topic Re: imageCLASS MF272dw - Rapidly declining toner cartridge life in Office Printers

imageCLASS MF272dw - Rapidly declining toner cartridge life

Buadhai — Mon, 19 May 2025 12:08:20 GMT

My wife is a busy attorney. She prints what I see as vast quantities of documents from wills, to contracts to court pleadings and more.

The original starter cartridge for the MF272dw lasted about 13 months from May of 2023 to August of 2024. The first standard cartridge lasted about six months from August of 2024 to February of 2025. The second standard cartridge lasted only two months from February of 2025 to April of 2025. The third standard cartridge lasted only one month from April of 2025 to May of 2025.

This is based on the Cartridge Log Report.

Any idea what’s going on here?

Re: imageCLASS MF272dw - Rapidly declining toner cartridge life

mreg — Mon, 19 May 2025 14:16:49 GMT

Well, It's impossible to say without knowing the number of documents she printed with each cartridge.

Re: imageCLASS MF272dw - Rapidly declining toner cartridge life

Buadhai — Mon, 19 May 2025 21:11:51 GMT

Is there a way to find the printer's page count?

If not, all I can say is that the number of pages she prints is rather consistent while the toner life is not. The starter cartridge lasted 13 times as long as the most recent standard cartridge. There is no way that she printed thirteen times as many pages in the last month than she did in the entire first year.

Re: imageCLASS MF272dw - Rapidly declining toner cartridge life

mreg — Mon, 19 May 2025 21:21:46 GMT

It's hard to take your your original post seriously. You claim that the starter cartridge lasted 13 months being used by a busy attorney. The starter cartridge states a 700 page yield, which is probably more like 500. Your "busy" attorney printed only one ream of paper in over a year printing "vast quantities" of long legal documents? Some part of your post is simply not true.

Re: imageCLASS MF272dw - Rapidly declining toner cartridge life

Buadhai — Mon, 19 May 2025 21:30:32 GMT

OK. Let’s assume that she only printed 500 pages in the first year. That’s about 40 pages a month. That means that the most recent standard cartridge only managed to print 40 pages. Does that sound more reasonable?

Re: imageCLASS MF272dw - Rapidly declining toner cartridge life

Buadhai — Mon, 19 May 2025 23:41:33 GMT

I asked my wife about this discrepancy. It turns out the dates on the printer log are incorrect. She checked the receipt and found that she bought the printer in May of 2024. So, here’s a revised first paragraph with corrected figures

The original starter cartridge for the MF272dw lasted about 3 months from May of 2024 to August of 2024. The first standard cartridge lasted about six months from August of 2024 to February of 2025. The second standard cartridge lasted only two months from February of 2025 to April of 2025. The third standard cartridge lasted only one month from April of 2025 to May of 2025.

Trouble is, if the printer log is unreliable there’s no way for me to know if any of the dates are correct.

Re: imageCLASS MF272dw - Rapidly declining toner cartridge life

Buadhai — Tue, 20 May 2025 06:29:31 GMT

Thank you for raising the issue. If it weren’t for you comment I would not have thought of questioning the accuracy of the printer cartridge log. I'm actually amazed that the log is one year off for the starter cartridge.

Re: imageCLASS MF272dw - Rapidly declining toner cartridge life

mreg — Tue, 20 May 2025 20:40:50 GMT

But again, it's not possible to assess why the various cartridges lasted as long as they did unless you know how many pages were printed with each cartridge. The default answer must be "it did not last as long because you printed more pages." There's no point in discussing it without that info. If you don't have the info you don't have it. And all of this is assuming that you're using Canon OEM cartridges. If you're using third-party cartridges, with their inconsistency and inferior quality, there can be no answer for you here.

Re: imageCLASS MF272dw - Rapidly declining toner cartridge life

Buadhai — Wed, 21 May 2025 00:52:45 GMT

OK then. I give up. Just another one of life’s disappointing mysteries.

Re: imageCLASS MF272dw - Rapidly declining toner cartridge life

mreg — Wed, 21 May 2025 04:11:25 GMT

Actually there's nothing to be disappointed about. Toner cartridge life is measured in pages printed, not time. So if you don't know the pages printed, there is no basis to be disappointed in the cartridge life. A mystery, yes. But one that you, not we, can solve.

Re: imageCLASS MF272dw - Rapidly declining toner cartridge life

Buadhai — Wed, 21 May 2025 07:47:27 GMT

There are too many variables. Number of pages printed. Print density for each page. You’d have to keep accurate track of both of those to really determine how long a cartridge actually lasted. No one is going to take the time to do that.

So, you can either waste lots of time collecting data or simply give up and accept the fact that some cartridges are gonna last a lot longer than others even when admittedly subjective observation indicates that something is amiss.

I choose to give up.

Re: imageCLASS MF272dw - Rapidly declining toner cartridge life

DOffice — Mon, 26 May 2025 21:12:49 GMT

I have a MF 275dw imageclass printer and I just replaced the toner-071H on March 11th and it is already flashing to replace it again. I fax more than I print and I bought the toner with greater printing capacity and I don't feel I should have to replace the toner this soon. I am only in an office 3 days a week and it is not a heavily used printer. I had a Brother all in one before this and the toner would last for months so I know it is not me, it is the Canon toner.

Re: imageCLASS MF272dw - Rapidly declining toner cartridge life

DOffice — Mon, 26 May 2025 21:15:39 GMT

Just to add to my original message, it was a genuine Canon cartridge from the Canon site.

Re: imageCLASS MF272dw - Rapidly declining toner cartridge life

shadowsports — Mon, 26 May 2025 21:21:45 GMT

Greetings ,

Admittedly, I didn't read through this entire thread. One comment I would like to make. Total page yield is directly affected by the percentage of ink coverage.

Also for an attorney, at any printing volume, I would recommend a laser printer over an inkjet. It makes more sense from a fiscal and performance standpoint.

Re: imageCLASS MF272dw - Rapidly declining toner cartridge life

DOffice — Mon, 26 May 2025 21:52:06 GMT

The imageclass is a laser printer, not inkjet.

Re: imageCLASS MF272dw - Rapidly declining toner cartridge life

Buadhai — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 08:34:30 GMT

Just to update this with the solution on which we decided. My wife contacted Canon support to ask why the cartridge actually prints so many fewer pages than advertised. They told her to keep an accurate page count. She did that by keeping a tally of every page she printed. The total was just over 600 for a single standard cartigede. She reported that to Canon support. They told her that in addition to the tally they would need a print sample of each and every one of the 600+ pages she printed. Of course, she was unable to supply this.

In the end we have switched to using unofficial printer cartridges. They cost about one third of the official Canon cartridges and last about 50% longer.

And that's all she wrote.

Re: imageCLASS MF272dw - Rapidly declining toner cartridge life

shadowsports — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 13:19:53 GMT

Greetings,

Thanks for the feedback. The MG275dw has a monthly duty cycle of 150 to 2,000 pages typically. The 071H high capacity cartridge averages around 2,500 pages with 5% ink coverage. The 071 standard is about 1,200 pages, or half those if you print duplex. Page yield might be affected by page banners or images, but shouldn't be impacted dramatically printing plain documents. ** I also noted I misspoke about the model. It is laser. Thanks for posting a follow-up.