Customer Rating: 
Summary: Short drum life may be fixable
Comment: I own two of these drum units. I was disappointed that the drum was failing only after about 8000 prints. I found toner buildup on the drum cylinder. The problem was corrected by replacing the toner cartridge not the drum. Possibly it was defective toner cartridges causing premature drum failure.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Works well for me
Comment: This drum works fine for me. It lasts about 30,000 pages, or 6 months, and is an acceptable lifetime.
What most people don't realize is that when you buy other similar printers, you end up paying much more for your toner and drums because the drum unit is part of the toner cartridge. Brother splits them out to keep the cost of your toner cartridges down.
I've found that the annual toner + drum cost for a HL-5240 is about 30% less than the toner for a similar HP.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Oh, Brother; DR520 drum
Comment: The Brother DR520 drum was advertised as 25000 pages typical use. I did not get to 9000 before the left side of the paper started to have a permanent black streak that kept getting wider and wider. By 10000 pages, the drum on that side was "slap wore out" as they say around here. I give the drum a one out of five stars. On the other hand, the replacement was dropped in and it printed like new again, so a five for ease of replacement. Overall I will give it the average of the two, a three star rating.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Almost the cost of a new printer
Comment: This drum goes VERY fast. Our office replaces 1 drum for every 2.5 toner cartridges for the HL5240 printer. So you're looking at getting maybe 18,000 prints per drum (even though it advertises 25,000). The price of a brand new Brother HL-5240 High-Speed Desktop Office Laser Printer, which comes with this drum and a toner cartridge, is actually almost the same price as buying the toner and drum separately. So anyone who needs a toner and drum at the same time should just buy the printer, since it's like getting a printer for free.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointed
Comment: After receiving this DRUM which was listed as having a 25,000 yield capacity, on 12/11/06....Today 1/15/07 my printer is giving me the same error message "DRUM NEAR END" There was no indication when I purchased this product that it would be refurbished..I certainly have NOT printed 25,000 copies...
Summary: Short drum life may be fixable
Comment: I own two of these drum units. I was disappointed that the drum was failing only after about 8000 prints. I found toner buildup on the drum cylinder. The problem was corrected by replacing the toner cartridge not the drum. Possibly it was defective toner cartridges causing premature drum failure.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Works well for me
Comment: This drum works fine for me. It lasts about 30,000 pages, or 6 months, and is an acceptable lifetime.
What most people don't realize is that when you buy other similar printers, you end up paying much more for your toner and drums because the drum unit is part of the toner cartridge. Brother splits them out to keep the cost of your toner cartridges down.
I've found that the annual toner + drum cost for a HL-5240 is about 30% less than the toner for a similar HP.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Oh, Brother; DR520 drum
Comment: The Brother DR520 drum was advertised as 25000 pages typical use. I did not get to 9000 before the left side of the paper started to have a permanent black streak that kept getting wider and wider. By 10000 pages, the drum on that side was "slap wore out" as they say around here. I give the drum a one out of five stars. On the other hand, the replacement was dropped in and it printed like new again, so a five for ease of replacement. Overall I will give it the average of the two, a three star rating.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Almost the cost of a new printer
Comment: This drum goes VERY fast. Our office replaces 1 drum for every 2.5 toner cartridges for the HL5240 printer. So you're looking at getting maybe 18,000 prints per drum (even though it advertises 25,000). The price of a brand new Brother HL-5240 High-Speed Desktop Office Laser Printer, which comes with this drum and a toner cartridge, is actually almost the same price as buying the toner and drum separately. So anyone who needs a toner and drum at the same time should just buy the printer, since it's like getting a printer for free.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointed
Comment: After receiving this DRUM which was listed as having a 25,000 yield capacity, on 12/11/06....Today 1/15/07 my printer is giving me the same error message "DRUM NEAR END" There was no indication when I purchased this product that it would be refurbished..I certainly have NOT printed 25,000 copies...