Consumer Buying Guide for Ink and Toner

Printers have become a standard feature for many of us both at home and especially at work. It is a well known fact that one of the primary expenses when maintaining a printer is the costs of replacing ink and toner cartiridges. If you don’t know what to look out for or how to be a more savy shopper, you can end up paying for more than is necessary and you may also end up with the wrong one. To help you bet a better shopper, this consumer guide for ink and toner, will help you save time not to mention those precisous pennies!

Ink and Toner Cartridges – Be Careful of What Printer You Buy
The key to reducing the costs of replacing toner and ink cartridges is being critical of the type of printer you buy in the first place. It’s important to consider what your printing needs are before establishing what type of printer you would like to go for. Typcially, black ink is the cheapest to replace while coloured toner is far more expensive. If you find that you will only need to print mostly using just black ink then it’s worth the savings to purchase a black and white printer.
If you find that you need to also print in colour and considering investing in an inkjet printer then look at what kind of cartridges are being used. Some manufacturers will use an all-in-one cartridge which means that even if you run out of one colour, you will still need to replace the whole cartridge. Instead, rather look for an inkjet that uses seperated colour toners as this will allow you to buy each colour seperately when needed.

Compare Prices and beware of Cheap Ink and Toner

When it comes to replacing toner and ink, it goes without saying that you need to shop around to get the most competitive price. Different manfacturing brands will offer toner and ink cartridges at different prices with some brands being more expensive the others. Don’t just go to your nearest print store to replace ink and toner cartridges, shop around by looking online and contacting manufacturer’s directly.
While cost is usually a factor, be careful when purchasing too cheap ink and toner cartridges either, as the quality of the ink and toner may be of a lesser quality as a result. Make sure you do some research and take into account the reputability of the brand as well as the cost. You also want to check your printer’s manufacturer warrenty as some stipulate that you need to buy cartridges directly from them otherwise your warranty becomes void.

Importance of Compatible Ink and Toner Cartridges

One key aspect to bear in when shopping for ink and toner cartridges is to make sure you know exactly what model your printer is as typcially there is no one size fits all. Many people who go shopping for ink and toner are surprised to find out that cartridges are designed to be compatible to specific printer types and manufacturer models. Therefore, rather than finding you have forgotten what the model of your printer is, write it down and keep it with you so that when you do go shopping, you won’t buy incomatible ink and toner cartridges.