Frequently Asked Questions

What does 18,000 pages look like as a planning horizon?

For most offices running a Dell Laser 1700, it looks like a quarter — or better. This 3-pack holds three 310-5402 cartridges at 6,000 rated pages each, 18,000 pages in total. A workgroup machine printing 2,000 pages a month works through that in about nine months; at 1,000 pages a month, the pack covers a year and a half. That is the practical point of the size: it converts toner from a recurring errand into a twice-a-year-or-less decision, sized for a small business that wants the bulk price without warehousing a tower of cartridges.

How does the 3-pack price break down?

The pack is $199.34, which is $66.45 per cartridge. Three singles would cost $235.71 at $78.57 each, so the pack saves about $36.37 — call it half a cartridge, free, across every three you use. The per-cartridge slide is the pattern of the whole family: $78.57 as a single, $69.53 in a 2-pack, $66.45 here. Nothing about the cartridge changes as the price falls; the 310-5402 in this pack is the identical high-yield unit, rated at the same 6,000 pages.

What cost per page does the office end up paying?

About 1.11¢ per page — $199.34 spread across 18,000 rated pages. That is a meaningful step down from the single cartridge's 1.31¢: across the pack's life it is the difference between roughly $236 and $199 for the same printed output. For a business that tracks cost per page for client billing or departmental budgets, 1.11¢ is a clean, defensible rate for everything the 1700 prints while this pack lasts.

Which printers do the three cartridges fit?

All three are the 310-5402, the shared cartridge of Dell's 1700-series mono platform: the Laser 1700 named on this listing, the Laser 1700n and the Laser 1710. A 3-pack can therefore feed one printer three times over, or be shared across two or three machines in the family as each runs dry. Match the code on the cartridge you remove — if it reads 310-5402, every cartridge in this pack is its replacement.

Is three cartridges too many to keep in a small office?

It is about the limit of what a small cupboard handles gracefully, and that is rather the point of the size. Three sealed cartridges stack in a modest space, store without special conditions beyond cool and dry, and are used in rotation — fit one, shelve two, reorder when the last one goes in. Kept sealed until needed, a spare does not degrade on any timescale that matters to a pack this size. The 3-pack sits deliberately between the 2-pack's caution and the big packs' commitment.

What warranty and returns come with the pack?

Every cartridge carries a 1-year warranty against defects, and the pack is backed by 1-year free returns if a cartridge does not perform as it should — full terms on our shipping and returns page. These are compatible 310-5402 cartridges, built to the cartridge's specification rather than manufactured by Dell, and the cover applies to each cartridge on its own. Our support team is available Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM CST.

How do we make sure the three cartridges get used in a sensible order?

Date them. A note of the delivery date on each box, and the install date added when a cartridge goes in, gives you first-in, first-out rotation without any system at all: the oldest sealed 310-5402 is always the next one fitted. Rotation matters less for the toner than for the information — three dated installs across the pack's life show you the office's real cartridge interval, and whether it is speeding up or slowing down over time.

Does printing double-sided stretch the pack's 18,000 pages?

No — it stretches the paper, not the toner. The rating counts printed sides, so 18,000 pages means 18,000 impressions whichever way they are arranged: 18,000 single-sided sheets, or 9,000 sheets printed on both sides. Duplexing is still worth it for paper cost and filing space, but when you are forecasting how long this pack will last, count the sides your office prints. Offices that switch heavily to double-sided sometimes think toner is lasting longer; it is the paper stack that is shrinking.

Our work is form-heavy — what does that do to the pack's horizon?

It shortens it, predictably. The 6,000-page rating for each 310-5402 is set at 5% coverage, a plain typed page. Forms with shaded panels, logos and gray bands run well above that, so a form-heavy office may see each cartridge finish meaningfully below its rating — and the 18,000-page pack horizon shrinks in proportion. That is not lost value so much as heavier pages; the honest way to plan is to measure one cartridge against the page counter and scale the pack's remaining life from your own figure.

What is the tidy way to deal with the empties from a pack like this?

Keep them in the pack's own carton. Each spent 310-5402 goes back into the box its replacement came out of, and the carton on the shelf gradually fills with empties as the pack works through. When the third cartridge is done, the whole batch leaves together through the office's recycling route — no loose cartridges in drawers, no toner dust anywhere it should not be, and a visible record of exactly how many cartridges the office has used.

About This Dell 1700 3-Pack (310-5402)

A 3-pack of compatible high-yield black cartridges for the Dell Laser 1700: three 310-5402 cartridges at 6,000 rated pages each — 18,000 pages total — priced at $199.34, which is $66.45 per cartridge and about 1.11¢ per page. The cartridges also serve the Laser 1700n and Laser 1710. The pack ships from one of our four US warehouses in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia or California, and is covered by our 1-year warranty and 1-year free returns. Smaller and larger packs are listed on our Dell toner page.