First, some things you may need to know about toner cartridges:
What is a Toner cartridge? (also called laser toner)
It is the consumable component of a laser printer. It contains the material (toner) used to produce the image onto the paper.
What is Laser Toner?
Unlike ink, toner is a dry powdery substance. During the laser printing process, the toner is electrically charged (static) so that it is attracted to the printer drum (kind of like a balloon rubbed against your hair than placed against a wall). The toner is then transferred to the paper. The fuser is responsible for melting the laser toner to create the permanent image on the paper.
What Are OEM Cartridges?
OEM is the acronym for Original Equipment Manufacturer. This is the type of cartridge that is produced by the company that manufactured your printer. Of course, the manufacturer of your printer recommends you use their products and will claim their products work better than the competition or the lower priced compatible brands. Unfortunately, OEM cartridges are the most expensive choice due to their brand-name status.
What Are Compatible Toner Cartridges?
A compatible toner cartridge is one that is made of all new parts, but they may not be the same brand as that of your printer or multi-function device. Instead, the parts in compatible toner cartridges are very similar to those produced by your printer company. This type of printer cartridge is usually low cost and is usually a very good option. These cartridges are typically readily available at any office supply store or even a big box store such as Target or Wal-Mart.
What Are Re-fill Toner Cartridges?
Refurbished toner cartridges are known by a few names. You may hear them called recycled or re-manufactured toner cartridges. These types of cartridges are recycled by companies specializing in this process.
Some toner cartridge re-manufacturing companies collect original OEM cartridges that can no longer be used. They are then disassembled and used to create new products. Other companies will pick up used cartridges from their customers so they can use them again passing the savings along to their clients. Either way, old cartridges are disassembled. The parts that don’t work are replaced with parts that do work.
How To Choose a Printer Toner Cartridge?
OEM toner cartridges are generally the most expensive part of a printer, and there usually is not a big difference in quality between an OEM cartridge and a quality compatible or re-manufactured toner cartridge. In a lot of cases the OEM companies are now manufacturing their cartridges using parts that are recycled, yet you are still paying for all newly manufactured parts. If any manufacture tells you that using a compatible or re-manufactured cartridge will void your warranty, they are breaking the law. Even using a refilled cartridge will not void your warranty (but we don’t recommend using refills).
The compatible cartridges are the so-called “generic” cartridges. They are usually built using parts that have been recycled from old cartridges. If these are purchased from a company that has been in the business for a while and has a good reputation, you will get the same or better quality than that of the OEM for a much lower price.
But finding third-party ink for your specific printer model can be a challenge, particularly if your unit is very new, very old, or not very popular. Before driving around town to find the right cartridge, do a little homework online.
Like the online arms of other major retailers, v4ink.com has an ink and toner cartridge Finder. Click the link to search the suitable toner cartridge from V4INK base on your printer model. You could find third-party supplies toner cartridge for your Brother, Canon, Dell, Samsung, Lenovo and/or HP printers.
