Why HP Ink Cartridges Are Better than Most Other Brands
July 29, 2008
HP is one of the oldest printer manufacturers still in business, and their printers have long been considered some of the best. Is this accurate, however, or do people just assume they’re good because their name is so well known?
HP makes inkjet printers for various purposes and customer needs. For example, there are business printers, photo printers, value printers for the average consumer, and models with specific technical uses.
In any given category, HP tends to be one of if not the best print quality when compared to the competition. A big part of the reason for this is the technology they put into their cartridges.
Most HP ink cartridges include not only the ink but also the printhead. The printhead is the component in a printer that actually sprays the ink onto the paper. In most other brands of printers, the printhead is part of the printer itself rather than the cartridge.
When the printhead is part of the printer itself, not the ink cartridge like in HP printers, it becomes damaged as time passes and through repeated use. This means lower quality printing and eventually replacement of the printhead. The replacement, however, is typically at least as expensive as purchasing a new printer and in the end the average consumer just ends up buying a new printer anyway.
By putting the printhead on the cartridge itself, HP avoids this problem of the head wearing out. Over the course of months or years, the print quality will stay pretty much the same as it was when the printer was brand new because each time the ink is replaced, so is the printhead.
There are a couple of drawbacks to this system, however. The first is that the cartridges tend to be a little more expensive than some of the competition’s. Each time you replace the ink you’ll have to pay a little more, but this added cost will even out when you consider you would eventually have to pay to repair or replace most other brands.
Another drawback is that refilling HP ink cartridges is not very effective. The printhead that comes installed in the cartridge is not designed to work longer than the ink will last, so reusing the same cartridge will typically result in reduced print quality.
While refilling an HP cartridge once doesn’t tend to affect the print quality dramatically, further refills usually produce problems.
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