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The Final Word

After cleaning the printer and running a second OEM toner cartridge in it, the final results are in. The OEM cartridge printed 17,642 pages; exceeding the manufacturer's specifications and outperforming the third party toner cartridge. The print is also darker and sharper - eliminating the complaints about print quality I had received when running the third-party toner cartridge. I do have to point out one negative issue with this cartridge, there is a very small amount of toner at the left edge of the paper path. My instinct tells me that, because these are small flakes of toner and not powder, they most likely are the remnants from the previous toner cartridge's leaked toner that stuck to a gear or roller and has since fallen off. To be fair, though, I will attribute them to the OEM cartridge. I would consider this to be an insignificant amount of leaked toner and not an amount that would cause premature wear on the printer.

Based on what I have observed while running this comparison, I would say that OEM cartridges are worth the extra cost given that third-party cartridges have a tendency to leak significant amounts of toner into the working parts of a printer. Since a service call to have a printer repaired can cost serveral hundred dollars, any savings you might realize by using third-party toner cartridges can be lost when your printer quits working. Perhaps the greatest lesson that can be learned from this comparison is that it behooves you to look for, and remove, any leaked toner from your printer when you replace the toner cartridge. Any toner cartridge can leak and significant amounts of leaked toner left in the printer will reduce print quality and lead to premature failure of parts - or the entire printer.