Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Parts for a Brother MFC

I have been just printing on paper, but yes, I should be using a CD. (Have to buy a new drum today for my Brother MFC. BTW, has anyone tried the non-Brother replacement parts? i.e. on Amazon listed as 'compatible' Brother).

I would just 'print' to a PDF and save this to a CD.

I have used compatible parts from both Ebay and Amazon. They seem better than the recycled HP carts which sometimes leak toner, no issues in the Brother look a likes. One that I got from eBay didn't seem to last very long. Every other one was fine (I have both a ?7820 and an 8840 MFC.)

I tried Quill corp. generic replacements, and refills from a local re-inking place.
Both performed poorly or not at all in my brother MFCs, which I love otherwise.

So one person using generics with no problem and one with poor performance?

I don't use the generic replacements in my Brother MFC's & lasers. I haven't seen any damage to the printers, but the toner cartridges usually don't last as long as the "brand".

First of all, there are two different types of replacements. One is cheaper but does not last nearly as long. The more expensive ones I think are comparable. Be sure you are comparing apples to apples. Check the claimed number of pages/cartridge.

I think the drums are supposed to be good for 20,000 pages. At this point I'm buying original Brother drums and toner cartridges. The "generics" are hit or miss. Had one generic toner leak all in my machine. It was a mess. Before you buy a drum, price the cost of a toner cartridge + a drum. Sometimes a newer machines is not that much more $. If the print quality is still good you can take the drum out, do a drum counter reset, and put the old drum back in.

We go through a lot of faxes and printing here. I always buy the cheapest from Amazon in lots of 3 or 4 for toners, and have not had any issues. I also buy the cheapest drums. There are so many sellers, I don't keep track of which one I bought from last time. I have had delivery issues from eBay sellers, and think Amazon seems to keep some semblance of quality control on the sellers.

However, the next to last DR520 drum did not last at all, started picking up toner at the edges regardless of exposure. Other than for that drum, I think the quality and durability is comparable to name brand.

The above applies to my Brother and Canon black and white MFCs. My Xerox and HP color lasers do not do well with anything but name brand. Because they were so expensive, I tried to refill them and replace the chips, but the hassle was too much (burning holes in the case to access the inside, pouring fine toner dust through paper funnels, trying to reseal the holes . . . I swear I still have toner dust in every crack and groove on my desk).

How do you do a counter reset on the drum? Mine is printing fine, but it says 25,100 + pages.

from fixya.com

l.- Press Menu on the control panel
2.- Press the up or down arrow keys to select " Machine Info "
3.- Press Ok
4.- Press the up or down arrow key to select " Reset Menu "
5.- Press Ok
6.- Press the Up or Down key to select " Drum "
7.- Press Ok
8.- Press 1 to reset the drum unit counter

Thanks for this tip, Jack

I have taken a piece of scotch tape and carefully covered the hole over the sensor window on the non gear side, and then took a black permanent marker and colored in the tape over the sensor. Popped it back in place, it has worked like a charm!

This method has allowed us to print about 1000 pages extra. If your last page printed was fine, your toner still has ink.

My drum is printing fine, and has a good toner cartridge inside. However, it keeps saying replace parts: drum. Unfortunately, there is no 'reset menu' on my machine.

Chris, which MFC do you have?

Okay: I finally found something on google. With the drum OUT, press the BACK button and it gives the option to reset. Thanks everyone for being so helpful. This is such a good group, I think we should have more 'off topic' type forums to discuss random stuff. It is a Brother 8680DN

Thanks, Chris. I printed this out and hung it above my Brother MFC. I agree, I learn so much stuff, AC and other, on this board.