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"Audiophile" Printer - But Interfering with AC?


I recently purchased a Samsung 1630, which is a consumer grade monochrome laser jet printer.

What might be of interest to other audiophiles is that this printer is very COOL.

Its performance is supposedly very good, but Samsung has made a big effort to put it in a sleek and stylish case - a welcome change from cheap, beige plastic and at last, a printer which doesnt detract from my listening room.

But here is the weird problem: everytime I go to print, it feels as if I am trying to fire up a nuclear power station: the lights dim, my DAC connection is temporarily knocked out, and my Audio Research SP-11 goes into LED blinking, warm up mode as if I just turned it on.

Does anyone have any idea why this might be happening? Should the stand by mode for a relatively small, monochrome laserjet printer draw that much current? Will my next electrical bill be....shocking?

As with all of my electrical toys, I would rather leave it on 24/7 for convenience.

Thank you for any thoughts.
cwlondon
xti16
1,525 posts
 
Cwlondon
You shouldnt add $200 to your electric bill. Just remember everytime the fuser has to re-heat itself it will draw a lot of current. Try to save all your printing to 1 or 2 times a day. Once the fuser is warmed up the current draw drops significantly.
When you do the sub-panel make sure you 'balance' the current draw for each phase as best that can be done taking into consideration all the appliances you have and may get.
cwlondon OP
1,210 posts
 
Nice!

Thank you.
magfan
1,583 posts
 
Any way to drop a dedicated line and keep the stereo seperated from this bad boy? What is the max service to the house?
musicnoise
377 posts
 
I have an HP laser printer on the same circuit as my audio system and have never experienced dimming of lights or any other noticiable effect. Nor have I ever seen this happen in any other setting. Your printer should not draw that much current. You may want to tighten your connections at the panel and at the outlets - sounds like you have a high resistance in the path feeding power, most likely in the path to the printer. If that does not prove to be the case and if the time frame allows for it, I would be very tempted to exchange the printer.
rwwear
2,873 posts
 
Try running a heavy duty extension cord to it from another room. If it works fine, you need a separate circuit for it. Also your sound system probably needs to be on at least a 20 amp circuit, a dedicated line would be best.
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