Brother TN660 Toner vs DR630 Drum: Key Differences Explained

V4ink Knowledge Base Updated: July 31, 2018

Brother TN660 Toner vs DR630 Drum, What's the difference?

Some printers use a separate toner and drum unit, while others do not. Depending on what printer you own, you might have replaced your drum unit occasionally, or you may have never had to replace a drum unit. It is all contingent on the design of your printer. A drum unit can be incorporated with the toner cartridge or sold separately as a single unit, depending on the consumable requirements of your printer.

Laser printers and their consumables vary across printer models. Some printers only need you to replace the toner cartridge, and others require that you regularly replace both the toner cartridge and the drum unit. Most brother toner cartridges have a separate design, such as Brother tn660 toner cartridge and dr630 drum unit.

What is Toner Cartridge?

Toner cartridges contain a finite amount of toner powder, so they can only print a limited amount of pages. You need to replace the toner cartridge when the toner is running short or print quality becomes poor because of toner deterioration. TN660 toner cartridge usually use together with DR630 drum unit.

What is Drum Unit?

Drum unit is just a shelf and did not contain toner powder, therefore, you need to add the toner cartridge into the drum unit before you use it.

The drum unit has longer service life than the toner cartridge. It usually only needs to be replaced after about 3-5 toner cartridges have been replaced. Some drum units can last a little longer. The laser printer puts the toner on the roller called "The photosensitive drum" inside the drum unit, and then prints letters and images by fixing toner to the paper by heat and pressure.

What is Toner and Drum Combo Pack?

Before putting into the printer, you need to install the TN660 toner cartridge into the DR630 drum unit, them you can print normally.

It is worth noting that different toner cartridges matching unique drum unit. For example, the TN660 toner corresponds to DR630 drum and the TN760 toner corresponds to DR730 drum. They cannot be mixed, otherwise they will not be installed correctly.

V4ink provide you with TN660 toner cartridge and DR630 drum unit combo pack, which reduces the possibility of customers buying the wrong model.

What is the same between TN660 and DR630 drum unit?

They compatible for the same printer mode: DCP-L2520DW / DCP-L2540DW / DCP-L2500D / HL-L2360DN / HL-L2300D / HL-L2340DW / HL-L2360DW / HL-L2380DW / HL-L2320D / HL-L2315DW / HL-L2365DW / MFC-L2700DW / MFC-L2720DW / MFC-L2740DW / MFC-L2707DW / MFC-L2680W / MFC-L2685DW / MFC-L2700DN / MFC-L2705DW. And they need to be work with each other.

What is the difference between TN660 Toner Cartridge and DR630 Drum Unit?

Appearance

The most difference of the TN660 and DR630 is their appearance. The drum unit looks like an empty shelf, because it does not contain toner powder, so its middle is hollow. Its main function is to support the toner cartridge. The toner cartridge is solid and looks smaller than the drum unit.

Page Yield

Let’s see their specifications:

Model Name	TN660	DR630
Type	Toner Cartridge	Drum Unit
Color	Black	Black
Packing Quality	1 pack	1 pack
Page Yield	2,600 pages	12,000 pages
V4ink Price	$15.39	$25.29
Cost per Page	0.59 cents	0.21 cents
Shelf Life	24-36 Months	24-36 Months

The above comparison confirms what we mentioned earlier: the service life of DR630 drum unit is longer than the TN660 toner cartridge because the page yield of the DR630 is most 4 times more than the TN660. Since DR630 drum unit has longer service life and more printed pages, its price is also higher than that of the toner cartridge, but its cost per page is really low.

Replacement frequency

As we mentioned above, due to different page yield, the replacement frequency of TN660 toner cartridge and DR630 drum unit is also different.

When do you need to replace?

If the prints you are getting are faded, you will need to replace your toner cartridge.

If you are getting blank spaces or streaks in your print, you will need to replace the drum unit.

In addition, you can also check the usage of toner cartridges and drum units by printing a self-test page. The printer will also prompt you to replace the toner cartridge or drum unit when it is exhausted.

With a separate toner cartridge and drum unit, the initial cost of the toner cartridge is cheaper and you can replace the toner cartridge at a cheaper price without paying the added price of the drum unit being included, which doesn’t need to be changed as frequently as the toner cartridges.

Some toner cartridges do come with the drum unit combined as a single unit, like the HP CF283X toner cartridge. The drum unit is likely incorporated into the toner. Therefore, there is no need to replace the drum separately. With one toner and drum component, you don’t have the inconvenience of having to monitor and replace two separate parts.

More details, here is a video for you.

Frequently asked questions about TN660 and DR630:

01. Question: Can I use TN660 toner or DR630 drum separately?

Answer: No, TN660 toner cartridge and DR630 drum unit must be used together.

02. Question: I don't know what should I buy?

Answer: When your printer tells you to "replace toner", you need to replace the TN660 toner cartridge; When your printer tells you to "replace drum", you need to replace the DR630 drum unit.

When purchasing consumables, general users will be used to directly search the printer model to obtain the desired results, but the products displayed by search engines are often products with high sales or purchased advertising, which may not fully match your needs. Therefore, before purchasing the product, you must clearly understand the consumables model matched with the printer you are using. In addition, when purchasing printer consumables online, you must focus on the title, product description and product parameters on the product page, which will help you buy the right product. If the above methods can not solve your problem, you can directly contact our service team: support_team@v4ink.com.

03. Question: Can the v4ink toner / drum be used with the original products?

Answer: Yes. v4ink toner cartridges and drum units are specially designed to substitute for original products, which can be perfectly compatible with v4ink own brands and original brand products.

04. Question: Will the v4ink product damage my printer?

Answer: Absolutely not! All v4ink products are produced under strict execution, through strict quality inspection and professional ISO and CE certification to ensure that the products are perfectly compatible with the printer, and will never damage your printer under normal use.

05. Question: How to install Brother TN660 and DR630 into the printer?

Answer: Overview of V4INK TN660 toner cartridge, and also show you step by step guide on how to install TN660 toner cartridge into your printer: