So, the toner cartridge in my Brother HL-1435 printer is just about gone. The low-toner lights are balefully staring at my from next to my PC.
Last time I was running out I had some stuff that I absolutely HAD to print, so I ran to the local Office Depot and bought a compatible cartridge.
Now, however, I’m not in a huge rush so I can actually look around online for the best price.
The high-yield is from Office Depot is $69.52. The best online price for a non-refurbished cartridge is about $53. Meanwhile, the lowest price for a refurbished cartridge is only $29.00!
That’s a hell of a deal. Sounds good. But…
I’ve done the ink refills in my Canon S520 and I’ve done supercheap ink tanks in my Canon S520. They print well enough, but the calibration is never perfect (or even near it) and, well, you can’t print pictures. They could out as complete and utter crap.
Obviously, I’m not printing a whole lot of photos on my black and white $150 laser printer.
But is there anything else I should worry about? Is a refurbished cartridge bad in any way? I’d prefer to keep this printer in good shape because it’s been very good to me.
It is possible that the refilled / refurbished cartridge won’t be sealed properly - this is a hazard in both toner and ink cartridges - and the result will be a big ugly mess inside the printer. In that most printer manufacturers won’t cover any harm done to the printer by a toner/ink spill, you can consider this a possible form of damage.
Not much other potential for damage to the printer.
You’re more likely to have crummy print quality, though. I tried a remanufactured cartridge in an HP LaserJet 4050 and was terribly disappointed in the print quality - blacks were blotchy and more gray than black, and there were countless globs of stray toner on either side of the page. The globs persisted after I got rid of the cartridge for about a month, leading me to believe the cartridge leaked a substantial amount of toner.
You can get good refilled carts, but the quality ranges from good as new to mediocre-poor depending on the care in prepping the cart for refilling and the quality of toner used to fill it. Also different laser printers use different printing setups with some combining the drum and toner in one package (HP) and others (Brother as an example) having separate drum and toner units.
The drum section of the HP integrated cart, after having used it’s inital toner supply is usually good for 1-2 refills before crapping out. I have no idea what the Brother specs are. Unless you’re a high capacity toner user with a reliable refill vendor, just play it safe and get the retail cart.