Eight Brother color laser printers and all-in-ones feed from one cartridge family with two sizes of fill: the standard TN110 and the high-yield TN115, both riding in the same DR110CL drum. Two facts about this shelf decide almost every purchase, and neither is obvious from the listings. First, the two tiers cost exactly the same — set for set, pack for pack, to the cent — while Brother rates the high-yield cartridges for twice the black pages and well over twice the color pages. Second, the compatible shelf sells sets and packs only: across the whole family there is exactly one single compatible cartridge, the TN115 black. This guide prices every offer per page, states plainly which cartridges cannot be bought on their own, and keeps the standard tier fully on the page for the buyers whose systems are keyed to it.
The short answer: for a full refill, take the TN115 4-color set at $110.45 — the same money as the TN110 set, with a full-color page at about 2.76¢ against the standard tier's 7.36¢. If only the black has run out, the TN115BK single at $39.06 is the one compatible cartridge sold on its own. And if a single color has run out, read the note in the tier sections before searching: no compatible color single exists in this family, so the choice is a three-color set here or a genuine single cartridge.
Work out what actually ran out, then buy by the page. A full set change belongs to the high-yield tier: the TN115 4-color set at $110.45 costs no more than the standard set and returns about 4,000 rated pages from each color. Black-only restocks start from the family's lone single, the TN115BK at $39.06, and get cheaper per page in the 2-, 3- and 5-packs carded below. A lone color is the one awkward case on this shelf — there is no compatible cartridge for it, and the sections below say exactly what the two real options cost.
Eight machines, two tiers, one drum
Brother's compatibility lists for the TN110, the TN115 and the DR110CL drum name the same eight machines: DCP-9040CN, DCP-9045CDN, HL-4040CDN, HL-4040CN, HL-4070CDW, MFC-9440CN, MFC-9450CDN, MFC-9840CDW. Unlike some Brother platforms, nothing here is fenced off by model — every printer on the list accepts both toner tiers and the one drum, so a set bought for the HL on a desk fits the MFC down the hall. The model check on this page is therefore short: if your machine is one of the eight, every card below is written for it.
One caution about names. Some of this family's own listing text and some store category names add further models — variants sold outside the US among them. Brother USA's published list for every supply in this family stops at the eight above, and this guide follows Brother: the links in this paragraph are those eight machines and no others, and compatibility claims anywhere else in a listing that go beyond them are listing copy, not Brother's word.
Other Brother platforms keep their own shelves and their own guides, and cartridges do not interchange between platforms: the heavy-duty monochrome family has its own guide, Best Brother TN920 Toner Cartridges, and the TN720 workgroup family has Best Brother TN720 Toner Cartridges. Each of those pages opens with its own model list, as this one does.
The two tiers, side by side
Yields are Brother's published approximate ratings, measured at 5% coverage on letter-size paper — the basis Brother prints for this family; Brother cites no ISO/IEC test standard for these cartridges, so none is attached here. Prices are what each named offer sells for on its own product page today. The two rows carry identical prices almost cell for cell, because the shelf prices them identically; what separates the rows is the yield column.
| Tier | Brother rating | 4-color set | 5-color set | 8-color set | CMY 3-set | CMY 6-set | Black single | Black 2 / 3 / 5-pack |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TN110 (standard yield) | Black about 2,500 · each color about 1,500 | $110.45 | $133.42 | $204.81 | $87.47 | — not sold | — not sold | $62.03 / $85.01 / $130.96 |
| TN115 (high yield) | Black about 5,000 · each color about 4,000 | $110.45 | $133.42 | $204.81 | $87.47 | $158.86 | $39.06 | $62.03 / $85.01 / $130.96 |
The genuine shelf, for scale: the four genuine TN110 cartridges bought one by one total $385.66 and the genuine TN110 4-color set is $334.50; the four genuine TN115 singles total $669.80, and no genuine TN115 set is sold here. Our genuine prices also sit at or above Brother's own store on every code where Brother publishes one — genuine TN110BK is $87.79 here against $84.49 at Brother, genuine TN115BK $123.83 against $106.99, and the genuine drum $334.48 against $265.49; the genuine TN110 colors match Brother exactly at $99.29. Throughout this guide, a genuine figure is always the price on our own shelf, and it is marked as such wherever it appears.
TN115: the high-yield tier the numbers choose
The high-yield tier carries this guide because the shelf gives it away: the 4-color set is $110.45, the black packs climb $62.03 / $85.01 / $130.96, and every figure is identical to the standard tier's. What Brother changes is the fill — about 5,000 pages from the black and about 4,000 from each color, against 2,500 and 1,500 in the TN110 cartridges. The same outlay therefore buys roughly double the black printing and well over double the color printing, and the per-page figures in the cards below are simply that division carried out offer by offer.
This set is where the family's arithmetic lands. It costs precisely what the standard-yield set costs — not a cent of premium — and each color inside it is rated for roughly two and two-thirds times the pages. Buyers sometimes hesitate because the high-yield name suggests a different fit; on this platform it is the same cartridge shape for the same eight machines, with more toner in it. If a full refill is due, this is the box the numbers support.
Shop the TN115 4-Color Set →
TN110: the standard tier, priced like its bigger sibling
TN110 is the code this platform is named for, and its cartridges are the ones the eight machines shipped alongside. Nothing about them is deficient — they are simply filled to the standard rating, about 2,500 pages for the black and about 1,500 for each color — while the shelf charges high-yield money for them. One absence defines the tier even more sharply than its twin above: there is no TN110 single of any color. The tier exists only as the sets and black packs carded here, so a TN110-keyed office restocks in boxes, never in ones.
The standard tier is presented completely, because a guide that quietly buried it would be steering rather than guiding. Its position is honest and narrow: at identical prices it cannot win on value, so its buyers are the ones whose purchase orders, stock records or service arrangements name the TN110 code itself, and offices that print so lightly that even a standard cartridge is a multi-year supply. For those buyers the full shelf is below — every set and black pack the tier offers, at the same prices as the tier above.
Shop the TN110 4-Color Set →
Two gaps in this tier's shelf are worth naming rather than discovering at checkout. TN110 has no CMY 6-color set — the doubled color set exists only as a TN115 offer — and neither tier sells toner-and-drum combinations of any kind, so a drum change is always its own order, covered in the next section. As in the TN115 section: if one TN110 color has run out, there is no compatible single to buy; the CMY 3-color set above is the compatible route, and a genuine single (black $87.79, colors $99.29 each) is the one-cartridge route.
DR110CL: the drum, and why it has no card
All eight machines run their toner cartridges inside a single DR110CL drum unit, and Brother rates that unit at approximately 17,000 pages, given as one approximate figure that may vary with the type of use. Brother publishes no second rating for different job lengths on this drum, so this page prints the one figure rather than borrowing a split rating from another family's drum. A drum outlasts several sets of toner, which is why it is sold apart from the cartridges that sit in it.
On this platform the drum is a genuine-only part in our store: no compatible DR110CL exists here, so there is no card to build and no compatible price to quote. The genuine unit is $334.48 on our shelf; Brother's own store lists the same unit at $265.49, and that gap is printed here rather than smoothed over. Two wording notes, so the listing reads correctly: its store title calls the drum “Black”, which is the listing's own word — Brother names DR110CL simply as this platform's drum unit, with no color designation — and no multi-pack of the drum is sold.
After a drum swap, the drum counter is reset so the replacement begins counting from a clean slate. The messages this generation shows about its drum, and how that reset is done, are explained together on our Brother Color Toner & Drum Compatibility page. Color output that fades or bands evenly across the page, and keeps doing it after fresh toner goes in, is more often the drum asking early than a cartridge fault.
Chips and firmware — what the listings do and do not say
This guide makes no claim that any cartridge in this family carries a particular chip, and the reason is worth showing. Across the family's 30 listings, the word “chip” appears in 13 — all in one block of listings, and every time inside the same stock sentence listing new internal components (drums, wiper blades, a smart chip and other parts). The other 17 listings, every genuine one among them, say nothing about chips at all. The word “firmware” turns up just twice in 30 listings, both times inside a sentence explaining that no firmware step is involved in installation. A component list repeated by one block of listings is not evidence about how any given cartridge is recognized, and no claim is built on it here.
What can responsibly be added comes from Brother, not from listings: Brother states publicly that its firmware updates are not a tool for shutting out third-party cartridges. The hands-on questions this generation raises — a recognition prompt after a swap, toner and drum counters, the drum reset — are answered together on our Brother Color Toner & Drum Compatibility page. Fit, yield and price are what this guide can document exactly, so those are what it documents.
Before you order: the TN110 platform checklist
Frequently asked questions
On value, no: the two tiers are priced identically, cent for cent, and Brother rates TN115 for about 5,000 black pages and 4,000 per color against TN110's 2,500 and 1,500, so a full-color page from the high-yield set runs about 2.76¢ against about 7.36¢. TN110 remains the right buy where an ordering system, stock record or service arrangement names the standard code, or where a machine prints so little that the shorter rating is never reached. Both tiers fit all eight machines, so the decision is about paperwork and pace, not compatibility.
No — and this guide flags it rather than letting you search. No compatible color single exists in either tier of this family; the only compatible cartridge sold on its own is the TN115 black. Your options are the compatible CMY 3-color set at $87.47 (TN115) or $87.47 (TN110), which renews all three colors together, or a genuine single color cartridge — $99.29 each for TN110 colors, $181.99 each for TN115 colors on our shelf.
Not in this store. The DR110CL is genuine-only here, at $334.48, so it is covered in prose on this page rather than carded; Brother's own store lists the same unit at $265.49. Brother rates the drum at approximately 17,000 pages as a single figure that varies with the type of use. Some neighboring Brother platforms do have a compatible drum on the shelf; this one does not, and the guide does not dress that up.
Because Brother does not cite one for this family. On Brother's pages for these cartridges the rating is given as an approximate page count at 5% coverage on letter-size paper, with no ISO/IEC standard named — so this page quotes the yields on exactly that basis. Attaching a standard Brother never claimed would be inventing a credential, and the yields are still Brother's own figures throughout.
The set is listed three times at the same $110.45: the listing carded here, a second titled “Premium Quality”, and a third whose own page carries a broken title and no model categories. All three are the same offer at the same price; the cards use the listing shelved under the model categories, and the same one-offer-once rule is applied to the TN110 CMY 3-set and 8-set, which also exist under two title formats each.
Not on Brother USA's word. Some of this family's listing copy names extra models — HL-4050CDN and HL-4050CN among them, along with a few other non-US variants — but Brother's published compatibility list for every supply in this family names eight machines, and this guide links and recommends only for those eight. Where listing copy and Brother's list disagree, this page follows Brother.
None — the guide deliberately makes none, because there is nothing solid to base one on: the family's only chip mentions sit inside a repeated parts-list sentence in one block of listings, and the word firmware shows up solely inside statements that no firmware step is needed. Brother itself states that its updates are not a means of shutting out third-party cartridges. Prompts about recognition, the page counters and resetting the drum counter are dealt with on our Brother Color Toner & Drum Compatibility page.
Compatible products are covered by us directly: twelve months of warranty, and twelve months in which to send a product back if it is not right. Genuine Brother products sit under Brother's own warranty instead, and returns on OEM items close after 30 days. Orders leave from the warehouse nearest the delivery address — we stock in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia and California — and support hours are 9 AM to 5 PM Central on weekdays.