Buy Bulk Toner - or Not
Jul 01 '02
The Bottom Line Save money on toner, or get great output
I have an old Okidata OL-400e LED page printer. This old printer is a workhorse, and many are still in use today and going strong. It uses LED's instead of a laser beam, but its operation is the same as a laser printer. It's old enough that I have to order toner cartridges for it through mail-order. These cartridges last a long time, but still cost about $30.00 each.
For about the same price, I realized that I could buy a generous bottle of bulk toner and refill the cartridge when it ran out. This worked for a little while, then I noticed that the prints were starting to look "dirty". This became worse until raw toner started to show up on the prints, looking like water dripping down the page.
It turns out that the "scraper" in the printer did not like the off-brand toner. The toner was sticking to the scraper and getting redeposited on the imaging drum. This caused the prints to look dirty. Eventually toner would build up on the scraper, causing the "drip marks" and resulting in unusable prints. I could open it up and clean it off, but this is a messy, weekly process that stresses out the printer.
Now I just installed a "genuine" Okidata toner cartridge into the printer. I will have to wait for the print engine to clean itself out and for the prints to get back to the crisp, clean quality that I usually expect from this printer. It's worth paying extra for the proper toner.
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Epinions.com ID:
gsearle
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Greg Searle
Location: Nashua, NH
Reviews written: 27
Trusted by: 10 members
About Me:
Computer graphics designer and software developer with interests in technology, home improvement, and family life.
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