Even as prices rise, as you fuel up or change the oil in your car, you’re not going to skimp out—the life of your car depends on it. It turns out, the same goes for your printer.
Costs for accessories of both regular and multi-function printers can be a lot, after all, both for you or your business of any size. It can be tempting to save some money by refilling cartridges or buying a dubious toner or ink that is often too strong.
In the long term, going off-brand can damage the printer, and end up costing you a whole lot more.
According to research commissioned by HP, the savings can lead to greater costs, lower print quality, reduced life of the printer itself, or even network security breaches.
The report found that 70% of tested refilled inks failed during use or right out of the box. It also leads to more waste—compared to HP inks, non-HP inks tested produced nearly 80 times more wasted pages, on average.
The same research also found that the tested refilled inks produced 200 percent fewer pages than original HP inks—not nearly up to snuff.
So, what should be considered when choosing cartridges, and what is the advantage of choosing an original one over clones? By “clones” we mean non-branded cartridges from alternative producers.
Print Quality
Print cartridges are expensive to produce and difficult to design, something consumers with little savvy don’t usually notice. For many, it can be unclear why knockoffs, third-party clone cartridges and refills are, on their face so much cheaper—when the actual savings are largely an illusion.
For one, it comes down to basic human skill. Specialists need exceptionally high levels of training and experience to produce cartridges and their fillers, which involves studying individual chemicals, complex formulations, and their qualities as they relate to cartridge operation. This will guarantee the end customer the best print quality in the future—something that non-experts, who come a lot cheaper, simply can’t.
At the same time, third-party clone manufacturers are cutting production costs at every turn. Quality control and industry standards to produce a high-tech simply don’t exist—there’s nothing standing in their way from producing something bad and selling it to the consumer with zero accountability.
Cartridges, ink, and toners are frequently produced in a non-sterile, hand-assembled, and artisanal environment. The generated copies will almost certainly be hazy or indistinct. This leads to the toner being unevenly distributed on the paper, improperly fixed, etc. because of improper nozzle and ink supply operation. The use of non-original cartridges results in the printing of the same documents or photographs repeatedly, even with tiny quantities of work.
Consumers raise the amount of costs as a result. Cloned cartridge printers use an average of 32% more energy than genuine ones, claim specialists from Four Elements Consulting.
That causes a rise in paper usage. The storage of vital papers is also uncertain, because there is no guarantee that the ink on clones will be able to keep its quality even after a few years—meaning you’re never truly out of the woods.
Repair
Refilled ink also causes the need for a whole lot of repairs. Why? It’s simple. Their production is way lower volume than the experts and original manufacturers, who have sophisticated machinery as they produce a huge volume of printers, multifunction printers (MFPs), cartridges, inks, and toners and have in-depth knowledge of the designs of each of these components. The knockoff producers don’t.
Refilled ink also exhibits unpredictable behavior, adhering to one another, drying out, or clogging the print head nozzles. Refilled toner can quickly wake up inside the printer, rendering it inoperable. Since warranty repairs are very certainly going to be rejected, repairing a printer or MFP will be far more expensive than utilizing an original product—you’ll have to buy a whole new printer.
Safety
For small to medium-sized businesses as well as corporates, a single printer device assault can put the security of a whole organization at risk. Modern printers and multifunction printers (MFPs) are technically advanced devices connected to computers on an office network. Almost all contemporary cartridges are fitted with chips that communicate information to the printer about the amount of toner or ink present so that the machine can halt printing on its own in the event of a pigment shortage. The microprocessor in modern chips almost usually contains its own firmware.
One of the openings for a cyberattack can be the exchange of data between the printer and the cartridge—so saving that money on ink may end up in an attack on your entire computer system.
Why? It’s simple. Because they don’t care about the customer’s safety, producers of clones and counterfeit cartridges employ common, unprotected chips. The printer, MFP, and other network components could all be exposed to a virus or hacker attack as a result. And in this instance, the harm may be in the millions. Official producers add extra security to their products; for instance, HP cartridges use chips created using the same technology as payment cards, and firmware is carefully crafted with security in mind.
Savings
Consumers should resist the need to cut costs on items like printer cartridges, no matter how tempting it may be. Contrary to original equipment makers, clone manufacturers are not concerned with the printer’s or MFP’s long-term reliability or the highest print quality.
Additionally, they do not accept liability for their product under the same warranty. The device might function properly for the first time, but that will not last long. Furthermore, there are no warranties for when the device is used with non-original parts fitted.
In short—avoid the temptation.
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