Ricoh MP C5501 w/50k...Turd at any count or did I find me a diamond?

[Foo]

My resale wholesaler called me with an MP C5501 with 34k B/W and 16k color...50K total copies.

I have little experience with this box. I'm mostly a B/W guy.
I have a customer pushing 150k a month and is interested in a faster color machine (currently 35 a min color).

So with a 50K meter am I looking at an old dinosaur or a decent piece of equipment that my customer will appreciate?

Does it have any issues I need to watch out for?

Thanks again for your time!

Jeff D.
STL

[ruben]

Re: Ricoh MP C5501 w/50k...Turd at any count or did I find me a diamond?

50k is nothing to these machines. Their avg. monthly volume is rated at 12k, with a max of 50k.

Black drums are expensive, colour drums can be replaced with older D0292256, with removing a pin on the connector, swapping a wire, and removing a pin inside the machine (see drum cheat sheet).
Fusers are pretty solid, haven't had any problems with them at all.

Drum Cheat Sheet.pdf

[turbojetboy]

Re: Ricoh MP C5501 w/50k...Turd at any count or did I find me a diamond?

Mpc 5501 are in my opinion best colour midrange mfd that Ricoh has made to date, super reliable easy to fix and parts run to PM and then usually way past.

[tufbnme]

Re: Ricoh MP C5501 w/50k...Turd at any count or did I find me a diamond?

Love em, great machine. All the components will run well after their yield.

[ptrflrs]

Re: Ricoh MP C5501 w/50k...Turd at any count or did I find me a diamond?

Have seen a C5501 fuser do a million clicks with some noise from the bearings but still. Toner pumps go out more often. Usual black and color drum units will need replacing. In my experience any ricoh xx01 is better than any xx02 or xx03 so far. Firmware update helps.

[redneckstylin]

Re: Ricoh MP C5501 w/50k...Turd at any count or did I find me a diamond?

50k is nothing to these machines. Their avg. monthly volume is rated at 12k, with a max of 50k.

Black drums are expensive, colour drums can be replaced with older D0292256, with removing a pin on the connector, swapping a wire, and removing a pin inside the machine (see drum cheat sheet).
Fusers are pretty solid, haven't had any problems with them at all.

[ATTACH]28809[/ATTACH]

d089 blk pcu
b224-2042 grind and brak pin off

[Zaxxon]

Re: Ricoh MP C5501 w/50k...Turd at any count or did I find me a diamond?

d089 blk pcu
b224-2042 grind and brak pin off

Can You please explain this og even better a picture of what modifications to perform?

Thanks in advance.

[Iowatech]

Re: Ricoh MP C5501 w/50k...Turd at any count or did I find me a diamond?

Can You please explain this og even better a picture of what modifications to perform?

Thanks in advance.

This might help:
http://www.copytechnet.com/forums/ri...c4502-pcu.html

[Zaxxon]

Re: Ricoh MP C5501 w/50k...Turd at any count or did I find me a diamond?

This might help:
http://www.copytechnet.com/forums/ri...c4502-pcu.html

As I understand, there is no replacement (midified) version for the Bk PCU?

[allan]

Re: Ricoh MP C5501 w/50k...Turd at any count or did I find me a diamond?

Will not live to long doing 3 times the recommended max yield.

[Klydon]

Re: Ricoh MP C5501 w/50k...Turd at any count or did I find me a diamond?

Will not live to long doing 3 times the recommended max yield.

+1

5501 is a good box, but not running 150K a month.

[rosspt]

Re: Ricoh MP C5501 w/50k...Turd at any count or did I find me a diamond?

I think there must be a mistake on the monthly volume. 150K per month? A pro C5100 is 20K average with a max of 150K per month. A pro C651 is average 50K and 180K max per month. You might get away with a c720 average 60K and max 190K per month but you are going to be doing early pm's constantly every month. Doesn't sound right to me.

[Foo]

Re: Ricoh MP C5501 w/50k...Turd at any count or did I find me a diamond?

Well I thought that was excessive also.
So after my original post I went back and called them, and sure enough
she had added the extra 0 to make it 150k per month. LOL so in reality
we're talking 15k a month.
I went and serviced the C5501 on Thursday. Super clean, not one issue at all.
Ran a alot of copies through and never saw a flaw. Color seemed off so I ran the calibration routine.
That fixed the color tones.

Oh yeah... It only has 40K total. 24k b/w, 16k color.

Thanks for all the interesting info about using cheaper cartridges.

Jeff