Seeking Recs for 3rd Party Toner Vendors

[TrvlBug]

It appears my printer is eating color toner and $300 for less than a year of toner is way too much for the little color I print.

Any recommendations for good quality 3rd party vendors? I had great success with the ink jet cartridges so I'm sure there are some good ones out there.

 

[Walt34]

I've bought several sets of these and they work well in our Dell E525w printer.

https://www.amazon.com/EPS-Replacement-Yield-YELLOW-MAGENTA/dp/B013KRJ0BY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1544570129&sr=8-1&keywords=5PK+EPS+Replacement+High+Yield+Toner+Set+for+DELL+E525W+%282+BLACK%2C+1+CYAN%2C+1+YELLOW%2C+1+MAGENTA%29

 

[Aerides]

I get 3P stuff off of amazon all the time, usually spend about $10 for a full set of color cartridges for my canon inkjet.

 

[ERD50]

Years ago, I got cheap inkjets carts from here that always seemed to work.

https://www.4inkjets.com/Canon-ImageClass-MF733Cdw-printer-ink-cartridges-toner

-ERD50

 

[OldShooter]

I buy recycled black toner cartridges on eBay without much regard for anything but price and I don't recall ever getting a bad one. I pretty much stick with HP business-class workgroup printers. 2300DN currently.

Once in a while I see an OEM cartridge discounted in a damaged box or something and I will buy those. That would be my preference for color toner cartridges since color is fussier for matching OEM.

The two or three color lasers I have bought have been workgroup lasers bought on CraigsList. I think those are less likely to be razor/razor blade ripoffs where the toner is expensive and the cartridges are small. My current color laser is a big Oki C710. Drums and toner carts are rated for over 10,000 pages. Lots of refilled carts on eBay today in the $25-30 range and quite a few OEM ones at $60-100. At less than a penny a page, I might snap for one of the OEMs but I don't think the cheap ones would be much of a risk.

 

[razztazz]

Whatever you do don't update the printer drivers or any software. I did that with my cheap HP and now it recognizes "counterfeit" cartridges and won't work with them. Don't know how it can do that but the only carts that work and authentic HP carts. Fortunately I don't print much.

 

[samclem]

I use www.TonerRefillKits.com. I got what I ordered and everything worked fine. They sell the actual toner powder the brand needs (together with any reset cams, etc so the printer will recognize the cartridge as "new"), and also the somewhat easier to use "third party cartridges."

I usually buy "real" OEM cartridges and then refill them with the powder many times (3? 5?). I don't know if that's the smartest way, but I figure at least I know that the cartridge is really new and legit before it goes into the rotation. Is cheap, works great.

 

[brucethebroker]

It appears my printer is eating color toner and $300 for less than a year of toner is way too much for the little color I print.

Any recommendations for good quality 3rd party vendors? I had great success with the ink jet cartridges so I'm sure there are some good ones out there.

I only replace the black toner (not the color one) on my printer to save money. I use black 99% of the time anyway.

I get genuine HP toners from ebay: damaged boxes, out of date, etc. Look for sellers that guarantee the toner/money back guarantee. Discounts run 20-40% of retail usually.

PS-ebay is a good market for genuine HP used/empty toner cartridges I save up 5-6 and sell them as a lot-usually $1.50-$2 each plus ship. (Once used toner carts (never been refilled) are referred to as "virgin", BTW).

 

[Jerry1]

What kind of printer do you have and what cartridge are you looking at? If you haven’t printed much, what’s going on. Are you sure you need all the colors? Maybe you just ran through one for some reason.

I’ve had my printer a couple years now and have not had to replace cartridges yet. Will be following this thread for recommendations. Generally, I’d prefer to use original equipment but for $300 for all three colors, I might shop around. My concern would be screwing up my printer. Poor print quality I could handle, but I wouldn’t want to risk machine damage.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Try selecting print preference to black and white. Then no color ink will be used.

 

[flintnational]

I order Jarbo brand cartridges from Amazon. They work great in our HP.

 

[Retiree_Having_Fun]

I evaluated what I was printing and have eliminated all be a few pages a year. Found using this app from adobe was helpful to reduce paper.

 

[Chuckanut]

I evaluated what I was printing and have eliminated all be a few pages a year. Found using this app from adobe was helpful to reduce paper.

Where do these documents end up being stored?

 

[Jerry1]

I order Jarbo brand cartridges from Amazon. They work great in our HP.

Seems like a lot of the reviews for the off brand cartridges complain of them leaking. Is this a thing? Is it very hard to clean up? Will it hurt the printer? Other than the leaking issue, I might be able to convince myself to go with an off brand. The cost difference is very significant - $60 versus $300. What, besides greed, could possibly account for such a large difference?

 

[Retiree_Having_Fun]

Where do these documents end up being stored?

Most of these apps allow storage to local storage, dropbox, email, and other cloud services.

 

[OldShooter]

I evaluated what I was printing and have eliminated all be a few pages a year. Found using this app from adobe was helpful to reduce paper.

Here's an app that helps reduce paper by letting you preview your print jobs and delete pages you don't want. It also provides for printing two-up and double-sided, so 4x reduction in paper pages. Lots of other features, too. https://fineprint.com/fp/ I have been using it for years and wouldn't be without it. Here are the stats it gives me this morning, though I don't know when the starting point for counting was:

Pages Printed: 4114
Sheets Printed: 2160
Savings: 47%

Check out the video.

 

[flintnational]

Seems like a lot of the reviews for the off brand cartridges complain of them leaking. Is this a thing? Is it very hard to clean up? Will it hurt the printer? Other than the leaking issue, I might be able to convince myself to go with an off brand. The cost difference is very significant - $60 versus $300. What, besides greed, could possibly account for such a large difference?

I have only used the Jarbo brand for our current printer. The cartridges seem to be identical to the new HP cartridges in quality and fit. We have not had any problems with leaks or any other problems. But, we use a cheap HP printer ($110?). So I don't worry about the cartridge causing damage.

 

[Jerry1]

Well, I just did a couple things. First, I checked my usage. The report was very helpful. It showed the date the cartridge was installed, which for me, is the same date as when we bought it. Good news, since April 2017, we’ve only used about 50% of the cartridges. Cyan is down 60%. Not sure why other than blue must be more prominent in my printing.

Then the interesting thing. I looked up my printer. The price of a new printer is $429. So, in about a year, I just need to keep my eye out for a deal and get a new printer, with full cartridges, for about the same price as new HP cartridges. What a waste. Very similar to cordless power tools where you can get a new drill and battery for just a little more than just the battery. It very much irks me that we incentivize disposal of perfectly good electronics/tools.

 

[ERD50]

Well, I just did a couple things. First, I checked my usage. The report was very helpful. It showed the date the cartridge was installed, which for me, is the same date as when we bought it. Good news, since April 2017, we’ve only used about 50% of the cartridges. Cyan is down 60%. Not sure why other than blue must be more prominent in my printing.

Then the interesting thing. I looked up my printer. The price of a new printer is $429. So, in about a year, I just need to keep my eye out for a deal and get a new printer, with full cartridges, for about the same price as new HP cartridges. What a waste. Very similar to cordless power tools where you can get a new drill and battery for just a little more than just the battery. It very much irks me that we incentivize disposal of perfectly good electronics/tools.

The link I gave you earlier:

https://www.4inkjets.com/Canon-ImageClass-MF733Cdw-printer-ink-cartridges-toner


$129.96 for all 4 carts ('free' shipping). I have had good luck with 3rd party toner carts. I'd give that a try before I bought a new printer and added an old one to a landfill.

Or skittish, try one for $42.94 (including shipping).

-ERD50

 

[Retiree_Having_Fun]

IF you can get your print volume down - office supply stores have print services - I think it was about $.15 per page - great when on the road.

 

[Jerry1]

The link I gave you earlier:

https://www.4inkjets.com/Canon-ImageClass-MF733Cdw-printer-ink-cartridges-toner


$129.96 for all 4 carts ('free' shipping). I have had good luck with 3rd party toner carts. I'd give that a try before I bought a new printer and added an old one to a landfill.

Or skittish, try one for $42.94 (including shipping).

-ERD50

I’m pretty sure I’ll try a 3rd party option. Just pisses me off that the company has this model (where it’s almost cheaper to get a new machine if you were to use their products). Ink jets got that way early on but I thought lasers would be different. Said another way, they discount the printer and make their money on the consumables.

 

[ERD50]

I also have my Brother (monochrome) printer set to "Toner Saver", which gives me as good a quality as I need for everyday printing, but uses quite a it less toner.

-ERD50

 

[CRLLS]

I've been using Jarbro inkjet cartridges for the last year or so. After previously using refillable cartridges in an Epson InkJet, I now have a Cannon Inkjet and have gone thru several sets of Jarbro cartridges. No problems whatsoever. I will never go back to refilling again.

I would think that they would be as good for toner cartridges too.

 

[W2R]

TBH, it's been a decade or two since I bought toner since I use a laser printer.

Last May the toner finally ran out for my Brother color laser printer, so I gave it to Good Will and bought a Brother B&W laser printer like this one, that was on sale for $50, thanks to a great tip from forum member "Another Reader" here at the ER forum. My B&W laser printer is not wireless because I don't need that, but wireless versions are available for just a few bucks more.

My B&W laser printer only came with a starter cartridge so I bought an off brand toner cartridge for it from Amazon. But I haven't yet had to install it.

To me, it's worthwhile to use a printer like this in order to avoid the hassle and expense of having to find and replace cartridges.

 

[TrvlBug]

What kind of printer do you have and what cartridge are you looking at? If you haven’t printed much, what’s going on. Are you sure you need all the colors? Maybe you just ran through one for some reason.

I’ve had my printer a couple years now and have not had to replace cartridges yet. Will be following this thread for recommendations. Generally, I’d prefer to use original equipment but for $300 for all three colors, I might shop around. My concern would be screwing up my printer. Poor print quality I could handle, but I wouldn’t want to risk machine damage.

It's the Canon Imageclass MF733 Cdw. Amazon has them for $300+/-. With the exception of b&w where I use high yield carts, the color ones run ~$100 each. All of them except the yellow are now at 0%. I love the printer, but am not paying those prices. If I screw up the printer with cheapo carts, who cares, as a new printer is the same price as the Canon color carts . Carts are supposed to provide ~2300 pages each and the counter says only ~950 color printouts since purchase, so that would include the initial cartridges.