Laser printers and inverters

zoneblue

Heres a trap for young players, (guess that still makes me one).

A long time inkjet user, I probably hold some kind of record for managing to keep an 90s era inkjet running (just because i could) using a home made nozzle cleaning device consisting of a modified empty cartridge a syringe and some isopropyl.

But the fact is with the whole paperless era, the thing was getting used more and more infrequently, and the tiresome ink clogging thing finally got the better of me. So when the mrs innocently asked if i could "quickly" print something for her in the weekend, i buckled at the 50 odd buck price tag on a entry level laser, (Brother HL1110).

Plugged in in, inverter faults right off. That inverter is an 1100W, (with decent toroid in it), so this means the start up surge of that printer is decidedly unsignificant. Turns out this is a property of laser printers, but Brother are known to be on the high end.

A quick bit of reading ascertained the spike was large but brief, so the long extention cord trick did the trick, and was able to get it running.

Time to wire up the VFX i guess, and before i retire it to standby duties ill also do a review on the Stecca, as its a nice little unit, albeit uncommon.

http://www.johndearmond.com/2008/08/04/laser-printers-and-inverters/
https://www.donrowe.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/laser_printer_startup_surge.pdf

westbranch

Re: Laser printers and inverters

Hmm, my HL-2270DW printer measured in at 40W constant, no way to grab the surge though...

zoneblue

Re: Laser printers and inverters

westbranch wrote: »

Hmm, my HL-2270DW printer measured in at 40W constant, no way to grab the surge though...

If you look at the graphs in the two links, youll see that the draw is very spiky. With energy star and all that the idle is coming way down with agresive power managment. The second link by samlex shows start surges, adn periodic fuser warm spikes of 3-4kW. Ouch. Who would have thought such a small innocent looking appliance could draw so much.

feedhorn

Re: Laser printers and inverters

I've had good luck running my two HP laser printers both color and b&w off my 2000 watt MSW inverter.

Fusers do take a lot of power for a short time especially with card stock paper.

zoneblue

Re: Laser printers and inverters

Yes, i think you need a 2kW inverter. 1.5kW may work, but 2kW may occasionally not. It all boils down to being able to supply that 4kW surge.

Grinnin

Re: Laser printers and inverters

I run an early '90s HP 4 ML laser printer from a 300 W Morningstar inverter. The inverter will sound the alarm if the low battery voltage is set to 11.5 and it's night. It works fine in either direct sun or if the inverter setting for low battery voltage is 10.5 (DIP switch on the face of the inverter).

EDIT:
I concluded that the alarm is caused by drawing from the batteries at about the 10 hour rate. YMMV

zoneblue

Re: Laser printers and inverters

Indeed. Like so many things newer more often than not equals higher draw. The Mrs, managed to find a 1000W iron at the junk shop, and it works a treat on our 1100W inverter. Unlike the 2kW things you get these days. You used to be able to get 1300W induction hobs, now they too are 2kW. Its all about speed/haste.