How long do laser printer toner cartridge last?

My Lexmark C543 colour laser came with 2500 page high-yield cartridges and already I've had to replace the magenta cartridge, and now the black and yellow cartridges are reporting as needing replacement. As a home-use printer, I say it's printed at most 500 pages of mostly text so I'm surprised that the toner cartridges haven't lasted longer.

Do toner cartridges "expire" before the actual toner is exhausted?

In reply to a post by joconnell:

Do toner cartridges "expire" before the actual toner is exhausted?

I am sure they do, but it is many years, not months, before age has an affect on toner cartridges.

It's worth giving the toner a shake before you actually change the cartridge. Just a gentle backwards, forwards and rotate to loosen the remaining toner up. I used to look after several dozen assorted printers around our office block and it always worked for me.
N.B. - You have to be gentle as the toner itself is pretty noxious stuff so you don't want to risk it leaking.

Edited by longedge (Sun 19-Oct-14 07:47:21)

In reply to a post by longedge:

It's worth giving the toner a shake before you actually change the cartridge. Just a gentle backwards, forwards and rotate to loosen the remaining toner up. I used to look after several dozen assorted printers around our office block and it always worked for me.
N.B. - You have to be gentle as the toner itself is pretty noxious stuff so you don't want to risk it leaking.

At one office I was in, the IT department were "complaining" about the amount of cartridges being used and the cost - which was ultimately billed to the teams based there. They then decided to implement a policy that only the IT team would change cartridges in printers and fax machines rather than leaving spares with each. The policy was that when printer was reported a technician would remove the cartridge, and shake it horizontally, then put a small white Tippex mark on it and this would continue until there were something like 5 marks and at that point the cartridge would be replaced. The toner bill dropped by well over 50%.

The shake just needs to be a couple of taps to start then a gentle left right to redistribute the toner - just think about a page the left most 2 cm are never used (or very rarely) and as you go to the right general usage also drops so there will be empty and full parts.

I'm pretty sure that the HP instructions for the cartridge for my monochrome laser printer tell me to shake the cartridge (gently) to get a bit more life out of it.

Are you sure it didn't come with 'starter' toners or low-yield versions? I know some manufacturers do this as standard.

In reply to a post by DoktorEddie:

Are you sure it didn't come with 'starter' toners or low-yield versions? I know some manufacturers do this as standard.

No, I've checked and the cartridges are labelled high-yield

According to a sales page it states that it comes with starter toners. But, it also confirms they are:

Starter Toners CMY = 2000 pages Black = 2500 pages

So, the start toners should nominally do the yield you were expecting.

In reply to a post by joconnell:

I say it's printed at most 500 pages

What's the actual page count as recorded in the printer logs? If it's really that low you could go back to the supplier and see if they will do anything for you - perhaps a set of toners at a reduced price.

I'm just an old cynic but I've always regarded toner/ink cartridges that came with the printer as being there to try the printer out and make sure it's working. Every printer I've bought personally, I bought new cartridges along with it although I did come unstuck with a Lexmark E310 many years ago in that I never actually used the spare toner. The one that came with it was still working until a couple of years ago when it finally went for disposal.

Most printers do come with small cartridges but in the case of the OP's the cartridges are rated for the page yield he was expecting. The other thing to consider is what sort of prints - page yield is normally based on something like 5% coverage so if a lot of full page colour prints were being done with high coverage then it would use toner much more quickly.