Peter Samuel dispells some popular myths about Remanufactured LaserJet Toner

Remanufacturers just replace the Toner in the Cartridges

Single re-use remanufacturers or "drill and fill" merchants cheat both you and the environment. Whereas Professional remanufacturers replace every worn or damaged component in the cartridges. Imaging Drums (OPC Drums) should be cleaned, tested or more often replaced. The OPC Drum is the most expensive part of many toner cartridges, but is crtical for the quality performance of your cartridge. All of the remanufactured cartridges stocked at Angel have Brand New OPC drums, charge rollers and other mechanical parts. Microchips are also be replaced to restore the full functionality and compatibility of the cartridge.

Third Party Toner is not as good as the OEM’s

Chemical Toner is used in almost all of the major OEM’s are shipping printer cartridges using this new technology. Recently, this toner became available for the Remanufacturers and In my opinion the quality of both colour and greyscale achieved by the Remanufactuers is equivalent to the quality of the OEM’s.

Remanufacturers reuse Toner in their cartridges

Rubbish! It just isnt possible. Also each manufacturers cartridge has a different toner formulation.

Defective Toner cartridges damage printers

Toner Cartridges are mainly self contained sealed units and make little or no contact with the rest of the printer. The worst that can happen is that toner from a failed cartridge must be removed from the printer.

Empty Cartridges returned to HP, Canon, Lexmark etc are Reused

Only about 20% of cartridges are ever re-used. Independent cartridge remanufacturers recover more empty cartridges than all the OEM’s put together. A recent Infotrends report said:-

The OEM’s own program to collect empties generally results in them being broken down into their constituent parts and then the base materials recycled
3rd party remanufacturers will almost always re-use the cartridges that they collect following inspection and cleaning

Remanufactured Cartridges are inferior to Manufacturers Originals

Here at Angel we use remanufactured toner cartridges for our printers. We can honestly say we have not noticed a single difference in print quality since making the switch from Branded products. We feel good about the savings we make and also that we are helping the environment in a small way.

Use of Remanufactured Cartridges will void your Printer Warranty

My favourite! I hear this all day long and it is often the mantra of those NOT selling remanufactured toner. Following pressure from the European Union and American fair trade laws, the OEM’s are not allowed to void your printer warranty for using compatible or remanufactured toner or ink cartridges.

Next time a repair technician says "using a remanufactured toner cartridge will void your warranty?”, tell them to put it in writing. Chances are he won't. Why? Because it can be illegal to require a consumer to use specific supplies in order to maintain a warranty. Some of the manufacturers warranty statements can be viewed here.

Summary

Buy remanufactured and compatible Inks, save money and do your bit for the environment. If you are a brand snob and must have a branded original - that's ok too!.