Does my HP printer have to have HP ink?
May 4, 2020 5:43 AM Subscribe
HP-brand ink/toner cartridges cost 60-70% more than the generic equivalent. Are there reasons why I shouldn't choose the latter?
I have a Brother laser printer and I've had one experience buying generic toner cartridges. Almost from the first, the print had streaks and the cartridge didn't last nearly as long as a factory cartridge. Only one experience, some time ago, not your brand, YMMV.
posted by tmdonahue at 5:58 AM on May 4, 2020
posted by tmdonahue at 5:58 AM on May 4, 2020
Sorry, should have made it clear that my remarks above apply solely to inkjet machines. Toner cartridges for laser printers are a bit more of a crap shoot, in my experience; there are a lot of poorly remanufactured refilled drum+toner assemblies out there in third party land, and I have definitely had third party drum+toner assemblies that show every sign of UV exposure damage to the drum.
For third party laser printer toner I've generally had perfectly fine results when buying from suppliers who have been in the business for five years or more.
posted by flabdablet at 6:10 AM on May 4, 2020
For third party laser printer toner I've generally had perfectly fine results when buying from suppliers who have been in the business for five years or more.
posted by flabdablet at 6:10 AM on May 4, 2020
The main problem is that most aftermarket cartridges recycle parts, and you are dependent on the previous owner having treated it well through its entire lifecycle.
If you buy the cheapest remanufactured parts you can find, sure, HP is 60-200% more expensive, but the problem is you can get hung with a low quality cartridge where someone has damaged the toner drum, or the wiper blade is not real good, or the toner that was put in there was the cheapest available from Back Alley Market PrinterCo, and then you've saved some dollars but your print quality is terrible and you're ripping out your hair.
If you buy better quality remanufactured parts, you have fair odds of getting a decent result, and if you have problems, the better companies will replace your cartridge, but this can still involve boxing, shipping, paying for shipping, making a mess with leaking toner, and you aren't saving anywhere near as much as you would with the cheapest remanufactured parts. Look for companies that have been around for a decade or more and lots of good reviews if you go this route. It is perfectly possible to do good toner refill work with a 90%+ success rate, but it requires a certain amount of inspection, effort, etc. Because some parts like the drum are essentially ruinable with only mild effort, a large percentage of the components coming in to be remanufactured are unusable.
You can buy the new OEM cartridges in some cases. OEM does NOT mean generic, despite common usage to the contrary -- OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer, and has a specific meaning that does not include "random janky unbranded crap to be sold to consumers". Canon makes a bunch of HP's laser printer mechanisms, and sometimes you can find the Canon version at a much better price. It may be that the big win is that the parts are all new and the toner's a better quality. I would not expect quality issues here.
The HP toner is, of course, the most expensive route but also the route most likely to be problem-free.
posted by jgreco at 6:20 AM on May 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
If you buy the cheapest remanufactured parts you can find, sure, HP is 60-200% more expensive, but the problem is you can get hung with a low quality cartridge where someone has damaged the toner drum, or the wiper blade is not real good, or the toner that was put in there was the cheapest available from Back Alley Market PrinterCo, and then you've saved some dollars but your print quality is terrible and you're ripping out your hair.
If you buy better quality remanufactured parts, you have fair odds of getting a decent result, and if you have problems, the better companies will replace your cartridge, but this can still involve boxing, shipping, paying for shipping, making a mess with leaking toner, and you aren't saving anywhere near as much as you would with the cheapest remanufactured parts. Look for companies that have been around for a decade or more and lots of good reviews if you go this route. It is perfectly possible to do good toner refill work with a 90%+ success rate, but it requires a certain amount of inspection, effort, etc. Because some parts like the drum are essentially ruinable with only mild effort, a large percentage of the components coming in to be remanufactured are unusable.
You can buy the new OEM cartridges in some cases. OEM does NOT mean generic, despite common usage to the contrary -- OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer, and has a specific meaning that does not include "random janky unbranded crap to be sold to consumers". Canon makes a bunch of HP's laser printer mechanisms, and sometimes you can find the Canon version at a much better price. It may be that the big win is that the parts are all new and the toner's a better quality. I would not expect quality issues here.
The HP toner is, of course, the most expensive route but also the route most likely to be problem-free.
posted by jgreco at 6:20 AM on May 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
The main problem is that most aftermarket cartridges recycle parts, and you are dependent on the previous owner having treated it well through its entire lifecycle.
The advanced move is to keep your print cartridge and simply refill it (random search result). I used to do this before switching to a laser printer.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 8:38 AM on May 4, 2020
The advanced move is to keep your print cartridge and simply refill it (random search result). I used to do this before switching to a laser printer.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 8:38 AM on May 4, 2020
When I tried used generic ink on my HP, it kept flashing "no genuine HP cartridge installed" and will not work no matter what. I heard there is a work around, but I don't have time for that. I just buy the HP ones, it's easier.
posted by james33 at 8:57 AM on May 4, 2020
posted by james33 at 8:57 AM on May 4, 2020
HP tries to make sure you use their cartridges by all kinds of subterfuge. Their maintenence programs get automatically loaded and then everytime you turn on your computer setup HP perceives a problem, that won't go away until you buy their product. I am using a cheap to free 3 in one little printer for printing documents and recipes, I don't expect much, so I just turn off HP's maintenence software, if I run out of ink, I buy some more cheap, big cartridges so I don't run out so quickly. I just don't listen to it when it tells me stuff, and it prints until I am out of ink again. Someday I will buy a printer again, but I mean an archival, Epson behemoth with 8 ink cartridges that takes $1000 to fill, and print to my heart's delight, but until then I will spend maybe $25 per year for casual printing on this beater HP.
posted by Oyéah at 9:31 AM on May 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Oyéah at 9:31 AM on May 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
Just one point of data, but I have used cheap chinese toner in my HP laserjet for years and never once had a problem. I bought the printer from MicroCenter as a refurb and have not looked back except to count my savings.
posted by AugustWest at 9:38 AM on May 4, 2020
posted by AugustWest at 9:38 AM on May 4, 2020
The inks in the various cartridges are, in fact, chemically different and produce different results. Most testers agree that First Party inks look and perform objectively better, but whether that matters to you enough to pay the huge markup is totally up to you. Here's an article from a source I trust (the Wirecutter) about the best third party replacements and what you can expect.
posted by The Bellman at 10:12 AM on May 4, 2020
posted by The Bellman at 10:12 AM on May 4, 2020
If you or folks you know belong to Costco, they have an in-store Costco inkjet refill service that has worked well for us in the past. See if they support your printer.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:57 PM on May 4, 2020
posted by filthy light thief at 8:57 PM on May 4, 2020
Best answer: I run a digital print shop, and service printers large and small.
"Can I safely use generic inks?" is a question that is more complicated than a lot of people think.
Some printers use ink cartridges with integrated print heads (these usually have the gold foil print nozzles on the cartridge, and often have 1 black + 1 multi-color cartridge in the printer). Many newer HP printers use ink tanks, which feed into a long-life print head via ink tubes. These printers usually have 4 or more cartridges (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, and possibly a Photo Black, or other colors.)
Now, if your printer is the first type, using the integrated print heads, what happens if you get lousy ink? Probably wind up with clogged jets on the cartridge that you may or may not be able to effectively clear; worst case is usually throwing out the bad cartridge and replacing it with a good one, and you're back in business.
With the second type of printer, what happens if you get lousy ink? Usually what we see is a clogged ink tube or a clogged print head. Neither are generally something I'd recommend an end user to try to fix, as you'll need some specialized tools and it's going to be messy. And often, the cost of parts & labor approaches or exceeds the replacement cost of the printer.
How likely is it that bad ink will break your printer? A lot of it depends on what type of ink your particular printer uses; is it dye-based, or pigment-based? You should be able to look up your printer and supplies on HP's website and see. As far as generic inks go, the dye-based inks seem to be more forgiving. The problem with the generic pigment-based inks is that they are finely-ground pigment particles suspended in a liquid carrier. If those pigment particles are not ground to the correct size, or the ink is contaminated causing clumping or gelling, you are likely to wind up with a clogged ink tube or print head.
Is it worth it? Well, what do you use your printer for? Are you an artist or photographer using your printer to produce prints or proofs for resale? How much do you trust the color accuracy of generic inks? How important is that to your use case? Also, how much do you use your printer? If you maybe buy inks once a year, I would probably say, why risk it? If you're going through more than that, eh... possibly? If you're printing a thousand pages a month or more, you would probably be better served by a pagewide inkjet or a laser printer with a lower operating cost.
Purely anecdotal, but something that has stuck in my brain from years of servicing printers. Every time I've serviced a printer for ink related issues (poor print quality, asks for ink even on a fresh cartridge, etc.) and I have found a clogged ink tube or print head, it has had generic inks loaded. Not once have I seen ink-related clogging issues from OEM inks.
If we're talking about a $50-$100 home-grade printer that is not mission-critical for you, eh... go ahead and roll the dice. You'll probably get 2 or 3 ink changes out of it before you see a problem, at which point you'll have saved about enough vs OEM inks to just replace the printer.
Would I ever run generic inks in my big 44" and 60" 12-color Canon fine arts printers? Hell fucking no.
Finally, If you are considering replacing your inkjet printer at some point, HP has about the highest real-world operating cost out there, but you can get their inks almost anywhere. Canon is decent. Epson inks are harder to find, but in general are the cheapest real-world operating cost, especially Epson's "Eco Tank" printers, which make a lot of sense if you regularly print 100+ pages per month.
posted by xedrik at 9:09 PM on May 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
"Can I safely use generic inks?" is a question that is more complicated than a lot of people think.
Some printers use ink cartridges with integrated print heads (these usually have the gold foil print nozzles on the cartridge, and often have 1 black + 1 multi-color cartridge in the printer). Many newer HP printers use ink tanks, which feed into a long-life print head via ink tubes. These printers usually have 4 or more cartridges (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, and possibly a Photo Black, or other colors.)
Now, if your printer is the first type, using the integrated print heads, what happens if you get lousy ink? Probably wind up with clogged jets on the cartridge that you may or may not be able to effectively clear; worst case is usually throwing out the bad cartridge and replacing it with a good one, and you're back in business.
With the second type of printer, what happens if you get lousy ink? Usually what we see is a clogged ink tube or a clogged print head. Neither are generally something I'd recommend an end user to try to fix, as you'll need some specialized tools and it's going to be messy. And often, the cost of parts & labor approaches or exceeds the replacement cost of the printer.
How likely is it that bad ink will break your printer? A lot of it depends on what type of ink your particular printer uses; is it dye-based, or pigment-based? You should be able to look up your printer and supplies on HP's website and see. As far as generic inks go, the dye-based inks seem to be more forgiving. The problem with the generic pigment-based inks is that they are finely-ground pigment particles suspended in a liquid carrier. If those pigment particles are not ground to the correct size, or the ink is contaminated causing clumping or gelling, you are likely to wind up with a clogged ink tube or print head.
Is it worth it? Well, what do you use your printer for? Are you an artist or photographer using your printer to produce prints or proofs for resale? How much do you trust the color accuracy of generic inks? How important is that to your use case? Also, how much do you use your printer? If you maybe buy inks once a year, I would probably say, why risk it? If you're going through more than that, eh... possibly? If you're printing a thousand pages a month or more, you would probably be better served by a pagewide inkjet or a laser printer with a lower operating cost.
Purely anecdotal, but something that has stuck in my brain from years of servicing printers. Every time I've serviced a printer for ink related issues (poor print quality, asks for ink even on a fresh cartridge, etc.) and I have found a clogged ink tube or print head, it has had generic inks loaded. Not once have I seen ink-related clogging issues from OEM inks.
If we're talking about a $50-$100 home-grade printer that is not mission-critical for you, eh... go ahead and roll the dice. You'll probably get 2 or 3 ink changes out of it before you see a problem, at which point you'll have saved about enough vs OEM inks to just replace the printer.
Would I ever run generic inks in my big 44" and 60" 12-color Canon fine arts printers? Hell fucking no.
Finally, If you are considering replacing your inkjet printer at some point, HP has about the highest real-world operating cost out there, but you can get their inks almost anywhere. Canon is decent. Epson inks are harder to find, but in general are the cheapest real-world operating cost, especially Epson's "Eco Tank" printers, which make a lot of sense if you regularly print 100+ pages per month.
posted by xedrik at 9:09 PM on May 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
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Epson, Brother and Canon all make printers where the nozzles are not replaced along with the cartridges, and there might be some argument in favour of sticking with OEM inks for those.
I guess there's some theoretical chance of filling an HP printer's waste ink sponge prematurely by using third party cartridges, but by the time that's happened, the money you've saved by not using OEM cartridges would easily cover the cost of a replacement printer.
posted by flabdablet at 5:57 AM on May 4, 2020