Answer
Mar 16, 2022 - 09:12 AM
How many prints do you get out of your toner?
The number of prints you can get out of a White Toner Printer is one of our most popular questions with one of the most complicated answers.
Understanding Prints
The first part of this answer is understanding how toner is used. Toner usage can be compared to ingredients to make cookies and cakes. Each cookie and cake uses a different ratio of flour, sugar, salt, etc. All of these ingredients are used in different proportion and will run out at different times based on what you bake. This can be thought the same way as toner usage. If you are printing logos that have a lot of magenta, and almost no cyan, you will naturally run out of magenta much more often than cyan.
In addition to the amount of toner in each logo, there is how much toner is used to produce a design. For example a company logo that is just lettering will use a lot less toner than a full color picture. The less negative space, the more toner used. This can be thought of like using crayons. If you are just writing names of people, your crayon will last a long time. If you are filling the entire paper will designs leaving no empty space, those crayons will run out fast.
Estimating Prints
Our team tries to estimate prints based on user experience. However, this can vary greatly similarly to the baking and coloring examples above. Your toner usage could be significantly more, or significantly less, based on the following: Colors used, negative space, size of prints, types of logos, saturation, types of paper used, etc.
The below are just estimates based on our teams experience:
DigitalHeat FX i560 : 1000 – 3000 Prints
DigitalHeat FX 8432wt : 1500 – 4500 Prints
DigitalHeat FX i650 : 1500 – 4500 Prints
DigitalHeat FX 9541 : 8000 – 11000 Prints
The above estimates do not mean you cannot run out of a single color during this span of prints. As mentioned above, if you use a lot of magenta, you may replace magenta 2x before you replace a single Cyan. This merely is an estimate for the full amount of toner in the machine and can vary widely based on your business.
What is starter toner?
Some models of DigitalHeat FX Systems come from the factory with a starter set. This is not the same amount of toner that is purchased when you refill. Your first set of toner will be replaced quicker than subsequent sets.
Starter toner estimates (These follow the same logic as mentioned above)
DigitalHeat FX i560 : 300 - 1000 Prints
DigitalHeat FX 8432wt : 400 – 2000 Prints
DigitalHeat FX i650 : 400 – 2000 Prints
DigitalHeat FX 9541 : 5000 – 11000 Prints (comes with a full toner at time of purchase)
Due to the nature of starter toner sets, its highly recommended to invest in an additional complete toner set at the time of equipment purchase.
To further dive into these details please live chat with our team or call 855-348-4839
How are manufacturer estimates calculated?
Globally it is a standard of major printer manufacturers use a 5% coverage estimate when calculating a page yield. Documentation will often show high page yields at 5% coverage. However, the above information explains how 5% may not be enough to calculate your personal yield. So how much is 5% coverage? Let's do some math. A letter sized paper is 8.5x11 inches. The square inches of this paper would be 8.5x11 = 93.5 square inches. This would mean that 5% coverage would be completely covering about 5% of 93.5 inches or 4.675 square inches. In comparison a credit card is 3.37 x 2.125 inches or about 7 square inches.
Now keep in mind that is fully covering that area with toner. If you took lettering or a logo with negative space, then that toner spreads to a much larger area. For example, if you are typing text on a page 5% coverage would be a couple of small paragraphs of text.
Really the true answer is, there is no true answer. One can only estimate and are much better using your own real world examples and job calculators found in your Print Optimizer software. Always use the job cost to help build out your toner costs and profits to prepare for replacement.
