Frequently Asked Questions

Five cartridges — why does this set carry one more than the printer has slots?

So that the first empty slot never stops the machine. This Canon 046H set holds five cartridges drawn from the four the printer runs on — black 046HBK, cyan 046HC, magenta 046HM and yellow 046HY. Fit the four your machine needs, and the fifth waits sealed as an on-site spare: when the heaviest-used slot runs dry mid-job, the replacement is already in the cupboard rather than in a delivery van.

What are the yields across the set?

They are the Canon 046H high-yield ratings, by class: black 046HBK at up to 6,300 pages, and each color — 046HC, 046HM, 046HY — at up to 5,000 pages. Those figures are measured at the standard 5% page coverage, so heavy color documents will draw the colors down sooner than plain text draws the black. We quote them per class rather than as one combined number, because a set like this is used cartridge by cartridge, not all at once.

How does the price compare with the 4-piece set and with singles?

At $106.01 for five cartridges, the average price per cartridge is about $21.20 — lower than the 4-piece Canon 046H set's roughly $22.30, and far below single-cartridge pricing: the four core cartridges alone total $144.69 bought one by one. The step up from the 4-piece set is $16.80, which is less than any single cartridge in the family costs on its own — that is the spare, bought at set pricing.

Which cartridge is most likely to be needed as the spare?

In most offices, black. Text dominates shared printing, and the 046HBK empties first even though its 6,300-page rating is the highest in the family. Color-heavy workplaces can see the pattern flip — a single big color project pulls cyan, magenta and yellow together — but across a year of mixed use, the black slot is the one that asks first, and having any spare from the same set on hand covers the warning whichever slot it comes from.

How long can the spare sit on the shelf?

Sealed cartridges keep well. Each cartridge in this set is individually sealed in its packaging; stored flat, away from direct sunlight and heat, the spare stays fresh until the day a slot calls for it. There is no need to rotate it into the printer early — fit it when it is needed, not before.

What if a cartridge from the set turns out faulty?

It is covered individually. These compatible Canon 046H cartridges carry a 1-year warranty and 1-year free returns, judged cartridge by cartridge — one problem cartridge never means sending the other four back. The full terms are on our shipping and returns page. Orders ship from the nearest of our Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia and California warehouses, and support answers Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM CST.

About This Canon 046H Toner Cartridge 5 Color Set

Five high-yield Canon 046H cartridges in one order — the 046HBK black rated at 6,300 pages and the 046HC cyan, 046HM magenta and 046HY yellow rated at 5,000 pages each, with a fifth cartridge as a built-in spare. At $106.01 the per-cartridge average is about $21.20, the economical way to keep an imageCLASS color machine covered past its first empty slot. The 4-piece set, larger sets and every single color are in our Canon toner range.

The Canon 046H range is the cartridge range behind ImageClass LBP654Cfw, ImageClass MF731Cdw, ImageClass MF733Cdw and ImageClass LBP654Cdw. Also stocked for these printers: the high-yield 046H black cartridge, the high-yield 046H cyan cartridge, the high-yield 046H magenta cartridge and the high-yield 046H yellow cartridge.