[quote=joec]In a related question, anyone know good links to buy supplies to refill laser printer toner?[/quote]
If your printer cartridge includes the toner AND the photosensitive drum as one piece cartridge (which most consumer oriented laser printers are), don’t bother. The issue with toner cartridges isn’t that they run out of toner. The photo-sensitive drum (photoreceptor) goes bad after a long use. (The green/yellow color drum that is covered all the time)
Basic premise of how a laser printer works, is light is shined onto a light sensitive drum (usually with a laser) which temporarily causes toner powder to stick to it, and then it’s pressed onto paper. The photo-sensitive drum goes bad after awhile in that it no longer responds to a light source. In plain English, once the drum goes bad, it doesn’t matter how much toner you have, you get crappy print because what gets “pressed” onto paper is garbage since the drum is no longer working to capture all image to print, or it’s capturing too much “blotches” and you won’t be able to see anything. So it’s not the same as just refilling your cartridge with more toner as it is with ink cartridges. Also, handling toner powder is a major PITA
You can find companies that sell remanufactered cartridges, usually for a lot cheaper than from OEM. I don’t dick around with laser printers because I never print in high volume, color laser printers are still pretty expensive (especially supplies), and supplies in general are pretty pricey imho.
