Laser printer hurting other electronics on same circuit?

[sackbags90210]

I received a SAMSUNG ML-2010 laser printer yesterday. Yeah, I know,
it's a cheap printer, but for $50 after rebate I couldn't resist.

I noticed that when I plugged it in (directly into the wall socket),
turned it on, and periodically afterward, the fluorescent desk lamp
nearby would flicker for several seconds. Same with an incandescent
closet light. I turned off everything on that circuit except for the
printer and a light, and it still happened.

I'm worried that this may have a long term negative effect on my
computer, monitors, scanner, etc., which are on the same circuit. The
UPS that the computer is plugged into didn't complain (nor did the one
monitor that isn't plugged into the UPS), but I'm still concerned --
and not everything is hooked up to the UPS anyway. I can't put the
printer on a different circuit, because it's the only circuit that
feeds the room.

So should I return the printer, or what?

BTW, I tried the same thing with my older, more expensive, printer, and
the flicker is just *barely* there, so I never even noticed it.

Thanks

 

[Impmon]

I noticed that when I plugged it in (directly into the wall socket),
turned it on, and periodically afterward, the fluorescent desk lamp
nearby would flicker for several seconds. Same with an incandescent
closet light. I turned off everything on that circuit except for the
printer and a light, and it still happened.

Some laser printers are power guzzler especially when warming up the
heating element. It's normal to have slight flickering due to laser
printers running. Most electronic devices should be forgiving enough
to handle the occasional yet very minor power brownouts due to a very
hungry laser printer.

I used to have the same thing when I still used old HP Laserjet 4
(which I still have and still works) but nowday I use Laserjet 6L.
Not the best laser printer but it doesn't cause lights to flicker at
all.

 

[Al Bundy]

I received a SAMSUNG ML-2010 laser printer yesterday. Yeah, I know,
it's a cheap printer, but for $50 after rebate I couldn't resist.

I noticed that when I plugged it in (directly into the wall socket),
turned it on, and periodically afterward, the fluorescent desk lamp
nearby would flicker for several seconds. Same with an incandescent
closet light. I turned off everything on that circuit except for the
printer and a light, and it still happened.

I'm worried that this may have a long term negative effect on my
computer, monitors, scanner, etc., which are on the same circuit. The
UPS that the computer is plugged into didn't complain (nor did the one
monitor that isn't plugged into the UPS), but I'm still concerned --
and not everything is hooked up to the UPS anyway. I can't put the
printer on a different circuit, because it's the only circuit that
feeds the room.

So should I return the printer, or what?

BTW, I tried the same thing with my older, more expensive, printer, and
the flicker is just *barely* there, so I never even noticed it.

Thanks

I doubt whether any of your symptoms are due to the printer. You will
likely find that you have a poor bond on one or more of the wires to a
receptacle on that circuit or even back at the fuse panel. The
receptacles may be back wired if the house is fairly new and these
sometimes develop poor connections. This is a very common electrical
complaint.

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

I noticed that when I plugged it in (directly into the wall socket),
turned it on, and periodically afterward, the fluorescent desk lamp
nearby would flicker for several seconds. Same with an incandescent
closet light. I turned off everything on that circuit except for the
printer and a light, and it still happened.

That's the fuser in the printer cycling. It is a heating element or quartz
lamp and therefore can pull quite a bit of power.

I've had many laser printers over the years, and all of them did this to
some degree. Quality of the unit didn't always seem to matter. I had truly
excellent laser printers that would dim the lights noticeably ever time the
fuser came on and cheap ones that caused an almost unnoticeable dimming. The
opposite has also been true.

I'm worried that this may have a long term negative effect on my
computer, monitors, scanner, etc., which are on the same circuit.

You will probably never notice a problem. The load that the laser printer
puts on the electrical circuit in question is high, but it will not compare
to motors starting (think heating and air conditioning, water pumps, power
tools, etc...) or other heavy loads.

So should I return the printer, or what?

No, it is working normally.

BTW, I tried the same thing with my older, more expensive, printer, and
the flicker is just *barely* there, so I never even noticed it.

The other printer could use a circuit that provides for a "smoother" start
of the fuser than your Samsung printer. But that's not necessarily a bad
thing. In some ways it could be viewed as one less part to have a problem
with.

William

 

[Fred McKenzie]

I doubt whether any of your symptoms are due to the printer. You will
likely find that you have a poor bond on one or more of the wires to a
receptacle on that circuit or even back at the fuse panel. The
receptacles may be back wired if the house is fairly new and these
sometimes develop poor connections. This is a very common electrical
complaint.

I'll second this. My house was rewired five years ago. A few weeks ago,
I replaced a new fluorescent lamp a second time before I discovered that a
"back wired" light switch had a very loose connection.

Whatever the problem, it is most likely in your house wiring. Whether it
is a loose wire in the outlet or a bad breaker in the fuse panel, it would
be a good idea to have an electrician fix it before it starts a fire.

Fred

 

[Todd H.]

I received a SAMSUNG ML-2010 laser printer yesterday. Yeah, I know,
it's a cheap printer, but for $50 after rebate I couldn't resist.

I noticed that when I plugged it in (directly into the wall socket),
turned it on, and periodically afterward, the fluorescent desk lamp
nearby would flicker for several seconds. Same with an incandescent
closet light. I turned off everything on that circuit except for the
printer and a light, and it still happened.

I'm worried that this may have a long term negative effect on my
computer, monitors, scanner, etc., which are on the same circuit. The
UPS that the computer is plugged into didn't complain (nor did the one
monitor that isn't plugged into the UPS), but I'm still concerned --
and not everything is hooked up to the UPS anyway. I can't put the
printer on a different circuit, because it's the only circuit that
feeds the room.

So should I return the printer, or what?

BTW, I tried the same thing with my older, more expensive, printer, and
the flicker is just *barely* there, so I never even noticed it.

I have an OKI C3150 that dims the lights and triggers the AVR of my
UPS too if it makes you feel any better. I've also been in a client
location where a laser based fax machine did the same thing.

These things use a shitload of power when racing to heat up to
operating temperature. It's like turning on a 1300W hairdryer. As
long as your UPS includes automatic voltage regulation as a feature,
you rcomputer will never see the sag.


Best Regards,

 

[Elmo P. Shagnasty]

I have an OKI C3150 that dims the lights and triggers the AVR of my
UPS

If you'd read up on this, you'd know NOT to plug a laser printer into
your UPS.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

If you'd read up on this, you'd know NOT to plug a laser printer into
your UPS.

Yes, it slows those big brown delivery vans right down! ;-)

Art

 

[sackbags90210]

I doubt whether any of your symptoms are due to the printer. You will
likely find that you have a poor bond on one or more of the wires to a
receptacle on that circuit or even back at the fuse panel. The
receptacles may be back wired if the house is fairly new and these
sometimes develop poor connections. This is a very common electrical
complaint.

First, thanks for the answers, people.

Do I understand correctly that you think it could be a wiring problem,
even though there's never any flickering when the printer's off?

In any case, there's an outlet that's in bad shape on the same circuit.
I bought a new one about a month ago but never got around to replacing
it. Tonight I do. We've already had two electricity-based fires (one
truly spectacular one years ago when an electrician was here working on
the wiring), and don't need another.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Lights flickering when there is draw from one appliance, like a heater
or motor or other high draw item, can be an indication of an unbalanced
circuit box. Check the circuit box to make sure that on average the
same basic amount of current draw is occurring with both sides of the
main circuitbox. If things are quite lopsided have an electrician
rebalance the circuits so each side gets similarly demanding electrical
devices.

Art

 

[John Slimick]

We had an occurrence here several years ago of such electrical
problems. The Dean's office had been moved into a dorm suite.
The Dean's secretary was using a DEC VT240 terminal.
After each terminal was installed, it seemed to have a life
of about two weeks; it would start smoking and making odors
like a serious electrical fire. The terminal was usually
dead after the fire.

The explanation: The Dean's copier was on the same circuit
as the terminal, and, even though there was enough power
during steady state, the copier's cyclings pulled down the power
so much that the power supply in the terminal was compelled
to commit suicide. A separate circuit cured the problem.

john slimick
(e-mail address removed)