Toner
Choose the right toner cartridge for your laser printer
On the other hand, we recommend you to select OEM cartridges if you have high expectations on the printing results and primarily print in full color. For example, if you are a graphics designer producing samples of your work to show clients, you should probably buy a genuine inkjet cartridge. This will give you the best chance of producing high quality graphics prints. Besides, you are not price sensitive. Please also remember that the quality of the compatible ink or toner please remember that it is not the only factor affecting the print quality. The capabilities of the printer and the quality of the printing paper also have significant impact on the end printing results.
What about remanufactured toner cartridge?
Huge savings can also be done on printer cartridge costs by buying remanufactured cartridges instead of OEM ink cartridges. Remanufactured cartridges are together with compatible ink cartridges the cheapest alternative to go with. Besides, when buying remanufactured ink cartridges you support the reuse of cartridge parts for environmental sustainability. If you are interested in reading more about the environmental benefits of using recycled printer cartridges, read our Toner Cartridge Recycling Guide! Some printer manufacturers, like Lexmark, even have a prebate recycling program for used-up printer cartridges. Read our Return Program Toner Cartridges to learn more about having a significant discount of toner cartridges.
Should I buy a low yield or a high yield toner cartridge?
The high yield inkjet cartridges are obviously more expensive but are cheaper on a page yield basis. Your choice will depend on the number of pages you expect to print per year and the expected coverage of toner per page. The rated capacity of a toner cartridge is based on 5% coverage of toner on a Letter or A4 page. If your coverage is 10%, you will use twice as much toner and get half as many printed pages. Cartridges do deteriorate over time, usually of 2-year shelf life. You should choose a cartridge that will last you two years or less; if you do not do much printing, buy a low yield cartridge.
Laser Toner Cartridges for Printers: Durability Gives Them Value
Toner cartridges are the most important parts of your printers. Since toner cartridges hold and control the ink, we cannot do without them. That makes taking care of laser toner cartridges is crucial. It’s very important to make your printer function efficiently. A laser toner cartridge contains the powder-like substance that releases ink to create images on your paper. The toner cartridges are made of plastic and are installed in the cartridge holder. Whenever you buy a toner make sure you get an original toner cartridge.
Original equipment manufacturer (or OEM) laser toner cartridges are ones that are designed by printer manufacturers companies. A toner cartridge will work for a particular printer models only. Usually OEM toner cartridge comes with new laser printers at the time of purchase. There are other types of toner cartridge also available. These are called compatible laser toner cartridges. These are made by third-party toner cartridge manufacturers. These manufacturers use the brand new OEM parts in making these toner cartridges. The compatible laser toner cartridges are as good as the OEM cartridges and offer great alternative to original equipment manufacturer cartridges. Since these toner cartridges are manufactured with same high quality and meet the standards of OEM cartridges, they are of great help when it comes to reduce costs without compromising print quality. Almost every branded company that deals in printers sells these toner cartridges. Another type of toner cartridges are remanufactured laser toner cartridges. These are reassembled toner cartridges. Though these are the cheapest cartridges but will not give you’re the same quality either.
The toner cartridges are developed to deliver high quality black text and image printing and they are really excellent when it comes to print something professional. But there is a drawback as well. These toner cartridges can be used for black printing purposes. This is when the necessity of ink cartridges arises. Ink cartridges are very good when we need to print these color text and images. However, getting the best quality ink cartridges is very important. To get quality printing results, it’s very crucial that you choose a superior quality ink cartridge. If the printer is a quality product, it’s always advisable that you use an equally high quality ink cartridges. Since branded ink cartridges are printer specific also, any kind of ink cartridge may not suit your branded printer. For example, if your printer is of a particular brand you would also need ink cartridge of similar brand only. If your have a HP printer, you will have to use HP Ink Cartridges of that particular printer type only. To get the superior quality printing results and to minimize the running costs, it’s very important that we use good quality ink cartridges only. Select the best quality ink cartridges that will enable you to save some money while you need not to compromise the quality of your work.
All these factors indicate that instead of getting some cheap and inferior ink cartridges and toner cartridges, get the best quality and branded one. There is a lot of discount rate branded ink cartridges also available.
What are the Benefits of Compatible, Remanufactured Toner / Ink Cartridge?
What do we do with the used cartridges? It goes to the garbage bin instead. When you are into business and use cartridges very often, then you are certain to increase your expenditure if you spend on new cartridges every time. Thinking what to do? How to decrease the expense?
Re-use, remanufacture…… You can re-use your money spent on these cartridges and re-using the money means saving the money. Remanufactured cartridges are the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) cartridges that have been used and remanufactured (recycled) and refilled with ink. Original cartridges are disassembled, cleaned, refilled and repaired again before they come to the markets. Remanufactured Ink/Toner cartridges work the same way as the original ones. Remanufactured ink cartridges give splendid print results and are compatible to your printers. These cartridges are as good as or even better than their original counterparts.
Compatible Ink/Toner cartridges are the ones which are not manufactured by their original manufacturers. Compatible Ink/Toner cartridges come in two of the types. They are new cartridges as well as recycled ones. Although these cartridges are priced at half or one-third the amount of original OEM cartridges, they may be recycled cartridges or even new ones. The purchase of these cartridges help you save some additional bucks to your pockets at the quality of original cartridges.
Compatible, remanufactured Ink/Toner cartridges have various positive facts. These are listed below;
Cost Effective. Compatible remanufactured Ink/Toner cartridges are priced at almost half or one-third the rates of original cartridges. The prices of these cartridges fit the size of your pockets easily. Hence, you save lot of money on printing while maintaining the same standard of the print when you buy remanufactured Ink/Toner cartridges. So, why pay double the amount when you get the same quality print at a much cheaper cost. Head to remanufactured and compatible Ink/Toner cartridges……..Now
Quality Oriented. Remanufactured Ink/Toner cartridges promise to maintain the standard of printing. These cartridges are of the best quality, built to the highest standards. The printing quality of these cartridges sets a standard which goes much ahead of original cartridges. Remanufactured Ink/cartridges come with warranty and 100% satisfaction guarantee. These cartridges never damage your printers as they become compatible to your printers when they pass various tests before they are sold to end consumers.
Environment Friendly. Remanufactured Ink/Toner Cartridges are recycled cartridges made from reusing the original ones. Remanufacturing is the process of renovating used products in order to make them equal in quality as per the original ones. Remanufacturing Ink/Toner cartridge puts less pressure on the environment than turning parts back into raw materials for input into the manufacturing system or reusing parts in other products. By purchasing a remanufactured Ink/Toner cartridge, you save the environment from the long-lasting, non-decaying materials from which plastic toner cartridges are made.
Readily available. Today, compatible, remanufactured Ink/Toner cartridges are readily available with almost all the companies. You name the company and they have it for you. HP, Dell, Lexmark, Canon, Brother, NEC……… all these companies have various ranges in remanufactured Ink/Toner cartridges. As the demand for these cartridges is increasing day-by-day, companies have started to produce them in big numbers.
Inkjet And Toner Cartridges – Frequently Asked Questions
1. Thermal
The cartridge heats each droplet of ink before squirting it onto the paper. Almost all thermal cartridges have the print head on the cartridge. The cartridges are expensive, but you get a new print head with each cartridge eg Lexmark & Hewlett Packard.
2. Piezo
Each droplet of ink is electrically charged before squirting onto the paper (patented by Epson). The print head is in the printer and not on the cartridge. The cartridges are just an ink tank, without a print head, which makes them relatively inexpensive to make. All Epson printers use Piezo technology. Some printers from Canon and Xerox also use Piezo technology.
Q How do I get the best print quality?
A There are four main factors which affect print quality:
1. The quality of the image to be printed. If you do not have a high resolution image to start with then the rest of the factors are irrelevant.
2. The printer. The higher the dpi (dots per inch) the printer can print the better the quality of the printout. At 1440 dpi +, the eye cannot recognise the dots and the print looks like continuous tone.
3. The paper. Uncoated paper (normal paper) – the ink “spreads” when it hits the paper, so the images are OK but are not sharp. Coated paper – has a special coating so the ink droplets do not diffuse. The coating can be a matt or gloss finish but you will get a sharp image on either.
4. The inkjet cartridge. You should always use a cartridge which contains the ink which is specific to your printer whether it is an OEM, a compatible or a remanufactured cartridge.
Useful hints for Remanufactured or Compatible Inkjet Cartridges
Most remanufactured cartridges have a printhead on the cartridge. If there is a problem with print quality then it can be fixed immediately by installing a new cartridge or if you try the hints below before assuming that your cartridge is faulty.
Storage
• Always store your compatible inkjet cartridge upright ie with the printhead at the bottom.
• During shipping the cartridge gets jolted and shaken around and the air which is normally at the top may have moved to the bottom.
• By storing the cartridge upright the ink is free to settle, the air will rise to the top and the ink will flow freely without any air locks.
• If you install the cartridge as soon as you receive it and you have a problem with the print quality then leave it overnight before attempting to print again. This will allow the ink to settle.
Installing the cartridge
• When installing a new printer compatible toner cartridge always make sure that you remove the protective clip (if there is one on the printhead) and any printhead tape.
• Run the printhead cleaning cycle on your machine 2-3 times in a row to get a good flow of ink.
Problems with print quality
• If there are white lines in the print, faint colours or missing colours after running the printhead cleaning cycle several times, then:
Remove the cartridge from the printer and place it upright in half an inch of warm water so that just the small copper bottom of the printhead sits in the water.
Let it soak for several minutes then remove the cartridge and carefully dry with a soft paper towel. Do not rub the printhead or you may damage it.
Re-install the cartridge into the printer and perform the cleaning cycle before using it again.
If the problem persists then try soaking the printhead overnight.
• If the colours are not full enough or the ink is not flowing freely and you have tried the tips outlined above: – Use a paint programme to draw 3 large boxes. Colour one box Magenta (red), one Cyan (blue) and the other yellow .
By printing the boxes at the highest resolution (DPI) available, the cartridge will push the ink out at a high volume. Once this has been printed you should have no problems with your cartridge again!
• Another great tip:
Take a paper towel and fold it several times to make it thick and soft. Then moisten it with warm water and place it on a hard surface.
Remove the cartridge from the printer and place it on the damp paper towel, with the printhead down.
Whilst applying even pressure by pushing down on the cartridge, at the same time rock it from front to back. Remember not to be too rough or you will damage the printhead.
This should remove dried particles of ink from the printhead and allow the ink to flow freely. If successful you should see several small drops of ink on the paper towel.
Other Useful Hints
• If a light keeps blinking on your printer and it will not recognise the cartridge.
First make sure that you have removed any printhead tape or protective clip from the cartridge.
Ensure the electronic contacts of the cartridge are free from any particles by wiping the chip or copper contacts gently with a damp paper towel.
Try unplugging your printer and removing all the cartridges. After a couple of minutes turn the printer back on and try the installation again.
As a last resort, uninstall and reinstall your printer drivers to completely reset the software.
How you can Recycle & Refill Brother Ink Cartridges or Laser Toner Cartridge
1. Place any absorbent material like a towel underneath before refilling the brother ink cartridges.
2. After filling ink in the syringe bottle remove the needle and put the cone shaped adaptor on it.
3. Find the hole in the cartridge through which the ink flows out and turn the exit port down facing your lap.
4. Slowly inject the ink from the syringe bottle into the cartridge until the ink starts coming out of the vent hole and is not foamy.
5. Now turn the cartridge the other way round so that the vent hole faces you and the exit port is towards your lap.
6. Put the needle back into the syringe bottle and inject the needle into the vent hole. Continue injecting till the ink comes out of the exit hole and stops foaming.
7. Leave the cartridge in this position for about ten minutes. Then repeat the 6th step and let it rest for another ten minutes.
8. Install the cartridge in the printer. If it has to be transported then an electrical tape can be used to cover the exit and vent holes but must be removed before printing.