Choosing Correct Remanufactured Cartridge

Remanufactured cartridges are considered as good option against OEM cartridges. They also have certain standards that you should know. That will help you to choose correct remanufactured cartridge for your printer.

1) Yield of the remanufactured cartridge

The yield is the amount of pages the cartridge produces before running out of toner. A remanufactured cartridge is tested at 5% page coverage. This is the industry standard. If the manufacturer used a toner head then they have used the best way to achieve 5% page coverage. You need to be careful with the companies that just give you the OEM yield with the remanufactured cartridge. They may not have actually done any testing.

2) Density the remanufactured cartridge

The density measures how dark the text is. The density is should be between 1.3 and 1.6. Here you need to ask how many cartridges they test to achieve their numbers. Testing one cartridge does not give an accurate measurement. Also, ask how often they have tested their toner/drum combinations. A good supplier will change toner qualities and continued testing is important to ensure quality.

3) Inspection and replacement of components

Here you need to know the status of important parts like drum, wiper blade and mag roller. These components are all very important to print quality. Some lower yield cartridges do not need to have their drums changed if they are properly tested. However, if a drum is used to make over 5,000 pages then they are eligible to receive a new drum.

4) Use a universal toner for all printers of a manufacturer

Some suppliers try to save money by using one toner for all printer cartridges for one manufacturer. For example, one toner is used for all HP cartridges. This may not affect print quality, but it will affect yield. The reason is that each model of printer has different characteristics and uses different toners.

5) Post testing of the remanufactured cartridge

This is the most important step in remanufacturing cartridge. These cartridges have to be rebuilt by hand, which introduces human error. Forgetting one step can cause failures that can only be picked up in post testing. Some suppliers do not want to invest in all the printers or simply do not have recourses to do so. Hence, check this out.

6) Does the company replace the label on the cartridge?

Some companies leave the OEM label on their cartridges. This is a copyright infringement. Other companies do not have any labels on their cartridges. This is legal, but can be confusing if you have different model printers. A good remanufactured cartridge maker company will replace the label with a new descriptive label, which has the machine that the cartridge goes to on it.

This is very important as some company will not provide you with this information. The main reason is that many remanufactured cartridge companies still do not have proper testing methods because of the cost. Also, beware of very cheap cartridges. In the long run these will probably cost more due to failures and poor print quality.

More Information of Printer Ink Cartridges...