Customer Reviews

Brother TN250 Toner Cartridge

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

We've had an MFC4800 for a number of years now (and paid several hundred more than it sells for now.)

I bought a non-Brother toner cartridge. Once.

It printed terribly, had streaks everywhere. I wound up replacing the drum as well to get it working properly again.

This was only the 2nd toner cartridge, so I don't think it was quite time for a drum.

Spend the extra money on this - buy the Brother toner.

I ordered this item because the title and Description CLEARLY state that this is a BROTHER OEM part.

Brother TN250 Toner Cartridge

Technical Details
For Brother plain-paper fax machines and multifunction devices
Compatible with DCP1000; IntelliFax 2800, 2900, 3800; MFC4800, MFC6800
Yields 2,200 pages at 5% coverage
Fine black toner particles for sharp detail
Genuine Brother quality accessory

What I was shipped was a COMPATIBLE generic cartridge. I would not have purchased this item if it was clearly labled as non-OEM. One could argue that the price should have been a give-away, but it is still misleading and deceptive.

UPDATE: Apparently Amazon made a mistake in the listing for this item and merged non-OEM and OEM sellers. The marketplace seller in this case contacted me (Abacus24-7) and has offered a full refund of the purchase price and shipping. I will update this review once I get my refund. The current listing now lists Amazon.com as the seller and the price has gone from $7 to $24 indicating that most likely this is now the genuine OEM product.

Tried a generic equivalent cartridge from Staples with miserable results--could barely read the printing from my laser fax. Replaced the almost new generic with the real thing and 3 pages later the printing was just fine. I have used "equivalent" toner cartridges (by Xerox) with my HP printer and had very good results, but I will stick with Brother for my fax.

I prefer Brother toner to generics.

Amazon price is actually better than most E-bay bargains if you buy two cartidges and thus qualify for free postage.

Purchase ONLY the genuine Brother TN-250 toner cartridge. We get approximately 3,600 prints from each cartridge, each one even, crisp and clean. Note: We print mostly text w/o much graphics, hence the higher page count.

Tried a couple of "compatible" TN-250 cartridges, and the results were miserable. We got at most 1,500 prints from them, and the greys were uneven across the page. The "clones" apparently are short on toner, severely compromised in print quality, and vary considerably in consistency.

Our results are a far cheaper per page print cost (for us at ~2.1 cents per print including the price of paper, toner and the drum). I personally know several other Brother MFC-series laser printer all-in-one owners, and many still own printers that are much older than mine. They have shared their experience that "compatible" "clone" toner cartridges just don't cut it.

Here is my cost-use analysis for my Brother MFC-6800.

Drum = 25,000 prints = 0.0054 cents per page (based on $135 price @ Amazon.com)
Toner = 3,600 prints = 0.0072 cents per page (based on $25.92 per cartridge @ Amazon.com)
Paper = .0082 cents per page (based on $41.00 / case of 5,000 sheets @ Sams Club)
TOTAL: 2.08 cents / page (INCLUDES Drum, Toner & Paper costs)

Type of printing: Invoices, price sheets, promotions (heavy toner use due to graphics).

Our Brother MFC-6800 printer is now coming up on 6 years old and it has topped 70,000 prints. I expect this printer to last several more years. Not bad considering the original $249.00 investment.

In a nutshell the real Brother TN-250 toner cartridge performs reliably--EVERY time, while "compatibles" are just cheap wannabes.

Go with the best; go with the real thing.

UPDATE: 4/10/2009
It seems that Amazon no longer offers Free Super Saver Shipping on this item except for once in a great while. Free Super Saver shipping is a bargain. Otherwise, your next best bet is to use Office Depot or OfficeMax coupons to give you a far better landed cost.

I located about 25 vendors that sell this product and Amazon, far and away had the best price per unit. In other words, I comparison shopped on the web to obtain price information as the product is an original equipment part ( TN 250 Cartridge for Brother MFC 6800 Printer ) so the quality of the product is constant and the only difference is the price per unit. The web, as you know functions like a perfect market if one is willing to comparison shop. As a result of the great price, I ordered three (3) units rather than just one. Since the product is original and not a refill ( actually, some refill cartridges were more expensive!) they function perfectly.

I've tried various sources for generic Brother TN-250 cartridges, and they are all crap. That includes Staples and Office Depot as well some other "no names". I replaced two drum units, thinking the drum units were shot, when the only problem was generic and off-brand toner cartridges.

I have two identical Brother DCP printers, so I can swap drum units and cartridges between machines and play mix-and-match. And everything works fine as long as the unit has a Brother cartridge. Anything else and print quality goes to crap. Pages come out light. They have streaks. Sometimes the entire page turns gray.

If you have been using generics and switch back to a good cartridge, be aware that it will take close to a ream of paper before you finally clear all of the old crappy toner.

I bought this toner for my Brother printer. I should have known better. This is not a "Brother" printer toner, it simply replaces it. I thought I would save a few bucks and buy generic. Well, now I get to spend more than planned and buy the "Brother" toner, afterall. This generic one is making a huge mess of anything I wish to print. I never had this problem when buying the "Brother" brand. This generic one doesn't come in a sealed, airtight wrapper and it has made a mess of the drum unit. Probably have to replace that now. VERY DISAPPOINTED!!!

From my experience, if you are using a Brother laser printer, you're better off using the OEM toner rather than third-party refill toner. I have tried third-party toner from three different sources for a DCP-1000 three-in-one (scan, copy, print) laser printer which is now about five years old. In two of the three cases, the toner did not work (faint printing). The one that did work is apparently no longer available, and the amazon price for the Brother toner is better anyway. Now, third-party toner for Brother products, especially the tn250, has dropped to very low levels. I would be very cautious about using non-Brother toner unless it had some kind of warranty. In one of the above cases where I did experiment with a third-party toner, not only did it not work with the Brother DR250 drum, but it also ruined the drum, making it unusable even with a genuine Brother toner cartridge. At the time, the drum was much pricier than it is now through amazon, so it was a costly lesson to learn. The reason I bought the Brother machine then was that it was more affordable for the quality and features it offered than a similar "big-name" machine. Nowadays most printer manufacturers offer a variety of machines at various price points with varying features. Brother's appeal is still the cost-effectiveness of its consumables, such as the tn250.

I highly recommend using authentic Brother toner cartridges. My Brother MFC-6800 multi-function printer has not functioned correctly when I have used substitute brands.

I typically get less than half of the suggested 2,500 copies per toner cartridge, but this result is to some degree predicted by the Brother "fine print", which states that the 2,500 page count is an estimate that applies only when pages are printed in large batches; I usually print only a few pages at a time.

I try to get more copies out of a toner cartridge by using the following procedure when the "Toner Low" light comes on:
- Remove toner cartridge / drum assembly; leave the toner cartridge in the drum;
- To redistribute the toner, gently shake the drum assembly left and right, then rotate it forward and back;
- Re-install the drum assembly in the printer, close the lid;
- The "Toner Low" indicator should stay off for a while.

This may increase the number of copies that can be printed before the printer decides that the toner cartridge is empty, and refuses to print.