Original Cartridge?Refurbished Cartridge?Compatible Cartridge?Or just refilling

Looking at many cartridges and suppliers available for your printer, you might feel a little overwhelmed.

Besides finding just the right cartridge for your particular printer model, you also have to choose between many different  types of cartridges. OEM? Remanufactured? Compatible?Recycled?Refurbished?Refilled?Sometimes it’s hard to know what makes one cartridge different from another. Here is a basic guide to the different types and kinds of printer cartridges, outlining the differences and benefits of OEM, remanufactured,  compatible and refilled printer cartridges.

BRAND NEW ORIGINAL/OEM CARTRIDGE

You may have heard the term "OEM" used before, but what does OEM mean or stand for? OEM refers to “original equipment manufacturer.” No doubt about it, these are high quality cartridges that gives good print quality, but all of that comes at a much higher price.

The obvious downside is the cost. Do you know that printers are often sold at a very less price with small profit margins because OEMs know that they will make their largest profit from selling cartridges? For that reason alone, the name brand company of which you have bought the printer will claim that use of any cartridge other than original may shorten the life of your printer . This is simply not true! OEMs charge exorbitant prices for their cartridges. 

COMPATIBLE PRINTER CARTRIDGE

What are compatible cartridges? A different company simply creates their own version of the cartridge to work in your printer just like OEM cartridge. There are good quality and inferior quality compatible cartridge available but market is flooded with cheap compatibles which will give you good text prints but the difference comes once you print a image from them. If you have one, try photocopying your driving licence , you might not able to recognize your face. 

REFURBISHED PRINTER CARTRIDGES

What does "remanufactured" mean? Firstly I should tell you Remanufactured/Refurbished/Recycled are all same. Remanufactured cartridges started out as new OEM cartridges and they hold their ground next to their OEM counterpart. Instead of throwing a perfectly usable and durable plastic shell away to sit in a landfill, however, another company like Greenvolution refurbished it to be used again. A good remanufacturer will disassemble one time used cartridge and taking it through a process of cleaning, examining, replacing worn out parts, filling it with toner and post testing the cartridge. As long as the process is thoroughly followed, these cartridges print quality and page yield is at per to their original counterpart.

One other advantage of using this option is that it is more environmentally friendly. By definition, this process involves recycling old cartridges rather than adding more waste to the environment.

REFILLING

As one of the cheapest options, refilled cartridges are simply injected with new toner and resold. There is no guarantee of these cartridges and they work or may not work. They can even stop working even if not empty. Poorly refilled cartridge can also damage the printer.

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Thanks

Barkha