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HP Must Defend Half-Empty "Economy" Ink Cartridges

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the false-economy-that-is dept.

An Anonymous Coward excerpts this short Detroit News story, which begins "PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Hewlett-Packard Co. must defend the sale of half-full ink cartridges with its printers after a Minnesota appellate court reinstated a lawsuit against the world's largest maker of printers. Three Minnesota women claim that the company doesn't reveal that the 'economy cartridges' installed on new printers are only half full of ink." The cost of refills is why I've given up on inkjet printers entirely (for now) -- guess which division of HP made more money than the other four combined?

3 of 580 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why do people bother with inkjets? by scott1853 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Samsung? NO! We got one at the office.

    It's manual feed tray is left aligned and then everything that you try to print on paper smaller than 8.5x11 will try to be centered where it would be on regular letter sized paper.

    Also, in the time it takes it to warm up, I can send a print job to the HP downstairs and walk down and get it before the Samsung has even started.

    You don't want these things next to you when you're talking on the phone either. Imagine the volume level of a dot matrix without the rat-a-tat-tat but with a continuous humming.

    Just my personal experience though.

  2. Re:Why do people bother with inkjets? by SomeoneGotMyNick · · Score: 5, Informative
    My nearly perfect sequence for a worry-free refill on an HP cartridge for an 800 series printer.

    1. Act immediately - When it's running out of ink, you have better luck refilling it before the ink dries in the nozzles
    2. Use only the suggested amount of ink recommended by the refill kit. Don't top-off and suck back a bit of ink to make a cartridge full.
    3. When done, squeeze sides slightly while closing off fill hole. Another reason why you don't fill to the brim.
    4. Let the printhead fully sit on blotting paper for 5-10 minutes (prop up cartridge with some loose change)
    5. Carefully wipe clean the printhead and insert in printer. Do full print tests, cleaning, and alignment.

    I say 'nearly-perfect' because I found that sometimes, I needed to do a little more blotting before everything is perfect.
  3. Re:Smart folks refill their own cartridges... by jridley · · Score: 4, Informative

    Buy an Epson instead of an HP, and the cartridge won't wear out, either. The Epson heads are separate and designed to last. The HP is integral and designed to fail.