Toner refill

Toner refilling is the practice of refilling empty laser printer toner cartridges with new toner powder. This enables the cartridge to be reused, saving the cost of a complete new cartridge and the impact of the waste and disposal of the old one.

While toner cartridges are commonly refilled with results reported to be good, in at least some cases refilling without full remanufacturing may leave waste toner from each print and paper debris in the cartridge, potentially causing backgrounding problems and producing contamination in the refilled cartridge.

The U.S. patent for the "Refillable toner cartridge" was issued to Fred Keen on March 28, 1989.

There are several different methods for refilling cartridges:

Toner cartridges cannot be refilled indefinitely, because mechanical parts such as rollers wear out. Some cartridges include the electro-optical drum, which becomes depleted and can be scratched. Organizations refilling cartridges for resale usually clean and test each cartridge to ensure that it is fit for reuse and resale. While several sources offer empty inkjet cartridges to be refilled, brand new empty OEM laser cartridges are not easily found. Also, some models of laser print engines, like most inkjet printers, communicate with "chips" or fuses inside the toner cartridge which indicate that the cartridge is exhausted, whether or not it actually is. Some research is usually required to determine the feasibility of refilling a particular cartridge.

In general, DIY refilling requires opening a cartridge designed not to be opened, refilling it with toner, and capping the opening that was made to gain access. Some cartridges can be disassembled; others require a hole to be drilled or melted.

Toners vary in composition; manufacturers make toner designed for their own printers, and a generic toner may not work as well. In some cases there may be separate additions of toner and "developer". Refilling kits include printer-specific instructions.

The following basic types of refill toner (differing mainly in particle size and fusing temperature) have been identified by one vendor while other refill vendors insist that each printer or copier model requires a unique type.

Kits are available to refill the 4 toner cartridges used by colour printers (cyan, magenta, yellow and black), or to fill a single cartridge. Kits include a reset chip where necessary. In all cases a toner that is at least compatible must be used.

While there are environmental benefits to refilling the toner cartridges of laser printers, a refilled cartridge may produce inferior print quality and reliability.

Common problems can include:

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