HP Color LaserJet 8500 Series

An A3 capable printer with high speed black printing at 24 pages per minute and colour capability at lower speeds - down to 3ppm for colour A3. Print area is up to 12 x 18.5 inches. A wide variety of media can be handled - 68 g/m to 216 g/m.

The CLJ 8500 was introduced in October 1998 so the design is more than ten years old. Oddly the machine is based on the Canon WX engine.

These printers use a carousel mechanism which gives high mono print speeds but when the three other toners have to be engaged in turn the print speed is much slower.

The 8500 series is obsolete - far too large for its slow print speed. People quickly prefered the higher speeds of inline designs such as the CLJ 5550. The economy and performance of the CLJ 8500 are not likely to have preserved it even for home use - it is too big.

  • 8500 Printer - C3983A - 3 trays 32MB RAM
  • 8500n Printer - C3984A - 3 trays 32MB RAM
  • 8500dn Printer - C3985A - 4 trays, duplex 64MB RAM, 2.1GB Disk

The CLJ 8550 is a similar engine intoduced in April 2000. It uses a faster processor and more memory on the formatter board to achieve significantly higher speeds:

  • 8550 printer - C7096A - 2 trays, 32MB RAM
  • 8550n printer - C7097A - 3 trays, 64MB RAM, 3.2GB disk
  • 8550dn printer - C7098A - 4 trays, duplex, 64MB RAM, 3.2GB disk
  • 8550gn printer - C7099A - 4 trays, duplex, 128MB RAM, 3.2GB disk 300MHz Proc

The CLJ 8550MFP has a high quality digital scanner /sender module in a stand above the printer.

  • 8550 MFP printer - C7834A - 4 trays, duplex, scanner, optional ADF, 64MB RAM, 3.2GB disk.
  • Parts are largely common to the CLJ8500 and CLJ8550

Control:

Control is via an LCD panel in the center- front of the machine. Web JetAdmin is used for remote management.

Duty Cycle:

Duty Cycle is stated as 60,000 pages per month. The printer is sufficiently robust that it can be used as a production printer actually delivering this sort of throughput. Cartridges are not particualrly generous in terms of yield - about 9,000 pages at 5% cover.

Print speed is up to 24 pages per minute for black A4 / letter media. Colour engages the carousel mechanism and print slows to 6ppm. A3 and legal paper sizes are handled at 12ppm for black print and 3ppm in colour. First page out in 38 seconds for black and 53 seconds for colour.

Print engine native resolution is 600x600dpi with 256 levels of gray. ImageREt 2400 gives photographic quality. ColorSmart II enhances printing depending on data type.

Paper Handling:

A3 machine with 3 trays. Typically found as part of multi-tray machine.

  • Paper Size:Paper Sizes up to 304.80x469.90 mm (approximately 12x18.5 inches) with weights from 68g/m to 216g/m
  • Multipurpose Tray 1:279 x 432 (11x17 inch) A3, legal, letter A4

Processor:

The 8500 processor is 133MHz, that on the 8550 is 200MHz, the 8550GN has a 300MHz processor.

Memory:

8 DIMM sockets. 32MB minimum expandable to 512MB.

Interface:

Parallel IEEE-1284. 3 x EIO slots.

Network:

Jetdirect card in EIO slot.

System Compatibility:

Microsoft Windows 95, 98, NT4, Apple Mac )S7.1 and above. OS/2. Autocad.

Adobe PostScript 3, PDF, HP PCL 5c enhanced.

Consumables:

HP Black Cartridge for Color LaserJet 8500/8550. Yield 17000 pages - C4149A

HP Cyan Cartridge for Color LaserJet 8500/8550. Yield 8500 pages - C4150

HP Magenta Cartridge for Color LaserJet 8500/8550. Yield 8500 pages - C4151A

HP Yellow Cartridge for Color LaserJet 8500/8550. Yield 8500 pages - C4152A


Alternatively refurbished toners can be used giving lower cost.

SI1073 HP Laserjet 8500 C4149A SILVER REED black Toner Cartridge SI1073 Replaces OEM Code C4149A.

SI1074 HP Laserjet 8500 C4150A SILVER REED cyan Toner Cartridge SI1074 Replaces OEM Code C4150A.

SI1075 HP Laserjet 8500 C4151A SILVER REED magenta Toner Cartridge. SI1075 Replaces OEM Code C4151A.

SI1076 HP Laserjet 8500 C4152A SILVER REED yellow Toner Cartridge. SI1076 Replaces OEM Code C4152A.

Drum:

R94-3001-410CN / C4153A Drum Kit for Color LaserJet 8500/8550. Yield 50k pages black 12,500 pages colour. Imaging drum kit - Contains imaging drum, two air filters and toner cloth (formerly C4153A)

Fuser:

C4156A Fuser 200-240V Color Laserjet 8500/8550. Yield 100k pages Includes the fusing assembly, six paper pickup/feed rollers, and toner cloth.

C4155A Fuser Kit 110V for CLJ 8500/8550. Fusing assembly kit - 120V - Includes the fusing assembly, six paper pickup/feed rollers, and toner cloth (Part is now R95-3012-000CN)

Spares:

RG5-3054 Pickup Assembly RG5-3054 for tray 1 aka RG5-3054-000CN, RG5-3054-090CN

RG5-3132 Pickup Assembly RG5-3132 (tray 2 & 3)

RB1-9526 Tray 1 Pickup Roller for CLJ 8500/8550 (and LJ8100/8150) RB1-9526-000CN

RF5-1989 Tray 1 Separation Pad for CLJ 8500/8550 and 8550MFP RF5-1989-000CN

RG0-0110 Delivery Assembly, Feeds paper to top face down output tray (several variants on RG0-0110, currently RG0-0110-140CN).

RF5-1834 Tray 2 & 3 Feed/Separation Roller with blue gear and release tab (2 reqd for each tray) Used in the LJ5Si, LJ8000 and CLJ8500/CLJ8550 etc and in Fuser kit C4156A. RF5-1834-000CN

RF5-1835 Tray 2 & 3 Pickup Roller with black plastic gear. Part Number: RF5-1835 Used in the LJ5Si, LJ8000 and CLJ8500/CLJ8550 RF5-1835-000CN

RG5-3854 Paper Feed Assembly for 2000 Sheet Feeder RG5-3854 (check this ??)

Copyright G & J Huskinson & MindMachine Associates Ltd 2013, 2015. Some pictures derived from HP User and Service guides. These technical pages do not constitute an offer for sale; just our knowledge at the time of writing. See the catalog. Sales pages on this Web site use cookies to store user information. We also use Google Analytics to track site usage patterns.