Ricoh 5210 DN, and SF Upgrade

[ABS tect]

Hey all, sorry I wasn't positive where I should post this thread.

I have many customers currently using the Ricoh SP 5210 DN, SF, and SR and so far in my experience, they have been great workhorse machines to handle a decent amount of volume, output quickly, and toner is generally pretty cheap. (The volume I'm basing this conversation off of is 3,000-6,000/month)

That being said, I am at a lost as to what to upgrade them to because it shows the upgrade line is to go to the MP 501 next and then the current model IM 550F (or SP 5300DN/P800)

But my issue is the 501/5300 looks pretty cheap and not as heavy duty as the 5210, and I'm worried it can't quite handle the volume some of my customers need. The brochure says that the average and max monthly volume is pretty much what I need, but I just want to know how reliable these machines are in others experience.

Now I have no experience with the 501/5300 so that is why I am asking, I am basing this off of what I see (and also the MP 401's seem not as heavy duty and my mind makes me think the 501 is the next step up from that machine even though it's not), plus, it seems a lot more expensive to maintain. The 5210 has a toner/drum combo and a cheap maintenance kit that comes with just about everything else. Now the 501 has expensive toner, drum, and fuser....

Any suggestions as to what to upgrade the 5210 to? I prefer Ricoh but am not married to it. Thanks

[sandmanmac]

Re: Ricoh 5210 DN, and SF Upgrade

I seem to be in the minority with my opinion on the SP5200 series.
I can't stand them. I only ever sold a handful, but I've found that they eat pressure rollers faster than any machine I've ever dealt with. I litrerally average about 20-40k before they start wrinkling pages.
They have weird tray issues, and the cartridges aren't really that inexpensive -in fact my cost here is quite a bit more than for the MP501/601.
Keep in mind that while the drum unit is expensive, they are rated for 500K.
I can't confirm how close to that they actually go yet, but they seem to last a really long time.
ALSO since they use a mono component toner system, I felt pretty comfortable trying a generic brand cartridge which is really reasonable priced and have not had issues.
I also have some spare dev units on hand just in case I did have a problem.
I've used generic fuser rollers as well to rebuild the fuser rather than buying the whole assy, and had good luck there too.
The fuser is a bit of a pain to get out the first time or 2, but really not bad once you've done it a couple times. (you'll need the manual initially to save you tons of time), and it's quite easy to rebuild once it's out.
I always have a spare on my shelf ready to go.

There is a bulletin about tray 1, and a gear that can crack or something along those lines, and it's a brutal job to replace the assy, according to what I've read and seen about it.
I've not hade one fail yet, and I'm unsure exactly how common it is, but I'm in a position that I would likely just replace the machine rather than go through the process.
Bottom line, I personally prefer them way more than the SP5200

[slimslob]

Re: Ricoh 5210 DN, and SF Upgrade

But my issue is the 501/5300 looks pretty cheap and not as heavy duty as the 5210, and I'm worried it can't quite handle the volume some of my customers need.

I believe that the SP 5210 series was produced before Ricoh started its RoHS compliance on new equipment. With newer models that are all RoHS compliant things like aluminum side plates in paper trays are 1 to 3 gauges thinner.

[tonerhead]

Re: Ricoh 5210 DN, and SF Upgrade

I actually like the MP501's. The drums are AS (amorphos silicon) (glass) drums, They are very hard and go a lot longer than rated. The engine is actually built by Kyocera so several Kyocera parts work on it and are cheaper. As was mentioned, the tray lift has been an issue. The gear stud breaks and it struggles to lift after that and generally jams. If you ever have to replace that, make sure you have plenty of hard liquor, it is a bugger. The later ones had this fixed, the first ones probably broke about 20% of total. The fuser, drum, dev are a sob the first time. As said, you will need a manual or someone to show you. After you replace them once or twice, it is actually quite simple.

[tonerhead]

Re: Ricoh 5210 DN, and SF Upgrade

I also have some spare dev units on hand just in case I did have a problem.
I've used generic fuser rollers as well to rebuild the fuser rather than buying the whole assy, and had good luck there too.
The fuser is a bit of a pain to get out the first time or 2, but really not bad once you've done it a couple times. (you'll need the manual initially to save you tons of time), and it's quite easy to rebuild once it's out.
I always have a spare on my shelf ready to go.

There is a bulletin about tray 1, and a gear that can crack or something along those lines, and it's a brutal job to replace the assy, according to what I've read and seen about it.
I've not hade one fail yet, and I'm unsure exactly how common it is, but I'm in a position that I would likely just replace the machine rather than go through the process.
Bottom line, I personally prefer them way more than the SP5200

I am curious, I've never tried to rebuild a MP501 fuser, always replace the assembly. Where do you find individual rollers for it?

[sandmanmac]

Re: Ricoh 5210 DN, and SF Upgrade

I am curious, I've never tried to rebuild a MP501 fuser, always replace the assembly. Where do you find individual rollers for it?

Nutone & Co.
Homepage

They're a Canadian-based aftermarket parts distributor, but they also have U.S. distribution centre. The majority of their aftermarket Parts & Supplies are manufactured CET group, and I've generally had pretty good luck with the items I use. They can basically get whatever you find on the CET website, even though they may not necessarily stock it as a regular item, or often even appear in their online catalog, however these fuser rollers are a regular item.

https://www.cetgroupco.com/gb/

[ABS tect]

Re: Ricoh 5210 DN, and SF Upgrade

You guys are the bomb....that really helps a lot.

Sandman your experience with those and knowing all those little things ahead of time is very valuable and I may just give those 501's a shot.

This is why I love this forum...thank you guys

[sandmanmac]

Re: Ricoh 5210 DN, and SF Upgrade

You guys are the bomb....that really helps a lot.

Sandman your experience with those and knowing all those little things ahead of time is very valuable and I may just give those 501's a shot.

This is why I love this forum...thank you guys

Happy to help in any way I can. I certainly don't have a huge fleet of them in the field, , but then, I don't have a huge fleet of anything, , so I'm just sharing what I've experienced.

[ABS tect]

Re: Ricoh 5210 DN, and SF Upgrade

For sure...

Well knowing that the drums are rated at 500k, and being able to rebuild parts easily with inexpensive parts, and possibly use compatible helps bring the cost end down and if you like them better than the 5200 then I think I would probably like them.

And that makes sense slim...I didn't know they did that.

[Oze]

Re: Ricoh 5210 DN, and SF Upgrade

For sure...

Well knowing that the drums are rated at 500k, and being able to rebuild parts easily with inexpensive parts, and possibly use compatible helps bring the cost end down and if you like them better than the 5200 then I think I would probably like them.

And that makes sense slim...I didn't know they did that.

I'm yet to see an MP501 drum go full life.
I'm also yet to see the equivalent Kyocera model drum go full life as well...in fact don't get me started on Kyocera and their fanciful Drum life rating for Ecosys and smaller Taskalfa

[sandmanmac]

Re: Ricoh 5210 DN, and SF Upgrade

I'm yet to see an MP501 drum go full life.
I'm also yet to see the equivalent Kyocera model drum go full life as well...in fact don't get me started on Kyocera and their fanciful Drum life rating for Ecosys and smaller Taskalfa

When you say they don't make yield, I'm curious how short they tend to fall for you?
I'm of the opinion that if they only run 300-350K rather than the stated 500K, that's still really good.
That would equate to a minimum of 6-8 pcu's on an the MP301 (hate those things!!!!) based on my experience, so that's still really efficient.

I think the highest metered unit I currently have in the field is still under 200K.
They're all refurbished (by me) units, and generally come to me with well under 100K.
I'm in an extremely fortunate position as it relates to most of the units that I buy and sell, in that I can make deals for just about anything with my main wholesaler since they export thousands of machines overseas. They don't care about the quality of the copy - just that it makes one.
I'm very lucky in that regard.
So I don't expect to ever actually need to purchase a brand new drum unit for one of these machine, and already have 2 or 3 lightly used units sitting on my shelf.

[tonerhead]

Re: Ricoh 5210 DN, and SF Upgrade

I've always thought these did well with the drums. Particularly if they are run. Every time I'm on one of these though, I pop out the charge roller and clean it with windex. Most of mine are running 6-10k/mo. I have noticed that the drum blades will start to yellow and then you might get streaking. If a drum gets scratched, I will salvage the chg and bld. We are not a Kyo dealer, but get both the print and copy versions in trade and will salvage parts from them. I had a customer pharmacy run this thing to death. They had labels in the bypass and paper in the tray. The label sheets were about 3x6. These are pill bottle labels and warnings. Each prescription they filled had a label and 3-5 instruction pages. Within 4 months they had 150K or so on it. It never missed a beat. At 200k they had a label jam that they tried to get out themselves and wrecked the drum in the process. Otherwise that drum was perfect after 200k. Then I left for another company. They never could figure out why they had such a large overage bill. Sales really gave the shaft over that one. Signed them up for a 5 year hitch and 6 months in was around 325k. Wonder how that eventually turned out? Shortly before I left the salesman showed up drunk to work and got canned.