Generic Toner vs. Genuine Toners: What Is Better?

Its trial by fire you know. It’s similar to gladiatorial battles of ancient Greece. If you come out swinging after all the suffering, then you’re a seasoned printer owner but if you keep getting beaten, then you might as well forget about financial glory. Seasoned printer owners know how the debate of generic toner vs. genuine toners will turn out in their heads.

They know how Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) sell printers at throwaway prices and make their profits by making the customer buy the OEM toner cartridges at insane prices.

Before you bought that brand new laser printer, you probably never took the people complaining about the cost of toner cartridges that seriously. You probably even saw them as cheapskates whining about a little thing.

Now, you know better.

You know how toner cartridges can turn out to be even more expensive than ink cartridges.

You know what that means because you know that, pint by pint, ink is actually more expensive than that high end bottle of champagne you’ve been saving up for a special occasion.

You know all these things, which is precisely why you want to look into the prospect of using generic toner cartridges. This is exactly why you want the question of generic toner vs. genuine toners answered. Well, at Inkjet Wholesale, we’re here to do just that for you. Before we dive into generic toner vs. genuine toners, let’s understand what generic cartridges are.

What Are Generic Toner Cartridges?

OEM toner cartridges are made by the company that makes the printers they fit in while generic toner cartridges are toner cartridges that third party manufacturers make for branded printers.

Generic toner cartridges are actually cartridges that are compatible to the brand of printer you’re using.

In other words, they are alternatives you can go for.

We can hear you asking if generic toner cartridges and remanufactured or refilled toner cartridges are the same in your head. To answer your unasked question, no, they are not.

A remanufactured toner cartridge is basically a recycled form of the cartridge that users emptied out earlier. A refilled toner cartridge is basically the same toner cartridge you emptied, filled with toner again. Generic toner cartridges manufactured fresh and contain no recycled parts. This is why they’re considered to be of better quality than remanufactured or refilled toner cartridges.

Generic toner cartridges are miles better than remanufactured or refilled toner cartridges. The big question, however, what wins in the battle of generic toner vs. genuine toners. To answer this question for you, we’ll approach both generic toner and genuine toners one by one from the lens of pros and cons.

Generic Toner vs. Genuine Toners: Where the Generics Win Out

The biggest and most important reason why the debate of generic toner vs. genuine toners even comes up is the cost. People start considering generic toner cartridges because they’re worried that constant changing of their toner cartridges will result in their finances being hit drastically.

It’s no secret in the world that generic toner cartridges are actually cheaper than genuine toner cartridges.

However, the key question here is why.

As mentioned above, printer manufacturers sell their printers on massive losses because they think that they’ll make up for the loss when the user has to buy cartridges again and again. So, when you buy genuine toner cartridges, you’re essentially paying for the printer you bought earlier and for the cartridges as well as for the manufacturers’ profits.

The costing of genuine toner cartridges has nothing to do with the cost price or even the supply and demand metrics. On the other hand, generic toner cartridges don’t suffer from this bias.

Third party manufacturers of generic toner cartridges price their cartridges in a way that their costs are covered and they make slight profits. This minor difference means that you can end up saving up to 70 percent by buying generic toner cartridges.

Consider the fact that it’s not just about the cost of one genuine toner cartridge. Instead, it’s about all the cartridges you’ll ever buy. What this means is that your savings add up massively over a few years.

Generic Toner vs. Genuine Toners: How Genuines Beat Generics

The main arena where genuine toner cartridges win the debate of generic toner vs. genuine toners is that of quality.

Genuine toner cartridges are designed by the manufacturers with not only the specific printer model in mind but also the specific paper being used.

This means that genuine toner cartridges are refined to fit in well with the printer and paper both. The effect of this difference is best visible when it comes to high quality prints.

The best example of this is images or photographs.

In terms of generic toner vs. genuine toners, you’ll find that genuine toners almost always provide better quality and clarity when it comes to images.

Moreover, it’s not just about the quality of the images but also their durability. Images printed with genuine toner cartridges tend to maintain their integrity over a longer period than images printed with generic toner cartridges.

This has been the situation for the longest of time when it comes to the debate of generic toner vs. genuine toners for the longest time. However, the situation is now changing slightly because generic toner manufacturers have also started backing their products.

Now, there are actually recognisable brands of generic toner cartridges just like there are brands of genuine toner cartridges. Third party manufacturers are branding their generic cartridges because they’re confident in their performance.

Along with branding, these manufacturers are even providing 100 percent guarantees and money refunds. In fact, the toner cartridges we sell are also branded and come with 100 percent refunds throughout their life.

What all this means is that the standard of quality has gone up for generic toner cartridges as well. Generic toner cartridges always used to be a match for genuine toner cartridges when it came to printing of text but they’ve now become a match for genuine toner cartridges even with regard to image printing.

Will Use of Generic Printer Cartridges Cause Problems?

Because of the threat that generic toner cartridges pose to OEMs profit margins, there are many rumours and myths designed to make them look bad. The idea is to simply make the user i.e. you choose genuine cartridges every time you consider the debate of generic toner vs. genuine toners. Let us deal with some of those to conclude this piece.

Voiding of Warranty

The most common myth regarding generic toner cartridges is that their use will result in the warranty on the printer getting void. There is no truth to this myth whatsoever. The laws forbid any company from absolving itself from the warranty provided, if the recommended consumables are not used unless those consumables damage the printer.

Damage to Printer

This brings us to the next myth that generic toner cartridges will damage printers. This myth is a result of the time when third party compatible cartridges weren’t of high quality. This myth is also a result of refilled cartridges malfunctioning because that does happen fairly often.

However, you shouldn’t let these myths deter you from considering generic toner vs. genuine toners and choosing the former. All you need to do is buy from a reliable seller like Inkjet Wholesale and you’re all set.