Laser Toner Cartridges

Get more pages out of your laser toner cartridges.

Although this next money-saving tip has been around for a long time, I’m always surprised by how few small businesses actually use it.

The End of a Laser Toner Cartridge is Not Necessarily The End

Just as an inkjet printer cartridge does, laser printer toner cartridges have a finite life. You’ll know you’re getting to the end of the toner cartridge’s capacity when your pages start to get streaks and the printing appears lighter.

At that point, there’s still usually plenty of toner left in the cartridge. It simply needs to be redistributed.

Laser Toner Conserved = Money Saved on Laser Toner Cartridge Supply Costs

To do so, remove the toner cartridge from the printer and shake it a few times, in much the same way you shake the cartridge before installing it into the printer.

Amazingly enough, the first time you do this, shaking the toner cartridge generally will buy you a few hundred extra pages. For argument’s sake, let’s value that around $8 to $10.

Sooner or later, you’ll start to see the same characteristic streaks. Once again, you can remove the toner cartridge; shake it up a few times, then reinsert.

You’ll find that, each time you repeat the shaking exercise, you’ll get fewer and fewer pages out of the toner cartridge. Once you’ve removed, shaken and reinserted three or four times, you’ve probably squeezed as much life out of the toner cartridge as you possibly can. Then it’s time to actually replace it.

 

Laser Toner Cartridges Action Items

Do your employees attempt to extend the life of your laser printer toner cartridges by shaking them up?

If your employees don't currently use this extremely simple cost-saving technique, what kind of motivations or incentives can you put in place to encourage this behavior (without impacting the quality of printed pages)?

 

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