Refilling toner cartridges and a few questions on laser printers

[llmercll]

Hello! I need to buy some new ink for my epson inkjet (which goes through it like crazy) and I'm really fed up with constantly purchasing refills.

So I'm thinking of getting a laser printer and trashing the epson, since I only print black and white, and understand that toner carts last much longer than ink. The printer I'm looking at is a Brother HL-2240, which comes with a starter cartridge that prints close to 700 pages.

While looking on ebay for third party toner (like I always do for ink) I mostly found refill bottles and "reset" gears, rather than new toner carts. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with these and if they actually work well.

I'm also a bit disturbed by the "drum" aspect to laser printers. Replacements cost more than the printer itself and they are rated at 12,000 pages, but I'm sure in practice are considerably less. I probably haven't even printed close to 12,000 pages in my life, but it would be upsetting if a year in I find my drum has "worn out". Is it common for them to do that or should they actually last a long time, with light use?

thanks a lot!

 

[Gigantopithecus]

While looking on ebay for third party toner (like I always do for ink) I mostly found refill bottles and "reset" gears, rather than new toner carts. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with these and if they actually work well.

It's really hit and miss. Some sellers offer very solid quality refill kits and reman'd carts, others sell total junk. Usually what I do is buy a genuine OEM and refill it two or three times before the print quality degrades too much. Then I'll buy another genuine OEM.

I'm also a bit disturbed by the "drum" aspect to laser printers. Replacements cost more than the printer itself and they are rated at 12,000 pages, but I'm sure in practice are considerably less. I probably haven't even printed close to 12,000 pages in my life, but it would be upsetting if a year in I find my drum has "worn out". Is it common for them to do that or should they actually last a long time, with light use?

I've had a Samsung ML-2010, a low-end home laser printer like the Brother you're looking at, since 2005/6. I've gone through at least a dozen toner cartridges and it's still going strong. I don't think you need to be overly concerned with wearing out the drum.

 

[mfenn]

I have a Brother HL-2140 and it works great for black and white printing. One trick with the Brother cartridges is that they use an optical system to detect when toner is low. It'll stop printing well before the toner is truly empty. If you simply tape over the clear parts of the cartridge (it's really obvious when you look at it), you can easily double the lifetime of the cartridge.

 

[bryanl]

Why is some toner grey-blue, rather than black, and where can I get black for for a Samsung ML-2510?