New A-Series (306ci, 356ci, 406ci) - Thoughts?

[tmaged]

Re: New A-Series (306ci, 356ci, 406ci) - Thoughts?

There is beta firmware available for the 306ci, the does extra cleaning on the black drum. I don't have a clue as to what takes them so long to address this. We've been battling it since May. Contact your area service manager to get it. That's the only problem we've had with this series.
No problem with the A3 line. You can however put 3252 firmware on a 3552 & it completes. The machine icon & number pad disappear from the display until the correct firmware is installed.

[Brianneoe]

Re: New A-Series (306ci, 356ci, 406ci) - Thoughts?

Apart from one premature drum failure on a 306 (40k prints) I have not had any other problems. As far as colour goes, they aren't as good as opposition machines on plain paper, but use colour copier paper and they are as good as any other brand we deal with if not better. Colour vibrancy has always been an issue with Kyocera, but maybe they have listened to feedback and turned the corner on this.
What's everyone's thoughts on the new A3 2552/3552/4552ci series? Lots of thought seems to have gone in to these. Soft close trays. Steel paper guides. Black toner becomes waste bottle. Only thing I don't like Is the removal of the number panel.

I went to training on these models a few months ago. We striped down and reinstalled everything to the frame in 40 minutes. I have a few out in the field and so far no complaints. The training machine's color output was as close to Fiery quality as I have every seen. I need to make time in the future to evaluate the out of box quality but if its the same as the machine that I trained on- we are looking at a major winner.
FYI- We sell more Ricoh's then Kyocera's and I was never a fan of Kyocera's color until this 52 series came out

[serviceman678]

Re: New A-Series (306ci, 356ci, 406ci) - Thoughts?

Not so that you'd notice. =^..^=

what they say is color is all perception and i agree with them. ( them being the maNUFACTURER) . bUT SIDE BY SIDE the color quality isn't better than the competition especially konica minolta and i really don't care for brand i'm a ricoh man for the most part. but I work on whatever i'm dispatched its not my choice back to the kyocera 406, 306 ive even tried the color table profiles. When I program the kyocera to a konica minolta profile it still doesn't match
the konica even though it's supposed to maybe you can tell us why Blackcat????

[blackcat4866]

Re: New A-Series (306ci, 356ci, 406ci) - Thoughts?

... back to the kyocera 406, 306 I've even tried the color table profiles. When I program the Kyocera to a Konica Minolta profile it still doesn't match.
The Konica even though it's supposed to maybe you can tell us why Blackcat????

I've gone down that road myself back in the Saturn days, when the CS-500ci was supposed to be the second coming. The best I could get was consistently mediocre. It seems it's always the reds that we stumble on (RGB:255/0/0) regardless of what color profile that you select. My guess is that the tint of the toners is somewhat different from KM or Toshiba or Lexmark. In an effort to reduce toner usage Kyocera has reduced the amount of toner laid down on the page, and naturally, the saturation is weaker than machines that lay down more toner. I suppose that each manufacturer has it's own priorities. Toner dusting, toner usage, developer density accuracy, color matching, fusing, etc., etc. Each of these elements involves a compromise of some sort. I'm sure that there is a copier engineer here somewhere that can explain some of the minutiae.
=^..^=

[genesistech]

Re: New A-Series (306ci, 356ci, 406ci) - Thoughts?

What's everyone's thoughts on the new A3 2552/3552/4552ci series? Lots of thought seems to have gone in to these. Soft close trays. Steel paper guides. Black toner becomes waste bottle. Only thing I don't like Is the removal of the number panel.

Despite my worries, we have not had any problems with the 406ci that we installed earlier this year... Besides the internal finisher which is still jingling around. During my last PM I noticed that it is still making the sound but is still working correctly and the customer doesn't seem to mind it... which is shocking to be truthful. Color was still holding up and no repairs needed. They did only have 60k prints on the machine, 25k being color... so it wasn't being used as much as we were told it was going to be. We only have one other 406 in the field because we held true to not putting too many out - and then the A3 series came in and that's the only thing we have sold.

I like the new A3 series. All the perks you guys already know about. We have had only slight problems with a developer being bad when it was shipped in, and a waste toner RFID going out (That's assumed, because it was shipped to them yesterday to fix the problem.) The only other problem we've had is something tmaged mentioned that is very important. If you get a 3252 or a 3552, make sure you have the correct firmware! We put a 3252 firmware on a 3552 and it not only takes away the numeric keypad, but takes away several options in the menu screen and removes the printer display on the copy screen.

As for the numeric keypad, we've found that it's easier to contact the customer when working with sales to make sure they don't use the keypad often. If they do, then we just add a numeric keyboard to the order since they are fairly cheap to add on. If you had a numeric keyboard though, they will no longer be able to bring up the numeric keypad on the screen. It removes the option.

This series has by far my favorite machines. We only work with Kyocera, Lexmark and HP though, so my knowledge doesn't branch away from those manufacturers.

[AlbertK]

Re: New A-Series (306ci, 356ci, 406ci) - Thoughts?

I have a 356ci running since June last year at a customer that does advertisements and fliers !!!? Wrong machine, I know, but he sourced it from somewhere and I maintain it. Thus far I only had one problem with light prints and the problem resolved itself before I could attend to it.
The machine has done about 30K. Not bad, I think, for something being used in the wrong application.

[JSC]

Re: New A-Series (306ci, 356ci, 406ci) - Thoughts?

There is beta firmware available for the 306ci, the does extra cleaning on the black drum. I don't have a clue as to what takes them so long to address this. We've been battling it since May. Contact your area service manager to get it. That's the only problem we've had with this series.
No problem with the A3 line. You can however put 3252 firmware on a 3552 & it completes. The machine icon & number pad disappear from the display until the correct firmware is installed.

Yea have been fighting this fault on a couple of machines as well 1 306ci and 1 356ci. The beta firmware does not fix the fault, i have had notification from Kyocera Germany there is a modified drum on it's way - due March 2017