Cheap Amazon Laser Printer Cartridges / Refills - My Mess Experience

[Nifty]

The cart for my Brother laser printer was throwing an "empty" error. I was thinking I'd refill it, but an Amazon seller had a sale on clone cartridge that had great reviews.

I received the cart, plugged it into my printer, and immediately got huge vertical streaks and smudges. Nothing solved the issue

I ended up having to totally clean the drum with alcohol / cotton ball... it was pretty gummed up. I'm not exactly sure what it was about swapping carts that did it, but I'm guessing the "new" cart's toner or roller didn't play nice with my drum.

I didn't want to put the same cart back in the printer, but I needed to print, so I pulled off the side tab, and the "empty flag gear" from the replacement and put it on my old cart, and was back to printing... at least until I decide to either refill this old cart or buy one from a different supplier.

Thank goodness for youtube videos! These two were very helpful:

Cleaning the drum unit:

Replacing the flag gear:

 

[The Hat]

I received the cart, plugged it into my printer, and immediately got huge vertical streaks

This also helps...
When you replace a toner cartridge in your laser printer it’s always wise to clean the corona before commencing printing again.. to clean the corona wire there is a little plastic tab on top of the drum unit, just move this tab back and forth a few time to clean..

 

[stratman]

to clean the corona wire there is a little plastic tab on top of the drum unit, just move this tab back and forth a few time to clean..

Just like in Nifty's video above.

 

[The Hat]

Just like in Nifty's video above.

@stratman, you know me and my love for videos…

 

[Artur5]

Third party stuff for lasers is a hit and miss game, much more so than for inkjets. You may purchase a cartridge of a certain brand and it’s OK. Get another one from the same batch and it’s unusable.

Incidentally, I’d avoid touching the drum with any kind of liquids, specially aggressive solvents (including whiskey ),
No matter what you see on youtube, if the drum needs cleaning, just wipe it very gently with a dry soft cloth,

 

[Mervinlee1235]

Third party stuff for lasers is a hit and miss game, much more so than for inkjets. You may purchase a cartridge of a certain brand and it’s OK. Get another one from the same batch and it’s unusable.

Incidentally, I’d avoid touching the drum with any kind of liquids, specially aggressive solvents (including whiskey ),
No matter what you see on youtube, if the drum needs cleaning, just wipe it very gently with a dry soft cloth,

I was just thinking of what is the best way to clean up the drum for any laser printer. Thank you Artur5 for mentioning the best solution of it. Perhaps, soften cloth won't make any spot or harmful effect?

 

[Artur5]

As you all probably know, the surface of the drum is covered with a photosensitive layer which will be easily damaged by chemicals or scratched by rough materials. It will be permanently damaged too if it’s exposed to strong light for a few hours.
Probably a cloth slightly embedded in plain water won’t do much harm if applied gently, but if we don’t let the water to evaporate totally before starting to use the printer, toner powder will stick to the wet parts of the drum, making a mess. Therefore, I prefer to avoid any kind of liquid cleaning.

 

[Mervinlee1235]

As you all probably know, the surface of the drum is covered with a photosensitive layer which will be easily damaged by chemicals or scratched by rough materials. It will be permanently damaged too if it’s exposed to strong light for a few hours.
Probably a cloth slightly embedded in plain water won’t do much harm if applied gently, but if we don’t let the water to evaporate totally before starting to use the printer, toner powder will stick to the wet parts of the drum, making a mess. Therefore, I prefer to avoid any kind of liquid cleaning.

Thanks again for your excellent and authentic clarification. Hope this will enrich the drum cleaning knowledge for many like me.