Why Your Toner Cartridge Is Leaking and What Should You Do About It
By Andrew Yeung
There are a variety of reasons as to why your toner cartridge is leaking. Unless you are ready to replace it, make sure that you do not remove any affected parts of your machine as this could lead to worse damages. The cause of leakage with your toner cartridge can be determined in a few ways.
Shaking Works Like Magic (Not!)
If you’re someone that doesn’t have a replacement ready at home for your toner, you might be one of the people that have tried the old shaking method. It involves taking out the toner cartridge and shaking it a few times before snapping it back in the printer.
Printer manuals explicitly state not to do this but lots of people do this in hopes of extending the lifespan of the toner cartridge. Unfortunately, this is one of the primary causes of leakage. If you’ve done this once or twice recently, expect to have leaked in your printer soon enough.
Optimize Printer Settings and Properties
The best way of extending the lifespan of your toner cartridge is by optimizing your printer’s properties with what you print. There are instances where certain colors are used up faster since they’re much more common in prints. Changing the hue and saturation of the colors before printing also ensure that most colors are being used by your printer.
Optimal Operating Temperature
Temperature is also a big factor when it comes to the sustainability of the ink inside the cartridge. If you live in a humid area, the possibility of the ink becoming overheated are greater. This is one of the reasons why you’re much more liable to see messy ink blotches on prints when it’s a hot summer’s day.
Printer owners that live in areas that become very hot during the summer experience leakage in their printer for no apparent reason other than the ink reached its melting point too early during printing. One of the ways to avoid this is to ensure that the room the printer is in properly ventilated.
If your printer hits its melting point too often even when not printing, your equipment will definitely run into issues. Make sure that you are not jeopardizing the lifespan of your printer by taking proper care of the unit.
Refilling Toner with Wrong Ink
Refilling the toner cartridge with the wrong type of ink or connecting it with an incompatible drum are two recipes for disasters. You can expect leakage when you attempt these methods when replacing your cartridge improperly. Avoid deviating from what’s recommended in the printer’s manual.
A worn-out transfer roller can also cause leakage for your printer. Instead of making its way on your paper, the toner is left inside the drum causing clogs that prevents ink from coming out properly during printing. Excess ink overflow which causes blotches on your paper.
Though it may seem like manufacturers only want your money by restricted you with what you can replace your toner cartridges and drums with, it’s necessary that you abide by this instruction since a broken printer is definitely worse than a leaking toner cartridge or drum.