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 If you think you are paying too much for your genuine ink cartridges, you might be justified, as expressed in the following report from 'The Recycler': 

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 Why are printer cartridges running out much earlier than you expect. You have read that a cartridge might have a 400 page yield - yet you swear you haven't even used 100 pages when your printer says it's out of ink/toner.

There are a number of reasons for this which we can examine:

A) When you buy a new printer, a cartridge is supplied with it free of charge. But the supplied cartridge is often less than 50% of the normal yield capacity of the standard cartridge for that printer.                                                                                                                          An example of this is the Brother HL-2140 printer which is supplied with a Brother TN-2130 toner cartridge that has a standard yield of 1,500 pages. But the supplied cartridge will only have 40% of capacity. It's supplied at no extra charge to the purchase of the HL-2140 printer. So no problems, other than it doesn't last too long.                                                                                                                              When it is time to replace it, you are better off getting the Brother TN-2150 toner cartridge, which has a standard yield of up to 2,600 pages, in accordance with ISO/IEC19752. Otherwise, if you prefer to use the generic toner cartridge, you could purchase the TN2150X,    which has an ISO rated yield of 4,500 pages.

B) All printer cartridges have a rated yield that is expressed in terms of either millelitres (ml) or pages, with the later becoming the more popular. The measurement is weighted according to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), in conjunction with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). This international standard measure was set up in 2004, and has been accepted by the brand names and respectable generic brands.                                                                                                                                                 Published standards include the following:      

  1) ISO/IEC 19752 for monochrome toner cartridges (black only printers)                                                                                                         2) ISO/IEC 24711 for colour inkjet cartridges (December 2006)                                                                                                                       3) ISO/IEC 19798 for colour toner cartridges

The yields quoted in all cases achieve an average of approximately 5% coverage par page. What this means is that in practice, you will get considerably less pages printed than the stated yield.

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When you search for a printer cartridge, you want to be sure you're going to get the right one at the right price.

With all the different types of ink and toner cartridges, including sizes and colours, it might appear a bit daunting.

So what should you do?

As with anything else if you are doing an internet search via Google, Yahoo, Bing, or any of the E-commerce merchants that are offering their services/products, you need to be relevant in your search. So if you're looking for a printer cartridge, then you enter the words 'printer cartridge' into the search box - WRONG. Why wrong? Because it's not as relevant as other words you could enter. You will have all the advertisers showing you their web sites, but then once you've chosen one because it has a self placed line of rating stars, or loosely tells you that you are going to save money (even up to 75% - from what), you are then possible eliminating yourself from some 'gold nugget' opportunities. Plus you then enter that particular website, and then enter a particular cartridge that you are looking for. This all takes time, especially when you then have to go back out to enter another web site to find your same cartridge.

So why not be more relevant. Preferably enter the cartridge model straight up e.g. TN 240. You will still be confronted with plenty of choices, but at least you are in that part of the shop that sells you what you want, so you can then look at the alternatives to decide what is best for you. And you don't have to enter Brother TN240, TN 240 cartridge, or Brother TN 240 toner cartridge.

If you are not too sure what the model of your cartridge is, then enter the printer model, e.g HL3040CN. There will be an option from your search query for 'toner' which if you click on will lead you to the TN 240 cartridge.

Remember though that when you are about to select your cartridge, check to make sure that the printer model shown with that cartridge is the one you have. 

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 Recently I was asked the question, "Which Brother TN240BK lasts longer, the genuine or the compatible?"

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When you go to buy a new printer for business purposes, or for frequent printing from home (home/office), what toner cartridge yield size should you consider?

Your first thought will probably be 'the bigger the yield, the more pages I can print before having to buy another toner cartridge'. And for the most part, that is true. But big is not necessarily beautiful.

Often, when you look at the printers that use higher yield cartridges, you will find that they also have faster print speeds. Even better you say. Sure, if you have money to burn.

 In the case of businesses that have a high demand for printing, such as professional printers or mail out organisations, then you will definitely get a return from your investment by by printers that use high yield with fast output.

But what is you are a business that say only has a high demand for printing at the end of the month (statements say), then you will have an expensive piece of equipment doing very little to earn its keep for the rest of the month. So what if the printer takes 4 hours rather than 1 hour to do an end-of month run. 

For instance you can buy a Lexmark X854e MFP for ONLY $17,000 with a monthly duty cycle (maximum recommended monthly usage) of 300,000 impressions. It has an output speed of 55 pages per minute and can hold 5,100 sheets. For many businesses this would be akin to using an elephant gun for shooting rats. The Lexmark cartridge for this number cruncher is the X850 at an approx. cost of $200 each, but with a massive yield of 30,000 pages, or $0.06c each page -good value if you can afford the machine.

For a majority of users, the Brother HL-4570CDW at $475 would prove attractive usage wise, with an output of 30 pages per minute, with a monthly duty cycle of 60,000 pages, and a holding capacity of 250 sheets. It reviews very highly. It is an ideal printer if you have a need of printing dozens of pages a day, printing at 28 pages per minute for both black & colour. The laser toner printer cartridge for the Brother HL-4570CDW is the TN340BK with a 2,500 page yield, at approx. $80 per cartridge, or the TN340BK compatible, with a 4,000 page yield at $64 per cartridge..

So as you can see from the two different printers, its really usage which in turn effects price (for both the printer and the cartidge), that is the signifacent determiner as to what you get.

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 When making a choice of what printer to use - do you look closely at the cost/performance of the printer cartridges? Because if you don't, you should. 

When people choose a cartridge, they often will go to the reviews, and fair enough too. It is a good way to start your investigation, after you have decided to what purpose you want to put a printer. Speed of print output, quality, multi-functional usage or mono usage - these factors all come into the equation, not to mention the reviewers verdict e.g. 'the best printer of its type since sliced bread'.

But before you grab for your credit card, it is well worth looking into just what quantity of print you are going to get for your dollar. For instance, a toner cartridge that might appear very expensive because it costs four times the price of an ink cartridge. If you do the maths however, by looking at the yield of each type of cartridge, you might be surprised when you discover that the toner will print say eight times the quantity of the ink cartridge.

If you are only printing 5 to 10 pages a  week, then this is even then probably not a significent factor in your purchasing decision. But if you have a high print requirement, then the cost of printer cartridges can prove very expensive with time. A saving in the cost of a printer in the short term could prove very expensive in the longer term.

There are today inkjet cartridges being manufactured that do have high yields, with prices that are reasonable. Toner cartridge printers only really come into their own when your print volumes reach commercial levels

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 There is real concern today for the environmental impact caused from the dumping by home users and businesses of Inkjet and toner printer cartridges without any thought given to how the toxic residue in the cartridges can effect us.

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Are you confused with all those words describing printer cartridges, and how important are they? I know I was.

You have recently bought your first printer and it is time to get another print cartridge so you look up the internet, to be confused with a plethora of expressions that leave you absolutely baffled. It can make it hard for you to make the right decision as to what to get.

We will define some of the expressions used here to help you understand what they mean:

Compatible/Genuine/Refill/Remanufactured: You can have all of these types of alternative cartridges even though they apply to the one printer.For a fuller description of these types of cartridges, click here.

Drum Cartridge: The drum cartridge can also be called the drum unit or drum roller.

It is used with toner cartridges which generally fit inside the outer drum cartridge. Whereas the toner (laser) cartridge holds the powder , the purpose of the drum cartridge is to distribute the powder in image /text form onto the paper. When the quality of your printing is deteriorating it is usually the drum cartridge that needs replacing, normally after every 3 to 4 toner cartridges 

Laser Cartridge:  A laser cartridge is really a cartridge that uses toner powder. It is not the cartridge itself that is laser but the printer that uses a laser ray to focus a beam of magnetic charged light to transfer images and text onto the paper. The expression laser cartridge really means a toner cartridge that disperses powder onto the electronical charged paper as dictated by the laser beam.

Mono: The printer only uses black cartridges - it does not have colours. More often used in an office environment for text printing, usually at higher speeds.

OEM Cartridge: Means Original Equipment Manufacturer, and refers to the model code for the cartridge as supplied by the original manufacturer. For example Brother TN2130....TN2130 is the OEM as supplied by Brother.

Toner Cartridge: refer to Laser Cartridge above.

Yield: This is the amount of available toner or ink that determines what quantity of print you will achieve. It will normally be measured in millilitres or pages that can be printed. The term is often not a good measure in that there are many variables that effect yield, including the efficiency of any particular printer, the density of print (image/text) to the page, the mix of black, cyan, magenta, & yellow etc. There is now an International standards organisation accepted measurement that determines a page as approx. 5% of an A4 size sheet in text printing. So when a user sees yield 5,000 pages, in fact it might be more like. 1,000 pages achieved.

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For many people, this is a perplexing question as there are so many choices out there.

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Samsung have recently released an article putting down remanufactured cartridges. Surprise, surprise! 

 The article by Samsung, linked here states how the remanufactured cartridges 'can' result in printouts marred by streaks, splotches etc, and that they 'may potentially' shorten the life of the printer.

That reads to me like 'if your aunt didn't have breasts she 'may/can be your uncle'. The paragraph is designed to create fear.

What they fail to add is that if a 'fake', as Samsung calls them, does produce inferior results, their manufacturing won't last long, market forces will see to that!

As for their remark about potentially shortening the printer's life, the money saved from using remanufactured cartridges will more than compensate for a replacement printer, preferably with a brand that doesn't go out of its way as much as Samsung to eliminate remanufactured printer cartridges and thereby help create an environment unfriendly to sustainability.

The article by Samsung then goes on to state that a remanufactured cartridge “usually shows signs of physical damage on the outer plastic case...........” That's not my understanding of remanufactured cartridges; refills possibly. The international remanufactured cartridge suppliers I'm aware of look in new condition, because they are quality checked before reprocessing, and where possible components that have signs of wearing are replaced.

Samsung, along with other brand Original Equipment Manufacturers, should realise that if they hadn't used the printer cartridge to maximise prices in the first place, then entry to the market of replica products would have been more difficult.

Yesterday morning I received my monthly newsagent invoice wrapped around my delivered newspaper.

There was a request on the invoice for me to agree to receiving the statement notice via email in future. I wonder if the CEO for Samsung might also have received a similar request from his newsagent? And if so, would it occur to him that high printing costs, as well as the environmental message which appeared on my invoice, might be partially his responsibility?

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How important is it to you for your grandchildren to see all the details in the photographs you print today?

We all know how important photos are to us and our family. If someone’s house is on fire in the middle of the night, and they only have moments to rescue their most important items, what gets saved – the family photo album. After all, it is an extension of our lives.

Although many of our images are stalled digitally (and make sure you have adequate back up in the form of memory sticks or removable hard disk drives which you update frequently), we print our best photos because they are easier to get (more accessible) when dear old aunty Nellie comes visiting. It can also get a bit crowded around a computer when there are also her 6 children with her (her hubby has gone fishing).

First thing to do to improve photo lifetime is to get the most suitable printer.

For the part time camera enthusiast, who often use their mobile phone for photography, then the ink-jet printer is probably the best way to go.

Printers that use additional printer cartridges beyond the Black, Cyan, Magenta, & Yellow, such as photo black, light cyan light ,magenta light etc are designed to provide more detail to the photo.

Canon printers such as the MP750, 760, IP3000, IP5000, etc that use the BCI6 inkjets . or the Canon MP500, 510, IP3300, 4200, etc which use the PGI5, CLI8 colours are photo orientated.

HP also manufacture the very highly reviewed Photosmart C310A, which use the HP No.564XL cartridges

If high photo printing quality is a serious portion of your print requirement then buy a Dye Sublimation Printer. They are printers that are used for photographic applications & graphic arts that are excellent at printing the finer detail. You should also get high quality paper which allows multiple layers of dye to fuse to the paper, making the prints resistant to water and dirt.

Second thing to get is high quality print paper of a glossy nature. Manufacturers will advise of recommended paper or provide gloss paper of a high standard such as  HP Q8008A Advanced Glossy Photo Paper 60Sheets - 10X15cm borderless.

Two other important considerations for longativity of photos:

Maintain your printer such as vacuuming the internal areas for dust & regularly running it.

Keep you albums in a protected area such as the wine cellar, but don’t look at photos whilst imbibing – photos & red wine don’t go well together 

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 When the other OEM printer cartridge suppliers (Brother, Canon, Epson, Xerox et al) are remaining constant with their prices, HP's are climbing. Why?\

We have noticed an increase, often substantial, in the price of HP printer cartridges. One wholesaler has increased the price of all HP printer cartridges by placing an $8 levy on any cartridge order of less than $50.00.  Cartridges such as the HP Q5949X, C312A, CC530AA, CE250X, CE320A, and the C9730A but to name a few, have increased from 14% to 16% since the end of 2011. 

Why would HP choose to factor in these price increases when their competitors are holding steady on prices, particularly with the increase in demand from compatible and re-manufactured printer cartridges?

HP has recently announced 27,000 job cuts (8% of its international workforce) and are taking a US$8 billion charge. What does this mean to printer cartridge users?

I can't see how HP would advantage from this. Possibly in the short term users are stuck with their printer, so therefore improved short term profits; but surely it can't help them when users go to replace their printers, or relate to their friends/collegues, or it comes to adverse publicity.

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Drum units are very sensitive, so clean at your own risk.

Like all of us, our drum unit has a definite life expectancy period. Ours is approx. 70 to 80 years. A drum cartridge is usually 3 to 4 printer cartridges lives. Simply, like us, it wears out.

Because they are expensive to replace, relative to the cost of the toner cartridge, you might want to attempt to clean the drum, remembering that toner powder is a toxic substance (as in poison), until it is transferred to paper, and should be handled with care.

If your drum is suffering from any of the following symptoms, then either replace it or clean it:

·         Smudges or marks on paper

·         Faded text

·         Paper jam

·         Blank spaces in image (text or picture)

·         Lumps of powder on the drum roller.

Importantly, don’t attempt to clean it unless you accept that you might damage it  i.e. it is not usable in its present state.

Before you start, check to see if your user guide advises you of the correct procedure, and follow that if so. Otherwise do the following procedure.

Use a pair of throw away rubber gloves; surgical or washing gloves are fine. Place a large sheet of plastic onto a flat surface, or newspaper, as this can be a messy job.

Open the printer and remove the toner cartridge. Inspect the drum for obvious damage. If it's damaged, don't try to clean it; replace it. Place the drum roller on the plastic/newspaper. Remove any large spots of toner on the drum with tweezers or pliers. Be careful not to scratch the surface. Dip a cotton swab in a rubbing alcohol. Gently swipe any visible soiling.
If the entire drum looks dirty, then put a couple of drops of alcohol on a soft, lint-free cloth and carefully wipe the drum. Check the other parts for toner residue while you have the cartridge out. Carefully clean them.

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And when should I replace it?

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When did the InkJet printer first come into existence?

The Inkjet printer produces a digital image by spraying droplets on demand onto paper, and are the most commonly used printer today, largely due to their low entry cost which has found favour with the home and small office user.

The first  recording device, using electrostatic forces, was invented by William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin, in 1858. This was the Siphon recorder. The apparatus was used for automatic recordings of telegraph messages and was patented in 1867

 The first Inkjet printing device was patented by Siemens  in 1951, but not much happened until 1977 when Siemens introduced the PT-80 serial character printer. This printer ejected ink droplets on as it was needed to print, as opposed to continuous inkjet technology that IBM had developed earlier in the 1970’s., which was far more complex , and far more expensive.

Also about then Canon introduced bubble jet printer technology, a drop on demand inkjet printing method where ink drops were ejected from the nozzle by the fast growth of an ink vapour bubble on the top surface of a small heater. HP did likewise and coined the name ‘thermal inkjet’.

Today, the technology used for inkjet & bubblejet printers is the serial printing process, where the printer uses print heads with nozzles arranged in vertical columns – a process which is the same as is used in dot matrix printers.

The dot matrix printers  ( both serial & line dot matrix printers) are the most popular today owing to the fact that they are the least cost per page for print usage when compared to other inkjet printers.

So don’t just sit there -  go and use your inkjet printer to print this out.

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Why should you buy a toner printer, now that it is time to replace your faithful old inkjet?

Well there are a number of reasons to look at the toner/laser option.

Up until recently, toner printers were too expensive for the small business and home user, by a big margin, so they wern't in the race. But things have changed. For example the HP LaserJet Pro P1102 is selling at around A$130 to $150. Sure, it's only a mono (black) printer, but there are colour lasers, as per this review. There is the Dell 2150cdn. at approx. $350. 

You might say though that Inkjet printers are so much cheaper, some brand models selling at $50 to $85 each. This is because the manufacturers profits are made from the sale of the ink cartridges

And then there is the improved printer speeds that laser printers give you. The former prints at a rated speed of 19 pages per minute (ppm), & the colour at 23ppm. These speeds are very fast when compared to inkjet printers which are at around 12 ppm , according to a review of Inkjet printers by PCWorld . Although there is the Brother DCP-J525W Inkjet Multifunction at 26ppm for colour & 33ppm for black - but it's output print quality does not rate well.

And print quality, particularly for text, is where toner usually lauds it over ink. However, there are exceptions such as photo prints. Inkjets still do a superior job than tonerss of blending colours smoothly. Some have special photo inks that help create subtler shadings and contours, and of course, special photo paper garners the best results. You don't have to be a photo enthusiast or a snap-happy family to want this level of quality. Visually oriented businesses such as real estate and design, or any business that wants to create photo-heavy promotional materials, should also consider an inkjet. But look carefully at inkjet printers that specialize in this area.

Aside from speed and text print quality, probably the  most significant benefit from buying a laser printer is the cost of printing. The cost per page of black toner is between 3 cents and 7 cents per page, whereas the cost of inkjet is between 7 cents and 16 cents per page. Internationally, the cost of bulk ink is increasing, which doesn't auger well for inkjet cartridge prices into the future.

And finally, toner cartidges have a much better storage life, often as long or longer than the life of the printer, wheras inkjets, if in ideal conditions, cn be a problem within two years with the ink congealing. 

If your budget is low in being able to afford the initial capital cost of a printer, and your printing demands are low, but regular, or you require high quality photo prints, then certainly buy an inkjet printer, otherwise I'd recommend a laser printer for either your house or small business.

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Do you make sure you’re getting the correct cartridge when you place your order.

It seems people ordering printer cartridges get it wrong more often than you’d think. 

The main reason this occurs lies largely at the feet of the OEM (original equipment manufacturer). They often produce a cartridge with a model number that will be close to identical to a printer model number, but that is not designed to be used by that printer.

Brother is one manufacturer that does this. Many users of the HL2130 (a popular printer from the Brother stable), especially when they are first ordering a replacement printer, see the TN2130 printer cartridge and understandably think that’s the cartridge to buy. But no, the TN2130 is used in the HL2140 (not the HL2130).

The TN2130 is actually the cartridge supplied by Brother for the HL2140 and other printers which is included in the price. It is approx 40% volume yield to the TN2150 (standard-2,600 pages), and the TN2150X, the high yield cartridge. The latter two are the ones you should be ordering for the Brother HL2140.

Oh, the HL2130 in fact uses the Brother TN2030 printer cartridge.

Another example of confusing printer cartridges with different printers, is by Kyocera. Their printer the FS-C5100DN is only a single character different to the Kyocera FS-C5200DN. That alone can create confusion when ordering printer cartridges, but there’s more.

The FS-C5100DN uses the TK-544 black, cyan, magenta, & yellow cartridges, as opposed to the TK-554 black, cyan, magenta, & yellow cartridges used by the FS-C5200DN printer.

This creates problems; especially when the cartridges are so similar in shape that you don’t really notice the difference when you go to install them. But the printer certainly does!

Once you have opened the printer cartridge wrapping, your opportunity to claim a refund/replacement has flown out the window, and that can be expensive.

How do you eliminate the problem? When ordering your printer cartridge, ALWAYS carefully check that the ‘used with printers’ section contains the printer you use. Or order the cartridge by the printer model. If you then see alternative cartridges, they are  for genuine, compatible or remanufactured cartridges; or  for different yield capacities or marketing e.g. twin packs. 

But at least you know one thing – they will all work for your printer.

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Who remembers the millennium bug?

There was world wide spread fear in 1999 that because computer systems in the 1900’s hadn’t allowed for a change in the millennium, whereby  a shortened  date of say  28.04.86 (04.28.86) was for April 1986, whereas after 31.12.99 (12.31.99), the next date was 01.01.00, and that computers around the world would go into free-fall.

Hardly anybody caught an aeroplane during  that time of millennium change-over for fear the planes’ computers would send it into free fall. Well the planes kept flying, and businesses kept operating.

What’s this got to do with the paperless society you say? Well, a lot.

The single major barrier against a paperless office is the fear of something going wrong with your computer system, and the business losing vital data. But there’s back-up to protect against that, you say. Sure, but everyone knows of a story where XYZ’s backup failed to work when it was desperately needed, for whatever reason.

Printed paper also offers advantages in other areas that I believe make a mockery of the term “paperless office”.

For example, you have a major presentation you are putting to a committee you need to convince. It is highly unlikely you are going to provide everyone with an electronic tablet to go through the benefits your system can provide them. You want something they can scribble notes onto, that they can put into their briefcase providing easy access to it when they wish to refer to it again (portability).

Paperless offices do run the risk of viruses, hackers, identity theft, and convenience issues (do you always carry a computer?).

And then there is the expression... “please sign on  the dotted line” – show me a computer that can do that.

The future will see less reliance on printed paper, but not an obsolescence of it. Printers and printer cartridges are here to stay.

But there is good news for the environmentalists. There will be less demand on forest trees for paper (also tree plantations are increasing in volume today), and  printer cartridge users are returning spent cartridges to recycling bins, placing less demand on land fills.

Have your say in the comments section below as to where you see the future of paper usage going.

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 Beware of dubious compatible printer cartridge offers on the internet

Fortunately, most internet suppliers of printer cartridges offer reasonable quality printer cartridges to the public. Physically looking at a cartridge, or looking at an (web page) image of one will not help you in determining if you are getting a reliable product.

There are a number of ways to minimize the risk of buying a dud cartridge:

1.    Be wary of buying compatible cartridges on Ebay or Amazon or similar marketing sites, especially if the prices are too good to be true; they usually are. You don’t know it your purchases are legit until you receive them.

2.    Look for a guarantee with the purchase

3.    Sites that also sell genuine cartridges as well as compatible ones will normally prove reliable.

4.    Look up the ‘about’ section of a supplier, and see if they also offer an address.

5.    If a supplier offers a large range of product, it usually means that they have researched the quality of their stock.

6.    Check to see if the supplier offers back-up support. If they are dodgy then why would they want to support their product.

7.    Do a Google/Yahoo etc. search of the business you are considering buying from. This will give you a feel for their reliability.

There are brands of compatible cartridges, though acceptable, are not as good a quality as the genuine. If you find this situation occurring to you, ask the supplier what brand it is, and when you need to order next time, contact an alternative supplier and ask what brand (s) they use; because there are also brands that are of good quality.

Two examples of highly regarded brands of compatible printers are G&G™ and Focus®.

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Compatible cartridges might not always be compatible with other compatible cartridges.

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What printer is the least cost system for me, including printer cartridge usage, over three years?

We are looking at a situation such as a small office or a large family, with usage of say 300 to 500 pages per month (average 400). Say 300 pages of black & 100 pages of colours

We are talking low entry cost, including colour , and Multi function i.e. copies, scans, and of course, prints from memory.

For comparison purposes we have selected an inkjet printer and toner printer from the same brand, Brother. Both printers have rated well in reviews.

The inkjet is the MFC-J430W, with a rated speed of 4.3 pages per minute, and an average cost of approx $100.00. Genuine print cartridges (Brother LC40BK cost approx. $25.00 each, and colours $17.00 each). Their yield is approx. 300 pages, black, or each colour.

The toner printer is the DCP-9010CN, printing at 16 pages per minute, and has a cost of approx. $350.00. Genuine toner cartridges cost approx. $80 each and  the colours $75 each. The black has a yield of 2,200 pages and the colours 1,400 pages each.

Based on a three year life period, the toner printer is a better return for your investment than the inkjet at $940.40 compared to $1,201.60.

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Will the manufacturers of original cartridges succeed in their competition to discredit the remanufactured cartridge?

 Or will bodies such as the International Imaging Technology Council (IITC)  win the day?

As reported by Tricia Judge, executive director of IITC, the Texas Department of Transportation will purchase 40,000 remanufactured toner cartridges over the next two years and save 50% of the OEM purchase price. After 15 years as an industry, remanufacturers can compete on quality and price," Judge says. Not only do the remanufactured cartidges save money, they are also environmentally friendly.

On the other hand, printer makers implant smart chips in cartridges that can render remanufactured cartridges incompatible with the printer. Typically,  smart chips monitor the ink supply in a cartridge and stop the printer when the ink runs dry. But some printers will not work until a new OEM cartridge with the appropriate smart chip is installed. In some cases remanufacturers cannot install a new chip in recycled cartridges, and that results in unusable recycled consumables. This is an indication of the determination of the OEM brands getting more aggressive with smart chips, and they're basically giving away $100 printers, which has created a need to protect [the consumables] marketplace."

Many users swear by remanufactured inkjet cartridges and say that they can't ascertain differences in print quality over more costly OEM products. 

Others, particularly those who insist on the highest-quality output for digital photographs, maintain that cartridges from the printer vendors are necessary for picture perfection.

One problem that is occurring with remanufactured cartridges, is that as demand is increasing for them, supply is not keeping up. According to ABC Print Supplies, the back ordering for stock of certain types of remanufactureds is drawing out, and that you should take this into account by placing your order even though you have enough usage for the foreseeable future.

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Are the manufacturers of compatible printer cartridges increasing their competitiveness by increasing their print yields?

Genuine brand makers of printer cartridges (OEMs) have upped the ante by imposing copyright laws on compatible printer cartridges and forcing the latter to alter the shape of their products by 35%+.

But rather than this been an advantage to the genuine Inkjets and toners, this move could prove to be in fact detrimental to them.

The compatible makers are addressing this issue by making their carrtridges with larger storage tanks, and I’m not just talking marginally; I’m talking massively.

A new compatible Inkjet cartridge from G & G^tm , the LC40B Black Ink used in the Brother DCP J525W, J725DW, J925DW; MFC J430W, J432W, J625DW, J825DW printer models, has a rated yield of 1,400 pages. The genuine cartridge has a rated yield of 300 pages. That’s a 466% increase.

That wouldn’t mean much if the compatible was 466% more expensive than the genuine

But not so. According to a number of internet retailers (4), the average price of the genuine is A$26.80 plus delivery. The price for the compatible is A$12.90 plus delivery.

Other examples include the Brother TN2130/TN2150 for the DCP 7040; HL 2140, 2142, 2150N, 2170W, 7340, 7440, 7840W printers, with the genuine costing around A$58.00 for the TN2130 (1,500 pages yield), and A$78.00 for the TN 2150 (2,600) pages. The compatible TN2150X from G & G^tm is priced at A$35.90 for 4,500 pages.

Then there is the Brother LC73XBK, with 600 page yield for the genuine cartridge  compared to 1,400 pages for the compatible.

Mnay of the cartridge yields between compatible & genuine are the same, but a trend is emerging. One in which the buyer is the winner.

The genuine printer manufacturers  just might have created a massive problem for themselves into the future, so expect to see significant changes in future yields from them.

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