HP Color LaserJet Q3964A Imaging Drum: Cost Vs. Value

The HP Q3964A is an imaging drum used in various printers manufactured by Hewlett Packard. This is of course a part of the package when you buy your printer. But when it is time to replace the HP Q3964A imaging drum, the printer owner must be prepared to spend some money.

An imaging drum is an indispensable part of a laser printer. Images can never be printed without this rotating drum. So – if you have opted for this high quality printer, then you should be ready with $200 (approximately, but you may find it cheaper on sale) for the replacement cost of this part.

Different brands of printers have their own sets of drums installed in the printing device. As there are mono and color laser printers, there are then black and color versions of this imaging drum. Laser printers use toners and imaging drums. The drum functions to transfer the toner, test and images on the printing paper. The drum has been known with many names – image drum, imaging unit, drum unit or photoreceptor drum.

Q3964a – Value for money assessment

The drums are very costly so you have to know its value in terms of output; the number of pages that can be printed before it reaches the end of its life. For the Q3964 imaging drum, the yield is approximately 5,000 colored pages or 20,000 black and white pages. The colors are vibrant, unquestionable! It has a 5% print coverage. This imaging drum is intended for use of HP Laser Color Jet 2550 and 2840 series.

With these printers, it guarantees high quality output with vibrant colors. This image drum automatically adjusts and does not require much of the user’s supervision in order to print. Although the imaging drum is expensive, computing the average cost of per page output, the user will still find it cheap.

There is still a further means to lower the cost of per page printing. This is through the use of compatible versions which cost much too low that the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) units.

What is the HP Q3964A compatible drum unit?

This is a replacement drum unit – identical to the original. However, this is not manufactured by the OEM but by a third party. This assures the user that these drum units will function as effectively as the OEM drum unit. The print quality is still good and the average paper yield is close to the average yield of the original. This is designed to replace the original drum unit which will definitely fit into your HP 2550 or 2840 printer.

Laser printers are expensive, their replacement parts like the Q3964a are also costly. But this is only so for the initial investment because with the quality and quantity of output, the over-all result is value for money.