UK DIY toner refills, refill toner, toner refill kits, refill toner techniques

Toner refill tricks they'd rather you didn't know

Your cartridge might vary in exact detail from the examples below, but the principle will be the same. Look in the "comment or refill method" column of the UK price list to see what the refill technique is for yours. In case you were wondering, toner itself is a dry, fine powder. Luckily for everyone, it pours easily after a good shake.
Unplug, er, that’s it If you're lucky enough to own an "unplug, that's it", your DIY refilling future is bright. As you can see on this Samsung ML-1510 cartridge, the manufacturers have thoughtfully put a toner plug right there on the outside of the cartridge. Just unplug and pour the toner in. Good night and God bless. For reasons which, since you're visiting this site you can probably think of, cartridges with a friendly plug on the outside are in the minority. But they include the snappy new Samsung laser printers like ML-1210/ 1220/ 1221/ 1250/ 1430/ 1510/ 1710/ 1750/ 1755/ 4500/ 4600 and other Samsungs. The same applies to the Epson EPL-5500/ 5700/ 5800 and some machines by Sharp, Tektronix, Xerox and others. The Brother HL-1030/1240/1250/1270 (TN6600 cartridge), although it does have a plug on the outside, has to have its residual toner emptied out through that plug before pouring the fresh toner in. As such, in 2002 it spawned a new type of cartridge - the "unplug, empty & pour". Is your cartridge just an "unplug, that's it"? Find out in the price list.
	1 screw & unplug QMS Magicolor 2200 cartridges have a single screw standing between you and a removable toner plug. Unscrew the screw, the panel comes off and there she is. A lot of cartridges can be refilled using this same basic method, but the "remove a screw" theme can get more technical. By that we mean some cartridges have, not one, but two screws to remove. Some have three and some, wait for it, have four. We've said in the price list just how many screws are in your way: i.e. "3 screw, unplug & pour". (Were called QMS when the Magicolor 2200 came out but have since morphed into Minolta-QMS and then Konica Minolta. Confused? So are the shareholders apparently.) Magicolor 2300 cartridges have the same conceptual design as the Magicolor 2200, although all the body mouldings are different. They also use different weights of a different type of toner powder. For more on how toners differ, see "Toner Explained". Although you can get toner back into the Magicolor 2200 and Magicolor 2300 by "1 screw, unplug & pour", in neither case will that alone lead to successful refill. This is because of other factors (or should we say "obstacles") that apply to these two cartridges. You need to know little "work-arounds" you'll find in our starter kits. Don't worry, they're nothing major, just little reset procedures.
Melt & pour We dreamt up "melt & pour" in 1996 and pretty soon offered it to the toner-cartridge-buying public at large. Contrary to what some of our former colleagues in the cartridge "remanufacturing" industry seem to have imagined, we did stop to make sure it worked. In those days, the received wisdom was it wouldn't. Melting - now refined with our all singing, all dancing ELECTRIC TOOL - happens to be the easiest way of making a hole in an empty lump of plastic. Make no mistake, that's one empty lump of plastic a surprising number of people don't want you to melt a hole in. Once you have a hole, pour the toner in and seal with tape. Our starter kits for melt & pour cartridges have a backed, self-adhesive patch included, but in many cases, brown parcel tape does just as good a job (The HP Color LaserJet 1500 / 2500 is an exception there). The photo shows the hole being melted on the HP LaserJet 1200 cartridge, but for different cartridges the hole goes in a different place. The majority of Hewlett Packard's black and white laser printers are best tackled with "melt & pour". Another wildly popular one is the Canon E30 copier cartridge. Check in the method column of the price list to see if your cartridge is a "melt & pour". The electric melting tool is included in the starter kit if stated in the product description, and if it isn't, can be bought as an optional extra from Sundries.
	Melt & Pour Foxes the "Pros" When we inflicted "melt & pour" on an unsuspecting world in 1996, our former colleagues in the cartridge remanufacturing industry laughed at us. They sent us emails telling us to crawl back under our rock. They published scathing articles in their trade press. They thought we didn't know what we were doing and forgot we earned our stripes in their own army. But around 1995 we began to see a new type of laser cartridge from HP. Single-skinned, plugless and difficult to reassemble after disassembly. They were much harder to remanufacture reliably. So why were we so keen, then as now, on "melt & pour" - the method they laughed at? Because it doesn't disturb the inner workings of your cartridge, that's why. It's completely superficial and changes nothing. If your cartridge was working before, it'll be working after too. It's ironic, but you actually have an advantage over the "professionals". They have to close a can of worms to reassemble a single-skinned cartridge: you don't. They have to empty any waste compartment and re-seal the developer section to be able to transport the re-cycled cartridge: you don't. Can the professionals hand the customer a cartridge with a piece of brown tape stuck over a melted refill hole? Right degree of mystique? No, they have to disassemble and disturb. You, on the other hand, just melt & pour - the most reliable method there is to refill a single-skinned cartridge.
Open, unplug & pour And the best of the rest .... These can be the same as "unplug, that's it" except that at first - and probably not by any accident - you can't get to the plug. A bit of taking apart is what's needed, and folks, this isn't rocket science. For the HP LaserJet 2 cartridge - our first "designer waste" victim way back in 1992 - you pull out 4 plastic "casing pins" with a threaded tool. It's like uncorking a bottle of wine. The toner plug is then at your mercy. Unfortunately for those that like the occasional tipple, the similarity to wine tasting ends at the uncorking bit. Phew! The Rough Guide to DIY toner refills just about ends there. As you can probably see, all toner cartridges are different and there are a fair few odd-balls we haven't covered. Don't worry, though. Our starter kit for your cartridge clearly shows you how to refill it - whatever the refill technique is.
OK, you don’t believe it works Read customer comments toner refills links Home Actually, neither would we, even after reading such a (ahem, ahem) skilfully written sales blurb. So order up a starter kit! Try it! Yes, pour some more fuel into that otherwise worthless cartridge! The same way we do to get the majority of the company's printing done without going bankrupt! Come on, join the army of "guerrilla re-cyclers", save yourself a small fortune, help our home planet and have some fun while you're at it. What have you got to lose?