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Choose Your Printer Toner Supplier Wisely

Nov 1st, 2011 by

Last week I had a call from a computer techie friend of mine.  A customer of his had an HP Colour Laserjet CM1518 printer which was exhibiting very poor print quality.  I suggested that he have the customer perform a manual calibration of the printer and call us directly if there was wasn’t any change.

A few days later, the customer called and brought his printer in. This customer was convinced that he was having a very serious printer problem and that he would have to purchase a new one.  Upon examination of the cartridges, it was easy to see why the colour was of such poor quality.

The cartridges were remanufactured by a company and sold by one of our competitors.  The problem was the inconsistency of products used.  Two of the cartridges had OEM drums and the other 2 had their OCP drums changed, however, they were from a different manufacturer, evidenced by the variation in colour.

The most important thing in remanufacturing colour cartridges is consistency.  Any remanufacturer should be using toner from the same source in all cartridges.  Also, the OCP drum should be changed for best printing results.

We prepared four new cartridges for the customer and test printed them in his printer….beautiful……the colours were crisp and clean.

When you bring your toner cartridges in for refill or you are ordering over the phone, always ask your supplier about their process:

  • What components if any are changed
  • What brand of toner are they using (we use Static Control…very high quality)
  • Is the cartridge test printed for quality control
  • What is their guarantee if the cartridge fails mid-cycle

Having these questions answered will help you to determine which toner supplier would be the best for you.  Here at Cartridge World Newmarket, in addition to being environmentally friendly, we strive for excellence both in product and customer service.

I’d love your feedback! Here on my blog you’ll get commentluv. This is a great opportunity to leave a link back to your own blog site when you leave a comment.

Until next time,

Go Green and Save Some Green!

Karen

 

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Reviewing the Samsung CLX-3185FW Printer

Oct 19th, 2011 by

Recently I needed to purchase a new printer for my home office.  The most important requirement was that it be wireless as the four members of my household have laptops.

I considered the Brother MFC-J615W printer, which is pretty cost effective to run, but I decided that I wanted a laser printer so that I could print letters and other businesses documents while at home.

I came across the Samsung CLX-3185FW printer on sale for $199.00 and decided to give it a try.

The unit is surprisingly quite compact and fit perfectly on my computer table.

The setup instructions were very clear and I had the wireless setup complete within about 15 minutes.  I was also able to set it up on my husband’s Mac with the touch of a couple of keys, once I had shared the printer on our network.

My first project was a mail merge of labels.  The Samsung took the labels with no problem and was quite quick, printing the black labels at 17ppm. They were ready in no time.

I also did some colour photocopying and this was at 17cpm, a very good speed for colour copying…and the colour quality was very good.

The unit also scans up to 4800 x 4800 dpi enhanced and faxes up to 33.6 Kbps

Some of the other unique features of this printer are:

  • One touch wi-fi setting lets you connect quickly and easily
  • One-touch eco copy button lets you combine four documents into one document, saving you valuable time
  • Easily fits onto any size of desktop while leaving plenty of room for you to get your work done. Dimensions: 13.55”(H) x 16.38”(W) x 14.88”(D)
  • One-touch eco print button saves paper while the default toner mode makes saving toner effortless
  • Engineered to be whisper quiet, generating a noise level of as low as 46 dBA while it’s printing
  • Samsung’s AnyWeb Print software lets you easily select, drag, and drop content from different web pages onto a printable scrap board
  • Always know the status of your print job with navigation feedback LED pattern

The toner cartridges are not the largest, nor are they expensive.  The black cartridge yields 1,500 pages and a remanufactured cartridge is only $37.99.   Colour cartridges will give you 1,000 pages each and a remanufactured cartridge is only $33.99.

This is a pretty good printer for the money and the cost of the consumables.  With an acceptable print speed, wireless capabilities and size, it is perfect for a home office setting.

Does anyone else have this printer? Share your thoughts on it with me! On this blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is a great opportunity to leave a link back to your own blog when you leave feedback.

Until next time,

Karen

 

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HP Photosmart Premium 309C Wireless Printer Connectivity Problem

Oct 4th, 2011 by

I have an HP Photosmart Premium 309C all in one wireless inkjet printer.  Initially the wireless worked very well but over time, it would lose its connectivity and I would have to walk up to the office to turn it back on.  Eventually turning it back on wouldn’t even solve the problem.

I have heard from several customers who were having connectivity problems with similar models.  One customer who had the same model as me, went on vacation and he could no longer print wirelessly.  We decided to try to get to the bottom of this problem.

Our technician did some troubleshooting and found a solution for both our printers.

If you are having the same issues, your printer may somehow be disconnected from your  Wi-Fi network.  You can verify this by using the following steps:

  1. Go to the front panel of the printer, click on setup button
  2. Select Network option
  3. Under Network, select print wireless network test

The printer should print a diagnostic page.  Check that it passes everything on the diagnostic summary.  In the configuration summary section, Network Name (SSID) should be the SSID of your router and it should have a valid IP address.

If your printer is disconnected from the Wi-Fi network, you can reconfigure it using the following steps:

  1. Go to the front panel of the printer, click on setup button
  2. Select Network option
  3. Under Network, select Wireless Setup Wizard
  4. It searches for wireless routers
  5. Select your router
  6. Enter the password

If you try to print and nothing is happening and there are no error messages, follow these steps:

  1. Take the IP address of your printer that you got from the Wireless network test report and type the IP address in your browser on your computer.  This would test if you can talk to the printer and make sure that your computer and the printer are on the same WiFi network.

Then, print a test page:

  1. Go to Control panel -> View devices and printers
  2. Double click on the printer
  3. Go to Printer menu option and then choose properties
  4. Click on Ports tab
  5. Select Standard TCP/IP port and then click on the Configure Port button
  6. Make sure the IP address in the “Printer Name or IP address” field matches with your printer’s IP address from the diagnostic report
  7. Try to print a test page to see if it works

This problem can also occur if your printer goes into sleep mode.  If this happens to you, follow these steps:

  1. Go to your printer
  2. Select the arrow key to see the next menu. (it should be on the right side of the LCD  panel, looks like a sideways triangle)
  3. Select Setup –> Network –> Wireless Network Wizard
  4. The printer will begin to look for wireless networks
  5. Choose your network (or the network that you use…  it should be the same one your laptop/computer is on)
  6. If it is password protected, enter the pass key/password
  7. Your printer will print out a network status page
  8. Your computer should “recognize” the printer on the network on its own. Your HP help window may display a large green check (that’s a good thing!)
  9. Print what you desire!

Hope that this helps!  I’d love your feedback. Here on this blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is a great opportunity to leave a link back to your own blog when you leave a comment.

Until next time,

Go GREEN and save some GREEN

Karen

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SAY “NO” TO ANY PRINTER UPGRADE

Sep 20th, 2011 by

STOP SAMSUNG

STOP LEXMARK

STOP DELL

STOP IBM

Samsung is offering customers upgrades to their printers. If you accept, you will locked into using Samsung original cartridges, at high prices.

End Users, previously happy with remanufactured cartridges, find that they can only use original cartridges after accepting an upgrade. Samsung changes the printer to make the printer not accept the aftermarket cartridge and chip.

Say NO to any upgrades on all Samsung (or Dell versions) printers. Any upgrade to your printer will cause remanufactured cartridges to no longer work in your printer. Once you have installed an upgrade on your printer, you cannot reverse it. Therefore, any upgrade will force you to buy expensive, new Samsung original cartridges rather than remanufactured cartridges that SAVE you MONEY, SAVE OIL, CREATE LOCAL JOBS and are ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY. In order to be sure that your printers can continue to use remanufactured cartridges now and in the future, SAY NO TO ANY UPGRADE THAT SAMSUNG WILL OFFER YOU and make certain that any repair person or technician who wants to work on your printer does not accept a firmware upgrades. Do not lose your right to choose remanufactured cartridges for your printers.

As well, Lexmark can AND HAS used upgrades that kill remanufactured cartridges.

On January 12th 2011, the Office of Fair Trading and the Trading Standards Institute in the United Kingdom confirmed they are investigating complaints that Lexmark has used upgrades that lock out third party remanufactured cartridges to those printers.

Customers previously happy with their remanufactured cartridges were duped into accepting an upgrade that promised to “improve” users’ printers, but has now locked them into using ONLY original Lexmark cartridges. End users have found that the upgrade is irreversible and their printer will not work until all cartridges are original Lexmark cartridges. Consumers claim this is an anti–competitive and a restrictive trade practice. BEWARE. It could easily happen to YOUR ink jet and laser Lexmark (Dell and IBM equivalent) remanufactured cartridge customers.

Lexmark® and Samsung® firmware changes lock out aftermarket cartridges. These actions are a serious threat to the remanufacturing industry and hurt end users by forcing them to use only OEM replacement cartridges.

Has this happened to you? I’d love your feedback. Here on this blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is a great opportunity to leave a link back to your own blog when you leave a comment.

Until next time,

Karen

 

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Going Green?

Sep 7th, 2011 by

Not Comfortable with “Remanufactured Cartridges?”

What if we told you that many HP laser cartridges are in fact remanufactured just like those that come in a Cartridge World box? It’s true! Many HP laser cartridge boxes have something like this written on the side: This product may contain parts selectively recovered from HP’s recycling program. Interesting, when you consider that when Cartridge World rebuilds a laser cartridge, we only use new parts that far exceed the quality of an HP original, let alone those “selectively recovered” from used cartridges. We take our 100% satisfaction guarantee seriously for a reason!

LIGHT UP WITH GREEN

Other than buying refilled printer cartridges, another great way to go green is through the lighting you use at your home and office.  Here are a couple tips to help you get started:

1. Use CFL’s. Those are the funny looking bulbs that look like a soft-serve ice cream cone. After about 500 hours of use, it actually has paid for itself!

2. As great as CFL’s are, they do contain small amounts of mercury so remember not to just throw them in the trash when you’re done with them.

3. Install dimmers and motion sensors. Traditional light switches only give you 2 options; on and off. Dimmers and motion sensors let you use only what you need to!

4. Lastly, buy green power. Most electric companies will let you pay just a little bit more to know your electricity is coming from a green source.  It’s well worth the peace of mind!

Add to the list! I’d love your comments. Here on this blog, you’ll get commentluv.  This is a great opportunity to leave a link back to your own site when you leave feedback.

Until next time,

Karen

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3 Great Reasons to Remanufacture Print Cartridges

Aug 23rd, 2011 by

The way many OEM’s design their cartridges discourages reuse and remanufacturing.  It would benefit both the environment and consumers for the cartridges to be designed so that they can be reused more easily.  Customers deserve the choice! No car manufacturers would be allowed to require consumers to buy its own brand of gasoline.  Consumers deserve a choice and third-party suppliers and remanufacturers provide that option.  Plus, many remanufacturers are small businesses employing workers from local communities, such as Cartridge World Newmarket does. Here are 3 great reasons to remanufacture print cartridges.

1. Environmentally Friendly

The reason that many re-manufacturers got into the business is to help the environment.  Reducing the number of cartridges that take up limited landfill space is good, and re-manufacturing saves natural resources as well.  When cartridges are re-manufactured, not only is pollution prevented from going into landfills, but also fewer new materials must be produced. The plastic of each toner cartridge takes one and a half quarts of oil to produce, and each new inkjet cartridge requires two and a half ounces of oil.  Half a gallon of oil is conserved for each laser cartridge that is remanufactured, industry sources say.

2. Save Energy

Also, reusing cartridges saves energy.  It requires significantly less energy to remanufacture a cartridge than to produce a new one, saving energy and the natural resources used to produce power.  Remanufacturing also reduces the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. It even takes less energy to remanufacture products than it would to recycle them.  Why?   Recycling converts components into raw material, which is used to manufacture an original product, while remanufacturing captures a large percentage of resources from the original product, including the added value of labor, energy and capital.

3. Reduce waste

The average toner cartridge weighs 3 to 4 pounds –made mostly of plastic, which is the main material in many cartridges.  Unfortunately, it’s plastic that’s not very recyclable and will take more than 100 years to biodegrade in landfill.  Many consumers are familiar with the number system used to indicate if the plastic is recyclable. These numbers range from one, the most recyclable, to seven, the most difficult to recycle.  On many products including shampoo and water bottles, the number is stamped into the plastic on the bottom of the container.  PET plastic bottles, such as two liter soda pop bottles, are fairly easy to recycle and are given a rating of one.  Most laser cartridges are rated seven because they contain mixed resin plastics; estimates indicate that only 5 to 10 percent of the plastics in this category are recycled.  In addition, the toner residue can seldom be completely separated from the cartridge’s plastic, contaminating the plastic and making the cartridges even less likely to be recycled.

It’s a better choice.  Remanufacturing is the best way to save products from landfills.  However, remanufacturing can only take place if aftermarket companies have access to empty cartridges.  Although recycling of toner cartridges does have a number of benefits, remanufacturing is a superior choice both environmentally and economically!

At Cartridge World Newmarket, we refill and remanufacture all brands of ink and toner cartridges.

What do you think? I love getting feedback. Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is an opportunity to leave a link back to your own site when you leave a comment.

Until next time,

Think green, re-use your printer cartridges and save more than money.

Karen

 

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Printer Cartridge Re-Manufacturing and the Environment

Aug 10th, 2011 by

Every year more than 350 million plastic printer cartridges end up dumped in landfills around the world. While we can never completely stop the cycle of cartridges entering the waste stream, we can at least stem the flow.

The printer consumables market is a billion-dollar industry.  According the Lyra Research, worldwide revenue of printer cartridges totaled $74 billion dollars in 2010.  Of this, the aftermarket claimed only 20 percent of the desktop inkjet revenue and 15 percent of the toner cartridge revenue.

Millions of cartridges are manufactured every year. This is why re-manufacturing matters.  Every cartridge re-manufactured is one that does not go directly to the landfill.  For every re-manufactured cartridge purchased, it is one less new cartridge that needs to be produced, saving it from entering the waste stream and from draining the planet’s natural resources.

In fact, many printer cartridges end up dumped in places you’d never expect – like China. Nigeria and India.

Save Money and get quality

Of course, many companies want to be environmentally sensitive, but the main reason companies use re-manufactured cartridges is to save money.  Most re-manufactured cartridges cost considerably less than OEM cartridges and are comparable in quality and reliability.  In fact, many re-manufactured cartridges last longer, as they often have up to 20 percent more toner than OEM cartridges.

In short, printer cartridges don’t need to be so expensive.  In order to protect their profit margins, the OEMs often claim that non-OEM cartridges might damage your printer.  No manufacturer (or re-manufacturer) can guarantee that a cartridge will never fail, but there is little chance that a toner or ink cartridge could ever affect the functionality of a printer or fax machine.  Plus many re-manufacturers offer guarantees, promising to repair any possible related damage; due to the excellent quality of re-manufactured products, this is an offer they almost never have to make good on.

Cartridge World offers quality ink and toner refills at a fraction of the price of purchasing new.  Our retail location located in Newmarket, Ontario, makes it easy to walk in with your empty cartridge and walk out with a high quality filled one.

I’d love your feedback. Here on this blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is an opportunity to leave a link back to your own blog when you leave a comment.

Be green.  Re-use your ink and toner cartridges.

Until next time,

Karen

 

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Using Refilled Printer Cartridges Won’t Void Warranty

Jul 26th, 2011 by

Choosing to be environmentally friendly and using refilled or remanufactured cartridges will not void your printer warranty!

Did you know that it is illegal to be forced into using only OEM brands of printer supplies?

The next time your IT or printer service person says “You will be charged for this service call because you are using recycled ink/toner cartridges” or “Your warranty is void because you are not using OEM brand ink or toner” tell him/her that it is ILLEGAL to force any computer printer owner to use only OEM brands of ink or toner supplies!

This requirement is in violation of the Canada Competition Act and in the USA, the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts.

In 1963, an example of this concern was brought before the US Supreme court and involved IBM vs. the United States. IBM leased their own data processing machines to clients stating a requirement that only tabulating cards manufactured by IBM be used. Their clients were warned by means of termination of their lease if they used cards produced by non-IBM manufacturers. This outcome was found to be in violation of the Antitrust laws.

Don’t be intimidated by sales, service or computer technicians.  Let them know that it is illegal to make this a requirement. Proof that remanufactured, refilled or non-OEM brands are incompatible with supposed printers would have to be made. Show this information to anyone insisting on voiding a warranty or charging for a service call because they found you weren’t using OEM brand of cartridges.

The Canada Competition Act. 77 (1) & (2) explicitly prohibits the practice of coercive “tied selling” that is, it is unlawful for any supplier to threaten an individual/company to purchase unwanted product or service (i.e. OEM cartridges) as a condition for obtaining another product or service (i.e. warranty) from said supplier and/or their designated affiliates.

For more on unlawful market restrictive practices, see the Government of Canada’s Department of Justice website. In the USA, the Sherman and Clay Acts prohibit tied selling.

I’d love your feedback! Here on this blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is an opportunity to leave a link back to your own site when you leave a comment.

Until next time,

GO GREEN AND SAVE SOME GREEN!

Karen

 

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Save Your Printer This Summer

Jun 24th, 2011 by

Every Autumn we hear from people who are having problems with their printhead printers. So this summer, here is a tip to save your printer.

Most of the problems arise in Epson printers.  They have a tank style cartridge and the printhead is in the printer.  Canon, new HP’s and Lexmark’s and Brother printers have printhead printers as well.  They use cartridges Canon CLI 8, CLI221, HP 564, 920, 940, 88, Lexmark 100, 105, 108, Brother LC51 and 61, just to name a few.

The difference between a printhead printer and a non-printhead printer is that on the latter, the print head is on the cartridge (for example HP 21,22,56,57 etc. and Lexmark 16,17,34, etc.) and if the cartridge gets a blockage from non-usage, you purchase a replacement cartridge.

For printhead printers, most of the problems arise from non-usage of the printer for a period of time, usually over the summer vacation period, which causes ink to block in the tubes going to the printhead.

If you try to print and there isn’t any ink showing up on the paper or the print is inconsistent and light, you have blocked printheads.

The only way to move this blockage is to perform the printhead clean function on your printer.  You may have to do this many times, as many as 10 or more,  to release the blockage.  This will use up most of your ink.  Sometimes, the blockage will never clear rendering the printer useless.

If you have an Epson printer or one of the other makes outlined above, it is best to use it on a regular basis (once a week) to keep the ink flowing nicely from the printhead.

The same holds true for any printer.  If you don’t use it, you lose it.  Try to print with your inkjet printer once a week as a minimum to assure that your cartridges are ready for you when that important print job comes up.

If you require any information on your specific printer model, please write back to us. We love getting feedback. And here on this blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is a plugin that gives you the opportunity to leave a link back to your own site when you leave feedback.

Until next time,

Karen

 

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Print Defects Can Result if Brother HL-4040 Printer Not Calibrated

Jun 8th, 2011 by

We thought we would share with you, this issue on print defects on a Brother HL-4040 printer.

PROBLEM

Due to variations in temperature and humidity, any newly installed cartridge in the Brother HL-4040 printer, whether remanufactured or new OEM,  can produce density defects if the printer is not calibrated.

Failure to calibrate after cartridge installation, can result in light print or over saturated dark print caused by colours not properly matched.  Dumping can be caused by over saturation or over development of toner.

SOLUTION

To achieve optimal colour density for each colour, it is recommended that a manual calibration be performed on the printer at the time of cartridge installation.  To manually calibrate:

  1. Press the + or – key to choose Colour Correction.  Press OK.
  2. Press OK when printer window displays Colour Correction. Colour Calibration.
  3. Press OK when printer window displays Colour Calibration.  Calibrate
  4. Press OK again when printer window displays Calibrate OK

In the event that your manual calibration is unsatisfactory, undo by resetting the parameters to factory setting and then repeat manual calibration.

  1. Press the + or – key to choose Colour Correction.  Press OK.
  2. Press OK when printer window displays Colour Correction. ColourCalibration.
  3. Press the + or – key to choose Reset.  Press OK when the printer window displays ColourCalibration Reset.
  4. Press OK again when the printer window displays Reset OK?

Let us know how it works! We love getting feedback and here on this blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is a plug-in that gives you the opportunity to leave a link back to your own site when you leave feedback.

Until next time,

Karen

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