As mentioned in part 1 of our series on laser and LED printers and toner cartridges, toner is the powdery substance that is used to build up the image on laser printers. It comes in large cartridges, which either contain the toner on its own, or combine the toner reservoir with a disposable print drum. (Having the drum and cartridge together does mean that you get a new, high-quality drum each time, but it also increases the price.)

Toner cartridges (including laser toner, LED toner, photocopier toner and laser fax toner cartridges) do cost significantly more than most inkjet cartridges, but they also last much longer, generally in the thousands or even tens of thousands of pages, rather than the low hundreds.

When it comes to replacing your toner cartridge, you have four options as follows.

1 – Official Original Equipment Manufacturer Cartridges (OEM)

All laser and LED printer manufacturers sell their own “official” toner cartridges. While these are generally as good as any out there, they’re also usually the most costly.

As with ink cartridges for cheap inkjet printers, some OEM laser cartridges for “cheap” laser printers and LED printers can be eye-wateringly expensive. This is the hidden factor that many people miss when buying a low-cost printer!

OEM printer and toner manufactures include Epson, Canon, Brother, HP, Samsung, Kyocera and many more.

2 – Compatible Laser Printer Cartridges

As with compatible inkjet cartridges, compatible laser toner cartridges are manufactured by independent companies and are usually cheaper- sometimes much cheaper- than the official OEM carts.

They’re not endorsed by the printer manufacturers, who’d rather you bought their official cartridges- particularly with very low-cost laser printers, where the business model involves selling the printer cheap and the toner… not so cheap!

Of course, you’re under no obligation to play along with this, and if you can save money on toner- why not?

3 – Refurbished / Remanufactured Laser Cartridges

More common are remanufactured toner carts. These are typically the manufacturers’ originals that have been recycled, refilled and remanufactured by an independent company.

This remanufacturing isn’t normally endorsed, nor guaranteed by the original manufacturer. (We make this clear on the descriptions for remanufactured toner that we sell).

When this is done properly and reputably (as the ones we sell are), the standard of the re-manufactured toner cartridges should be comparable to the manufacturers’ originals, but at a lower cost. It also has the advantage of being more environmentally friendly, since the whole bulky unit isn’t thrown away every time.

Contrary to what the printer makers would like you to believe, such cartridges- particularly those without drums- can be reliably refilled and reused several times. Those that can no longer be reliably refilled and remanufactured are rejected at the inspection (QA) stage.

4 – Refill the Cartridge Yourself

The last option is for you to refill the cartridge yourself. You have to take care doing this as toner can be messy, and (as with any dust-like substance in large quantities) should not be breathed in. We recommend doing this outside and using some form of protective clothing. (Although toner is attracted to magnets and can be partly removed this way, it is still hard to remove once ingrained in clothes).

However, if you know what you’re doing, refilling toner cartridges can also be a money-saver.