Frequently Asked Questions

Who actually needs six color cartridges sitting on a shelf?

Offices that print color every day — schools, real-estate desks, marketing corners — and cannot afford a printer idled by an empty color. Six cartridges means the next two or three color changes are already in the building, and nobody is paying rush shipping on a single cartridge mid-week.

What does each cartridge in this set cost me?

The set is $74.83 for six cartridges, which is $12.47 apiece — less than half the $27.88 price of a single TN225 color. It is the lowest per-cartridge price we offer on this platform's colors. For the full shelf, see our Best Brother TN221 Toner Cartridges guide: the TN221BK black cartridge, the high-yield TN225 colors, the mixed sets and the DR221 drum units are compared side by side — including what each route costs per page when a single slot or the whole printer runs dry.

How much color printing does one box represent?

Each cartridge is rated at 2,200 pages, so the box holds 13,200 pages of color capacity in total. For a printer doing a few hundred color pages a week, that is most of a year between orders.

Which machines take these cartridges?

Brother color laser/LED printers on the TN221/TN225 platform, including DCP-9020CDN, HL-3140CW, HL-3150CDN, HL-3170CDW, HL-3180CDW, MFC-9130CW and MFC-9330CDW. They are the color partners to the TN221BK black cartridge, which is sold separately.

Will the cartridges still be good after months in storage?

Yes, as long as they stay sealed, upright and away from heat and direct sun. Toner is a dry powder, not a liquid ink, so it does not dry out or clog while it waits — shelf storage is exactly what a set like this is for.

What if one of the six turns out to be faulty?

It is protected like everything we sell: a 1-year warranty and 1-year free returns, spelled out on our shipping & returns page. Stock ships from warehouses in IL, PA, GA and CA, and support is available Mon–Fri, 9 AM–5 PM CST.

How do I rotate six color cartridges so the oldest stock is used first?

Date the boxes as they arrive and take from the oldest date for each color. A six-cartridge set holds two rounds of TN225C, TN225M and TN225Y, and the second round can wait a long while behind the first. Writing the arrival date on every box takes seconds and removes all doubt later: no cartridge sits forgotten for a year while its twin cycles through first. Rotation is quiet insurance that the stock you paid for stays the stock you actually use.

How do I learn which color my office burns through fastest?

Let the empties tell you. As each TN225 cartridge finishes, note the date on its box before it leaves. After the first full round, the pattern is hard to miss: the color whose empty appears first — and whose second unit is already dropping — is your fast burner, and it is rarely the one people guess. That knowledge shapes the next order: extra of the hungry color, patience with the slow one, instead of another identical set bought on instinct.

When should I reorder a color from a set this size?

When the last sealed cartridge of that color goes into the printer. Six cartridges feel like depth, but the depth is per channel: two cyans, two magentas, two yellows. The moment a channel's second TN225 unit is installed, that color's buffer is gone and its reorder clock starts — regardless of how many cartridges of other colors still sit sealed. Acting on the per-channel signal keeps a bulk set's protection continuous instead of letting it end color by color, unnoticed.

How do two-sided pages count toward the set's 13,200 pages?

Page ratings count printed sides, and the 13,200-page figure for this set is no exception. A duplexed sheet carrying color on both faces spends two pages of a TN225 cartridge's life, one for each side. Duplexing is still worth it — it halves paper use and filing bulk — but plan your color supply by sides printed. An office that runs two-sided all day should expect the set's rated pages to arrive on roughly half as many sheets.

About This TN225 6-Cartridge Color Stock

This is the deep-stock option for TN221/TN225 printers: six TN225 color cartridges at $12.47 each, 2,200 pages apiece, bought once and drawn down as the printer asks for them. For color-heavy offices in our Brother catalog, it removes toner from the weekly worry list.