Sharp AR-C330

[PCFSS&S]

I am about to take on a new customer that has recently bought a sharp c-330, he said the seller sold it to my customer for little of nothing because he got reimbursed through his insurance company for flood damage at his place of business.

I went in checked the machine out, the only damage I saw was from something other than flood damage, like cracked covers, xfer belt looked good, fuser looked good, B&W copies, color copies looked good even for a used machine without possible flood damage.

I am going to take him on as a customer, the only thing I was a little concerned about was the fuser seemed to contantly go into a run idleing cycle while not in a copy run, it never coded out, like it was not hot enough or too hot but would constantly do this. According to the customer I was the first to turn it on since he bought it, don't know how long it had been sitting there.

Is this normal for this machine ? and what else do I need to look for on this model. Also how do you get into the service mode so i can check among other things how many miles are on this thing. I know where to get service & parts manuels, just trying to get your opinons and some quick info.

Thanks PCFSS&S

[blackcat4866]

The fuser motor turning on periodically is designed to prevent flat spots on the fuser rollers. I don't know if it achieves the desired effect because I've never seen flat spots on the Bear fuser rollers, before or after that firmware update.

These are some parts hungry machines. Developer, drums, charge units, and fusers rarely last full life. My previous employer consistently lost money over every single service contract offered on a Bear (Good name, huh? Bear!).

If your customer runs cardstock in any significant amount (anything more than a few pages a day) you will continually be battling fuser codes and blown thermal switches. The theory is simple: Cardstock tends to cool the ends of the upper fuser roller. The thermistor is at the end, so when temperature is elevated enough to reach the desired temperature at the ends the center is hot enough to blow the thermal switch. Read the specs. The operators manual specifically states that only single sheets of cardstock may be fed.

If I could back out of this deal, I would, immediately. Now if your bored and need a second home, this will solve that problem for you. In addition these machines are old enough that Sharp could withdrawn support & parts any time now.

Please don't misunderstand. These machines give great quality, and really suck to service. =^..^=

[wazza]

OMG, where do I start......

Firstly, the fuser rotating issue is normal. It will eventually go into pre-heat/sleep mode, depending on your timers. The machine has an oil-based fuser, so the continuous/very long rotation time is only the oil being pumped through the fuser and coating roller unit. It's normal, dont worry about it.

As for the rest...... Send me your email address.... I'll send you what you need.
Been doing these for years. Great machine when service properly. Just has a short maintenance cycle compared to everything made in last 5 years etc etc. Also a pain in the ass trying to wtite on paper that has come out of it due to the oil fuser. Most pens dont work really well. You'll find out as you go.

[wazza]

To further backup Blackcat's statement... The remaining Bear's in the field here all have the front covers held on with tape as there are no more parts available. The clips on the front cover for the toner hopper & main door easily break with old age or aggressive use. Be careful.

Also, you will need to calibrate the Fiery on a regular basis too. Pretty easy once you do it a few times.

[wazza]

Basically, I second everything that Blackcat said.

I hate the fuser unit! Just getting the drums/devs out is an epic adventure for the first timer. After a while you can get these serviced in a short time.

[mtech]

I always had problems with customers running regular 20lb paper through these! You really need to run color copy paper even for black and white copies! Regular paper sucks up the oil and jams (usually taking out the center thermistor). Also, the oil gets contaminated with paper dust and turns the oil into a paste clogging the pump. God help you if they run ink jet paper through it! If you need to move the machine you have to drain the oil and most people don't! This causes an oil spill equal to the Exxon Valdez! These machines are a service money pit! Thank god I don't service them anymore!

[wazza]

Went to a Bear machine once that had no service contract on it. The machine was purchased on eBay apparently, and they wanted a quote to get it working. Somehow the oil output pipe from the fuser, down to the collection tray was instead hanging down beside the collection tray. This made all the oil continuously pump down into the machine, lower trays, ADU and onto the floor. The oil bottle ran itself dry as it wasn't recycling through.
Just wrote the machine off. Didnt want to know about it. It would have been border-line impossible to ever get it going properly or reliably with an entire oil bottle spread through the machine. Nice job for the carpet cleaners too I bet!

Best thing Sharp ever did was move on from the Bear........ oh wait....hang on...... the Whale was next! Thats a whole new topic. Thank God for the MX's.

[Lawrence]

Thank god our machine never moved off the show room floor. It was a ARC270. What a pain in the ass to trouble shoot having to tear the front of the machine off to get the drums to slide out. Looked neat though. I could never get that machine to do a decent red. I was never trained on this guy and at the time i was still struggling with MX color calibrations so i was screwed on this guy

Didn't care for this product or the next one that came.

As Wazza said, thank god for the MX.

The sales start date for ARC330 is December 2004. And its supported still with Sharp Canada.
The sales start date for ARC270 is December 2002. It's only supported via fax and email.

[blackcat4866]

You had me going there for a second, wazza. Could we be talking about the same machine sitting there in the puddle of fuser oil. (Carpeting can be really absorbent.)

One of my more exciting service calls was on a AR-C270. As I was calibrating it I happened to notice the sparks and bright green flames shooting out of the main power switch.

The fuser oil vapor penetrates every square inch of the machine, including the main power switch. When the switch began arcing it ignited the fuser oil. What a light show! As a short term solution I used a Cougar main power switch. It doesn't fit in the hole, but kept them up and running.

[Lawrence]

Should of told them their machine just caught fire and they needed a new one