brother

Brother's separate drum/toner cartridge arrangement makes for a longer life of the toner output equipment overall. Having been the owner of laser printers and inkjet printers for many years, I can say that Brother's solution is very nice. Here's why. In the arrangement used by HP, for example where the toner cartridge and drum are combined, if the drum is scratched, or otherwise damaged, the cartridge is ruined. That's the end; it must be replaced. In this arrangement, however, it is possible to fix the drum. Should a splotch appear, it's possible to wipe it off and even vacuum out the drum, if necessary. Sometimes when a cartridge is about to run out of toner, for example, it burps out a little extra toner. Because you can separate the drum from the cartridge, it's possible to clean this up instead of just throwing out the whole cartridge before it's really worn out. Another advantage along the same lines is being able to remove pieces of paper that get stuck inside the drum should a paper jam occur. Now as far as the economics of laser printer versus inkjet printer go, just figure it out for yourself. Do the math and come up with the best compromise of print yield, resolution, etc. In terms of comparing the cost of combined drum/toner cartridges versus the cost of separate drum/cartridges, I found that there was little difference on a per-print basis. Add to that the convenience of recovering from problems described at the beginning of my comments, and I am forced to conclude that the Brother solution is the best.

CompUSA has this same product for $128.07 as of June 14, 2004. I've had my Brother MFC 4550+ since 1998. My drums go fast even though I only use the machine primarily for faxing, not printing or copying.

The product is advertized as new oem brother product. upon installing new drum the starter paper that ejects upon start-up was not present and the print quality was worse that the unit being replaced. a series of black dots are now present in right hand column. Very dissappointed. I've installed one replacement prior to this and experienced none of the problems stated above. It wasn't worth the savings. I'll need to purchase new unit at brick & mortar store.