Re:OpenPrinter
by VladVladikoff on Monday July 06, 2026 @10:30AM
(#48805185)
Samsung ML-1630. I had it for a really long time. I had opened it up to solder the page counter to ground so it always thought it was on page 0, instead of demanding to replacement. And I had manually refilled the toner many times into the toner cart. But I don’t think the smell is because of that, it’s the same laser printer / photocopier smell you smell in all print shops. I believe it is small aerosolized toner particles, makes me wonder if long term print shop workers have a higher cancer rate.
Re:OpenPrinter
by roryirvine on Monday July 06, 2026 @11:27AM
(#48806027)
Possibly ozone, generated by the corona wire - the printer will have a filter which is only good for some (large) number of duty cycles.
Very few domestic / small office printers will ever hit that number, but for a ~20 year old model, it's possible yours has. The service manual suggests it's rated for 50,000 pages (as are the drum and roller), but unfortunately isn't replaceable.
Time for a new model?
I haven't experienced the odor of ozone when printing at home since my HP Laserjet 4 died from water damage 18 years ago.
My current Brother laser printer (an MFC-2750DW, IIRC) is so non-stinky that I haven't thought about for a very long time.