A printer is an essential piece of office equipment. Like any other office equipment, it needs regular maintenance; that includes replacing the ink toner and printer drum. The two tasks have similar troubleshooting. But How Long Does a Printer Drum Last?
In general, a printer drum can last for 10,000 to 50,000 printed pages, but that depends on the printer and unit quality. As you can see, at one time, your printer drum will need changing. How will you know it’s time to change it? Will you be able to differentiate it? You might never get involved with your office toner or printer drum replacing.
But a little knowledge of how and when to change can come in handy at one moment. Knowing what to look for can help you rule out or differentiate one problem from the other.
What Does a Drum Do in a Printer?
Before we can jump to what the printer drum does, it’d be best to introduce it first. A printer drum works by hand with the printer cartridge. It’s a unit that received the toner powder for printing.
It’s the next thing you have to check if your toner turns out okay when you have a printing problem.
On those high-volume printers, the printer drum looks like a vast, extended green cylinder. For some, it comes as a deep maroon cylinder with size and width similar to a paper towel roll. Some laser printers might even have a smaller drum that is the size of a pencil.
No matter the size, a printer drum’s primary function is to attract charged toner powder and particles using electrostatic polarities. It then transfers them onto the paper to print out the images and text.
The way the drum works is, it gets electrically charged to charge gain the electrostatic charge, which it uses to attract the powder.
Once attracted, the powder particles get stored on a photosensitive roller inside the unit. After this step, the drum electrostatic charge technology draws the drum’s image, which is then transferred onto the paper being printed.
Is a Printer Drum the Same as a Toner?
As explained above, a printer drum unit isn’t the same as a toner. If you own a laser printer, then you’re familiar with toner cartridge replacement, but you might not be familiar with the drum unit.
A toner carries the toner powder while the drum takes it and places it on the paper to create the images and the text.
In short, the two parts work in line to give you the print, and the two have to work correctly to provide you with the desired results.
How Long Does a Drum Last in a Printer?
This is always a question that terrifies printer owners since the user manual doesn’t mention this information. The same way you change your printer toner, you’ll have to change the printer drum unit too at some stage. But when?
A printer drum unit typically lasts for around 10,000 and 50,000 printed pages. But, of course, that depends on the quality of your printer and the drum unit. When the printer drum’s life is nearing its end, it will show signs of deterioration to alert you that it is time to replace it.
What Happens When Printer Drum Goes Bad?
How often does a printer drum need to be replaced? When a printer drum life near its end, the unit will start showing signs of deterioration. You’ll start seeing some lines repeated across the paper. However, that’s also common with a toner that needs replacing. Here are the few things that happen when the drum unit goes bad.
1) Printer Error Message
Technology is improving daily, and because of that, today’s laser printers come with a drum unit counter that checks the number of pages it prints.
Once it reaches the set number, the printer will start alerting you that it’s that time when you have to replace the drum unit.
When you start seeing an error or warning message on the printer display, you know the printer drum’s life is over. That is the time when it needs to be replaced and you need a new one.
The message might also appear on the computer when you send a document to the printer for printing.
When the drum unit is finally dead and can not print anymore, the printer display will keep showing the error message until you replace it.
2) Black Spots, Blurry, and Blank Printouts
Another issue you will notice when your printer drum is dead is that your printer will start producing blurry and low-quality prints, especially those with images.
There might also be spots on your printouts. In the worst case, you’ll start to see horizontal lines across your printouts every time you print.
Another similar issue you’ll notice is that the prints will start to fade gradually. After this, white and black patches will proceed.
With time, when the drum is entirely dead, it’ll produce a black printout.
3) Poor Print Quality
It’s not difficult to notice a quality change on the prints. If your printer starts printing low-quality documents even when you’ve replaced the toner, its drum is probably faulty. That means you need to replace your printer drum.
When producing poor prints, you will start seeing faded images and text. With this being a common sign of empty ink toner, you have to be sure it’s not the toner by checking it first. If it’s okay, then the drum is going bad.
How Do You Fix a Printer Drum?
- Get the new drum unit for your printer.
- Open your brother printer’s front cover to get access to the toner and drum unit. Some require you to lift the top printing unit to gain access to the two units.
- Pull out the tone-drum assembly.
- Unbox the new drum unit.
- On either end, there’s a green level. Push it gently to release the cartridge from the dead drum.
- Install it to the new drum unit.
- You can now discard the faulty drum.
- Slide your newly assembled toner-drum assembled back to your printer.
- Close the cover and run the printing test.
Final Words
A printer can not print without a working printer drum. For the toner powder to reach the paper, the printer drum has to pick it and then blast it on the print paper to create the text and images you see. It uses electrostatic charges after getting electrically charged. According to most printer makers, a printer drum should last around 10,000 and 50,000 prints depending on the model of printer you’re using and its quality.