Printer reviews

I don’t know about mono ones but some colour ones combine the 3 colour toners to make a pseudo black similar to how some ink jets do this. It is toner costly to do it but in a pinch it can get something printed if needed.

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Wanting to buy a new colour laser MFP, I had a look at the choice review. The top rated HP printer is showing as unavailable from the stores and at HP.

More worrying, I was looking at laser printers, including the top HP recommendation, and found the following on several of the newer ones I looked at:
Dynamic security enabled printer. Only intended to be used with cartridges using an HP original chip. Cartridges using a non-HP chip may not work, and those that work today may not work in the future.

I know that HP have been trying hard to disuade users from purchasing after-market inks and toners, but is this a portent that they intend to head down the path of stopping their printers from functioning if after-market inks or toners are inserted?

Is this a threat or a warning?

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No. It is a message to give HP the great one- finger Aussie salute.

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It might be a bluff.

Note that under the Australian Consumer Law, if a non-branded toner is marketed to be used in a particular model of printer, it must work otherwise it is not fit for purpose and one could seek a remedy (e.g. replacement or refund) under the ACL.

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It appears your reference is to the compatible ink, not the printer. Getting a refund on a $2 ink is little consolation when you have bought a $150 printer that requires $50 inks, or whatever the comparative costs are the difference is usually considerable.

An honest question is what (or whether any) consumer rights to use compatible inks apply when a vendor such as HP is up front about the risks of buying non-OEM inks and them working now or in the future and they roll out firmware to enforce using their own.

edit: This article provides some insight into the motivations for companies to protect their businesses. For some time printers have become loss leaders or break even products with the profits expected from ongoing supply sales. That model was challenged and shredded by the advent of compatible supplies. The options appear to be (legally if possible) limiting operation to OEM supplies (HP has done this in prior years!) or raising the prices of printers to reflect once off sales as being fully profitable.

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It could be interesting how the ACCC would approach this. The only example which may be applicable relates to what the ACCC has said in relation to car manufacturers trying to maintain exclusivity by not sharing information about a vehicle to assist in independent’s servicing the same vehicle.

The other is parallel imports where a product is sold in Australia which may or may not to OEM and outside of the formal manufacturer distribution channels. This one is very clear in relation to rights when such a product is purchased…namely, the obligations under the ACL still stand…

I suspect that the ACCC may take a dim view if manufacturer’s start developing firmware which ensures that a consumer can only purchase consumables from the same manufacturer. This removes the opportunity for competition Their statements about performance of non-genuine products may also raise the eye of the ACCC as it may be intentionally incorrect or misleading marketing material in order to maximise their own sales.

There is also a risk that a non-genuine toner or ink may result in the printer failing. This is also covered by the ACL and the toner/ink retailer/manufacturer would be responsible for any damage caused by the use of their inks/toner.

Where does this leave consumers, if a non-genuine ink/toner retailer indicates that a ink/toner is compatible/suitable for a particular printer make and model, then they must stand behind their product if it cases a problem, and they must meet their obligations under the ACL. It is also worth noting that the same applies to the OEM ink/toner manufacturer.

We have bought both OEM and non-genuine toner for our printer even thought the manufacturer warns against using such toners (warning such as may result in the printer failing or increased paper jams etc, poor print quality, may not work due to toner chipping etc). We have found that for our particular printer, there is no difference between the two toners, with exception that the non-genuine is about 1/5 cost of the genuine equivalent. We are also onto our third non-genuine high capacity toner cartridge and have had no issue to date. Maybe we have been lucky.

Notwithstanding this, one of our parents bought a compatible Epson ink cartridge for their MFP from a reputable non-genuine ink/toner retailer (who also sold genuine toners as well). On installing the non-genuine cartridge, it wasn’t recognised by the printer. After a call to the retailer, monies for the purchase was refunded. The retailer at the time indicated, if they are to be believed, that like any product (which includes genuine parts), sometimes the product can fail and they have about the same number of failures between OEM and non-genuine inks/toners.

Maybe it is one that Choice could broach with the ACCC as it not only applies to printers, but any electronic device (think batteries or other consumable parts), cars, appliances etc where the manufacturer tries to maximise their sales and profits by taking actions to prevent entry of non-genuine component suppliers.

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As an alternative, for home use we have found it more effective to use two printers.

A no nonsense mono laser that prints double sided does 90+% of the work load, and not being HP there are higher capacity OEM and alternate supply replacement toners. Nearly ten years old, it’s a Brother.

For colour we have a basic inkjet MFC with document scanner attachment, although scanning one page at a time so not that much more onerous for occasional needs. We are on our third in the same length of time as the laser. One HP, one Epson, one Brother (current).

Our experience suggests ease of use and long life reliability are the only justification for buying at higher price points. It really is a bit of a guess as past performance is not all that relevant in today’s world.

How many printers come with a five year 5,000/10,000 page unconditional warranty, OEM consumables used or not?

P.s. that’s a lot of trees, and gold tinted inks!

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That reminds me of when Apple first released the iPhone and it was exclusive to some US mobile networks.

Consumers developed “jail breaks” to make them network free but then Apple shut them down when they rolled out updates.

Apparently they are still doing it.

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HP printers are already set to detect the chips attached to cartridges. I keep getting pop up notices (that I have previously posted elsewhere on the forum) that I am not using genuine HP toners. These toners work just as well as the originals.

What I got from the statement on HP’s site, that I quoted above, was that the printers MAY be set to reject non-genuine HP chips. This is regardless of whether the ink/toner works successfully or not.

This would be like Apple saying the phone’s warranty is void if you replace its battery with anything but a genuine Apple battery. Oh hang on, they did say that, didn’t they :slight_smile:

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There was a time I wouldn’t buy anything else - now I’d buy almost anything but. HP in it’s various forms seems to be gaining pace through the S-bend after two decades of so-called ‘leadership’ that ended much the same was as Cabletron went - split into a number of spin-off and sub-spin-off companies, each apparently an unrecognisable mutation with apparently the same standard of ‘leadership’.

It’s where they make all their money - possibly the reason why the HP company

that does printing is called HP Inc :wink:

I’m very happy with my Fuji-Xerox MFP … 7 years old and going strong!

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Our printer review (member content) has been updated for 2019 :printer:

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With so many working from home in these troubled times I found buying a home printer an enormous task. My print-head clogged up & the built-in cleaning setting didn’t work. I know it is sometimes cheaper buying a new printer than buying ink & I’ve often thought if printer manufacturers wanted people to buy genuine ink they should sell removable print-heads with ink boxed sets. If you’re like me you hate the waste of throwing out a perfectly good printer save for the ink or print-head.

I’m no expert I just thought my experience could be useful to some folks. Looking through many reviews I came to find Brother printers had far more customer reviews (& positive ones at that, though there are some negative ones) than any other brand on the market. I considered lashing out on a colour laser printer as they don’t have clogging issues, but they are not as versatile as an inkjet. A relatively new inkjet technology on the market uses large ink tanks & are toted as being more reliable than the print-head & small cartridge variety.

The one I bought, a Brother DCP-J1100DW ($294.00) is the smallest & cheapest in ink tank type says it can print 150 pages a month for a year on the ink that comes with it, as if I would print that much for home use. The downside is that their ‘INKVestment’ printers can only be purchased through Officeworks & therefor you can’t shop around for a better price. What’s more, visiting Officeworks is no guarantee of finding one.

As I said at the outset, with so many working from home Printers are being snapped up as soon as they arrive in-store. So I emailed Brother Australia & told them which printer I was after & sked when their next shipment to Officeworks was due. Not only did the Sales Manager respond promtly to my email, but he also emailed me again when it was about to happen. I then used Officeworks ‘Click & Collect’ online purchase system to reserve the printer.

Out of the box there are more than one tutorial for setting up, the quick start guide or online video. The wifi setup took a little to work out, but the instructions were simple enough & it’s amazingly fast from power on to print-ready compared to my Canon PIXMA which whirred & carried on for a good minute before it would do anything. I hope some of you find my experience useful.

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Most definitely does, being a Canon PIXMA predominant consumer. Next time…thanks.

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We use a very old Brother B&W laser printer for everyday printing. Also a Brother inkjet for colour and A3 when needed. Both network and installed with ease. We have both connected directly to the home network by ethernet cables rather than wifi.

Compared with the previous Epsom and HP Products, both are winners. The GoodGuys and JB also sell Brother printers. They are not exclusive to Office Works.
Edit: noted the J1100DW model is currently restricted (local store front) to Office Works. Hopefully the same is not true of the replacement inks.

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This type is only sold by Officeworks, must be a contractual arrangement here. AliExpress sell them.

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Most are ‘same old same old’ models but have unique model numbers for ‘exclusivity’ - just like many other products. Some ‘exclusives’ but not all have an extra or hobbled feature to set them apart from the versions commonly available.

I’ll add my vote for Brother from the printers/MFCs to support. I also have a Brother laser and an MFC.

HP is the poster company for integrated print heads on the carts, that also regularly ‘upgraded’ firmware to detect original carts and brick compatibles (until an original was inserted). They were routinely sued and backed off, only to try it again in a few years. Exorbitant pricing as with most originals. I would never touch an HP printer as a result, as a matter of principle.

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While a printer manufacturer could try and void a warranty for non-genuine ink (they would need to prove the non-genuine ink caused the problem in order not to honour a manufacturer warranty), in Australia non-genuine ink purchased here is covered under the ACL. It must be fit for purpose. If using non-genuine ink/toner results in the printer failing, then one can make a claim against the ink supplier/retailer.

This does pose a challenge though…proving the ink unit resulted in the failure. It is likely one may face a situation where the printer retailer/manufacturer blames the non-genuine ink and the ink supplier blames the printer.

We have a Xerox domestic laser printer where the toner lasted more than the manufacturer warranty period…and we chose to use non-genuine toner purchased for around 20% of the genuine article. We now use the printer substantially more and the savings made over the years by will more than pay for the next printer.

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I am cross about being able to buy a printer / scanner for $30 but new ink Pods cost $65!
How can we increase incentives to reuse?

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Do we need incentives, or consumers to be better informed, and make alternate choices?

Before buying a new printer we could talk to a local business that refills ink cartridges to establish which brands or models can be economically recycled or better, refilled and reused.

There are also now a number of printers offered with much larger capacity ink cartridges, including the range of Brother printers at the start of this topic. There are after market conversion kits that use refillable tanks for a number of higher quality office duty Ink type printers.

There’s a trap for the average home user if you print infrequently a small number of pages, the low cost of starter printers is hard to resist.

It’s worth considering options such as OfficeWorks if you have one handy and only need to print a few times each year. Alternately there are a number of choices for home laser printers that cost less than a $30 starter inkjet and a full set of replacement inks. Black and white is all most jobs need. And the toner cartridges can be refilled/exchanged. If we need colour photos, it is cheaper to go to K-mart etc than use our own ink!

We rarely find a need for a scanner, using a mobile phone or tablet and App to photo capture to PDF documents.

P.S.
Perhaps the one incentive that could work is to mandate customers must buy a full set of high capacity replacement inks with the purchase of every new ink type printer? Apologies if you just saw an airborne bacon donor flash by the local member’s office.

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Officeworks and others have cartridge recycling bins. Not precisely what you may have meant, but.

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