Frequently Asked Questions

Why would a workplace buy black toner five cartridges at a time?

When several departments or several machines draw from one supply cabinet, toner becomes a facilities item rather than an emergency purchase. Five TK897K cartridges at $481.16 keep the cabinet stocked through long stretches of heavy printing with a single order to approve.

Can one cabinet stock really cover different printer models?

Yes — the FS-C8520MFP, FS-C8525MFP, TASKalfa 205c and TASKalfa 255 all take this same TK897K black cartridge. Purchasing does not need separate shelf lines per machine; one code feeds the whole group.

How do we keep track of consumption across five cartridges?

Note the machine's page counter on the box each time a cartridge goes in. A few months of those notes show exactly how fast each printer burns through a 12,000-page cartridge, which turns the next reorder from a guess into a date on the calendar.

Does buying ahead hurt the cartridges at the back of the cabinet?

No, provided they stay sealed, flat and out of heat and sunlight. Toner is a dry powder and does not expire on a short clock, so the fifth cartridge performs like the first when its turn finally comes.

Is 12,000 pages per cartridge a realistic planning number?

It is the standard test rating: fine for forecasting in offices printing letters, forms and reports. Machines that run dense graphics or heavy solid coverage will finish a cartridge sooner, which is precisely why the page-counter notes above are worth keeping.

What happens if one cartridge out of the five is defective?

That single unit is covered — a 1-year warranty and free returns for a year apply to every cartridge in the set, and support is on hand Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM CST. Shipments originate from warehouses in IL, PA, GA and CA; the full routine is on our shipping and returns page.

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

At $481.16 for five TK897K cartridges, each unit works out to about $96.23 — and at the 12,000-page rating, that is roughly 0.80 cents per page of black printing at standard coverage. Facilities teams find that per-page figure handy when they allocate print costs across departments sharing the FS-C8520MFP, FS-C8525MFP, TASKalfa 205c or TASKalfa 255. Heavy solid coverage raises the real figure, and light text work lowers it, but the rated arithmetic gives a defensible baseline for budgeting.

How much total black printing does a five-cartridge cabinet stock represent?

Five cartridges at 12,000 pages each is a pool of about 60,000 pages. For a single busy machine that can be the better part of a year of document printing; for several machines drawing on the same cabinet it is a shared reserve that absorbs uneven demand, because a heavy month on one printer is balanced by a quiet month on another. Planning against the pool — rather than per machine — is exactly what a multi-department supply cabinet is for.

Can the five cartridges be split between two locations or floors?

Yes, and for larger offices it often makes sense. Because every machine in this group takes the same TK897K, three cartridges can sit in the main supply cabinet and two on another floor or at a second site, so a swap never waits on someone fetching stock from across the building. The only coordination needed is a simple shared note of where the units are, so purchasing sees the total reserve — five minus wherever they are shelved — rather than double-ordering against a half-empty shelf.

At what stock level should the next five-pack be ordered?

A practical threshold is two sealed cartridges remaining. At that point roughly 24,000 rated pages of buffer are still on hand, which covers the delivery window comfortably even in a heavy printing month, and the reorder becomes a routine approval instead of an emergency. Letting the cabinet reach the last cartridge before ordering squanders the whole point of buying in depth: the reserve exists so that toner purchasing happens on your schedule, not the printer's.

About This Five-Pack

Five compatible Kyocera-Mita TK897K black toner cartridges at $481.16 — the supply-cabinet quantity for the FS-C8520MFP, FS-C8525MFP, TASKalfa 205c and TASKalfa 255. Each cartridge is rated at 12,000 pages, keeps indefinitely while sealed, and is covered by a 1-year warranty with 1-year free returns.