Toner (best by date?)

Are re-manufactured toners "best by date" to be taken seriously? A
local vendor as putting some re-manufactured toners up for sale at a
discount. However they said the best by date written on the toner was
in fact last fall at August, 2006. So we are already several months
over date on them? So question is are toners like milk and yogurt?
do they get spoiled and we have to throw them out once the "BEST BY"
date has been exceeded?

My experience has been that although there may be slight quality fall
off, laser toner cartridges tend to last almost indefinitely if properly
stored.

Art

Joseph wrote:

Are re-manufactured toners "best by date" to be taken seriously? A
local vendor as putting some re-manufactured toners up for sale at a
discount. However they said the best by date written on the toner was
in fact last fall at August, 2006. So we are already several months
over date on them? So question is are toners like milk and yogurt?
do they get spoiled and we have to throw them out once the "BEST BY"
date has been exceeded?

On 18-Feb-2007, "Joseph" wrote:

Are re-manufactured toners "best by date" to be taken seriously? A
local vendor as putting some re-manufactured toners up for sale at a
discount.

I've had no problems with OEM HP toners that are several years
past their BEST BY when installed, and even more out of date
with a light useage printer. Some HP toner cartridges come
with a lifetime warranty on the carton, repeated on a leaflet in
the box.
The wording seems to imply guaranteed until the cartridge is
empty.
With re-manufactured it depends on how well they are
re-manufactured, whether you are getting someone elses
problem, like a damaged drum (if it's integral with the
cartridge), the quality of the scavenger blade and whether
they bothered to replace it anyway.
If it's sub-standard, and they are still around, they may
not want to know, saying it's past its USE BY date and
blame your printer.