I bet no one is surprised that we print a LOT of coupons here at our house. Even if we don’t use them ourselves, many times we will print coupons off to check the terms, specific wording, or expiration dates for you guys!
We decided a couple of years ago to invest in a pretty nice laser printer. We LOVE it and are very happy with the brand that we purchased (it is a Brother MFC 7840W… and if I remember correctly, I think we got it on sale for around $250).
One of the benefits of having a laser printer is not having to buy ink as often as you do with an ink jet, so one of the reasons that we felt comfortable paying that much for a printer is that we knew that the cost savings over time would more than make up for the higher price of the printer.
About 7 months after we started using the printer regularly, we got a message saying that we needed to replace the toner cartridge before we could continue printing. And the printer WOULD NOT let us print without replacing the toner!
So Ryan got on Amazon (where we bought it) to check the price of cartridges and saw a comment by someone else who owns this same printer who was saying that you could continue to use your toner cartridge for a longer amount of time if you just put some tape (we used duct tape, but electrical tape would work great too) over the sensor that lets the printer know that the toner is low.
{See the image at the top of the post and follow the arrow to see where to put the tape}
Y’all…
We got FIVE MORE MONTHS of use out of that toner cartridge!!
Now we only replace the cartridge about once a year (and with very regular use!)
From what I’ve read, this works with most Brother toner cartridges, and I’d be surprised if there wasn’t something similar that you could do to extend the life of other brands as well.
If we would’ve replaced the cartridge when the printer told us it needed to be replaced we would’ve wasted so much money over the years!
I cannot find our sensor 🙁 We get a couple of months of MODERATE to LITTLE use before ours quits, telling us we need more ultra expensive ink! I hate our Brother printer!
Thanks! We have this printer and our toner light has been coming on for a while now, I just put tape over the censor, hopfully it works for us too 🙂
you could also try taking out the cartridge and shaking it, then put it back into the printer and retry your print… that’s what we do with the ones at work, i’ve never payed any attention to the brand of them tho…
I have a Dell all in one and I totally LOVE it!!! It is wireless and everything. BUT the ink is so expensive. It will tell me that I have low ink but I can go several months until it actually runs out. I use it until the ink on the paper starts to skip. Then I change it. It is amazing how much that saves me each year!!!
I get about a year or so out of mine by pulling it out when it says it is low and gently skaking it. Not only does the print quality improve, but the warning goes away as well.
Used to be you could buy the ink and syringe refill kits… it wasn’t a big deal and it saved a LOT OF MONEY… I BET they still have them – TOTALLY worth checking into!
now you did have to be careful because you could have powdered ink “flash-back” at you if you didn’t follow the instructions … well lo and behold the day my boss refused to listen to my lectures of caution… all i can say is till this day i can vividly recall his face entirely coated with black ink powder… PRICELESS
We have had our Dell inkjet 1720 for about 3 1/2 yrs maybe longer… We just had the starter cartridge that came with it replaced last month…. We shook our cartridge alot and got years of use out of it… I just started couponing in the last few weeks but proir to that we used the printer quiet a bit… So, just keep on a shakin them cartrides!!!
Excellent! I did not have electric tape so I colored the eye with a black sharpie. Be sure to get up to the edge. Also what works is coloring a post-it black and cutting it out and applying it the same as the electrical tape. My final tip is to do this before loading the toner, right out of the box.
You just saved me $80. I am SO GRATEFUL!!!
Woohoo!! Glad the article helped you out Megan! 🙂
I have done this to several brother cartridges and it works like a charm!
You just saved me $70!!! This is AWESOME!!!! Wish I would have read this a long time ago.