Frequently Asked Questions

How do I confirm TK897C is the cyan cartridge?

The last letter of the code is the color key in this family, and C stands for cyan. With four look-alike boxes on the shelf, read the full code before you open anything: TK897C is the cyan unit, while the K, M and Y codes are the black, magenta and yellow cartridges for other stations.

What does a fading cyan cartridge look like on paper?

Blues wash out toward gray, greens lose their depth and sky tones in photos turn flat and pale. Black text stays perfectly sharp, which is the giveaway that one color station — not the whole machine — is running dry. A color test page shows the cyan band fading ahead of the others.

How far does the 6,000-page rating actually go?

The rating is measured on standard test pages, so treat it as a yardstick rather than a promise. An office printing mostly documents with a logo and the odd chart will stretch a cyan cartridge a long way; heavy full-color brochures will work through it faster. Either way, this is the full-capacity cartridge, not a reduced starter unit.

The other colors are fine — do they need changing too?

No. Each station runs independently, and swapping only the cyan leaves the healthy cartridges undisturbed. There is no need to buy or fit a full set when a single color has faded; replace the one that is empty and let the rest finish their natural life.

Can I check it is the cartridge before I order?

Print the machine's color test or status page and look at the cyan band: a band that fades across its width points to a cartridge nearing empty. Removing the cartridge and rocking it gently side to side often coaxes out a few more pages, which confirms the diagnosis while your replacement is on its way.

What cover does this cartridge carry?

It is backed by a 1-year warranty and 1-year free returns. Support is available Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM CST if anything arrives damaged or underperforms early.

Which kinds of documents use up a cyan cartridge fastest?

Anything built on blues and greens. Sky and water in photographs, blue charts and diagrams, green headings and logos, and full-color brochures all draw heavily on the TK897C, because cyan is a primary ingredient in every one of those tones. An office whose color work is mostly a letterhead logo and the occasional highlighted table will stretch a cyan cartridge for a very long time; a marketing-heavy office printing photo-rich pages daily will move through the 6,000-page rating noticeably sooner.

After fitting a new cyan, how can I confirm the fix on a real document?

Reprint a page you know well — ideally one with a photograph containing sky or water, or a chart with strong blues and greens that looked washed out before the swap. On the fresh TK897C those areas should come back deep and even, matching how the document looked when the machine was healthy. Checking against a familiar document is more convincing than a test pattern alone, because it proves the fix on the exact kind of work your office actually prints.

Does it make sense to keep a spare cyan on the shelf?

For most offices, yes. Cyan rarely fails without warning — blues and greens weaken gradually — but the fade tends to be noticed at the worst moment, halfway through a client-facing color run. A sealed TK897C stored flat in a cool, dry cupboard keeps its full condition for a long time, so the spare costs you nothing in quality while removing the delivery wait from the equation. It is cheap insurance for any machine whose color output matters.

What should I do with the old cyan cartridge once the new one is in?

Keep it until the replacement has printed a few days of your normal color work without complaint. Then the spent TK897C can leave through your local recycling collection or office waste stream; putting it back in the new cartridge's carton contains any loose toner dust. If the new unit underperforms early, do not discard the old one yet — support may ask about it, and each cartridge carries a 1-year warranty with 1-year free returns, so the conversation is easier with both units at hand.

About This Kyocera TK897C Cyan Cartridge

At $83.61, this single TK897C is the restock for one specific symptom: color prints where the blues and greens have gone thin while everything else still looks right. It serves the FS-C8520MFP, FS-C8525MFP, TASKalfa 205c and TASKalfa 255, and drops into the cyan station on its own. Orders ship from our warehouses in IL, PA, GA and CA, and delivery and returns details are on our shipping & returns page. The full Kyocera-Mita range is on our site for the rest of the TK897 family.