JDS@ECSVAX.BITNET (Jane D. Smith) (02/01/90)
For the past couple of years, I have paid $40 per laser cartridge
refill, using the services of DuraLine, a printer ribbon and cartridge
supplier/ manufacturer here in NC. They disassemble and thoroughly
clean critical parts of the cartridge and re-felt the wand, then refill
with high quality toner. They run a test print pattern when they
receive the cartridge, and more tests after it is refilled. The
customer receives the before-refill print sample and the last
after-refill sample. The quality of print and average number of printed
pages per cartridge I see from these refilled cartridges is
indistinguishable from that of new cartridges. The cartridges can be
refilled 3-4 times each (after that worn parts affect the quality).
Other 'recharging' services only replace the toner, some by punching a
hole in the top of the cartridge & shooting in new toner. While I
haven't witnessed firsthand the poor quality reported by my predecessor
who used this service, the results were unacceptable enough to prevent this
organization from using refilled cartridges until we discovered DuraLine
at a local computer trade show.
One campus I know of in the University of North Carolina system refills
their own cartridges in the student labs for a cost they estimate to be
$11 per cartridge. They've devised a portable refilling kit which they
take to the labs so they can refill the cartridges on-site. They claim
the print is acceptable; I have not seen the results.
The only problem I've had with my refills was toner leakage from two of
them. The toner seemed to be sifting out slowly, which made
increasingly larger black spots on the paper and a mess inside the
printer. The vendor replaced these two at no charge, explaining that
toner is electrically 'charged,' and occasionally he sees poorly charged
lots of toner, which leak from the cartridges.
In summary, recharged cartridges can be perfectly acceptable at half the
cost of new. Ask the service to describe exactly how they accomplish
the 'recharge,' and ask for print samples and customer references. The
vendor I use did all of this without my asking, and at the trade show
displayed a disassembled cartridge and thoroughly explained the function
of the parts and the recharge process (you may want to review the
technical details independently for verification - DTP books or
magazines offer such information).
- Jane Smith, UNC Educational Computing Service
E-mail: BITNET: jds@ecsvax
Internet: jds@uncecs.eduANSC6@UMDC.BITNET (02/01/90)
We've had some experience with using recharged cartridges in our department at Maryland, and we've had some problems with output quality, especially if you are using the Apple Laserwriter with graphics alone or in a PageMaker publicati on. Also, our secretary does a mixture of draft and final proof copy, and the recharged wasn't as good as desired for final proof. If you can have one printer for draft and another for final proof, then they should work fine. Mark Varner
andreap@MS.UKY.EDU (02/09/90)
I was told by a HP service rep that they would not service the HP printer on our service contract if we used recharged toner cartridges. You might want to check this out before using one. Just a thought..... Andrea (andrea.peach@ukwang.uky.edu BITNET)