We've been looking at the Brother HL-2170W laser printer, reading reviews etc. Overall it gets pretty good marks, and I believe some here on the forums have also given it positive recommendations.

One thing that has come up in a number of reviews is that it's a power hog (duh, it's a laser) and there were a number of mentions of dimming lights, tripping circuit breakers, causing PCs to restart, sending UPCs into a tizzy, etc.

According to Brother it uses 460W printing, 80W Ready and 8W sleeping. Does anyone here own this printer and a Kill A Watt and have the time to test it? What's the Amperage used by this printer? Does it have a larger electric use when first starting up? When warming up?

Thanks.

I have the non-wifi MFC 7820N (scanner, fax, printer, N=Network, just wired, no Wifi) and it uses 6W on stand-by and I think ~1000W when it starts to print, but only for a second or two, I don't remember exactly. I usually turn it OFF at night and leave it off until I use it the next time (sometimes it stays OFF for 2-3 days). not a power hog IMHO.

I would not worry much about it. You DO NOT put a laser printer on a UPC circuit. Just surge protector.

its the 1000 watt surge that causes the problems, not the 600 watts while printing.

mine never caused problems. it's plugged in directly in the wall. there is an UPC plugged in the same outlet and it never beeped

All laser printers surge for a second or two when they're waking up to print a job. Heck, vacuum cleaners do the same thing when you turn the switch on.

I have a 7820N myself, and use the momentary dimming of the lights as a handy indicator that the print job I just sent from another room is going through.

yes, but that extra 400+ watt surge above and beyond the 600 watts for printing may trip breakers, or trigger a UPS on the same circuit, making it see a brownout. The UPS isn't seeing load, but a power/voltage drop from it's outlet.

I have one on the same circuit that a bunch of other stuff is on. No problems. I turn it off after it sleeps though (unless I forget). I did check the kw readings but forgot what they were - high enough that turning it off made sense to me anyway. If you really want the actual numbers, I'll fire it up and post them.

Our concern is that we live in a old house with old wiring and limited electrical service, the circuit that the printer would go on has quite a bit on it and we're concerned that it will be too much of an added load with what we already have on the circuit. We really don't want to buy this and then have to deal with the shipping cost to return it and a restocking fee because it's unusable with our electrical service.

Buy it from a brick and mortar retail store in your area with a decent return policy?

Run a new circuit to that location if it's already overloaded? (Probably should do this anyway...)

Cary

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Cary
Buy it from a brick and mortar retail store in your area with a decent return policy?

Run a new circuit to that location if it's already overloaded? (Probably should do this anyway...)

Cary

Brick and mortar would save on the shipping cost but don't most stores have a restocking fee on tech now-a-days (if they even allow returns)?

Not possible to add a circuit. We need to have a service upgrade and the entire house rewired. Not cheap or easy.

The Brother laser printers might draw more power on the initial surge than other laser printers, I don't really know. But all laser printers have a big power spike when they first fire up so if your circuit can't handle the Brother, it might not be able to handle other lasers either.

The other thing is a Kill A Watt probably won't accurately read the surge because it's too brief. It has to last at least a second or so for the Kill A Watt to show a solid number.

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look, if the printer is wireless, then put it where it can get the proper power, like close to the circuit breaker panel, or in the basement. some location where it can have it's own circuit.

Yeah, the Brother lasers do tend to have a solid surge when the fuser first starts to warm up. Some other makes include a current limiter and/or thermistor in the fuser unit heater to keep the inrush current from being quite so bad, but those do slow down the heating up to operating temperature. I used to have access to a circuit monitor with more sensitivity than the Kill-A-Watt meters. The wake up current draw on my Brother HL1670N could exceed 9 A, but it lasted for only about 50-100 ms before dropping back to the listed max draw. Lesser spikes would occur as the heating element cycled on and off to maintain temperature. It is one downside to Brother lasers, they keep the design simple and basic, and tend to be more reliable without some of the bells and whistles of other designs. But they can be harder on the electrical supply.

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