First time buying toner for Brother printer. Where is the best place to buy?

[LyleH]

I've used the black tape over the toner level sensing window to extend the use on Brother toner carts. Works for me. LyleH http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/laser/39806

[rgG]

Thanks for all the tips and advice, so far.

[Michael]

We bought this from Amazon a month ago: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0062ZN...03_s00_i00

It works fine. I bought from Amazon because of the no-cost, no-hassle refund if it didn't work.

[Carm]

Amazon and eBay

[space-time]

a word of caution about Brother printers regarding generic toners. I think PeterB explained very clearly what the problem is and if you are interested you can find out below. FWIW, I ended up replacing the printer, I tried to repair it but after a opening it and failing to identify clearly which gear is broken I gave up.

PeterB wrote:
[quote=space-time]
I think I have the same problem, toner/drum was not inserted all the way and I closed the cover, then I could not take it out. Eventually I took it out but now it makes noise and won't print. Did you fix yours?

In reply to http://forums.macresource.com/read.php?1...msg-735417

[quote=PeterB]
Hi all,

I have a Brother MFC7820N with some internal physical damage (broken pieces of plastic from trying to remove the toner cart) ... it's out of warranty, so Brother referred me to the local repair shop which is Brother-authorized. They want a $25 estimate fee, which gets applied to the cost of the repair if you decide to get it repaired. $60/hr repair, plus cost of parts. Guy said it might be only an hour's worth of labor, but of course could be two hours.

I hate to add to landfills, but... ugh. Otherwise this thing is only useful as a scanner...

Nope. The problem was (is) that non-Brother cartridges are not manufactured to Brother standards, and there's a roller that the printer has to turn on the cartridge, which if it can't turn, will break the printer. I made the mistake of buying a generic cartridge rather than genuine Brother, and it broke the printer. It was cheaper in the end to buy new, than it was to get it repaired. If you need to buy new, I recently bought a couple of Brother 7065DN's, based on a deal posted here awhile back (they were $100 each, shipped), and they've been great. I also have a 7840WD (I think that's the model number) and that too has been fine. Brother DOES make good printers, you just have to be careful about making sure to either buy genuine cartridges, or refill the ones you already have.

[Janit]

LyleH wrote:
I've used the black tape over the toner level sensing window to extend the use on Brother toner carts. Works for me. LyleH http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/laser/39806

This trick applies to the TN-540 toner cartridge but NOT to the TN-450 toner cartridge.

The TN-450 cartridge uses a different strategy for detecting toner level, so there is no hole to cover. I believe that the printer measures electrostatic charge in the cartridge somehow. The level that reads as "low" still has enough toner to print if you rock the cartridge. It will eventually reach a point when you get a red light no matter how you rock the cartridge, and that point matches pretty well with faint/streaky print quality.

[rgG]

Thanks again for all the info. Glad to know I can squeeze a few more pages out, if I need to.
Also good info about the non OEM cart specs.

[raz]

You can also log onto the printer's web interface and change the behavior settings. On 'low toner' set it to continue printing. I got another couple of hundred pages before the cartridge ran dry.

[Janit]

raz wrote:
You can also log onto the printer's web interface and change the behavior settings. On 'low toner' set it to continue printing. I got another couple of hundred pages before the cartridge ran dry.

Is this possible with this model? It only has USB, no ethernet. In any case, there are probably also ways to change these settings via push-button acrobatics.

Perhaps the most annoying aspect of these printer models is the lack of a truly user-friendly interface and the need to RTFM.

[modelamac]

Supermedia.com. I've bought tons of printing supplies from these folks over the years, at low prices (not always the lowest) and have never had any problems.