A real warranty? - Part 2

In order to have a look at the new Epson's warranty for free replacement the laser unit in all its printers for life, let us take a look at one of Epson's old and working well color laser printer: the popular Aculaser C1100. This very popular color printer, extensively used in the CIS countries, can serve as a perfect example and will allow to see whether the new warranty seems as attractive as it is described in the IT news sources.


Aculaser C1100

I will take into consideration just one single criteria: the overall price of ownership. For such a price-driven market as the CIS is, this is the best and most reliable criteria.

I will have a look at the price of ownership during one year beginning with the buy of the printer.

Aculaser 1100 profile:

The printer (Aculaser 1100) was first released in 2004.

The printer uses 4 cartridges: black and CMY
The printer can use 4 black cartridges to increase the output.


Cartridges

The print speed is 25 b/w ppm and 5 color ppm.

Here come the most interesting details:

Recommended monthly volume: under 45000 pages
Black cartridge resource: 4000 pages (5% coverage)
CMY cartridges: 4000 pages/each (5% coverage)

Lifespan of the drum: 42 000 pages/black ; 10 500 page/color printing.

Here it is necessary to make a paranthesis: the above specifications are given for the famous 5% coverage of the page. But who prints with BIG LETTERS with the size "24" or even bigger without graphics just to cover only 5%? Therefore, the resource should be reduced by around 10-15% to reflect the true state of matters. So, the actual coverage should be around 8% in average. But let us not be too
picky! :) Let us not consider the fact that in an office the staff might print photos and other stuff with even over 50% coverage, either.

The premise is that we print 7000 b/w pages and 3500 color pages per month on our Aculaser 1100.


The "guts" of an Aculaser 1000, Aculaser1100's elder brother.