Frequently Asked Questions

What does this pack contain?

Five TK5242K black cartridges — five units of the same code, bought together as a department-level stock of the one cartridge a busy office consumes fastest. There are no colors in this pack; it is purely a black reserve.

Who gets through black at this rate?

Offices running long text documents, invoices, statements or coursework packs day after day. Where black is effectively the only color that matters, holding five at a time removes toner ordering from the weekly routine almost entirely.

Is the cartridge in the middle of the pack any different from the first?

No. Every TK5242K in the pack is rated at 4,000 pages at standard coverage and carries the same full fill. Position in the box means nothing — whichever unit you pick up is a complete standard cartridge.

How do I store five cartridges sensibly?

Stack the boxes flat in a dry cupboard, seals intact, away from heat sources. Use them in the order they arrived; with stock this deep, writing the delivery month on each box keeps the rotation honest without any record-keeping effort.

The first page from a freshly fitted cartridge looks faint — what fixes it?

Take the unit out, rock it gently side to side to redistribute the toner that settled in storage, and seat it firmly again. A pale opening page after a long shelf rest is almost always settled toner, and this clears it in most cases.

What cover applies across the pack?

Each of the five cartridges is covered individually by a 1-year warranty with 1-year free returns — see our shipping & returns page for the details. Buying in bulk changes nothing about the terms; a faulty unit is returned on its own.

What is the per-cartridge cost across the five-pack?

The pack is $75.98 for five TK5242K cartridges, which is about $15.20 a cartridge — close to half the $29.99 single price, with the identical full 4,000-page rating in every unit. For a department that treats black as its one serious consumable, that per-unit figure is the whole case for stocking five deep instead of ordering one at a time.

At what point in the pack should I reorder?

A sound trigger is fitting the fourth cartridge. At that moment one sealed unit remains behind the one in the machine, which is a comfortable buffer for a delivery to land in. Waiting until the fifth is fitted leaves the department running on its last cartridge with nothing in reserve — workable, but it turns the next order into a deadline rather than a routine.

Can the five cartridges be split between two storage spots?

Yes, and for larger offices it often makes sense: the working stock near the printer, the deeper reserve in a central supply cupboard. Keep both spots dry and out of direct heat, seals intact, and use the near stock first so rotation stays in arrival order. The only rule is that someone knows both locations — a reserve nobody can find is no reserve at all.

How do we keep on top of the empties five cartridges produce?

Deal with each empty as it comes out: into the box its replacement arrived in, then to a single collection point for recycling pickup. At department volume, empties accumulate quickly, and a steady one-out rhythm stops them colonizing the shelf space the sealed stock needs. It also keeps the running count obvious — sealed boxes on the shelf are the stock, nothing else is.

About This TK5242 5 Black Pack

A five-cartridge black reserve for the Kyocera ECOSYS M5526cdw, priced at $75.98: five TK5242K units rated at 4,000 pages each. It is aimed at heavy monochrome workloads, where the black slot turns over too quickly for single-cartridge buying to make sense and a deep shelf stock is the simplest way to keep the machine fed. Part of our compatible Kyocera-Mita range, dispatched from our IL, PA, GA and CA warehouses, with support Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM CST.