C353, C451 & C550 advice on potential issues?

[Guest]

I wanted to thank everyone on this site for the wealth of technical information available on copiers. It helps tremendously for someone who is looking to sort out this often confusing office issue.

Our office has been using a Minolta EP2010 for at least the last 12+ years. The copier has done well, but it's certainly getting a bit long in the tooth at this point and we'd like to have color copying capability. So having had good luck with Minolta products we've been looking at the Bizhub C353, C451 or C550 units. My question to those in the know (those who repair KM equipment) is are we asking for trouble with these machines or have they been quite reliable in the field? Any drawbacks with any of them or models you'd recommend more?

To give you an idea, we probably only print around 15-20k copies per month and maybe only 20-30% of those would be in color.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

[mabawser]

Like anything these days nothing is made to last forever but at those clicks/month I'd be going for at least the 451 if not the 550.

They arent too bad machines to be honest. not there biggest fans but we have a 353 at the minute breaking down all the time and a 550 doing slightly more clicks per month and has had 1 call on as the customer couldnt put the toner in for some reason, so take from that what you will.

hope this helps

[mtl4]

They arent too bad machines to be honest. not there biggest fans but we have a 353 at the minute breaking down all the time and a 550 doing slightly more clicks per month and has had 1 call on as the customer couldnt put the toner in for some reason, so take from that what you will.

hope this helps

This helps alot actually. I know there is no such thing as a perfect copy machine, but I'd obviously like to be as efficient as I can with the money we do spend.

Any chance I could get you to elaborate on what part or parts of the C353 machine that tends to malfunction regularly? Were these costly repairs?

Thanks again.

[mabawser]

Any chance I could get you to elaborate on what part or parts of the C353 machine that tends to malfunction regularly? Were these costly repairs?

Thanks again.[/QUOTE]

At the minute We might have got to the bottom of it hopefully......

We might have been a wee but unlucky but since we installed the machine from new it has always jammed on and off pretty reguarly. as a lowly toner monkey I just get told where to go and fix the machine so not sure exactly how much things would cost. the customer does have a sevice contract though so all call outs/parts/toners etc are part of that.

[mtl4]

At the minute We might have got to the bottom of it hopefully......

We might have been a wee but unlucky but since we installed the machine from new it has always jammed on and off pretty reguarly. as a lowly toner monkey I just get told where to go and fix the machine so not sure exactly how much things would cost. the customer does have a sevice contract though so all call outs/parts/toners etc are part of that.

Maybe your customer's jamming could be due to what was found in this thread here:

http://www.copytechnet.com/forums/konica-minolta/15634-c353-2001-jams.html

Seems like jamming is a problem with the C353 although it appears they may have solved it.

Anyone else that could comment on it as well?

[mabawser]

Cheers for that.

We have done the same as all the posts already and it still jammed. But as the posts say it is intermitent (really intermitent).

In terms of your question originally the 353 seems to have a problem with jams and touch wood the 451's and 550's seem to work not too bad.

happy shopping

[mtl4]

Cheers for that.

We have done the same as all the posts already and it still jammed. But as the posts say it is intermitent (really intermitent).

In terms of your question originally the 353 seems to have a problem with jams and touch wood the 451's and 550's seem to work not too bad.

happy shopping

Sounds like I should be going towards the larger versions instead.

Great stuff and many thanks!

[mtl4]

Follow up:

I called the local KM tech who services our current machine and he's claiming the c353 doesn't jam any more than the c451 or c550 (ie doesn't jam much at all). I asked him how many c353's they had out there and he said there's about 15 right now in our immediate area. Hmmmm. He's got no reason to give me false info because I'm not telling him I'll buy another brand. He also knew full well that I would be signing a service agreement too.

Have anyone else recently experienced this jamming on the c353 machines and what percentage of the total number of c353's you have out there are experiencing this or other problems?