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5 Reasons You'll Regret Using Refill Ink
February 28, 2018
If you use remanufactured ink or find yourself tempted by the cost savings, you may want to rethink your stance. Consider this: HP invests hundreds of millions of dollars in research and development in imaging and printing. It takes 3-5 years and up to 1,000 prototype formulas to perfect each new ink. The bottom line is that Original HP ink is not just colored water—it is scientifically formulated with very specific ingredients, proportions, and quality expectations that carelessly refilled and remanufactured ink just can’t compete with.
There are plenty of negative consequences that result from straying from Original HP ink. Let’s go through the top 5 regrets you may end up having if you go the remanufactured route.
1. Unreliable results
When you buy remanufactured ink, you essentially don’t know what you’re getting. Refill inks may cut out key ingredients and are not held to the same quality and consistency standards as Original HP ink. In fact, 37% of refilled ink cartridges failed during use or right out of the box, while Original HP ink cartridges worked every time. [1] And if you’re printing materials you want to last for years down the road, keep in mind that Original HP ink and photo papers typically last more than 50 times longer than leading refill ink brands. [2]
2. Poor page yield
Since there is no consistency across refill brands or even from cartridge to cartridge, you can’t count on them to produce a predictable page yield. When compared to Original HP ink, remanufactured cartridges routinely underperform when it comes to page yield. When tested, Original HP ink cartridges printed up to twice the pages—on average—than refilled cartridges. [1]
3. Wasted pages
Because remanufactured ink is so unreliable, you’ll end up regularly reprinting jobs due to quality and mechanical issues. Tested refilled cartridges actually produced over 18 times more wasted pages on average than Original HP ink cartridges.[1] On top of this wastefulness, reprinting causes wear and tear on your printer, and before you know it, you’ll be forced to purchase a new one much sooner than expected.
4. Printer damage
Yes, using refilled ink cartridges can actually cause permanent damage to your printer. Beyond additional wear and tear, poor quality ink can result in buildup on heat resistors that leads to unacceptable print quality, failed or damaged nozzles due to clogs in the ink channel, and even mismatched ink chemistry or nozzle design. And because ink is responsible for printer color maps, using third party ink after your Original HP ink runs out will reduce the color accuracy of your print outs.
5. No cost per page advantage
Finally, if cost is your primary motivator when purchasing ink, you might be interested to know that, out of all the refilled ink cartridges tested, none of them offer a cost per page advantage over Original HP ink.[1]
When you use remanufactured ink cartridges, you’re putting your print quality and overall health of your printer at risk—for no real cost advantage. It’s clear that all inks are not created equal, so stick with Original HP ink and print with no regrets.
[1] Based on a Buyers Laboratory Inc. 2014 study commissioned by HP for the on-average performance of cartridges refilled and remanufactured by leading refill service providers compared to Original HP ink cartridges (60XL Black, 60XL Color, 61XL Black, 61XL Color, 74XL Black, 75XL Color, 564XL Black, 564XL Cyan, 564XL Magenta, 564XL Yellow, 950XL Black, 951XL Cyan, 951 XL Magenta and 951XL Yellow) sold in North America; http://www.buyerslab.com/products/samples/HP-Inkjet-Cartridges-vs-Refilled-Cartridges.pdf
[2] Based on Wilhelm Imaging Research, 2012. For more details, http://www.wilhelm-research.com/hp/NonGenuine-3rdPartyInkRefills.html
As compared to print permanence ratings of Original HP Inks and papers www.hp.com/go/printpermanence
