Copier Speed vs Warm Up Time

One of the odd little secrets in the copier world is the difference between warm up time and print speed.  If you really look carefully at copier specifications, you will see a few different ratings, and they all have an impact on speed. So what impacts speed on a new copier?

Warm Up Time – This is is amount of time it takes to get from cold to ready to print.  This is measured in seconds.  A good time is under 10 seconds.  If you look at some of the older copiers, it can push 45 to 90 seconds to warm up.

Print Speed – This is how many pages can actually print in a minute when the copier is running at full speed (so it takes away the warm up time).

Processing Time – This is how long jobs take to get processed and rendered and ready to print.

So, it is quite possible for you to get a quote of a printer that goes 65 pages a minute that is actually slower than a copier that goes 40 pages a minute for the jobs you do.  How is that possible?  If the 65 page per minute copier has a warm up time of 30 seconds and the 40 page per minute copier is 7 seconds…  and your job is 20 pages long.

65 page per minute – 30 seconds + roughly 20 seconds (more like 19 seconds) = 39 seconds

40 page per minute – 7 seconds + 30 seconds (40 per minute, but just 20 pages, so 1/2 a minute)…  = 37 seconds

Most people think it is a weird sales trick.  Your job, in this scenario would need to consistently average more than 20 pages for the 65 page per minute to be faster than the 40 page per minute copier.

If you need a copier in Houston, please give us a call!