Refilled Toner Cartridge

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ronw

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#180568 13-Sep-2015 23:59

I have a Brother Laser Printer MFC-7860DW which uses the TN2250 Toner Cartridge
I was wondering about all the refilles cartridges around the place. has anyone anything to say about the merits or otherwise of using refill cartridges and if positive any recommendations on who to look at.

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old3eyes

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#1387004 14-Sep-2015 08:30

I have not had much success with refilled toner carts. They seem fine for about the first couple months or so then start dumping great amounts on toner on then page. I see that the TN2250 is about $97 new so if your usage was small and the cart say lasted 12 months I'd buy a new one..

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Old3eyes

coffeebaron

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#1387024 14-Sep-2015 09:31

NOOO! In my years of working in IT, I have seen my fair share of issues with toner / ribbon / ink cartridge refills or non-genuine issues. Just the other week, one of my rural customers called me in for printer problems. Took me 2minutes to assess it was a problem with using non genuine ink cartridge. Bang, a big rural call out fee. There goes any savings he would have made.

Back when I working on ATM's and Banks IT stuff, they use to try save money by using refilled toner cartridges etc. I would often get calls for poor print quality. After a quick check, you'd ask for a new toner cart to try; "but it is new" they'd say, no I mean a genuine new, non refilled. Problem solved and again another big bill for my small trouble.

We also tested some ribbons that the banks were getting re-inked / re stuffed. It would cost them half the price of a new one; yet after testing these, it was found they only lasted 1/3 of the life of a genuine. It was actually costing them more money. Not to mention the couple of ATM fires caused by wrongly tensioned ribbon or failed.

I'm sure there are plenty of stories of people with good experience too, so for some this works, but from what I've seen my advise is always buy genuine ink and toner cartridges.

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#1387028 14-Sep-2015 09:42

A above, I've also had nothing but trouble when customers have used refilled toner cartridges. I also use an MFC-7860DW, have always use genuine cartridges, and have zero problems.

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

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khull

1245 posts

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#1387037 14-Sep-2015 09:53

I got mine from Amazon - high yield. Works amazing for $20 and a $79 laser, I could not be happier

1101

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#1387053 14-Sep-2015 10:32

My job for 3 years used to be refilling toner carts, then worked for various companies that sold them.....
The brother toner carts are really easy to refill, one of the easiest , so you should have no issues if done by someone competent & the correct toner
is used
Some of the cheap chinese imports are really bad, but quality is available . Try a local refill shop where they do it onsite (eg cartridge world)
Also, refilling is not the same as remanufacturing .

If done properly, remans are 90% reliable. Yes , they are good, if done correctly , but that costs more .
Issues arise when a worn drum is reused, when the cart is worn out(seals) but reused anyway, when a nasty job is done on it, ie cutting or drilling holes to save time
or when poor quality parts/toner/drum is used .
However , a few toner carts are a rubbish design (patent issues I guess) and just cant be reliably remaned. One in particular was a shocker, the seal was just paper taped over a very large opening (thats the OEM) .

Inkjets are another story again. Given we used to import some new aftermarket inkjet carts for less than $5, I cant see any reason to 'refill' inkjet carts
The aftermarket inkjet color carts are often far worse than genuine, color wise . But I still use them at home, just so much cheaper .

DS248

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#1387054 14-Sep-2015 10:36

Do not have any experience with Brother. But have used locally sourced generic cartridges on a now 'mature' HP LJ4000 for many years without problem. Much cheaper than proprietary and last longer (eg. up to 17,000+ pp vs 10,000 standard). Per page cost ~0.5c. Despite its age (though not so large page count) the printer has been rock solid. Adding a network card and extra memory ~8 yrs ago gave it a new lease of life.

I vaguely recall once a long time ago using a locally source 'refill' cartridge. That did not work out well - after a short while started dumping excess toner on the page. But the better generic cartridges seem fine.