Xerox color cube - findings

[Mark Bbb]

Hello,
i'm a Ricoh dealer/technician who was contacted by Xerox for selling there products.
We try to work with little impact on the environment as possible and there for the Color cube is interesting.
What are your findings?
Thanks in advance.

[chubblies]

Great technology in theory but they are terrible machines. Xerox themselves named them the worst item they had ever sold...
They cost an absolute fortune to fix

[Mark Bbb]

But at the other hand, the print-inkt-cost and cost of the printer itself is rather (very) low.
The quality would be mediocre...
Wright?

[monarke4]

Hello,
i'm a Ricoh dealer/technician who was contacted by Xerox for selling there products.
We try to work with little impact on the environment as possible and there for the Color cube is interesting.
What are your findings?
Thanks in advance.

The Technology belonged to Tektronix I think. I remember seeing "Tektronix" logos on the solid ink printers around Xerox in the late 1980s.

I have never owned one but my tax account has.

My EA was purchasing supposed "compatible" solid ink for his Xerox printer. Low and behold the print engine clogged up, and could not be repaired. The company he purchased the "compatible" solid ink from is no more.

In the beginning Xerox touted "free" solid ink for life, was it? But no more.

If you would like to be amused for about 60 seconds, take a look at the "Solid Ink Dance" from 2017 in this Xerox article.

Xerox Solid Ink

[monarke4]

Here's an old debate about leaving a Solid Ink Printer powered on 24-7 and the power consumed to heat up and keep the solid ink molten.

Apparently it was created to mislead.....

An Inconvenient Truth about Solid Ink



The Xerox Star Workstations were also left powered on most of the time..... It took anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes for a Xerox 6085 Model 1 to boot up as it would load any applications set for "auto-start" when the box was powered on....

Those were the days....

[Milo Wilson]

That's why I have refused to work on any solid ink printer from day one. And I have worked on Xerox equipment for 23 years...lol

[prismtech]

The Colorqube machines like all Xerox products are cheaply made junk.

[SalesServiceGuy]

I knocked out seven ColorCubes this past summer replacing them with a combination of Laser and LED toner based print engines. The customer had the ColourCubes for five years and wanted to get rid of them because the printers were not care free, the cost savings were never there and the image quality was at best mediocre.

[rockdude]

There are good and bad things about the Solid Ink Machines.

As for the power consumption that is absolutely "TRUE" Not only does it take up more electricity but it also "Purges" every time it's
turned back on after being shut off for more than 5 minutes. The purge melts approx. 1/8 of a stick per color for the purge.
That equates to 1/8 X 4 = 1/2 stick and approx. $50 per stick = $25.00 wasted every time you turn it off and on again.

While the graphics quality is not photo quality, it is good enough for most business documents.
(Little known fact...when duplexing, the second side will always be slightly duller than the front. The reason is the heat is turned down to prevent melting on the front side while printing on the back)

The "Wet" look and feel of the print imitates raised lettering, which most customers prefer.

It is very green, the only true consumable is the Maintenance Roller which is good for 40K copies.

Let’s look at the Laser:

4 Toner Cartridges
4 Imaging Units
1 Waste Cartridge
1 Transfer Roller
1 Fuser
1 Imaging Belt
1 Belt Cleaner


As far as build quality. I have several units with over 200K copies. My experience with this machine tells me its max life is about 300K. I would consider its build quality about average.

I just performed a PM on a WS7855 with 3 Million copies and going strong. But I think we are comparing Apples to Oranges, The basic Solid Ink machine could be purchased with discounts and rebates for between $500 - $600. The WS7855 $8K - $12k.



You get what you pay for.

[monarke4]

I'm curious to know if there is MICR approved solid ink blocks?

That is to say if you were going to be ambitious and print your own checks from scratch....