Is It Time to Replace the Toner Drum on Your Printer?

The parts of a laser printer seem to be endless when you're trying to troubleshoot printing problems, but two of the most important parts are the toner cartridge and the toner drum. The cartridge contains the toner, a powder that is converted to something that looks like ink on a page, but the drum is what does that converting. And even though you don't hear about the need of replacing the drum that often, you will eventually have to get another one. Because you can go for so long before replacing the drum, it may be difficult to figure out if it needs to be replaced at all.

What Happens When You Replace the Toner Cartridge?

First, if you're having print quality problems, what happens when you change the toner cartridge? If the print quality does not improve—it's smeared, faint, inconsistent, generally fuzzy, and so on—then the drum likely needs to be replaced. That's the next part in line if the toner does not print clearly on the page. It is possible that something else needs fixing, and that when you replace the drum, you won't see improvement. But, chances are, once you change the drum, you'll get better printing quality.

How Long Has It Been and How Much Have You Printed?

Toner drums have life spans. If it has been several months, and you've gone through maybe three or four toner cartridges already, look into replacing the toner drum. If it's been several months but you haven't printed much at all, and have changed the toner cartridge maybe once, then the toner drum is likely okay just in terms of its life span. If you're now experiencing print quality problems, though, then it's time to look at both the cartridge and the drum.

Does the Printer Just Stop Printing Sometimes?

If you ignore the toner drum and never change it, print quality will decline drastically, and eventually, the printer might just not print sometimes. The printer won't fail completely and need replacement itself, but you won't be able to get printed pages out because the drum—that key link in the printing chain—isn't working at all. Replace the drum and see if that gets the printer working.

Remember that original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts, like Xerox toner drums, are better for use than a lot of third-party models. If you're really concerned about printer quality, start with OEM parts.

To find out more, contact a company that can help you such as Printers Supply.