CrazedTechs Online - OEM vs. Third-Party Laser Toner Cartridges

I cleaned the printer using a vacuum cleaner, canned air, and an assortment of chemical cleaners (isopropanol based cleaners for use around rollers and belts and para-menthane based cleaners for use on metal parts). I started at the top of the printer and worked my way down to the high-capacity paper tray; this way, any dust and other debris that was dislodged while I was cleaning would not fall onto parts that had already been cleaned. The process was time consuming but the printer looked like new inside and out after I finished. I paid particular attention to the paper path, making sure that I removed all of the paper dust and waste toner.

With cleaning out of the way, I was ready to load the third-party toner cartridge into the printer. The first thing I noticed, after opening the box and removing the toner cartridge from its black plastic bag, was that the usual "Pull-Tab" that is present on new cartridges was missing - there were no seals or tape on this cartridge which seemed a bit odd to me. I seated the cartridge in the printer, printed a configuration page, then set the printer online. As I mentioned earlier, the page count for this printer shows 1,141,387 pages printed and, according to Hewlett Packard's specifications and the third-party cartridge manufacturer's specifications, we should see a page yield of 15,000 for this toner cartridge. So I expect to get a little over two weeks of printing from this cartridge. About a week later I got a call from one of our end-user's who told me the printer was out of toner. Hmm...

The printer was definitely out of toner since every page it was printing was coming out nearly blank. Thinking that the toner might have gotten stuck somehow, I set the printer offline, removed, shook, then reinstalled the toner cartridge and printed a configuration page. While the configuration page was readable, it didn't take but just a few more pages before the printer was spitting out nearly blank pages again. The page count now showed 1,149,699 pages; meaning the third-party toner cartridge printed 8,312 pages before running out of toner - that's just a bit shy of the 15,000 pages I was expecting. In fact, that's 6,682 pages fewer than the specifications for this cartridge. I was quite unimpressed. Perhaps it performed well in keeping the toner where it belongs; let's see...

Nope! There was more toner leaked into the printer from this one cartridge - after only 8,300 pages - than had been leaked by the previous toner cartridges used in printing over 73,700 pages. Total failure. I was hoping to demonstrate that third-party toner cartridges were at least as good as OEM cartridges but, after seeing this, it looks like you just can't beat an OEM cartridge. Not that I'm finished with the test yet; I still have to clean the printer, run an OEM cartridge in it and record its performance - so there's more to come...

The next time I met with our office supply rep, I told him how the third-party toner cartridge had performed. He arranged to have a rep from the manufacturer meet with us a few weeks later. When we met with the toner rep, she made arrangements to have the cartridge replaced and asked that I return the cartridge I had used in my test to their facility, which I did. I later was told that the toner rep claimed that the cartridge I returned was not one of theirs. So somehow - even though I opened the box, cut open the sealed plastic bag, and installed the cartridge myself - all while standing in front of the printer - I somehow managed to get the toner cartridges mixed up, even though the only other cartridges I have on hand are OEM cartridges and stored in a room at the complete opposite end of the building.

Still, she did send me a replacement cartridge to test so, after I test the OEM cartridge and when I get a chance, I'll redo the entire comparison and add the results to this review. Now, though, it's time to install the OEM toner cartridge and see how well it performs.