Thanks for your help, Phil B. I have seen where KM received innovation and design awards (I think one was a Red Dot Award). I haven’t seen many on performance, though. The larger KM units (e.g. C650i) won the Better Buy’s Editor Award. The Ricoh was on the Better Buy’s Editors list as well. Of the few reviews I’ve seen, they were on the Better Buys website. I figured I would ask about the units here because those that sell and work on them know best about performance, serviceability, and reliability.
We switched from KM to Ricoh a couple of years ago. So far, the Ricoh A4s have been more reliable than the older KM's( 4050,4750,C3851fs) The mid range Ricohs have been very reliable so far.
Yes, I would still favor Konica and then Ricoh even with their small desktop line. That being said, we try to avoid selling the smaller machines whenever possible , since the much cheaper toner and parts for the larger commercial machines make the cost per copy much more attractive.
As to your firmware remark, it is almost always the case that when a new model is released issues will occur that will be resolved with later firmware updates. You can expect issues with newly released models - very common. We avoid selling new models until they have been around for about 6 months just to let the manufacturer get the bugs out.
Anything can be made to work if you fiddle with it long enough- San Diego Copier Repair.com
You are welcome. Glad to help, best rule of thumb when purchasing smaller machines is to check your price on the toner and drum and fusers. I would pay hundreds more for a machine that had a cheaper cost to operate. You would very quickly make that money back with the savings in toner and parts.
Sturdiness is also important as some small printers are flimsy plastic junk and parts can break right off easily.
For example, Lexmark makes some affordable sturdy units, but they overprice their toner a lot which makes them hard to recommend.
Anything can be made to work if you fiddle with it long enough- San Diego Copier Repair.com
We made the same choice as you, but in reverse. The Ricoh A4 required so many interventions that many rental contracts were at a loss. We forced the customer to pay for broken plastics because otherwise it was unsustainable. Now those customers have Konica Minolta and no longer have problems with broken plastics. Ricoh blamed the customer's lack of forethought but the reality was in their poorly designed plastics. For now, Konica Minolta has no problem with broken plastics. If there are faults, the faults are electronic/hardware/ firmware bug. But these are present in every manufacturer in the world ..
You see all the models you mention are POS machines.
4050 4750 ain't KM don't even think that the C3851 come from under the same roof but looks like KM built.
Again KM A4 sucks. Worst documents feeders i have ever encountered .
Looking at the C3320i. They fixed some things like the paper feed and DF.
Hope i like this one.
Why i like Konica Minolta the best is they are easy when it comes to breaking rules. Rebuilding and chipping(Replacing ICP's) units works well if you know what you are doing. Can't believe there are guy not converting B/W units to color, the saving there is remarkable. Will take some good quality 3de party toner for the B/W machines. Running OEM toner for the color machines when its critical. These days you can get color developer, drum units, feed rollers and fuser kits for cheap. So on a tighter service schedule you can run fong kong toner. Not recommended for the faint of heart or strictly professionals. You need to have an eye on the running cost to see where you can stretch things including your time.
On the 958 the OEM drum unit does well past it yield almost double. Now there are no 3de party blades to fit so I change out only the drum labeled B552.
Still the same drum after all these years. The drum unit on the 958 got one major change, its got double the charge exposure. Powerful charge output.
With the cheap drum got another 300K out of the unit. The B754 machine is great at this time, most PM parts are available from 3de party. Most KM PM parts makes 2 to 3 times the yield with added care cleaning and inspecting. Cleaning out waste toner from units helps on some models to extend part life. B423 drum can make 400K by removing the top cover from the drum unit and vacuuming the cleaning/recycling section then turn drum backward slowly to dislodge anything stuck between the drum and blade. Bla bla bla. Off the point, point being with care you can cheat to stay competitive with the bigger boys that have control over the parts and support channels.
Whatever
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