Printer lifespan in "real" conditions?

[pudding101]

I have been told our current fleet will not be replaced until it reaches the munufacturers maximum recommended volume of 9 million on the CS 555 colour and (wait for it!) 27 million on the Aficio 10515 B/W. As we are on less than 4.5 million on the 555s and getting real issues, I wondered if anyone could offer their own experience on what these models or similar can manage in the real world

Thanks

[Cipher]

Take those kind of figures with a pinch of salt.

The fact is any machine with the amount of moving parts that a copier has will require on going maintenance at regular and irregular intervals.

[FRIDGEMAGNET]

You should be afraid - the Katana is rated at 60 million!

[iMind]

You should be afraid - the Katana is rated at 60 million!

[Ricoh-ono]

Personal experience has been about 1/3 of manufacturer recommended life.

[cobiray]

I had 2 Gestetner 9002's that ran side by side for 3 years. The one had 12+ million and the other had 11+ million. They started to have more non normal (dev units, duplex unit on one) that needed to be replaced. I figure those numbers are a little inflated for "normal" usage. I'm guessing those numbers come from a machine that is run in a lab. Or they just pulled the numbers out of their @$$'s.

[Ricoh-ono]

I had 2 Gestetner 9002's that ran side by side for 3 years. The one had 12+ million and the other had 11+ million. They started to have more non normal (dev units, duplex unit on one) that needed to be replaced. I figure those numbers are a little inflated for "normal" usage. I'm guessing those numbers come from a machine that is run in a lab. Or they just pulled the numbers out of their @$$'s.

I think the latter statement is correct. I seriously doubt these guys run a machine in the lab to its full lifespan. Hell, I don't think R&D run many test at all. They leave that for the field to deal with. Prime example 1060/1075's.