Remanufactured Cartridges or Original Toner Cartridges

If you use printer at home or office, you will run out of toner cartridge one day. Buying a new cartridge can be bit tricky because you have three purchase options at your disposal. You can buy a cartridge manufactured by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) that shipped right out of the assembly line to retailer, you can opt for remanufactured cartridge available with the retailer or you can just decide going for a cartridge refill.

Before we jump ahead, let’s first understand the difference between the OEM manufactured cartridges and the remanufactured cartridges. An OEM manufactured cartridge is a sealed & packed brand new cartridge shipped directly from the company that manufactured the printer. On the other hand, a remanufactured printer cartridge, also known as a recycled cartridge is the one which is manufactured by a company that gets the old empty cartridges from market, refills the ink, replaces any parts that might not be working properly and restores it back like brand new.

Since you might have confusion about which one to choose, an unbiased evaluation of both the OEM manufactured cartridges and the remanufactured cartridges prior buying can be of great help. The information provided below will enable you to decide which cartridge to choose and what could be right place to buy the selected cartridge type.

The Price Difference

As a rule of thumb, comparing prices of remanufactured cartridges and original cartridge is the right place to start the evaluation. In today’s market, the average difference of price between the two types of cartridges can fall between 20 to 50 percent, meaning that remanufactured cartridges are between 20 to 50 percent cheaper than OEM original cartridges.

Talking about why some remanufactured cartridges are 20 percent cheaper and why some 50 percent, this variation primarily occurs because there is no quite a hefty number of printer brands and printer types in market. Some of the printer brands and printer types are more commonly used than the other ones. This means the number of empty cartridges of these printers as well as the number of new cartridge purchases is higher. Due to a handsome number of empty cartridges available and a tighter price competition among remanufactured cartridges manufacturers, these cartridges end up being sold at almost half the price. On the contrary, printers that are not commonly used or their brand names are not that much popular, have less number of sales hence less number of empty cartridges and therefore lesser price difference to the OEM manufactured original cartridges.

The Performance Comparison

The second and more practical question is how the remanufactured cartridges perform as compared to the original ones. After rigorous comparisons of both products, it has been concluded by several reliable print industry entities that both perform exactly the same. The performance comparisons have been made in terms of quality of printouts as well as the number of printouts.

The Environmental Impact

It is also necessary that we evaluate any adverse environmental issues that might occur due to manufacturing of these two types of cartridges. The remanufactured cartridges are recycled and eliminate the need of manufacturing any unnecessary plastic or metal parts that could cause an adverse effect on the environment. Whereas original OEM manufactured cartridges are manufactured from scratch requiring the need of plastic and metal parts. So using a remanufactured cartridge will help a bit in preserving our environment.

So it is fair to conclude that buying remanufactured cartridges over original cartridges is a better and sane decision. But while buying a remanufactured cartridge, you will encounter bit of an problem as well.

The problem lies in the fact that It is not necessary that just one manufacturer makes remanufactured cartridges for a specific printer. There could be any number of manufacturers making cartridges for a specific printer. So before purchasing remanufactured cartridges, Check the authenticity of manufacturer and retailer online and offline. Try searching for customers feedback and reviews, try asking people that might have been buying cartridges and go through the retailer’s website as well.

Another way of finding out the authenticity of retailer and manufacturer is by checking the kind of warranty they offer on the remanufactured cartridges. The valid types of warranties offered are either cartridge replacement or refund of money. A company confident on its product will not be hesitant in offering any of these two warranties. While claiming a money refund, remember that money refunds are always given excluding shipping and handling charges so getting a replacement warranty is bit better than refund. Keep refund of money as a last resort.

Checking out whether the remanufactured cartridge meets OEM standards or not can be good idea. Inquire the retailer about the standards and also if any third party evaluations are conducted or not.

If you search online, you will come across some legitimate websites that provide comparisons among different remanufactured cartridges retailers and manufacturers. These websites review the printing products based on customer reviews and usage feedback etc. This will also help you identifying the retailer and manufacturer.

Also remember that although using remanufactured toner cartridge does not void the warranty of your printer, using a substandard cartridge might damage your printer by frequent paper jams and ink leaks.

Since it can be easily concluded now that remanufactured cartridges are quite better than original cartridges. And before you buy your next remanufactured toner cartridge, try using above guidelines for identifying a legitimate provider of remanufactured toner cartridges like cartridgediscount.co.uk, so that your printer last longer and printing costs are lowered for you.