Are compatible and remanufactured toner cartridges good?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (More info?)

I have a Brother MFC-9700 laster printer. I need to buy another toner
cartridge and see that I can save money by buying either a compatible
or remanufactured cartridge. Does anyone have any experience that these
are just as good as genuine cartridges from the printer maker or not?
Which would you recommend between compatible and remanufactured?
Thanks in advance.

 

[saltyvinegar]

It's always been an issue with warranty, once your warranty period ends most people try compatible cartridges/toner and find it a good experience.

 

[RickySmith91]

The biggest advantage of using compatible toner cartridges is they are low cost consumables. Compatible and Remanufactured toner cartridges are available for laser printers and give good quality printing at a lower cost often half the cost of the branded cartridge.

 

[kellyB]

Its equally important when talking about quality to make sure the one's you getting are iso-9001 certified

 

[iam2thecrowe]

I repair printers for a living. I can say that you will get a LOT more problems with non-genuine/refilled toners. It really depends on printer model sometimes as to how well they work and what toner is being used. Its not to bad in B&W printers but i would never use aftermarket/refills in colour lasers, seen far too many problems and they end up costing you more in repairs and callouts for technicians to only tell you "its a faulty toner cartridge" The toner that is in these cartridges is not the same as the manufacturers genuine toner and is therefore unpredictable as to the results it will give. remanufactured toner cartridges often have other parts in them that wear out which are not replaced when they refill it with toner. You get what you pay for basically.

 

[sgtmalarkey]

I work as a Laser Technician for a Cartridge World store in the UK, and I can tell you now that quality of toner and parts in our remanufactured cartridges are much better than any compatible cartridge I'd had to deal with. I know that certainly in the UK, compatible companies bulk fill their cartridges with the same toners. So say you bought a Samsung ML-1610 compatible, the toner in that would be the same toner that they would put in, say, a HP Q2612A. The toner in an OKI 5600 Magenta compatible would be the same as the toner in a Dell 1320. As you know, nearly every printer you come across is different to another and so their needs are different and using toner that is used to fill multiple brands causes a multitude of problems, be it print quality or a faulty printer. for those of you who deal primarily with inks, it's like buying a compatible Epson filled with dye ink, and putting it through your machine that is supposed to use pigmented ink; it's totally different.

The design of compatibles can also have ridiculous design flaws. I recall recently attempting to fill a compatible Samsung ML-2010, and separating the waste chamber from the toner hopper. When you serparate a genuine ML-2010, the waste chamber is essentially a plastic shell with a wiper blade across it to create a recess for the waste. This compatible didn't have a wiper blade, instead it was simply filled with foam, with a thinner strip of foam raised slightly higher to act as a wiper blade. Now, even if the strip of foam acts correctly as a wiper blade, the waste tonner has nowhere to go which will simply cause it to back up on the drum and print a very bad page.

Remanufactured cartridges are definitely the way to go and it may be worth enquiring with whichever company you deal with, about the quality of parts and toner used in the cartridges. Static Control and Delacamp are both very respectable parts and toner suppliers so, so long as the company you deal with has a competent laser technician you'll be fine and stand to save a lot of money. Just as a quick example, one of my customers uses a Lexmark T644 32K capacity cartridge. If he wants them brand new, he's looking at around £370 to £400. If he brings an empty in and has it remanned by myself it's £125, so as you can see, there's a lot of money to be made.

Hopefully all of that was of some use to yourselves.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

"Lexmark T644 32K capacity cartridge. If he wants them brand new, he's looking at around £370 to £400. If he brings an empty in and has it remanned by myself it's £125, so as you can see, there's a lot of money to be made." the problem is your refilling the cartridge but the same photoconductor is being re-used and will have a low chance of the surface lasting without fault.

 

[bill_o]

I looked into this a week ago and from what I can see the big deal with toner is 1. how it's made - either it's been milled (crushed from big blocks using big rollers) or grown chemically. Milled toner has lots of sharp edges on the toner as the crushing rollers tend to leave sharp edges, where chemically made toner tends to be like little smooth surface spheres.

One slowly grinds against the insides of your printer, the other is much nicer to it.

If you listen to the manufacturers, colour reproduction is also only guaranteed with the manufacturer's own brand as their colours are made to be a perfect match to the printer's software way of creating the page.
I wonder if manufacturers will start to make toner that is a slightly different colour which is then corrected by the software in the printer to stop you using compatible toner.

I used to have a a printer (I'm replacing it this week) that I used to put recycled paper through and I'm told by an engineer that the paper does as much damage to the bits inside the printer as using poor toner. I remember looking inside the printer and there was lots of white paper dust in there.

I suppose the answer is, it depends. Cheap and nasty toner probably slowly damages your printer in some way. High quality toner whether original or compatible, is probably fine.


Bill

 

[justinbellaaa03]

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i am not able to give your answer now,i have to contact any other expert.
thanks.
----------------
gabrielcolin

 

[dbhosttexas]

Laser toner cartridges are commonly remanufactured (cleaned and refilled etc...) resulting in a significant cost savings for the consumer, and a reduction in the tech waste going to landfills. Properly tested, and refurbished, refilled / remanufactured toner cartridges are often every bit as reliable, and high quality as that same cartridge was before remanufacturing. Yes there are some failures. There are failures with new cartridges too. Reputable vendors stand behind their cartridges.

I work in enterprise IT, and all we use are refurbished cartridges. There are no problems with our support contracts. YMMV though. Check your support contract / warranty for any issues in that area...

Due to the countless problems I have experienced over the years with remanufactured ink jet cartridges, I won't even consider them... I have seen some model printers that have cartridges that can be recycled easily and work well afterwards. But from my experience, I always end up with the models that have cartridges that leak ink like a sieve once refilled... Unless you are buying OEM recycled cartridges where they will support you (I.E. fix your printer after an ink leak) I will NOT and I cannot stress this strongly enough, will NOT use or recommend recycled / remanufactured / refilled inkjet cartridges.

 

[g-unit1111]

No they're not. I had an HP refurbished one spill all over the place and nearly ruined the printer. And these cartridges normally retail for more than $400. If you see one going for less than $70, chances are they did a crap restoration job on them. My supplier told me they stopped carrying OEM cartridges because so many customers complained about how poorly made they were, that was really telling. Pay the extra money for the full cartridge or risk ruining your printer, it's your choice.

 

[Idonno]

Well I wasn't going to answer this thread since it is supposed to be about compatible and remanufactured toner cartridges and not inkjet cartridges but, a number of people have brought up inkjets so here's my 2 cents.

I have no doubt that people that repair printers for a living like "iam2thecrowe" have seen allot more problems with printers that are using aftermarket ink supply's than those using new OEM supplies.

That said, aftermarket ink suppliers are just like any other company. Some are real good and some are real bad. You can't just buy the cheapest crap off of eBay without knowing anything about the manufacturer or seller and be certain that you are going to get good results.

There are some very good players in this market though, My CISS (continuous ink supply system) on my Epson R280 produces very nice prints and tends to clog far less than it ever did with new Epson ink.

For aftermarket ink with inkjets it's important to not have a printer with the printheads in the cartridges. Cartridges with the printheads in them are not meant to last through constant refills. If you buy already filled aftermarket cartridges (with the printheads in them) their quality will depend very much on the manufacturer of said cartridge but, in my opinion it is best to steer clear of printers with the printheads in the cartridges altogether, if you want to use aftermarket ink supply's.

All Epson inkjet printers have permanent printheads in them that are made to last the life of the printer. Some other printer manufacturers like Cannon do as well but, these are usually only in their more expensive printers. I admittedly don't know enough about which do and don't to go to far into this, as my experience is predominantly (but, not exclusively) with Epson inkjet printers.

Bottom Line:
1.) If you want to use aftermarket ink supply's, use only QUALITY aftermarket ink supply's. You will still save a ton of money. 75% or more!

2.) If you refill and your OEM cartridges are the type that have to be removed every time, Buy refillable aftermarket cartridges (w/auto reset chips, if your ink carts are chipped) Keeping them in the printer will drastically cut down on the chance that they will leak where they plug in.

3.) Unless you have a very expensive professional inkjet printer, it makes absolutely NO sense NOT to use QUALITY aftermarket ink supply's.

A perfect example of this is my R280 or an Artisan 50. The cost new is $150. The cost to replace all 6 ink carts with Epson ink is around $75-$100.

With QUALITY aftermarket ink supply's, depending on your ink cost and the type of system you use, you will save enough to buy a completely new printer after just replacing (or using the equivalent in ink) all the ink carts just 2-3 times.

I imagine the same logic can be applied to toner cartridges as well, since even if they do shorten the lifespan of your printer or the occasional toner cartridge doesn't last as long as it should, they may still be well worth it.

Below is a few tutorials I wrote for inkjet printers. The first of these is just for aftermarket inkjet supply's in general and the 2nd can be especially helpful when you make the mistake of buying CRAPPY aftermarket inkjet supply's.



[faq]Aftermarket Inkjet Ink Supplies
I often see people asking about cheaper alternatives to buying OEM ink supplies and just as often they get incorrect responses, So hopefully I can clear a few thing up here. THE INKJET PRINTER MANUFACTURERS The makers of inkjet printers are... See full content[/faq]

 

[Idonno]

It is not only way much cheaper compared to OEMs but it also generates similar yield and quality of printouts. Compatible cartridges wouldn't really harm your printer so worry not.

Agreed!