Anyone who has ever needed to purchase toner cartridges knows they are pricey! It is in our best interests to stretch our toner cartridges for as long as they can last, but how can we do something like that? If you are using a Brother printer, you have come to the right place. Here are some ways to reduce toner consumption in your Brother printer and save money.

Shake the Cartridge

This may sound ridiculous, but trust us when we say it works! When your printer is flashing a message telling you the toner is running low, give this trick a try before tossing the toner cartridge. Pop out the toner cartridge and shake it around for a bit. You may even want to bump it firmly against the palm of your hands a few times. After you are done, pop the cartridge back into the printer, and voila! There is a high chance the low toner message will be gone.

This works as dust sometimes gets inside the cartridges and becomes stuck together, jamming up the cartridge. Shaking the cartridge up will usually loosen up the clumps in the toner cartridge and let the printer detect the toner levels again. Even if the printer continues to show the low toner notification, you may be able to squeeze in a few more prints.

Reset the Printer’s Internal Memory

Your printer may be showing a low toner message because its internal memory is full, which, in some cases, may prevent it from detecting the toner cartridge. The good news is, fixing this issue is easy. Simply pop the cartridge out and leave it outside for a few minutes. Then load the cartridge back into the printer and leave it in for a few more minutes before switching the printer on. Alternatively, you can try unplugging and then re-plugging your printer. 

Think before You Print

If you are not a frequent printer, it may gratify you to know that toner cartridges do not have expirations like ink cartridges. This means you can bulk buy a bunch of toner cartridges if you come across a good deal. More importantly, you do not have to blitz through the cartridge by printing everything and anything to avoid its expiration. In other words, you can think first before you print! One of the biggest perks of modern technology is how convenient it is to carry soft copies of documents with us. So before pressing the ‘print’ button, ask yourself if the hard copy is necessary.

Buy Genuine Brother Cartridges

No matter what you do, you will have to purchase new toner cartridges at some point. Nothing lasts forever, after all! When the time comes, do not give in to the temptation to buy off-brand toner cartridges. Imitation toner can be very detrimental to your printer. They can leak, cause malfunctions, or produce low-quality prints if you somehow manage to get them to work. Hence, it’s better to be safe than sorry and stick to the original Brother toner cartridges.