C5450dn

The OKI C5450dn is a color laser printer with duplexing and networking built in, from OKI's Type C6 line and aimed at small businesses that print in color daily. Its standard cartridges are 42804504 in black, 42804503 in cyan, 42804502 in magenta and 42804501 in yellow. This page stocks the high-capacity 42127400-series colors, rated at about 5,000 pages each: 42127403 cyan, 42127402 magenta and 42127401 yellow, so a busy C5450dn goes longer between color swaps.

In a small office the C5450dn typically earns its desk space on everyday color: invoices with a colored logo, customer letters, short reports and the occasional presentation handout. The duplex unit turns out two-sided documents without anyone standing at the machine flipping pages, and the network connection lets the whole team share one printer instead of maintaining several. Because each color lives in its own cartridge, a run of blue-heavy brochures drains cyan faster than the rest — and only cyan needs attention when it fades.

Toner Cartridges for C5450dn

Cartridge	Color	Page Yield
42127403	Cyan	Approx. 5,000 pages
42127402	Magenta	Approx. 5,000 pages
42127401	Yellow	Approx. 5,000 pages

Black is covered by the standard 42804504 cartridge listed in the printer's standard set above; the three high-yield colors on this page are the ones most C5450dn owners burn through first.

Which cartridge should you buy?

Start from whichever color the printer reports as low, because the C5450dn replaces colors one at a time and there is no need to refresh the whole set together. The high-yield 42127400-series cartridges on this page suit businesses that print color most days: at roughly 5,000 pages per color they cut both the cost per page and the number of interruptions compared with the standard 42804500 series. If your color work is occasional — a few charts a week — standard cartridges are a sensible match and keep less money sitting in toner. Either way, black is a separate decision: text-heavy offices go through the 42804504 black cartridge far faster than any color, so keep that one on the shelf even when the colors look healthy.

Chip, toner and everyday use

Each cartridge carries a chip the C5450dn reads to track toner levels, so seat a new cartridge firmly until it clicks and let the printer finish its calibration cycle before judging the first pages. If the machine does not recognize a cartridge, remove it, check the chip contacts are clean and dry, and reinstall it slowly. Store spares flat in their sealed bags away from heat and sunlight; toner keeps well for a long time when it is not baked in a warm storeroom. Page yields are quoted at about 5% coverage, so graphics-heavy documents will empty a cartridge sooner than plain office text.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which toner cartridges does the C5450dn use?

The standard set is 42804504 black, 42804503 cyan, 42804502 magenta and 42804501 yellow. For heavier color work, the high-capacity 42127403, 42127402 and 42127401 cartridges cover cyan, magenta and yellow at about 5,000 pages each.

My C5450dn prints black that looks gray. What causes that?

Check the driver setting first. In auto color mode the printer may build black by mixing the three color toners, which produces a washed-out composite gray. Switching the driver to black-and-white for text documents makes the machine use the true black cartridge instead.

Does automatic duplexing change how much toner the C5450dn uses?

No. Duplexing prints on both sides of the sheet, and each side uses the same toner as a single-sided page. The saving shows up in the paper budget, not in cartridge life.

When one color runs out, do I have to replace all four cartridges?

No. The C5450dn tracks black, cyan, magenta and yellow independently, so you replace only the color that is empty and leave the others in place until they run down in turn.