HP Original Cartridges

(The "X" size won't fit the M601)

Reliable Remanufactured Cartridges

Envelope Feeder

HP CE399A 75-Sheet Envelope Feeder for HP Laserjet Enterprise 600, P4014, P4550 and M4555 Multifunction Printers.

HP Part CE399A is the 75-Sheet Envelope Feeder for HP Laserjet 601 series, P4010, P4500 and M4555 Multifunction series Printers.   An envelope feeder allows a workgroup to print directly to various sizes of envelope quickly and efficiently, providing professional looking envelopes. It's a piece of macinery that improves business productivity.

HP introduced envelope feeders for their large mono laser printers back in the days of the LaserJet 4000. Clearly they have proved a succesful idea because they have gone on making them for each new printer model. Successive generations of feeder are not very different - we doubt there is a huge research budget involved. Envelope feeders are moderately expensive - you could buy a printer for the money - but then again it would not be quite so reliable feeding envelopes. Equipment of this sort is not so much "expensive for a printer" but "unusually low priced for specialist gear".

The MultiPurpose Tray (Tray-1 or MP tray) can be used to feed envelopes of course. It doesn't hold so many and the central feed rollers pick pages from the top, wheras the envelope feeder takes them from the bottom under a weight (somewhat as the old card-readers used to). However if you want to experiment to see how an envelope feeder might work then try the MP tray first - it will work much the same way.

HP's envelope feeder fits into the front of the printer with the MP tray open. A blanking plate is removed just above the MP-tray feed mechanism and another at the right side of the printer covering the envelope feeder's bus connector. The tongue of the feeder goes into the slot.

Envelopes are inserted into the feeder between the guides and a weight plate holds them flat. The path through from the envelope feeder to the print-station and fuser is fairly flat and straight-through. For heavier material then there is the option of feeding to the fear face-up print tray.

Envelopes can be difficult material to handle and not every type of envelope suits a laser printer. An obvious difficulty is that any adhesives used have to withstand being powerfully compressed and heated to over 150°C.   Adhesive from the envelope will make a nasty mess of fuser rollers (water or isopropyl and patience may be needed to remove it).   Envelopes with peel off strips over the adhesive aren't a very good idea either, as the strips may detach inside the printer and wind round the fuser - or disappear somewhere. Air pockets in the envelope will cause wrinkling of the envelope paper.   The extra thickness of envelopes also means more "edgewear" on the fuser film.

The printer user guide lists the envelope sizes that can be handled. Searching the Web for HP LaserJet Paper Specification Guide and filetype:pdf for an old document that is still quite helpful.

The fuser mode needs to be set correctly. Modes normally come from the software application used, then to the operating system driver then to the printer settings. Printer settings act as the default if information doesn't come from elsewhere. The printer has settings in the supplies menu for envelope feeder size and type. If the fuser is too hot stationery will curl and wrinkle. If it is too cool or too fast the toner will easily peel away from the surface.

Although HP sell all sorts of paper and printer supplies they don't seem to sell envelopes.   We wonder whether there was a policy decision there - perhaps it resulted in too many support calls.

As with most peripheral accessories there

Associated Parts: CE399A 1500 sheet Input Tray, CE404A 500 sheet Stacker, CE997A 5 bin Mailbox

HP Information

In August 2013 we noted "HP Partsurfer shows no information". In July 2015 it would respond to CE399-67901

Notice that although Partsurfer doesn't say so HP's "LaserJet Enterprise M600 Printer Series - Accessory Compatibility" page says the CE399A is compatible - however avoid upgrading the firmware with an M600 envelope feeder installed as this gives error 49.23B3.

Web Research

Icecat says these envelope feeders have both a short product code CE399A and two GTINs (EAN/UPC) 0886111320134,0778889348208

A google Query on CE399A (in quotes") in August 2013 gave 11,900 results (0.14 seconds) with the first in organic search being as follows:

hp.com $249.00, hp.com £335, provantage.com $232.81, staples.com request zip code, amazon.com Good Luck Bargains $300.42, amazon.co.uk Japan Collectors £334.00, cdw.com $303.99, officecrave.com $262.99, pricegrabber.com list no basket or price, printware.co.uk £326.53, shopbot.com.au Nanobyte $228.89, printershowcase.com $279.00, shopmania.in Rs.26,978, newegg.com $326.99, myshopping.com.au Megabuy $214.29, idealo.co.uk £289.45, laptopshop.co.uk irrelevant page, pricegrabber.com no basket or immediate pricing, junglee.com EMI $26,978, envelopeprinterget.blogspot.co.uk no pricing info, envelopeprinterget.blogspot.co.uk no pricing info, shopbot.ca my teknology, $290.72, feedroller.com $293.87, wiseguys.co.nz $340.95, shopmania.co.za R5.472, ebay.co.uk ivoryeggoutlet £381.58, colorhexa.com irrelevant page, facebook.com content not available, printerworks.com $153.55, pantherdata.com.au $246.43

Prices noted are for a new item, one off, without tax. The list is as encountered. We haven't bothered with currency conversion - half of our readers are outside the UK and are more interested in dollar prices.

None of the websites seen gave any further information on the product - but perhaps that is obvious in this case. One or two vendors out of stock or unavailable. No helpful blogs on this part - the blog on the list are reviews. All the rest were merely vendors giving no more infomation than found in the HP brochure.

Supply Situation

The part was listed by one distributor with no stock in 2013. In 2015 the part was listed by three distributors and one had three in stock. We think demand for the envelope feeder is quite low, its a bit of a specialist item.

We may be able to provide this part when required. The price was about £299 in 2013 and about the same now.

Prices given are guidelines; our actual price changes with distribution lists and competition research - see the sles bar on the right and the catalog. Stock numbers indicate there is not much call for the part.

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 useage patterns.