Okidata C5150 laser printer "K drum life"

There are many factors that determine the actual drum life, such as the temperature, humidity, type of paper, type of toner used, number of pages per print job and so on. Under ideal conditions, the average drum life is estimated at approximately 12,000 pages.

The most obvious is most common on laser color printers and can be detected by a flashing message on the printer display screen. Other signs of a bad printer drum include printing blank pages, printing gray pages and strange sounds coming from the printer as it prints.

The drum unit may need replacing if you notice the printer producing blurry, low-quality images. Black or colored toner spots on printouts also indicates a failing drum unit. In some cases, horizontal lines may develop across the printout every time the paper passes the failing part of the drum.

Buying extra drums for your office laser printer saves money and time, but the components do have a shelf life. Shelf life is a period of time the components can be stored and still be suitable for use. A laser printer drum`s shelf life is approximately two years if the drum is still in its protective bag.

Color Laser Printer or Black & White Laser Printer

As print quality goes down over time, this will be a reason to replace the color printer. We find a black and white printer can sometimes last 10 years or more and most color laser printers are replaced every 3 to 5 years.

Do Drum Units Expire? Fortunately, just like laser toners, drum units don`t expire, so you can safely keep extra units on hand if printing is a core part of your business or routine. The only consumable that expires is ink, which is printed on the cartridge itself.

Faded or Blurry Prints

Over time, the cycle of repeated charging and discharging, combined with the electrical charges that printers use, can break down the chemicals in an imaging drum.

You can refresh the drum to improve print quality if streaks or white spots appear on printed images. Consult your service representative before using this function. Do no printing operations while the drum is being refreshed.

If your machine continues to display “Replace Drum” after installing a new drum, the drum counter may not have reset properly. Whenever you replace the drum unit, the drum counter needs to be reset.

Do Drum Units Expire? Fortunately, just like laser toners, drum units don`t expire, so you can safely keep extra units on hand if printing is a core part of your business or routine. The only consumable that expires is ink, which is printed on the cartridge itself.

The standard drum units can produce around 12,000 pages before needing to be replaced. Not every drum unit will adhere to the same guideline, so you should be aware of its total page yield before inserting it into your printer.

A: From brother support: “The drum unit and toner cartridge shelf life is 2 years if the protective bag is unopened or 6 months after the protective bag is opened.