Toner Mania

Original Toner cartridges have always been touted as being superior to the less expensive off brand toner cartridges by the printer manufacturers. That beckons an important question are they correct in this assessment about using branded printing cartridges instead of the compatible toner cartridges?

The argument is a difficult one as there really is not that much compatible toner information. The biggest tangible difference comes in the form of the price. Off brand or third party manufactured toner cartridges are much cheaper then the original manufacturers branded toner cartridges. That means little when it comes to answering the question of their difference.

To choose between manufacturers and third party toner cartridges you need to answer two questions. The first is what exactly are you printing? If you are a design studio and rely on high quality images you may need to stick with the manufacturers toner cartridges. This does not mean you cannot experiment and try out the third party brand. The advantage is cost. If you can use a third party brand with the same results you can save yourself hundreds of dollars a year.

The second important question is how often do you print? This is where the third party brand is the most appealing. If you are printing a lot you will be tempted to use the third party brand. Be aware that original toner ink does not dry out as quickly as third party toner ink does. Dried ink on the print heads can be rather expensive and time consuming to clean and could lead to actual print head damage. One way to measure the actual cost and help you make a better decision is to divide the printed pages by the toner cost which will yield a cost per printed page. Use this ratio for both original toner and third party tone and the results may surprise you. You are likely to find that since the third party brand needs to be replaced more often that your savings are negligible. The cost difference is a powerful ratio that provides tangible results in order to make a decision.

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