knowing when you replace a toner cart that your drum is as new is a good thing, at least if quality of reproduction is important.
I went through many models of office copiers years ago, where the drum was intended to be replaced after ~200,000 copies or so. It gradually deteriorated before reaching that number, and if you accidentally scratched it, the scratch stayed until you replaced the $300 drum. Much cheaper to get a new cart with a new drum nowadays.
Just remembered, the Brother cart on the printer had a small plastic plug on the side that you had to remove refill the toner. You had to put a piece of black tape where the plug was (no resistor required) to trick the printer into thinking the cart is full. Did this for years until time to replace the drum and the printing became bad. Dumped the printer and got a new one.
