Why buy a premium re-manfactured toner cartridge from us?
If you purchase premium re-manufactured toner cartridges from us, you can expect to enjoy excellent print quality and an OEM equivalent page yield without incurring expensive repair costs and prejudicing the service life of your printer. Our premium re-manufactured cartridges come with a full replacement guarantee (see conditions below). Our premium cartridges can be described as “graphics quality” cartridges i.e. they are suitable for printing half-tones, drawings and photographs – not just plain text. Our prices for premium remanufactured cartridges to suit commercial-duty laser printers are usually less than half the cost of a genuine cartridge of the same capacity for the same printer model.
Our remanufactured toner cartridges are not Lexmark or HP products although they may contain many components originally manufactured by Lexmark or HP, as appropriate. We do not re-manufacture our own cartridges: we have them made to our strict quality standards by our carefully chosen supplier. The company does special production runs specifically to meet our purchase orders.
If you are buying new, genuine toner cartridges, it makes sense to shop around and buy them at the cheapest possible price. This strategy is effective because they are a standardised product produced by one manufacturer. However, if you choose to buy remanufactured toner cartridges, it makes no sense at all to buy the cheapest cartridges available. It’s a bit like buying a second-hand car: there is no use buying a cheap one and having to spend a fortune on repairs. On the other hand, if you choose carefully, you will find a product at a reasonable price that will meet all of your requirements.
There are many poor quality cartridges on the market made by many different re-manufacturers and sold at cheap prices. However, you will have to spend far more money on repairing your printers than you will save in buying cheap cartridges. You need to choose on the basis of consistent quality and reliability. We have found that many re-manufacturers can produce a good quality toner cartridge but very few of them can do so consistently. We have also found that, because of cost/price pressures, very few re-manufacturers are prepared to use only quality components in their regular production runs and few of them have tight quality control systems in place.
The toner cartridge plays a major role in determining the print quality produced by a laser printer. It also plays a major role in ensuring that the printer gives trouble free operation right up to the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance interval. For many commercial duty printers that we sell, the major maintenance interval is set at 250,000 to 300,000 pages. Many of the printers that we buy as end-of-lease products require a major service long before the recommended maintenance interval because they have been damaged by leaking toner cartridges.
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Low price - low quality
Many users are attracted by the low price of some remanufactured toner cartridges. Because of price constraints, these cartridges are usually of poor quality and often leak toner. It can be the result of empty cartridges being recycled too many times; empty cartridges not being inspected carefully for damage; unwillingness to replace worn parts because of costs; not sufficient care being taken in the re-assembly of the product; lack of technical expertise on the part of the staff involved; insufficient testing of the finished product; and poor packaging and rough handling by couriers. Some of these cartridges may initially produce reasonable quality prints but the quality will deteriorate quickly if the re-manufacturer has not installed a new photo-conductor drum. You may be left with a half-full cartridge that can no longer be used because the original drum has worn out and the print quality is no longer acceptable.
Damage caused by leaking cartridges
Most users only become concerned about leaking cartridges when the toner is dispersed around the inside of the printer, collects on the paper as it passes through the printer and produces dirty marks on the printed output. However, leaking toner cartridges have far more serious and expensive consequences. The transfer roller is situated directly below the cartridge and it may become embedded with leaking toner. A new one is around $100. The excess toner is dragged into the fuser as the paper flows through the printer. It coats the thermistor (heat sensor) in the fuser: it acts like an insulating blanket and causes the thermistor to read the wrong temperature. The fuser overheats: the Bakelite fuser gears disintegrate; the Teflon coating on the aluminium hot roller is damaged; the silicon rubber pressure roller becomes deformed and wrinkled; and the thermistor is usually destroyed. In all, the fuser will need to be replaced and this will cost around $250 to $350 for an exchange unit, depending on the model. In this situation, we usually give the user the option of buying a rebuilt exchange unit at a fixed price or paying $50 labour plus parts to rebuild their own fuser.
In many Lexmark commercial-duty printers, leaking toner can also fall onto the high tension power supply that is located directly under the toner cartridge. The high tension power supply is partly protected by a plastic cover but leaking toner can often fall onto this circuit board. The toner can cause the board to short-out and this will also cost around $300 for a second-hand board replacement or more than $700 for a new board.
In short, poor quality cartridges produce poor quality prints and they might not produce anywhere near the expected page yield. They can also seriously damage the printer. The damage can be done in a period of a few days or it may take a month depending on the magnitude of the leak and the number of pages printed. We see the affects of this when we are asked to repair printers. This is why we go to great lengths to supply good quality cartridges and we monitor the quality of our cartridges very closely.
You will notice that our guarantee for refurbished laser printers requires that the user purchase toner cartridges from us for the duration of the warranty period. This may sound like a restricted trade practice but it is there to ensure that we do not have to spend lots of money replacing printers that are damaged by leaking cartridges. Since most commercial duty printers that we sell have large capacity toner cartridges, the cartridge we supply with the printer will usually last for the duration of the warranty period. If the printer is damaged by one of our cartridges, we have to accept responsibility for that.
Production costs
Obviously, it costs more to produce a good quality cartridge. One can buy a new photo-conductor drum for $10 or one for $20. One might not replace the drum at all and hope that it will last another cycle – it usually does not. One might remanufacture empty toner cartridges that have been used many times before or one might only use empty original cartridges that have not been re-cycled previously. The so-called virgin empty cartridges cost more than cartridges that have previously been recycled. One might not replace the developer roller and hope that the user will not try to print any half-tones. One might buy cheap toner and use less of it in each cartridge. One might employ inexperienced people and hope that they will do a good job or one might employ staff with the necessary skills and training to re-manufacture a cartridge properly.
We have chosen our supplier because they can meet our requirements for a reliable supply of consistent quality cartridges. They are aware of our quality expectations and they usually arrange special production runs to meet our purchase orders. Obviously, a good quality product costs more to produce and this is reflected in our costs and in our own selling prices. Even with all these arrangements, we reject some of the cartridges and we ask for them to be replaced.
You may buy one of our premium cartridges as one component of your printer purchase. In this situation, we will send the cartridge packed inside the printer as our experience shows that this is the safest way to send it. Lexmark follows this procedure with most of its new printers. We will install the cartridge in the printer and test it before delivery. As we provide up to 12 months warranty on all our commercial duty laser printers, we want to ensure that the print quality is excellent and the printer gives trouble free service. If you read our warranty carefully, you will see that we provide some very specific and quite stringent guarantees as to print quality and toner leakage. It costs money to produce refurbished printers and cartridges to meet this standard and to offer such a guarantee. We have to include this as a component in our selling price.
Packaging and distribution
If you are intending to have your cartridges delivered by courier, the quality of the packaging is also very important. Most couriers tend to throw them around, regardless of warnings placed on the box such as ”Fragile” or “Do Not Drop” or “This Way Up”. Toner cartridges, including genuine products, are easily damaged by being dropped or by significant jarring. This is one cause of leaking toner cartridges. To minimize the risk of damage, our supplier packs all of our cartridges in expanded foam molded to suit the shape of the cartridge and the box. If you have more than one printer, order several cartridges at a time: this will result in a larger parcel that is less likely to thrown around by couriers. It also reduces your freight costs.
