Toner Cartridges: Your Questions Answered

If you currently own or are planning to purchase a laser printer, then unfortunately toner is something you need to get to grips with. Toner cartridges are an essential element of any laser printer and indeed without one your printer simply won't print! If you want to stay on top of your printing game, you need to know the ins and outs of toner to really make the most out of your printer. We regularly get tweeted, emailed and facebooked all manner of questions about toner cartridges, so we thought we'd put together this handy FAQ blog post to try and answer all of the most common toner questions in one place. 

Toner Cartridge FAQs 

1. Are toner cartridges expensive?

To put it simply - yes, they tend to be. Toner is a powder form of ink, rather than the traditional gloopy ink we're used to with printers. A standard toner cartridge is more expensive than a standard ink cartridge, however there are a variety of compatible toner cartridges for most printer models which are significantly cheaper than manufacturer branded toner cartridges. Of course, the more you print the more you'll have to replace your toner - so indeed it depends entirely on how often you print and whether you're opting for manufacturer or quality alternative toner cartridges. 

2. How long does a toner cartridge last? 

This depends on how often you print, the type of printing you're doing (if you're printing high-quality images obviously more toner will be used) and whether or not you correctly installed and cleaned your cartridges when you first purchased them. You should regularly schedule cleaning courses for your toner to keep it on top of its game. A standard toner cartridge should last you a couple of months though!

3. How does the quality of a toner cartridge compare to that of a standard ink cartridge?

A toner cartridge should produce documents and pictures of a much higher standard than an ink cartridge. 

4. Is a genuine manufacturer toner better than a compatible alternative toner cartridge?

Technically speaking yes. Printers are designed to have compatible toner cartridges from the same manufacturer. However, in our experience we have found our range of carefully selected high-quality alternative toner cartridges produce documents and images of equal standard to genuine manufacturer toner, without the cost!

5. What do I do with my empty toner cartridge?

Recycle it! There are a number of companies who will do this for you and collect your toner cartridges for free - some will even pay money for the privilege!