Keeping your laser printer happy and well-fed is an onerous task that seems to come back around only too soon, and often only too expensively! There are lots of ways to save money when you place your orders, though, which eases the burden somewhat. Here are a few ways to make buying toner cartridges a bit cheaper.
Invest in a printer that takes separate colour cartridges
Once upon a time, printers used to take four or more discrete cartridges – the magenta, yellow, cyan and black combo that we all know so well. Some of the higher end models would take two or more extra cartridges with more nuanced versions of the usual shades to enhance photos.
More recently, though, some printers came onto the market that accept only two cartridges – a black one and a tri-colour cartridge containing cyan, magenta and yellow. The pain comes in when you run out of one of the three colours – no matter how much of the other two colours remains, the cartridge is useless. This proves to be expensive for buyers and for the environment, so separate colour cartridges can be replaced separately as and when needed.
Buy a second printer
It might seem like a waste of money to buy a second printer when your existing one works so well already, but it’ll prove to be a worthwhile investment.
This is because a big part of cost-effective printing is looking at the cost-per-page offered by your printer. Inkjet printers are cheaper to start with, but the costs of keeping them filled can hurt.
This is another way of saying that the cost-per-page for an inkjet is high; even for a cheap inkjet, the CPP is generally higher than that of even a mid-range laser model. So, if you do a lot of monochrome text and simple graphics printing, a second, laser, printer and its Xerox toner might be the solution. You’ll be buying cheaper toner for one machine and saving ink on another.
Buy compatible cartridges
You’re not restricted to buying named brand toner cartridges for your laser printer. Many online retailers sell compatible toner cartridges, also known as third-party or generic cartridges, and these cartridges cost a lot less then original brand models.
You can also buy remanufactured cartridges
Remanufactured means recycled, refilled, refurbished and resold. These cartridges can cost half as much as name brand ones and they’re commonly available from sellers online – just make sure you check out the seller’s reviews first.
Recycle your printer ink cartridges.
You might still prefer to buy new, brand name laser toner cartridges, but it doesn’t have to cost you a fortune. Many retailers will buy your spent cartridges from you to be sent on for remanufacture, earning you a discount on your next order, or a voucher to use with other products.
Once you have your new toner cartridges, watch how you use them
Once your new cartridges are in place, you can set your printer to draft mode, or to grayscale, to save on the amount of toner you use with each page. You could also print on both sides of the paper or use a smaller font in order to reduce your toner usage. Every little helps!