SKU:

CAN1557A002BA-COM

Printer Brand:

Canon

OEM Number:

1557A002BA

Ink Color:

Black

Page Yield:

3,500 Pages

Printer Type:

Laser Cartridge

Condition:

New Compatible

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does running out of toner matter more on a fax machine than on a regular printer?

Because a fax machine does not choose when to print. A contract, an order or a referral arrives at 4:55 PM and the machine prints it there and then — if the cartridge is empty, that document waits, half-received, until someone notices. The Canon FX-3 (part number 1557A002BA) is rated for up to 3,500 pages, and on a Canon LaserClass, FaxPhone or MultiPass machine that still anchors an office's fax line, those pages are insurance as much as they are toner.

What does one FX-3 cartridge cost to run?

The single is $47.79 for 3,500 pages, which is about 1.37 cents per page. For a machine receiving, say, 30 faxed pages a day plus its share of ordinary printing — roughly 700 to 900 pages a month — one cartridge lasts around four to five months. Heavier fax traffic shortens that; the rating assumes standard 5% page coverage, and dense faxed documents with logos and shaded forms draw toner faster.

Our LaserClass is old. Is it worth feeding, or should we replace the machine?

If the machine still sends, receives and prints cleanly, feeding it is almost always the cheaper decision. These Canon fax units were built for years of unattended duty, and the FX-3 is the only supply they consume — one cartridge keeps the whole machine in service. A $47.79 cartridge that buys another season from a working fax line beats the cost and disruption of replacing the machine and retraining everyone on a new one.

Faxes are printing with a gray background — is that the cartridge?

It can be, but check the pattern first. A general greyness or streaking that appears on received faxes and copies alike often points to the cartridge; the same fault on only one kind of job can point elsewhere. A quick test: make a plain copy of a blank page. If the copy comes out dirty, try rocking the FX-3 gently side to side to level the toner; if the background persists, the cartridge is near the end of its life and a swap is the cleanest test.

Is this a genuine Canon FX-3 cartridge?

No — it is a compatible Canon FX-3 (1557A002BA) cartridge, built to the FX-3 fit and 3,500-page yield specification. It is a new compatible unit, not a refilled Canon shell. It comes with our 1-year warranty and 1-year free returns, so if it fails early or prints poorly, it is replaced or refunded rather than debated.

How fast can a replacement reach us if the fax line is down?

Orders ship from our US warehouses in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia and California — from whichever is closest — instead of starting with an overseas leg. Delivery timing and returns are detailed on our shipping and returns page, and support is available Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM CST if you need a hand.

Should a fax line this important keep a sealed FX-3 in reserve?

For most offices running one of these machines, yes. The whole risk profile of a fax line is that demand arrives unannounced — the cartridge that empties on a quiet Tuesday is discovered by an urgent document on Wednesday. One sealed Canon FX-3 (1557A002BA) in the cabinet converts that discovery into a two-minute swap, and the reorder that follows can be entirely unhurried. Kept flat, sealed and dry, the reserve waits without deteriorating, so the insurance costs nothing in performance.

What should we print on the day a new FX-3 goes in?

A reference page you can keep: one ordinary document your office knows well — a standard form or letterhead page — printed once the new Canon FX-3 has settled over its first few pages. File it with the fitting date. Months later, when output starts to look tired and nobody can agree whether it has changed, that dated page is the objective comparison. On machines that run unattended for long stretches, it is the simplest early-warning system there is.

Which incoming documents spend this cartridge fastest?

The dense ones: faxed forms with shaded boxes, logo-heavy letterheads, contracts with heavy blocks of text. The 3,500-page rating assumes standard 5% coverage, and a day of dark, busy originals can spend toner at several times that rate per page. A machine whose traffic is mostly short memos will run comfortably past the same figure. Either way, a sudden change in how fast the FX-3 empties usually says more about the documents arriving than about the cartridge.

How should an empty FX-3 be handled?

Hold it until the replacement has received and printed cleanly for a few days — if questions arise about output, the spent Canon FX-3 is the reference unit — then send it out through your usual toner recycling. Do not let empties accumulate around a fax machine: on a busy line, a spent cartridge left beside the machine has a way of being refitted by mistake during a hurried change, which produces a second round of pale pages and a confusing half hour.

About This Canon FX-3 Cartridge

A single compatible Canon FX-3 black toner cartridge, part number 1557A002BA, rated for up to 3,500 pages at about 1.37 cents per page. It is the working supply for Canon's LaserClass fax machines, the FaxPhone L series, imageCLASS 1100 models and the MultiPass line — machines that stay in service because the fax line still matters. The cartridge is backed by our 1-year warranty and 1-year free returns. See the wider range on our Canon toner page.