Are Bargain Toner Cartridges Really a Better Value?

Are Bargain Toner Cartridges Really a Better Value?

Posted by Andy at 7:36 pm

IT Support Dallas

I hate buying toner. Nothing can ruin my day faster than running out of toner. The whole experience seems like such a racket. My color laser printer refuses to print if even 1 of the 4 toner cartridges is low, forcing me to buy a replacement. When I remove the low cartridge, there appears to be plenty of toner left in there to me. The high cost of toner has led me to try out bargain, remanufactured toner cartridges, which brought mixed success.

I decided to search the internet to find out if bargain toner is really a better deal. The results surprised me.

A 2007 independent study, performed by QualityLogic Inc. and commissioned by HP, compared Original HP LaserJet print cartridges with nine brands of remanufactured toner cartridges sold in North America for the HP LaserJet 2300 (Q2473A) and HP LaserJet 4350 (Q5407A) printers. 24 cartridges were tested for each brand in the study.

Highlights of the study include:

• More than 33% of tested remanufactured toner cartridges experienced problems.
• Nearly 7% of tested remanufactured toner cartridges failed prematurely – some right out of the box.
• For more than 25% of the tested remanufactured cartridges tested, 50% or more pages inspected were of limited or no use.

According to the study, and HP, a set of Original HP Color LaserJet printer toner cartridges can cost up to $76 less than remanufactured cartridges when you factor in the costs of reprinting pages that don’t meet business customers’ standards for external distribution.

Speaking from my own experience, I have had terrible luck buying the bargain cartridges. They have leaked all over me and the insides of my printer. My printed pages were not usable. I have never had an issue when I’ve used genuine HP cartridges. But, it still pains me to shell out big bucks for their cartridges.

How to Extend the Life of Your Toner Cartridges

Here are a few tips for extending the life of your toner cartridges:

• If you are getting a Low Toner alert, remove the cartridge and gently shake it from side to side.
• Check your printer’s settings. Some printers allow you to disable the “Replace Supplies” or “Page Count” limits.
• Do a quick search of the internet for your printer model to see if there is a way to “trick” the sensor into printing beyond it’s preset limit.
• For color printers, change your printer defaults to black & white. Most of your printouts probably don’t need color.
• Switch to a lower print quality for most printouts. You can always print at the best quality for that presentation, but not for everyday use.

View the entire QualityLogic report here.