Laser printer supplies and replacement part prices can be very expensive, so to save us money, some well-resourced people have come up with an alternative to buying new fusers.

melter units
A fusing unit is the part of a laser printer that generates pressure and heat to fuse toner with paper. Not all parts of the whole assembly go bad when they wear out. The main part that wears out is the upper heat roller or heat sleeve. The coating wears away and causes the toner to not fuse properly. There are replacement rollers and sleeves on the market that can replace and turn a bad fuser into a working one.

Rebuilding fuser assemblies is not a new thing. Photocopier technicians have been doing this for years since the first office photocopier was created. When the fuser wears out on any copier, they replace certain parts, some of which are the upper heat roller, lower heat roller, bearings, selector fingers, thermistors, drive gears, and more. The printer industry has a different approach where they replace everything as a whole. People are used to this and when they need a replacement fuser, they go for a new one many times. I think it’s a mentality. A copy service person would see it as a waste of money. Why buy a new one when you can buy the replacement parts for a fraction of the cost and install it and make it like new? You should be careful when buying replacement parts because there are some sub-par replacement parts, so finding a good source of parts is imperative.

Reconditioned melters

advantage It costs much less than a new assembly.

cons Higher defect rate if you can’t find a quality manufacturer.

New Original Melters

advantage You know for sure that what you’re getting is as good as it gets.

cons The cost is much higher than that of a refurbished fuser. These may also be defective out of the box.

I have replaced many fusers and find that using refurbished fusers is the way to go. It will not harm the machine and I have seen refurbished fusers last longer than new ones. You’ll save money and don’t forget about the recycling aspect. There could be tons of old fuser cores in landfills if it weren’t for refurbished fusers. The pros outweigh the cons when it comes to refurbished fuser units. It is critical that you find quality remanufactured fusers with a good warranty and you will save a lot of money while helping to prevent our landfills from filling up with old fuser units.