Articles on Toner

Toner Cartridges - To Refill or not to Refill

Toner cartridges are typically 'big ticket' items. Laser printers are commonly used in offices and larger businesses for their speed, cartridge capacities and their waterproof features. Laser printers are usually priced higher than inkjet printers, and their cartridges are almost always more expensive than ink cartridges. The actual cartridges are made up of a container (shell) and some stationary and moving parts - and toner. There are several ways to save on toner cartridges. Choosing a company that gives you these options is key to finding the right type of product while enjoying savings. Here are some of the choices for cartridges for your laser printer

OEM - or 'Original Equipment Manufacturer' is the most expensive option for your printer. They are new cartridges and manufactured for the printer company who then brand labels it and sells direct to the consumer through a variety of 'channels'.

Remanufactured - A remanufactured cartridge is a professionally rebuilt cartridge using the OEM casing and any reusable parts. The cartridges are tested, cleaned , parts replaced and filled with premium grade toner. They print perfectly and give the consumer two other great benefits. One, they cost far less than OEM, often with discounts in the 30%-50% range. They also use far less renewable resources to manufacture. They are a green and cost effective choice and should be considered by everyone.

Compatible - these are new, compatible cartridges that work identically to OEM and remanufactured, but are even less expensive. Using a compatible cartridge can easily save 40-60% off OEM retail and prints perfectly.

Refill kits - yes, toner cartridges can be refilled! A very easy way to save the MOST money while recycling your used cartridge several times to create the ultimate in recycling and energy savings. Often very easy to do and always guaranteed, refill kits provide the green conscious and money conscious with the best of all worlds.

Those are the typical products that are available for your toner cartridges for use in your laser printer. A solid company will give you all of those options, allowing you, the consumer, to choose for yourself how green you want to be, and how much money you want to save - all without having to be concerned about output, quality or printing consistency.

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Toner Refills vs Toner Cartridges - factors that affect availability

Toner cartridges are first released of course by the original equipment manufacturers, such as HP, Dell, etc. These are called OEM toner cartridges. The aftermarket (the remanufacturing toner cartridge industry as it is also called), then plays catchup - reverse engineering the OEM toner cartridges, to develop toner and parts to bring new life to empty OEM toner cartridges. Before a remanufactured toner cartridge can reach the market, all these components need to become available, but also, the empty OEM toner cartridges need to be collected so they can be remanufactured. Enter a new player - the empties broker. This is someone or some company that actively collects empty toner cartridges (through empties collection processes) and supplies the empties to the toner remanufacturers so that they can complete their process and offer a finished product to the market. This overall process may take months to come to market.

Along the way, the components are being developed, and toner refills or toner refill kits can be assembled and brought to market, giving consumers the option and benefit of being able to refill their own toner cartridges at home, in their own time.