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How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

kevin.deldycke.com

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Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#51

Post by Cthulhu_ »

bArray wrote: post #30

I can understand HP wanting to prevent their customers from being conned into buying false cartridges, or wanting to ensure the best possible experience for customers. But. Is it not enough to bring up a dialogue or warning telling the user it's false and they are breaking warranty, rather than outright disabling the cartridge? This seems like HP is acting anti-competitively, such that a third party would struggle to…

> But. Is it not enough to bring up a dialogue or warning telling the user it's false and they are breaking warranty, rather than outright disabling the cartridge?

Nope; their business model is cartridges and ink, not so much printers. 3rd party cartridges impacts their bottom line. There's a few companies who have consumables as their business model, Keurig is another that added "DRM"-like features to their stuff. Juicero tried it with an extremely overbuilt, but ultimately stupid device with overpriced bags of fruit as the consumables.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#52

Post by hrktb »

alpanka wrote: post #9

A VP at HP once told me they make 3/4 of their profits from selling inks (I am sure he exaggerated but still). You can buy original laserjet cartridges for $150 or third party cartridges for $40-60 (or $25 if you are happy with noname Chinese cartridges). So there is big money involved.

What's weird to me is big enough offices tend to switch to a subscription paid by the page, where the maker is engaged in doing reasonably whatever it takes (ink replacement, parts replacement etc.) to keep the machine printing.

I heard of such arrangements with Canon, I heard for Xerox, and it seemed to be pretty standard. As long as there was no manipulation errors the company had no need to care about durability, maintenance etc.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#54

Post by sokoloff »

csharptwdec19 wrote: post #36
alpanka wrote: post #9

A VP at HP once told me they make 3/4 of their profits from selling inks (I am sure he exaggerated but still). You can buy original laserjet cartridges for $150 or third party cartridges for $40-60 (or $25 if you are happy with noname Chinese cartridges). So there is big money involved.

That number could make sense if 'toner' counts as ink. And TBF, a lot of the nice multifunction printers of the 2000s were sold at a pretty decent loss. > (or $25 if you are happy with noname Chinese cartridges). Okay so I'm not one of those '3rd party evil' people. But speaking as someone who has had to repair multiple large format Inkjet and Laser printers, I would have at least a few concerns about Hazmat; even fi…

When a set of 4 toner cartridges is $800 from HP for a $600 printer and the high-quality, I’ve used before, 3rd party toners are $120 for the set, let’s just say that HP won’t be getting that purchase.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#55

Post by GekkePrutser »

ryanianian wrote: post #19
a012 wrote: post #10

Most of printer drivers are BS. I also bought a printer after lockdown, and had to spent hours to do research on the printer model that's interested me: Mac & linux compatible. The result is Brother is the most reliable and less BS than the rest printers. In the end, I bought a wireless Brother printer, and you can throw whatever cartridge in to it.

I’ve had a little Brother laser printer for 10 years. Works with macOS (and every prior version of OS X), Linux, and is now operating as a remote CUPS printer connected to an RPi. I’ve only has to replace the toner once. Thing is a tank and I loathe thinking about having to replace it someday.

Even if you do, Brother still make great printers that work with aftermarket toners.

Build quality has gone down a little but so have all brands.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#56

Post by Nextgrid »

Havoc wrote: post #53

Home printers are dead anyway. The one thing I did still need them for (printing labels for packages) is being taken over by QR codes

Thermal label printers (printing directly onto adhesive labels) are a good replacement for this use-case, with none of the downsides of ink or cartridges.

Furthermore their usage in businesses means there's an endless supply of labels in various sizes so you don't depend on the manufacturer for anything.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#57

Post by AtlasLion »

jug wrote: post #33

I thought this was illegal and why the third party cartridge market is so big. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend inkjet printers for normal home users: for plain text, I'd use a B&W laserjet printer and if I had to print in color (like broschures or food recipes with photos), I'd use a color laserjet. For quality photos, I'd send them in to a professional service: it's still pretty cheap compared to inkjet printing... I'v…

I use inkjet printers and I am very satisfied. I am using an Epson printer with what they call EcoTank. Just tanks with different color inks that you can refill yourself.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#58

Post by zajio1am »

alpanka wrote: post #12
a012 wrote: post #10

Most of printer drivers are BS. I also bought a printer after lockdown, and had to spent hours to do research on the printer model that's interested me: Mac & linux compatible. The result is Brother is the most reliable and less BS than the rest printers. In the end, I bought a wireless Brother printer, and you can throw whatever cartridge in to it.

HP laserjets have pretty good Linux support, it's usually plugnplay on Ubuntu.

Unless it is a printer+scanner combo, which requires some proprietary part that is downloaded by hplip package from HP web, and causes random breakage during upgrades.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#59

Post by simonboulton »

cm2187 wrote: post #44
simonboulton wrote: post #35

I don't want to be an apologist for HP or any other printer manufacturer, but there is at least one point that seems to be missed in this debate. If I design a printer, whether inkjet or any other type, I probably design it to some pretty tight tolerances in terms of the ink or toner. So I probably don't want people to drop in cartridges where the manufacturing tolerances might be way off the mark as they might well…

Then void the warranty if the device is used with unsupported cartridges.

I'm not sure that approach would be sustainable. Printer manufacturers are in the business of loss leading as far as I can see. They probably don't make any significant profit on the printer itself, judging by what I've paid for printers in the last few years. The price of the printer is subsidised by the projected profits from the ink/toner. And they are not insignificant, I agree. But in the current market, selling printers at an unsubsidised price probably won't work commercially. We've gotten used to cheap printers and expensive ink/toner I guess and it's difficult to come off them. There'[s no such thing as a free lunch etc..

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#60

Post by GekkePrutser »

Havoc wrote: post #53

Home printers are dead anyway. The one thing I did still need them for (printing labels for packages) is being taken over by QR codes

Here that's one of the few things I still use mine for, printing QR labels for my outgoing parcels :P

UPS, DHL and others still require us to print our own labels here. And QR codes are hard to write by hand ;)

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