Can you connect your laser printer to the same power bar as your computer?

Back in the 90's, co. like APC sent out notice on their UPS that you can't connect a laser printer to your UPS, most likely because a laser printer heats up the drum to 400 deg. C, as such, it's swing the current from 2A to say 11A. By laser printer, I'm talking about the laser printer for an average household.

Same idea w/ your power bar, if your computer is connected to the same power bar w/ your laser printer, the laser printer can damage your power supply in the long run

So my question is, have that change? Is the laser printer today, if connect to the same power bar as your laser printer, that it would damage your power supply?

Details matter here, there's a lot of variety in laser printers and a large workstation laser could easily use 11 amps when printing while a small personal laser might draw around 3 amps when printing. So if you really want to have the printer on UPS backup power you should check the specs on the specific printer and upsize the UPS accordingly. IMO using any printer with a UPS is a bit over the top though, if it's really important to do things like printing in a power outage you probably need power for other things as well and should have a generator.

I dont think so. I am using Laser Printer with my PC at home and both I have plugged in same circuit. But all is working fine.

i think you can but take in mind are you really want UPS your laser printer

I don't think it's just the high current but the electrical noise generated when the current changes suddenly because even when the laser is plugged into the backup supply's sockets that don't get battery power, many will switch to battery when the laser turns on, and some will do that even when the laser is plugged directly into the unused AC wall outlet. I had a couple of 300-350VA Belkins that did that, and they had very minimal line filters, with no choke except a 1" long, 1/4" diameter ferrite rod with about 5 turns of wire around it.

Belkin and maybe Monster have sold surge protectors strips with a choke-capacitor filter between each of its AC sockets. One model may have been called Isobar, but I'm not sure.

Isobar is Tripp Lite I believe, but otherwise yes, those units filter between connected components.

As for whether a laser printer will affect anything on its circuit, I am not sure.

I have a Brother BW laser plugged into the same power strip as my router and modem. I have not noticed any issues, and honestly I have not thought anything of it before.

But not all lasers are the same, and as with almost every other piece of electronic equipment out there, I would have to imagine that current generation laser printers are more efficient than their predecessors.

I don't have my laser printer plugged into the same strip, but that's largely because it's in a different room connected wirelessly.

That said, turning it on tends to cause the lights to flicker, so it's just as well that it's not on the same power strip as any system.

I would not advise plugging them into the same strip. The laser printer's power draw will cause the equivalent of a brown-out every time it initializes. You do not want these electrical dips hitting your computer.

I have a Ricoh AIO Color laser printer and it dims the lights EVERYWHERE in my condo when it initializes. Other things you don't want plugged into the same strip: Vaccuum cleaners, window air conditioners, pencil sharpeners, shredders... pretty much anything with a motor that makes a lot of noise is a bad idea.

RADRaze2KX said:

I would not advise plugging them into the same strip. The laser printer's power draw will cause the equivalent of a brown-out every time it initializes. You do not want these electrical dips hitting your computer..

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that's exactly my concern. In other words, you are saying nothing has change in the past 20+ years. That's brilliant.

the printer is a X264DN from Lexmark. Just a small work group, home use printer.

http://www1.lexmark.com/US/en/catalog/product.jsp?catId=cat170005&prodId=5137

there is no spec. on current draw.

in the case of my friend, she doesn't have UPS, just a simple power bar w/ both the computer and the laser printer connects to it

TESLA said:

I have a Brother BW laser plugged into the same power strip as my router and modem. I have not noticed any issues, and honestly I have not thought anything of it before.

But not all lasers are the same, and as with almost every other piece of electronic equipment out there, I would have to imagine that current generation laser printers are more efficient than their predecessors.

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forget the fact that not all laser is the same, here's my experience back in the 90's:

I have my Compaq PC, connects to a monitor, and a HP laser jet all on 1 power bar. AT the time, I don't know a damn thing. For years, no problem, no light flicker

Move to a newer house a few yr. later, as soon as I turn on the laser, the ceiling lamp flicker. In about 3 mth., my Compaq power supply dies, total repair cost: $300