Brother DR350 Drum Unit
- Dedicated study organisation provides clean, intense prints
- Works with TN350 toner pickup (sold separately)
- Snaps easily into place
- Expected 12,000-page chronicle supported on 5% coverage
- Compatible with monastic HL-2040 and HL-2070N laser printers; 2-year ridge life
Product Description
The monastic DR350 Drum Unit. For Use With: DCP-7020, IntelliFax-2820, IntelliFax-2910, IntelliFax-2920, HL-2040, HL-2070N, MFC-7220, MFC-7225N, MFC-7420, MFC-7820N
The cartridge that this drum holds will refuse to let you print after a certain time, alleging that the toner life is finished.
This will glide in the face of the evidence of crisp pages, with evidently a decent amount of toner left. This is not like the ancient days, where the pages continue to print, and the print quality degrades as toner dissipates. Nope, this is a “We’ll choose for you when you go get another cartridge” go by the manufacturer.
Countermeasures against this ploy:
1. Shake cartridge, replace
2. After a while, #1 won’t work. Then, open cover, Options, *00, close cover
2. After a while, #2 won’t work. Then, get a black Sharpie and cover the laser window on the non-gear side of the cartridge.
Should get you closer to getting your money’s worth.
Rating: 3 / 5
I’ve had a “Change Drum Soon” message for about a year now, but the original drum keeps working fine. I now have 15,300 copies on my original 12,000 copy drum. Print quality is still excellent.
**12-30-09: This trick is obsolete. HL-2040 is no longer sold** –>> The brother HL-2040 printer often goes on sale for 65 to 70 bucks. Just throw away the printer but use the DR-350 drum and the starter toner cartridge ($25 worth of toner).
This trick, plus the tape-over-hole trick for extending toner cartridge life, reduces your consumables cost by 40%. Well under 2 cents per page…better than any other laser printer I know of.
Rating: 2 / 5
The DR-350 drum that came with my original MFC Brother printer lasted about a year. I use this printer in a home office, with a moderate amount of printing. Since replacing the drum unit (twice), the life of the drum has been less than acceptable. Even with a new (not reburbished) drum, black streaks appeared on all of my printed pages. With the new drum installed, the printer unit message still indicated a new drum was needed.
This drum also comes as a complete unit with the TN-350 toner. I tried that as well, with the same results, PLUS I received intermittent messages that the toner was low only a week after installation, with minimal use.
Might be a drum unit problem; might be a printer problem. Either something is incorrect with sensors in the printer, or the drum units are poorly constructed. Can’t tell which it is, but either way, makes for poor printing quality.
Rating: 2 / 5
I changed the drum but the printer still questions me to change the drum. It was a very expensive piece and it is very frustrating to still see this error message…
Rating: 2 / 5
For $5-$10 more than the cost of this drum, you can buy a groundbreaking new Brother HL-2070n printer, which includes not only this drum, but also:
1. a new 2,000 page toner cartridge (although you have to follow instructions freely available on the Internet to keep the toner cartridge from shutting down after 1,000 pages.)
2. a spare printer for free.
Rating: 2 / 5