Ricoh IM C3010

Many administrative procurement decisions still stop at "how much does the machine cost?" I've seen plenty of people comparing quotes back and forth—Machine A is 28,000, Machine B is 31,000, choose A. Done.

The reality is that the machine's purchase price accounts for less than 20% of the five-year total cost of ownership. The IM C3010's base price falls roughly in the 25,000 to 32,000 range, depending on who you buy from, how many units you're buying, and whether you need the finishing unit. Last year, I helped a friend's company with procurement—the landed price was 29,500, with one year of manufacturer warranty included.

Toner is the big expense. The IM C3010 uses four toner cartridges: black, cyan, magenta, and yellow. The black cartridge (OEM part number 418127) has an official price around 680, with a rated yield of 16,500 pages. The three color cartridges are each priced around 1,100, with rated yields of 6,000 pages each.

In my actual usage, the black cartridge starts showing light streaks around 14,000 pages. For color, with normal mixed text and graphics, you'll hit bottom around 5,200 pages. That rated yield figure? It's tested at 5% coverage. In reality, whose documents have only 5% coverage?

OEM maintenance becomes chargeable after the first year. Ricoh's policy is per-page billing, with color and black & white pages calculated separately. I asked my local dealer for a quote: 0.035 per B&W page, 0.18 per color page. At 3,000 pages per month with 40% color, that's 279 per month in maintenance fees. 3,348 per year.

Some dealers offer package deals—annual fees of 3,600 or 4,200 with unlimited pages. Whether this works for you depends on how stable your print volume is. Our company has some months hitting 5,000 pages and others at only 1,500, so the package deal doesn't work out for us.

Third-party maintenance is cheaper—I've seen quotes at 1,800 per year, but that only covers on-site visits; parts are extra. Replacing the drum unit (PCU) costs three to four thousand each time. Weigh it yourself.

The true cost of office printing goes far beyond the initial purchase

Many people focus only on the machine and toner during procurement, forgetting about paper. The IM C3010's paper tray holds 550 sheets, with two trays standard. It supports paper weights from 60g to 220g.

I've been using 80g bond paper consistently—one case of 5 reams, 500 sheets per ream, prices fluctuating between 135 and 150. One case is 2,500 sheets; at 3,000 pages per month, that's just over one case monthly, around 1,800 per year in paper costs.

Some people use 70g paper to save money—about 20 yuan cheaper per case. But 70g paper is thin; text shows through on duplex printing, and the jam rate is slightly higher. See if you can accept that.

Everything above assumes outright purchase.

I've asked several companies about leasing rates for the IM C3010. Monthly rental runs 600 to 800, including 1,000 B&W pages and 200 color pages. Overage charges are 0.05 for B&W and 0.25 for color. This per-page overage rate is considerably higher than the OEM maintenance per-page cost.

Annual cost: 11,880. Five years: 59,400.

Five years of ownership costs over 40,000 more than leasing.

On paper, leasing looks like the better deal. In practice, there are several issues. Lease contracts typically lock you in for three years minimum; early termination incurs penalties. Returned lease equipment goes through wear assessment—you might get charged there too. A purchased machine still works after five years; residual value is at least five or six thousand.

There's another thing: the toner provided by leasing companies isn't necessarily OEM. I've seen remanufactured toner being used—the print quality difference is visible to the naked eye. This usually isn't specified in the contract; you have to ask yourself.