Thank you for the complete review. It's nice to actually have real details about a printer model.
Many years ago, the district contracted out Xerox as our copy machines in all of our offices. I can't say much about the WorkCentres, as Xerox just takes care of them (A definite plus). But, they also gave us a Phaser 4400n as a "free gift" with our contract. That 4400 has been in a lab for years with heavy use. While it now looks a little beaten up, it has been extremely reliable, as the only maintenance I have had was to replace the fuser twice. We received it sometime in 2004, and it has printed 98,000+ pages. --Matt Ross Ephrata School District ----- Original Message ----- From: Ben Scott [mailto:mailvor...@gmail.com] To: NT System Admin Issues [mailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com] Sent: Fri, 23 Mar 2012 08:48:12 -0700 Subject: Xerox Phaser 6280 DN review > This is in response to some recent discussion around printer brands/models. > > We have purchased three Xerox Phaser 6280 DN units over the past few > years. They are way overkill for our expected print volume, but they > were the cheapest, smallest thing I could find that didn't obviously > suck. > > http://www.office.xerox.com/printers/color-printers/phaser-6280/enus.html > > The 6280 is also available in an MFD variant, of which I know > nothing beyond its existence, but from the web site picture, appears > to be the same printer with a scan deck bolted on top (like most MFD > lasers these days). > > These are single-pass color laser printers. 600 DPI. Duplex. USB, > Ethernet. PCL5, PCL6 (AKA PCL-XL), PostScript 3. Drivers (or > equivalent) are offered for Windows, as well as Mac OS X, Linux > (CUPS), and AS/400 (!?). 1-year on-site warranty. > > Network protocols included in the marketing brochure (possibly also > the product) are: > > Print: LPR; raw TCP ("Port 9100"); SMB; FTP; IPP > Transport: IP; IPX; NetBEUI > Management: SNMP; HTTP; SMTP; Telent > Discovery: mDNS; WSD > > Stock paper supplies are the 250 sheet main drawer and a fold-down > 150 sheet bypass tray ("Multi-Purpose Tray", or "MPT"). An optional > 550 sheet stack-on drawer is advertised. > > Stock RAM is 256 MB. Max RAM advertised as 1.25 GB. A hard disk > drive kit is advertised. > > The main consumables are four print cartridges (CMYK), each > combining toner supply and photo-drum. Available in two sizes (page > count capacities). The high-cap black is rated at 7000 pages; the > high-cap color, 5900 pages. Using CDW's prices, I worked it out to > $0.14/page, which seems typical for machines of this type. Long-life > consumables would be the fuser and transfer unit (belt); both rated at > 100K pages. > > Tech information available to me is excellent by contemporary > standards. The manual covers the basics for installation, usage, > maintenance, and diagnostics. Coverage of more advanced topics for > drivers and the embedded network controller/server/thingy is minimal > in the manual, but the online help for both is mostly complete. The > website knowledge base details a lot of diagnostic/repair procedures. > Illustrations/pictures are clear. *Well-written English*, which > counts for a lot (Konica, I'm looking at you). > > There are still a few "mystery settings" if you dig deep enough. > (Do I want "Account Mode" to be "User" or "Administrator"? (I > eventually decided "Manage Account" should be unchecked, and "Account > Mode" should be "User". Seems to work for us. My best guess is that > the other settings are used if you want stricter print accounting > (such as password printing or control panel lockout).)) > > Speed is very good. In my testing: Around 25 pages/minute (color, > single-sided). FPO (first page out) is <13 seconds from warm standby, > <38 seconds from a cold start, <1:27 for first-power-on after > out-of-box, with all new cartridges. Opening the cover and/or > re-seating print cartridges triggers a "calibration" cycle, but it's > typically < 6 seconds. > > Network thingy takes 45 seconds to become ready after reboot or cold > start. That might be due to our use of DHCP; did not test with static > IP address. But it means the print engine is usually ready to print > well before the controller can accept jobs. OTOH, since we usually > never power off our printers, this is rarely an issue for us. > > The duplexer is of the reversing type (spits the page most of the > way out, then pulls it back in). That means duplexing is slower than > a forward-only duplexer. However, it is good enough to start printing > side 1 of page N+1 while recycling page N to print side 2. > > Windows drivers are available in model-specific or "GPD" (Global > Print Driver) variants. Each of those are available in PCL5, PCL6, or > PostScript variants. The models-specific stuff is small (1 to 4 MB); > the GPD is 33 MB. I went with the model-specific driver. > > The PCL drivers generated much smaller print jobs, which printed > much faster, vs PostScript. I have found to be typical with > contemporary printers. I see PostScript as a desirable compatibility > feature, but not the ideal PDL. (For our needs. YMMV.) > > I tried printing a 4 page, color-heavy, bitmap-heavy, non-optimal, > PDF from our marketing department. (In other words, typical.) With > the PCL driver, it created a 16 MB job, which took about 3 minutes to > print (from clicking "OK" in the UI to last-page-out). With the > PostScript driver, page 2 came out slightly after six minutes, at > which point I got tired of waiting and killed the job. > > The PCL driver printed the Gernot Hoffmann 220 LPI test page in < 50 > seconds, when rasterized on the printer. If rasterized in Adobe > Reader, <30 seconds. This is with the model-specific PCL6 driver for > Windows. Did not test PostScript driver on this. > > The front panel is fairly good. Display: Backlit character-cell > dot-matrix LCD. Not as nice as some of the full-color high-res jobs > you see these days, but reasonably easy-to-read and gets the job done. > Buttons: Four-way arrow, OK, Menu, Cancel, Wake. The Wake button > lights when it goes into sleep (power save); the display and other > buttons are non-functional in sleep. Press the Wake button, or send a > print job, and it will quickly become ready. You can configure a > variety of things from the front panel You can have it beep for > everything, or just errors, or nothing, or several other options. You > can have the front panel prompt for paper size and type whenever the > MPT is loaded, which is a nice touch for those who don't understand > driver settings. > > The web UI is reasonable. It needs JavaScript. No Java or cookies. > You can configure an admin username/password, at which point you need > to HTTP auth before you can change things. The print driver as a > "Printer Status" button which will open the web UI from the printer > properties, which is handy. It only wants a reboot on a couple things > (change in IP, enable/disable protocols, IIRC). > > The web UI provides a job history which includes date, time, > interface, username, hostname, job name, pages, and result. The > username is the user who submitted the job, and the hostname is their > workstation, despite the fact that we route all print jobs through a > Windows server, so it must get that info from PJL/PCL or something. > Interface is always "Port 9100" for us. This information is readable > to anyone who can get to the web UI, even if a password is set. I do > not know if it this is exposed via SNMP or otherwise. > > Physically, all access to innards (except PCB/RAM/HDD) is through > the front panel. Press a button on the side to release; door swings > out and down. All four print cartridges are easily accessible > directly ahead. The transfer belt assembly is on the door panel; the > duplexer assembly is under that. The fuser assembly is at the top. > All parts are *very* easy to remove/replace. No tools. For any given > assembly, release one or two catches, and it will pull/swing out. > Fits back in easily, and alignment is obvious and keyed. Electrical > connections plug in/out automatically. Not only does this make repair > easier, it makes clearing bad paper jams a breeze. It's a a beautiful > thing, and a far cry from some of the recent HP abominations. (To > clear many jams from the LaserJet P2015's bypass feed, you have to > disassemble the printer down to the base frame. To clear jams from > the LaserJet 3380 AIO's fuser, you have to remove the scan deck (16 > screws, 3 cables). Both procedures take an hour plus.) > > Physically, the 6280 is somewhat large. 19 high, 16 wide, 18 deep > (inches). Not including clearances for ventilation or opening > doors/drawers. > > We've had almost zero paper jams. No breakdowns or other weirdness. > Admittedly our volume is low, but the HP Color LaserJets which > preceded these were a constant source of trouble. > > Highly recommended for suitable applications. > > -- Ben > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
