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Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

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Our LaserJet printers are way past their warranties so I’m looking at going from HP toner cartridges to remanufactured toner. Here’s some pricing I found:

Item: C8061X for HP 4100 LaserJet

HP New: 119.95
Rhinoteck Remanufactured: $86.21
Xerox Remanufactured: $79.30
Radian Remanufactured: $72.55
West Pint Remanufactured: $61.05
Verbatim Re-manuf: 57.95

Okay, so why is there a 48% price difference between the Verbatim and the Rhinoteck? Is this going to be one of those “you get what you pay for (or not) things”??

Anyone have recommendations or experience they can provide?

Topic

No

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

In my experience, remanufacturered toner cartridges are defective about 50% of the time. The defect is print quality. Blotches. Spots. Streaks. Etc.

I buy genuine HP toner from the cheapest source I can find, all things considered. It is just not worth it to futz around with non-HP toner.

P.S. When you buy a printer, factor in the price of manufacturer-branded toner. For example, Canon toner is usually a lot more expensive than HP toner. But, this difference varies by printer model. Some HP toner is expensive too.

We use…

In reply to No

We use OfficeMax remanufatured toner here. I have not heard of one bad one. They do guarantee them too.

Thanks for the tip!

In reply to We use…

Thanks for the tip! I’ll check them out!

It depends on where you buy

In reply to Thanks for the tip!

refilled toner is a bad idea, remanufactured is supposed to be not just adding toner, but replacing parts that wear. Remanufactured toner is almost as good as new and should be problem free. Refilling on the other hand is an accident waiting to happen.

Research the place you buy from, if they do not guarantee it, or do not state that they properly fix the cartridges it is probably a refill instead.

But, even then, the printer might not see the new cartridge as being the proper one. Since toner size may vary, and differences in its makeup, it is always recommended to use only the manufacturers toner in your system.

WHAT YOU SAVE ON THE REMANS YOU LOSE ON TIME AND USER DISSATISFACTION

In reply to No

DO NOT BUY FROM OUT OF TOWN VENDORS!! EVER!! ONLY USE
REMANS SOLD BY YOUR PRINTER SERVICE VENDOR . THAT WAY
IF THERE IS AN ISSUE YOU GO TO THAT VENDOR AND HAVE
THEM EXPLAIN WHY THEY RECOMMENDED AN INFERIOR
SOLUTION.

I KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE. IF THERE IS ANY QUESTION, USE THE
MANUFACTURERS SUGGESTED CARTRIDGE. AND ALWAYS HAVE A
FEW OF THE OEM TONERS ON HAND AND HIDE ANY REMANS
BEFORE LETTING THE OEM’S REP ONSITE.

OK!!! OK!!! OK!!!

In reply to WHAT YOU SAVE ON THE REMANS YOU LOSE ON TIME AND USER DISSATISFACTION

OK!!! OK!!! OK!!!

THERE IS NO REASON TO SHOUT!!!

WE GOT YOUR VERY PASSIONATE AND IMPORTANT MESSAGE!!!

THOSE @#$#$% AWEERDSAS BASTARD OUT OF TOWN REMAN VENDORS!!!

ARGHHHH!!!

🙂
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Blood Pressure: 193

Deep Breath

In reply to OK!!! OK!!! OK!!!

I know- gets me too. Screaming doesn’t get the point across.

But I thought we agreed, no more calling people AWEERDSAS.

Remember the duckies! 🙂

And get your blood pressure back down! 193 is way too high for an asystolic pressure. 142 is better.

I used it…

In reply to Deep Breath

I used it just for you, Tigger! 🙂

P.S. 193 was the DIAstolic…Boom! 🙂 (my BP is fine)

We have to use remanufactured

In reply to I used it…

We have so much printer on our site that we have to do that and no problems what so ever, but the quality of the cartridge go in pair with the quality of your printer and we always use high yield too.

To be honest with the number of printer we have here we have the bargain power to make the vendor stick to it promise, we have the money and the lawyer plus we could terminate our business with vendor and that mean way too much money to loose for them that a factor too.

If you go for a high yield cartridge make sure that if your present printer broke down you have the possibility to return the one that are not used.

For me it is sound business to go with remanufactured.

Here you go again…

In reply to OK!!! OK!!! OK!!!

Just like when I let the pups out in the yard, I gotta’ watch you every minute.

What planet are YOU from? (THAT was pretty dang good…)

Better’n JD’s comment too but don’t tell him I said that. ;\

😀

I was hoping…

In reply to Here you go again…

I was hoping you guys would take notice and enjoy! 🙂

Even big store like Business Depot sell it too

In reply to OK!!! OK!!! OK!!!

I think we should complain too much about remanufactured toner cartridges. There are a big competition in this market and that’s why remanufactured toner providers are trying to improve their product quality. Even big store like Business Depot, staple are selling it. For a half price compare to the oem costs, would rather try remanufactured cartridge at least one, and if it works good, i will save alot of money for the whole year. There are many stores in Canada that sell remanufactured cartridges, but the one I know in Toronto is called Qua24 , they carry most of the major brands with very low prices. I heard that this guy only makes 1 or 2 dollars on each compatible cartridge.

Use Genuine HP

In reply to No

I manage about 300 HP printers at a Title company. Our users do a LOT of printing to say the least. Save yourself a headache and just stick with genuine HP. We tried the remanufactured cartridges for about two weeks, they just don’t have the quality nor can they handle the volume of printing that we do.

Not worth it

In reply to No

Gardner did a study and found that the genuine ones work better for HP. Part of this is because HP designs their printers to use the special toner in their cartridges. What ends up happening is that the other cartridges start mucking up the printer and the printer will end up failing, plus I have never gotten a full cycle out of these remanufactured cartridges. Save your printers especally if they are past warrantee. I work for the State and we went through this exercise to “save money” and we ended up having to replace a bunch of printers.

Yes, but with a warning

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

I have been using reman cartridges for my printers for 3 years and I have not had any serious problems. My warning is to not go with the cheapest and do not order based on a sales rep cold calling.

First of all, see if you can get a referral from someone you trust.

Interview all prospective suppliers and see what they offer in guarantees on their products. My supplier will come and service a printer at no charge to me if their cartridges cause problems. They are also my preferred service provider for hardware problems. In three years of a good business relationship, I only had to call them in once due to a bad toner. They cleaned up the printer and replaced the bad product.

Make sure that if they all selling high-yield cartrdges that you are truly getting high-yield. Many suppliers can be misleading on this point.

Use care in selecting your supplier. This will result in the greatest cost saving. Also, make sure that all staff know that you have a preferred supplier and they are not to make any toner orders from anyone. Only you (or your department) should place orders.

I purchase reman toners for HP and Lexmark.

I agree…

In reply to Yes, but with a warning

Although reluctant to use remanufactured cartridges in my expensive printers, the office manager insisted that I try one. Since he pays the bills, and will end up paying for the new printers, I went along with him.

We tried a few different sources with varying degrees of success and some outright lies from sellers.

I’ve settled on http://www.toptoner.com for my HP toner.

Never had a problem and I’ve been buying from them for over a year now. Quality is good and the price is great.

Yes and No

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

Most of the businesses that recycle toner cartridges are non-profit that employ handicapped people that otherwise would overload the already bloated welfare rolls. Careful inspection of the cartridges before sending them off is essential. Inspect the doctor blades, the piece of plastic the scrapes excess toner off of the photo drum as it rotates, also a close look should be taken at the photo drum itself, looking for discolored areas and scratches. A good recycler will recoat the photo drum and refill the unit with fresh, clean toner, clean the doctor blade and place some kind of label to identify the date it was recycled. I have encountered many outfits that will take the contents of the hopper that collects the used toner collected by the doctor blade and mix it with new toner. Others will take a percentage of returned units and mark them as unusable when there are actually in good shape.. This increases their number of units that can be recycled and sold without having to pay for cases provided by you. If the recycler says any number of units are unsuitable, ask for them to be returned, not scrapped by them. If your pre-inspection reveals any defects such as discolored drums, scratches, or gaps on the doctor blade, do not send them to be serviced. This assures that all units sent out are in good shape and can be serviced and not claimed as bad. One hint is to mark each unit with the tip of a soldering iron with a number. Some toner cartridges can yeild a little more life by lightly shaking side to side when characters become fuzzy or lines appear on the edges of the page. This results in a leveling of the excess toner deposited in the hopper by the doctor blade. A little extra life can be yeilded this way.. Taking a unit that is scratched on the drum and dis-assembly will reveal the inside workings and allow you to determine where on the cartridge a hole can be cut to remove the excess toner from the hopper, sometimes tripling the usable life of a cartridge. Half price for rebuilt compared to new is the usual range to be expected.

Good to know

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

The above tips are all good to know. I have not tried reman laser printer cartridges before.

I’m always wary of non OEM cartridges due to my experiences. A certain off brand of black inkjet cartridges was not completely opaque black..kinda trans blue.

An off-brand of Copier cartridge (which was supposedly made by the actual manufacturer of the OEM cartridge but just sold under a different label) did not fit correctly.

You just have to experiment and note which ones not to use ever agai.
Tink 🙂

Along similar lines: Extended Life Cartridges? For Real?

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

I’ve never tried any of those so-called longer lasting cartridges that get sold by telemarketers. Has anyone?

Do they really last 2-3 times longer?

I use genuine HP extended life

In reply to Along similar lines: Extended Life Cartridges? For Real?

I use genuine HP extended life toner cartridges and they really do deliver what they say.

I would be wary of off-brand toner from telemarketers, standard or extended life. I’m wary of ANYTHING sold by telemarketers.

No

In reply to Along similar lines: Extended Life Cartridges? For Real?

We tried several of the remanufactured extended life cartridges in a couple different models of HP’s. All of them provided less life than a new OEM cartridge, and most were less than the life we were getting from regular reman’s. One supplier that “guaranteed” 70,000 pages from their extended life cartridges sent us 2 each for 2 different models of printer, and none of them even made it to 7,000 pages let alone 70,000.

You get what you pay for…

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

especially in the area of printer supplies. I’ve used re-man’d (not refilled) toner in a variety of lasers from HP II’s of the ’80’s to new Lexmarks, HP’s, etc. I have never purchased from a cold call telemarketer – you don’t even know where they’re located let alone know if they will actually honor any warranty. Another response asked about “2 to 3” times the life of some recycled toner cartridges, so, here’s how that’s done. 1. Finer grain toner powder. 2. Overfilling the unit.
3. Outright lie and they hope they never hear from you again.
I will be the last person to paint all telemarketers with a broad brush. I’m sure there are some honest ones. They just haven’t called me (don’t call now – I’m retired!)
20+ years experience has taught me to purchase from reputable sources, either local or web, get any warranties in writing and most importantly of all get the name of a real, live person in their service/claims department.
Hope this helps.

Personal experience with Rinoteck

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

I’ve had personal experience with Rinoteck. We use to use them for both ink cartridges and toner but we have dropped them in favor of new cartridges.

Over the period of two years we saw a decline in the quality of the cartridges. The biggest toner problem was related to a chip installed on the cartridge that the printer needs to read and recognize the cartridge as compatible. The printer was not recognizing the chip and the cartridge. Otherwise the remanufactured toner cartridges gave us little problems. Most printed normally with only a very few showing any kind of print quality problem. The life span of the toner seemed much shorter than a new cartridge.

The ink cartridges were much worse. We bought a large stock at the beginning of the year. I believe if they were used promply then there may not have been a problem. However, by the end of the year about one in five were not useable. They were dried out or clogged and not useable.

All I ever use are remans

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

I currently have a deal on HP DJ6p cartridges. Fifty-five bucks from US Laser, if I don’t mind bringing the old one by the warehouse. Gives me a chance to bat the breeze with the young lady who worked her way to the top position in the state by providing a decent product at a decent price.

Remanufactured vs Genuine

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

Personally I don’t use remanufactured toner or ink cartridges and don’t recommend them. Manufacturers cut costs anywhere they can and this means that if you have a printer cartridge with enough toner for 1000 prints, then it will be equipped with an OPC drum to last 1000 prints. Whilst its true that the drum may be good for 2000 prints under the right conditions who’s to say that the cartridge hasn’t been exposed to extremes of temperature or been refilled more than once? OEM cartridges are your best bet all round even though they’re way overpriced and the manufacturers try to thwart any attempts to refill.

Remanufactured toner cartridges

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

My experience many years ago was not good, with very variable results from a non-oem supplier, so have stayed with HP ever since.

A supplier to try

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges

I have been buying from http://www.blackhawkinc.com for several years now. Any bad cartridges that I have had (due to bad chips in the cartridge, or they were just defectiv) have been replaced in a very timely manner. HP prices are about standard, but the non-OEM pricing is pretty good.

As an added bonus, you call in and get a live person.

Not for HP!!

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

We have tried remanufactured cartridges from many sites and found that our HP Laserjet and Deskjet printers will error out and stop functioning. Sometimes we only utilize 1/4 to 2/3 of a cartridge. We have informed our Purchasing department to only order genuine HP replacements. We had replaced a few of these printers before we discovered that this was the culprit. Also, do not mix OEM and non OEM cartridges in an HP deskjet. After it errors, you will have to replace both of them before the printer will work again. Hope this helps.

Remans and Doublestuffs, to me its where you get em

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

About 60% of the 300 toners we deployed last year were remans, and perhaps 15% were doublestuffs. I use them whenever I can get them – but a caveat – we buy all our toners from IKON – and they gurantee everything. Last year I had two bad reman toners, both for HP4600’s and the service from IKON is so good the replacement toners were here the day after I called about them – as for a 61 X I used 26 of em last year, and the price I am showing is $83.50 – not the cheapest but still a sig saving ,, I just wish I saw the savings as a bonus check – but we all know it doesnt happen like that,,,,

I have NOT had good luck with remanufactured cartridges

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

I have tried a couple different brands and none of them have performed very well. They eventually printed too dark or with lines on one side of the page or had other printing problems. I’ve always had to go back to the standard cartridges. I hate that, because the cartridges are seriously overpriced, but I’ve never found high quality remanufactured cartridges that actually work like the originals.

It depends on the vendor.

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

I used to use a local vendor when I worked in another region, they were great. If I did have a problem, they came out usually same day to replace the defective cartridge.

Since moving across the state, I can’t find a vendor willing to offer the same level of service. Given a roughly 40%-50% defective rate it’s just not worth the aggravation.

Often times, a defective cartridge won’t start showing it’s stripes until you’re a few hundred to a few thousand pages in.

If you can find someone local, it might be worth it, otherwise I would say no.

Yes

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

We use them all the time at the State of Michigan. They work just fine. The bigger issue you will have with an out of warranty printer (although not necessarily past its useful life), is keeping the guts clean. It matters not what kind of toner you use if the innards are dirty.

Remanufactured Ink Cart.

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

Never had the ink cartridges work and hold color match over 2 weeks, will talk with some lazer owners today and see if they have had any luck with after market and if so what brand.

The best guarantee is the one you never have to use

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

Several posters have noted ways to improve the experience with remanufactured toner cartridges. Some have recommended only buying from companies with guarantees. All good advice.

Well, you don’t need a guarantee if the cartridge just works. My genuine HP toner cartridges have NEVER failed. EVER. My remanufactured cartridges have failed about 50% of the time. Sure, I returned them every time, got another one without charge, and also had a 50% failure rate on those. And so it went until the “half life” of returns was played out to its ugly end.

Staff time is valuable. The time spent futzing around with these remanufactured cartridges is just not worth it.

Absolutely

In reply to The best guarantee is the one you never have to use

If you are going to spend upwards of $5000.00 for a laser printer, why in the world would you try to save a few bucks on supplies.

Working for the government I have to deal with recycled, refilled and/or remanufactured toner kits on a daily basis. It’s federal law we use recycled everything, including paper.

I spend hours cleaning toner out of printers, and telling the customer to replace their “new” toner cartridge so their printer will stop printing splotches, stripes and dropouts. How do you convince someone that when humity is high the recycled paper jams more often and we can’t fix it.

I use the manufacturers statement to order HP toner kits until the warranty runs out. Both Lexmark and HP tell you that any problems caused by non manufacturer toner kits will not be covered under warranty.

I, too, have never had an HP cartridge blow up in my printer. Our recycled cartridges blow up on a regular basis and I am so tired of the “half life” drill.

If you don’t have to use recycled, spend a few more bucks and get the best.

Remunfactured carts are good as long as the brand is good

In reply to The best guarantee is the one you never have to use

My company gets remanufactured carts from a local vendor and we rarely ever have problems with them. Maybe 1 in 100 and then it was just squeaky rollers on the cart.

So, to keep it simple, stay away from brands that are making you do 50% returns. If you have trouble with one, try another. Those OfficeMax ones sound like they may be good.

Completely correct

In reply to The best guarantee is the one you never have to use

I earlier mentioned some differences, but also recommended to use the manufacturers cartridges. Although, I do not have much exp. with remanufactured, I have to agree, especially after reading some of these posts, that it is even worse than I previously thought. The main points are that, the cartidge can be bad, or not rebuilt properly, if at all. Also, the toner (size, color, electric charge differnce, ect.) may be different, and most likely is.
Although there may be some good remanufacturers out there, I recommend only original manufacturer parts, even after warrantees expire. BUT, just because it is an original manufacturer part does not guarantee trouble free, I have had a few bad toner carts before.

I have used compatibles and like them

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

In my previous position I have used compatible cartridges from ARMOR for all my HP printers.

I was told by my vendor [here in Europe] that these are built using the *same* original housing as HP (made somewhere in Asia, Japan?), filled with the same type of toner and sold halve the price.

In the box you get a test printout and they work fine also with envelopes.

I also tested some from Pelikan but would not recommend them. Especially after 2 or 3 envelopes, the normal pages went grey.

Remanufactured Toner Cartridges

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

I have tried Rhinoteck and other remanufactured toner cartridge’s and they just don’t hold up to what you can get from buying brand new from HP. The results: toner spills inside the printer and toner smears on print out. It’s your choice of buying brand new or remanufactured.

Had Same Experience

In reply to Remanufactured Toner Cartridges

Seems that the remanufacturer we were using did NOT replace the imaging roller. The green-colored shiny roller just under the flap that retracts when the cartridge is inserted into printer. Suspect they just cleaned up the visible areas, drilled a hole in the body and refilled it with toner. They would leak toner into the printers, smear, produce lines, etc. Worse case was that the toner got sucked into the motor and fused in place in one of the printers! So, I always ask them to only order HP brand cartridges.

Hummm Think about it

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

I became a Network Admin about 2 Years ago, We had a HP LaserJet that had some replacement cartridges here in the office. I used one of them and it seemed great, but then after a couple of prints, the Laserjet would Shutter make a loud screech and stop printing. Every time it did this I had to check the printer and figure out what was wrong. Everytime I just removed the last piece of paper and it would resume to only lock up a day or two later.

Because these cartridges were remanufactured I thought they were good, but after this problem go worst I took the printer to be fixed since I change toner to another one and it did the same.

After everything the company we took it to said it was partly the toner replacement, be we still had to pay, u know. After that I went to ONLY HP, and I have not had one damn problem since.

We ONLY use HP from now on….ONLY HP..

Just my two cents.

Jay

in the uk…

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

We use Cartridge World for our HP lasers. By and large, they’re OK. We had a bit of a settling-in period where some printers expected the toners to be chipped and complained if they were fed a non-chipped cart. CW have worked round this problem though. We’ve had the odd toner that simply hasn’t been detected by the printer and has had to be replaced, but overall there’s been no change in print quality and we’re pretty happy with the cost savings.

Laser printers vs inkjet

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

In reading the comments, I have noticed that some comments have talked about inkjet printers.
I want to clarify my previous response based on this observation.

My company only has about 3 inkjet printers. Only OEM cartridges are purchased for them because I have never had any luck with refilled either at home or work. Whenever possible, inkjet printers have been replaced with networked Laser printers.

For standard laser printers, I purchase my toners from a local Reman dealer (here in Toronto, A&M Computer Supplies). They also provide service to our printers that are out of warranty. I am very happy with their products and service.

Another point is that my supplier will only sell OEM toners for colour lasers. My rep informs me that they have never been able to maintain the quality standards their customers expect.

Not worth it …

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

… if what you want is clear printing. We’ve tried several brands of recycled or remanufactured toner cartridges in our four laserjets, and all of them performed miserably and/or had some kind of problem (leakage, excessive toner application, insufficient toner application, failure to fuse, short life) compared to the HP new cartridges. If you really want to spend less (which may or may not save money) at the expense of quality, I have a rule: DON’T buy the cheapest one.

Xerox is good, but…

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

We have been using Xerox remanufactured for HP LaserJet 4100, and 5000 and find that they work well most of the time. Occasionally one will trip messages about non-HP cartridges, etc. And one was putting smears on things. Still, given the quantity we are using (public access computers printing to networked laser printers at a public library), the few problems are offset by the savings. Xerox is great to deal with, shipping promptly, for free. (We also buy all our copier and printer paper from them.)

Our Admin assistant tried some remanufactured cartridges from a semi-local vender for a Canon digital copier out of warranty and ruined the copier. As long as equipment is in warranty, I strongly recommend sticking with the manufacturer’s cartridges. After that, try Xerox. L. Weight Siuslaw Public Library District

Save a little to spend a lot

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

My company has tried using remanufactured toner cartridges for the HP5500 color laser printers. I have seen and heard of nothing but problems with them. The first time I installed a replacement black toner cart that was remanufactured; all the paper that came out of the printer had grey smudges all over it. When we had a service tech check the printer out he found black toner all over the inside of the printer. The replacement cartridge had “spilled” black toner all over the inside of the printer. The tech said he has seen this over and over again with remanufactured cartridges. We use nothing but HP cartridges since then, and never have any problems with them. I was afraid to ask how much the service call cost us to clean the printer, but I’m sure it was more than the “savings” from the toner cartridge. When you include the loss of productivity from the “down” printer, we paid a lot to save a little.

As mentioned before

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

There is more to a reman toner cartridges then just refilling the toner. The hopper that holds the excess toner cleaned off the photo drum by the doctor blade will fill up after time and spill toner everywhere inside the printer. A good question and answer with the reman provider should reveal whether they clean out the hopper or not. I never use reman INK cartridges, the color match is impossible.

I like recycling but…

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

…the local stores that offer recycling just swap carts…who’s to say they actually get refilled. Newegg has your cart for $68

Stick with OEM

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

I work for a consulting company, and alot of our customers have HP and OCE laser printers and plotters… on alot of the laserjets ive seen remanufactured cartridges clump up. get clogged, give lines, make grinding noises, and even come out the wrong colors alot of the time.. i recommend to ante up and go with oem.. sometimes ive seen some of our customers find good deals on new oem cartridges on ebay… its cheaper in the long run to use the new ones then replace and have to clean rollers, drums and fusers from getting plugged up…

Junk, Junk, Junk.

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

Several years ago, I headed a corporate team to evaluate remanufactured toner cartridges from sevaral manufacturers against original HP toner cartridges. In every case we found that the remanufactured cartridges gave approximately 65% of the life-cycle that new cartridges gave us. In addition to the shorter life-cycles, the remanufactured cartridges caused streaking which contaminated the fusion assembly and created dirty paper handling components. When you combine the shorter life-cycle and increased maintenance costs, and loss of quality, it is much cheaper to stay with the new cartridges. Another disadvantage we found is that images printed with a remanufactured cartridge did not fuse to the paper … when the letter was folded, mailed, and opened by the recipient, the characters, or images, were missing accross the fold and left a dirty residue on the paper. Not very impressive for business communications.

If you don’t want to take my word, do a simple pilot project with a remanufactured cartridge on an older printer that you don’t really mind trashing. You will quickly see that for businesses, remanufactured cartridges are junk and not worth the total cost of operations or problems that they costs.

Re-manufactured toner cartridges

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

Beware, there is a difference!! As a retired copier repairperson of some 22 years, I can attest that there is a huge difference in the quality of toners used by these re-manufacturers. The problem is in finding the good ones and avoiding the rotten ones. Choosing the wrong one can result in costly repairs to your equipment. I would recommend using a company that both sells and repairs copiers/ laser printers. These companies have the expertise to produce a product that works properly in your equipment.
Hope this helps you in making your decision.

Can be good

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

We use reman cartridges in our printers (our printer service company gives us a cost per page, and provides cartidges in that cost). I have had three bad cartidges in almost two years running 11 high volume printers. Of course, my vendor manufacturers their own toner and is very involved with quality aspects.

No I wouldn’t use re-manufactured cartridges

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

No, I have seen to many downfalls of redone toner cartridges. Like I have seen printers come in with toner all through them, absolute mess. Also they shorten the printer’s life as well. Even Bubble and Ink Jet printers, it wrecks the printer heads on them.

Kind Regards,
Jim

HP & Hammermill

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

ONLY HP NEW carts and Hammermill paper.

Been fixing HP LJ’s since LJ and LJII’s. They’ll run forever with new carts and good paper.

OEM carts last longer and run cleaner than ANY remanufactured cart REGARDLESS of the sales hype.

Good paper helps in the process as well, minimizing jams and paper chaff in the mechanism.

I bad toner cart can ruin a good running printer forever.

Not worth it

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

We used refilled toner cartridges for one of our old laserjets and had some serious issues with them.

One time the toner had leaked into the sealed bag. Another time we opened our LaserJet because it was not printing correctly and discovered the inside was a uniform purple colour – a cartridge had leaked.

Also, although there were a lot of ‘freebies’ with these cartridges, tech support was rubbish.

It is not worth ruining your printer trying to save money. Each of our cartridges for our present LaserJet costs ?150 (they print 10,000 sheets each), off the shelf, but because we replace them on a regular basis, we have managed to get a good deal from a supplier. This means they cost us just ?106 each. We could pay ?70 per cartridge, but it just is not worth it.

This also means that the new laserjet does not have any issues related to the type of toner being used.

Your printer is designed to work with a particular type of toner and you should stick with the recommended replacement cartridges.

Love ’em!!

In reply to Not worth it

We’ve been using remanufactured HP toner cartridges for over 20 years now, and have a very good relationship with our vendor. LaserPro started with us as one of their first customers, and they not only guarantee their products, but also guarantee to fix or replace any printer damaged by their products.

I’ve been on tours at their facilities and I’ve seen exactly what they do to remanufacture a cartridge, and how they test them. One of the things their President told me was to never buy reman catridges that have been shipped by mail, UPS or FedEx. They will be damaged by the poor treatment they receive from these services. I’ve learn that to be very true, as my managers are constantly trying to get me to buy from other sources. All I have to do is ask the rep where their cartridges come from and how they are shipped and the problem goes away. They all back off at that point.

Larry

Opinions vs. facts

In reply to Love ’em!!

Without question, everyone is entitied to their opinion. But, please answer a factual question:

How many of your remanufactured cartridges have failed and/or had to be returned? What is the total number and percentage (approx)?

Thanks.

Used them for over 2 years

In reply to Opinions vs. facts

At the last engineering company I worked at, we used remanfactured laser toner for over 2 years and had maybe 2 bad toners in that time..and we printed the living piss out of printer to..no problems with bad splotches etc…the company did guarantee the toner as well.

Use Genuine for best results

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

I once used (at the insistence of the supply person) Xerox reman toner on my LJ 4050. One cartridge lasted a week, the other about 2 weeks and the third one day. It put more crap inside the printer than on the paper. So for the company’s $60 per xerox toner x 3 and my time totally disassembling the printer to clean out this crap, I’d say the company saved a lot by buying reman toner. It (the cost)looks good on paper, but use genuine HP toner for best results. The 4100 toner lasts me about 1.5 to 2 months. After all you get what you pay for.

Good Remans are a great deal over OEM

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

Remanufactured cartridges are a terrifc alternative over the very expensive originals. Unfortunaly MOST companies that are in the reman business have given remans a bad rap because of inferior product and processes. You do get what you pay for! http://www.blackhawkinc.com truly remanufactures cartridges as apposed to Drill-n-Fill. Blackhawk only uses Virgin-Once-Used original housings and laser cuts them open, completely rebuilds with brand new components and then sonically welds the casings. Blackhawk remanufactured toners have a failure rate of 1.85% while original OEM toners are at 1.5%. The savings far outways the minor failure difference. Blackhawk cartridges carry a full one year warranty. Check out warranty and reman process at http://www.blackhawkinc.com/services. Challenge your vendors on two points: #1 100% Virgin cartridges only, #2 100% rebuild using 100% new components. Ask for proof!

Virgin, Extra Virgin, 100% Virgin

In reply to Good Remans are a great deal over OEM

“…Virgin-Once-Used…” and “…100% Virgin…”

This is like “Extra Virgin Olive Oil”. Either it’s virgin, or it’s not. If it has been used once, it’s not virgin anymore. 🙂

Even if she’s been carefully remanufactured after being used gently, she’s not a virgin anymore. 🙂

P.S. Just having a little fun with the language you used. 🙂

I like the humor!

In reply to Virgin, Extra Virgin, 100% Virgin

However, you bring up a good point. “Once Used Virgin Cartridge” is a play on words, but to the industry it means the cartridge is original and has never been tampered with by another remanufacturer. This assures the original integrity of the product.

Don’t mix oil and cartridges!!

In reply to Virgin, Extra Virgin, 100% Virgin

Man, oil is one thing, cartridges are another!!
When you see a bottle of “Virgin olive oil” and one of “Extra virgin olive oil” there IS a difference (at least, in Italy there is, it’s a law). Extra virgin is put in the bottle as it comes from pressing, just after a filter. Virgin is made by refining the oil industrially. If the refining is tough, then the oil can’t have the name virgin at all.
So, for cartridges virgin can be just publicity, fori oil NOT!

Don?t

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

I?ve a bad experience with remanufactured toner cartridges and won?t recomend to use them.

Ex-remanufacturer

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

Normally the price difference will relate to the companies profit strategy. Low price High turnover, High price etc. I owned a remanufacturing company and worked on the prior. all the parts we used were from a world leader in toner cartrige spares. We gained our profit by buying large quantities at a lower price, therefore passing it on to customers increasing our turnover. Hope this helps.

I’ll try it once

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

Thanks everyone for all your comments. My main concerns were not damaging the printers, truly getting my moneys worth and NOT increasing my time resolving any problems that could occur. For me, that last item was very important.

With that said, I took one of the heavy use printers that was ready for a new toner cartridge. We put in a new HP toner and I recorded the date and number of pages printed to date. I told the department employees to alert me when it needs changing and I’ll record the date and number of pages again. We’ll try this routine an additional time and then we’ll try one of the higher priced remanufactured toners. If the numbers are okay AND the department staff is satisfied with the quality AND there are no problems, then I might go this route on our machines that are no longer under warranty.

Again, thank you all for your comments. I got some great advice here.

Yes

In reply to I’ll try it once

I’ve been running an HPLJ4 on remanufactured toner for about 13 years without any issues at all.

REFILL the originals

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

I just refill my genuine HP cartridge with fresh toner (available in the UK, don’t know about anywhere else). Instructions are supplied on how to deal with the waste overflow and I’ve had no problems so far (on my 3rd refill so far). Greatly reduced cost over new and ‘remanufactured’ cartridges.

Remanufactured Toner

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

The focus should be on the cost per page and not on the cost per cartridge. There are several different factors that go into the cost of a cartridge. The cartridge could be “refilled” if this is the case important parts such as the drum and mag roller are not replaced. This is the worst cartridge and the one that you hear the horror stories about. A company can also remanufacture the cartridge with this process the cartridge is broken down and the parts are either re-use or replace (depending the company). These are all factors an IT director can’t control or monitor.

But if you put the printers on a cost per page program now all of the risk associated with bad toner cartridges is transferred to the manufacture of that cartridge.

For example if you have an HP 4100 and the cost per page is .0126 that is all you have to worry about. If the printer prints 2,000 pages you pay $25.50 (not to mention all of the maintenance, parts, labor, maintenance kits, fusers, reporting, etc are included in the per page cost).

If you concern yourself with the operating cost of the printer (gas mileage) and not the cost of the toner (the gas) you will affectively be managing and controlling your cost.

This makes sense

In reply to Remanufactured Toner

Thank you! That’s why I ran a page count at the time we just put in a new HP cartridge. We’ll do that a couple times and then try a remanufactured cartridge.

It came down from the top that we could save money with remanufactured cartridges. I’ve put about four hours total into reserachign this project. When its all said and done, by the way,if we switch to remanufactured cartridges the savings will be about $500 a year. Not really worth it in my mind but if it makes the people upstairs happy I’ll give it a go.

Toner Cartridges, Do you get what you pay for?

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

Absolutely!!! Some remanufacturers simply drill a hole and refill the hopper with toner, the majority of the time with these cartridge you get a poor quality print. Good quality toner cartridges are made with all new parts, most importantly new drums. Once a drum has been used, it will have nicks and grooves worn into it and will transfer images of these onto the paper. In regards to the Rhinoteck brand, Rhinoteck are not manufacturers, they are resellers so as with any reseller they have to mark their product up to profit. If you would like to learn more and get great prices on any toner product please call me at 800 223-8890 ext. 217
Tonia Wingfield
Coast to Coast Computer Products

laser printer toner reset chip

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

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The remanufacturer guarantees that the cartridge will work as good as new

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

There’s always a confusion between compatible toners and remanufactured. And sad thing is some companies always try to combine both words in their product line.

A compatible toner cartridge is one made by another company (NOT your printer’s manufacturer) and not authorized by them. They are guaranteed by the company that made them to work with your printer.

A remanufactured cartridge is one that uses parts that were used in another toner cartridge that was returned (usually because there is no toner left). The remanufacturer guarantees that the cartridge will work as good as new for the life of the toner in the cartridge.

We are a staffing firm and are using remanufactured toners, everything is working good so far. You can check different providers for good Remanufactured toners. At the moment we are using this local provider since we are in California and it’s easy for us to return products if there are any problems with it. You can try to check them http://printertonershoppe.com/ and check prices too. Some offer cheaper but quality is in question too.

remanufactured toner cartridges

In reply to Remanufactured toner cartridges – worth it?

remanufactured toner cartridges is still the best option rather than buying new and branded ones

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