Are we headed toward printer ink cartridges shortages?

The devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 has forced many printer cartridge manufacturers to suspend operations in their printer cartridge plants. Canon has reported significant damages to to one of their inkjet printer manufacturing plants and has suspended work in eight of its plants. Kyocera Mita has ceased work at two of its facilities.

HP gets components for its LaserJet printer engines and toner cartridges from a partner with manufacturing facilities in Japan. It’s quite possible that the partner’s plants have been closed.

While the majority of printer ink cartridges and toner cartridges are not produced in Japan, many of the parts that are used to make cartridges and printers are produced in Japan. The countries inability to produce these parts as well as their inability to distribute any parts that have been manufactured (due to infrastructure damages) will make it difficult for companies like HP and Canon to maintain a cartridge production schedule that is anything close to what they were able to do prior to the earthquake and tsunami.

Personally, I don’t foresee any impact to our consumers because of the damages. There are a few reasons. First, I believe production schedules prior to the damages have created an adequate supply of printer ink to sustain our needs. Second, the HP’s and Canon’s of the world have (we hope) contingency plans in place to continue sourcing the parts they need for cartridges. They will make sure they get the parts they need so they can maintain sales of their most profitable product.

Last, a slight change in our printing habits will guarantee we don’t have any shortages. Start buying remanufactured printer cartridges or get your empty ink cartridge refilled. Remanufactured cartridges are producted from existing empty cartridges. There are plenty of those in the world. When you refill your empty cartridge, all you need is the ink. There’s not shortage of that either.

Good luck Japan. We’re thinking of you.

One of our Facebook friends recently let us know that HP might be discontinuing the HP 45 (51645A) and HP 78 (C6578DN) cartridges. She shared that she was recently at Sam’s Club and found signs that said these two cartridges would be discontinued as of March 31, 2011. She also shared that she called HP to find out if the discontinuation was true, that HP would not confirm or deny her inquiry, and she felt she was given the “run around”.

I’m honored that her next step was to see what I knew and, since, I don’t buy in to the “run around” I got down to some research.

I first did a web search to see if HP had released any information pertaining to these cartridges. I did not find anything specific from HP, but a search result from Walmart.com showed:

Shop Low Prices on: HP 45 Black Inkjet Cartridge (51645A) : Computers. … This item is being discontinued. Availability is limited. …

A similar result showed for the HP C6578DN cartridge.

Shop Low Prices on: HP 78 Tri-color Inket Cartridge (C6578DN) : Computers. … This item is being discontinued. Availability is limited. …

My web search didn’t leave me with much more than I had begun with. At that point I figured I would get on the phone and find out from HP directly. A friendly rep confirmed that, yes, the HP 45 and HP 78 cartridges are being discontinued. She did not have a concrete date because HP wants to sell all of the cartridges it has manufactured.

Here’s my take.

Walmart, Sam’s Club, and other retail stores will be quick to discontinue selling these two cartridges because at the end of this month HP will not longer sell the 45 and 78 to them. Depending on the agreements HP has with other retail stores, the cartridges may be available in stores for a while longer. But, in time the only way to get these cartridges will be online. HP will continue to sell them through their web site until they are completely out of stock. Once that happens these two cartridges will be hard to come by and some folks will be forced to upgrade their printers.

The 51645A and C6578DN cartridges have been around for about 10-15 years. HP has not made a printer that uses these cartridges for years. Printer cartridges technology has come a long way since these cartridges were HP’s top sellers.

Either stock up or upgrade, but either way we’re saying goodbye to these cartridges!

Going green is all the rage these these days. Most everyone wants to do their part to help ease the burden we are placing on Mother Earth. Each industry has adopted certain systems and released products that are earth friendly. The printer cartridge industry is doing it’s part – with soy ink and soy toner.

Standard printer ink and toner are petroleum (oil) based. The petroleum is then combined with other man made chemicals which allows you to put all those words and pictures on pages. Soy based ink and toner is touted as eco-friendly because it is made from soy beans, which are grown as crops throughout the world. If it’s grown on a farm it’s got to be good, right? Maybe not.

Before we all jump on the soy ink bandwagon, let’s take a closer look.

Soy based ink and toner is 35% soy. The remaining 65% of the ink is made from petroleum. The majority of the ink and toner is petroleum based.  This is not necessarily a bad thing. To make a product green you have to start somewhere and then move toward the 100% recycled level. It’s taken paper products a while to get there. Hard core environmentalists will say that 65% is way to high. And, yes it is a high number, but being 35% soy based is not to bad either. Hundreds of millions of ink and toner cartridges are produced each year. If 35% of the ink and toner that goes in to these is soy based, our oil consumption goes down by a millions of gallons.

Beside less oil use, soy ink is better than petroleum because it has low levels of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s). VOC’s release toxic emissions, which cause air pollution. Additionally, soy toner is made from a byproduct of soy bean farming. A byproduct is a secondary or incidental product deriving from a manufacturing process. No new crops are needed in order to produce ink and toner. They simply use what is left from the standard soy harvesting and processing process.

So, the printer ink industry is getting greener. Soy sounds like a pretty good product to use. But, what happens as the demand for soy based ink grows? Are there an negative effects on the it’s ability to remain eco-friendly?

Some would say no, but only because they are considering the ink itself. What about the resources that go in to growing soy beans?  Most don’t trace back to the origin of the products used to make the ink.

As the demand for soy ink grows, more soy bean crops are going to have to be planted in order to create the byproduct needed. History has demonstrated what happens when farmers are pushed to produce more of a certain crop – they get less ec0-friendly. The need for machines is increased, farming practices that aren’t earth friendly are adopted, harsher pesticides are introduced, and growth enhancing chemicals begin to be used. None of these things have a beneficial effect on the environment. If we trace back to its source, is soy ink still eco-friendly?

Currently the majority of soy bean crops are planted with genetically modified soy beans. Some believe that these types of beans are detrimental to the environment. The process of genetically modifying a crop introduces new components in to the genetic make up of the crop, thereby increasing the levels of VOC’s.

Finally, the planting of soy beans, as a crop, is the major reason for deforestation along the Amazon River, in Brazil. Forests are being cleared to create land to plant soy beans on, the same beans that are used to created so ink. We are all well aware of the concern over deforestation (global warming).

So, is soy ink good or bad? Are you looking from the surface level or tracing back to the origin of the products used to make soy based ink? You get to decide, but take a second to let me know your decision is. Thanks!

Last week we talked about the cheap laser printer, today we are going to talk about cheap printer ink. The cost of manufacturer brand printer cartridges is a hot topic amongst those that own both inkjet and laser printers. The need for lower cost printer ink solutions has created a market for compatible and remanufactured cartridges. It’s also created a market for less expensive manufacturer brand cartridges.

When you head out to your favorite search engine and search for ‘cheap printer ink‘ you may not know exactly what you are looking for. Compatible cartridges . . . Remanufactured cartridges . . . Manufacturer brand cartridges. All you know is that you want something that costs less than what you would pay HP, Epson, Canon, or Lexmark for one of their cartridges. So, what exactly could  you end up with, and should you buy it?

Any time you can get a manufacturer brand cartridge for what you feel is cheap,  you should do it. Why? Because you are going to get the best print with manufacturer brand cartridges. There are quite a few who won’t agree with me, but it’s true. Printers are manufactured with certain preset, and unchangeable, calibration settings. The settings are set for printing with manufacturer brand inks. Based on that fact alone, you will get better print outs using manufacturer brand cartridges. Vendors of compatible and remanufactured cartridges will tell you that their ink is the same as the manufacturer brand inks. Don’t believe it. By law they can’t be. Manufacturers hold patents on their ink formulations, and patents prevent others from copying the formula. Even though the formula can’t be the same, it is possible for vendors of remanufactured and compatible cartridges to say their cartridges print the same as a manufacturer brand cartridge, but this is just an opinion and subject to the person viewing the print out.

To me, a search for cheap printer ink means you are looking for compatible or remanufactured cartridges. You will definitely save some money using these cartridges, but should you use them?

Cheap printer ink is fine for general use printing, but if you need color accuracy because you are printing something you consider important or official you should go with the manufacturer brand cartridge. You are going to get a better looking print because your printer is designed to work with manufacturer brand inks (mentioned above). All the printer color profiles are based upon the manufacturer ink formulation.

The bottom line . . . if perfect color is important you need a manufacturer brand cartridge. If not, go with the cheap printer ink. You won’t damage your printer and you will save some money.

People like to save money, not matter what they are purchasing, so I often get folks that want to know where they can buy a cheap laser printer. I guess there are two ways to look at cheap. A cheap laser printer can either cost very little or be made with very little quality. I usually assume that one would rather buy the laser printer that costs very little versus buying the one that has low quality. Skimp on quality and you are asking for a whole lot of trouble, not matter how little you paid. Remember, you get what you pay for. That said, let’s talk about the cheap laser printer and how we can get our hands on them.

The least you can expect to pay for a laser printer, from a mid to large sized retailer, is between $300-$400.  At this price point you are going to get a single color (black) printer with some pretty slow print speeds (20 or fewer pages per minute). Don’t expect to get any scanning/copying functions, duplexing, wireless connectivity, or direct printing from USB type devices. You can expect a moderate duty cycle, the maximum number of pages the printer can print per month, in the 40,000 page range. There are some very reliable printers in this price range (HP Color LaserJet CP2025n, HP LaserJet P2015dn, Samsung SCX-4100), so even if you aren’t cheap and are just on a limited budget you’ll be able to get a quality printer.

Did you know that laser printer prices range from free to as high as $5000.00? How can the range be so large?

For you cheap laser printer seekers free is the ultimate, right? If you can get it for free you are a happy camper! To find a free laser printer you are going to have to spend some time looking around. Free laser printers are going to be found on Craig’s List or at liquidation sales. To find liquidation sales you are going to have to scour the Internet or newspapers for public postings. What you save in money you may spend in time. Still, it is very cool to be able to say you got yourself a free laser printer.

Okay, let’s get back to cheap. If you look on comparison shopping web sites you will often see a range of a few hundred dollars for any one type of printer. The same $300-$400 printer we mentioned above can be found online for between $200 and $575. Huh? If I can go to a mid to large sized retailer and get it for $300-$400, how can it be found online for $200-$575? That’s the power of the Internet. We’ll ignore the $575 part because that’s just not cheap enough. But the $200, now I’m saving at least $100.

The lesson? If you are cheap, check the Internet. You are bound go find the laser printer you want for a lower price than you would pay in a store. There are some trade-offs, but we are just talking about saving money so price is our only determinant.

Get out there and get yourself a cheap laser printer. Search the Internet, search the newspapers, look for store closeouts, or ask  your friends. Bottom line is that you’ll be spending some time researching this purchase in order to find the best deal, so be prepared. Good luck!

Do inkjet cartridges explode? If you listen to some customers you would believe they do. If you listen to me you’ll see that the inkjet cartridge can give the appearance of having exploded, but it really does not.

In the 11+ years I’ve been doing this the exploding inkjet cartridge call is one that I get a few times a year. The rationale that I’m about to share usually falls on deaf ears when I explain it. Why? Because I’ve got a customer on the phone with ink on the inside of their printer. The last thing they want to hear is me telling them they are wrong and the cartridge did not explode. They want to hear how everything is going to be taken care of.

So, take the time now to read this post. It will save us both a lot of time and energy if you feel your inkjet cartridge exploded inside your printer.

I am going to focus on HP brand cartridges and remanufactured HP cartridges because almost all complaints stem from this type of cartridge. Ah, we’ve already got a trend! Additionally these reports are happening with older HP printers and older model HP inkjet cartridges. A second trend!

The design of the older HP printers includes an absorbent pad that captures all of the ink drops that the printer uses. The pad helps clean the print head of every inkjet cartridge that has ever been installed in the printer. Besides collecting ink drops each time a new cartridge is installed, the pad also collects ink from a rubber wipe (think windshield wiper) that wipes the cartridge each time you start a print job.

After a few years the pad reaches the limits of what it can absorb and ink begins to overflow from the sponge and the tray the sponge sits in. The ink then forms a pool under the printer that goes unnoticed until someone moves the printer. Picture the reaction to a pool of ink under the printer. Most assume that the inkjet cartridge exploded, not that it leaked. So very few know that mechanics of the inkjet printer that they would never guess the absorbent pad leaked and there is nothing wrong with the cartridge.

The next time you find a puddle of ink under your printer and get the urge to pick up the phone and tell everyone that your inkjet cartridge exploded, take a minute and remember what you have read.

1. Cartridges don’t explode!

2. Although unlikely, cartridges can leak. Talk to the company you purchased your cartridge from. They will be able to help you.

3. Check your printer. If it is 3-4 years old, it may be the cause of the the ink puddle.

If you have any ideas to share about exploding inkjet cartridges please take a minute to share them. Thanks!

Having trouble printing with your laser printer. Here’s a little help for you.

The first thing you should remember is that printers are not magic machines. There is always a definite cause to the problem. You just need to figure out what that cause is.

Most printers now have display panels on them. If you don’t have a display panel you will have a set of lights with symbols next to them. The display panel, and the lights, relay information about your printer’s status. When you are having troubles, this is the first place  you should check. The display panel will have a text prompt to tell you what is wrong, or it will give you a code number. If lights, they will blink, stay solid, or turn off. In either case you should always have your printer’s user manual handy to help you find out what the lights, codes, or text messages mean. If you don’t have your manual you can probably find it online at the manufacturer’s web site.

Paper jams are the most common laser printer problem. There are various places paper can jam as it feeds through the printer, so you are going to have to open as many doors on the printer as it takes to find the jam (most printers have 2-3 doors on them). You will also have to check the paper tray too. If paper is repeatedly jamming in the same area you will need to check on the printer’s hardware in that area. It may need to be replaced.

Printer parts are only made to last a certain number of pages. Just be aware that these parts will wear down. Hopefully not for a long time, but if you are a heavy volume printer your printer will need to be replaced sooner rather than later.

If your print quality is poor you are going to want to check the hardware as well. This type of problem can be caused by the toner cartridge (make sure you check your cartridge first), fuser, or transfer roller. I recommend you check your toner cartridge first because history has shown it to be the culprit more times than not. It’s also the easiest component to replace.

Hope  you don’t come across any of these issues to often, but if you do you will know what to do.

Use coupon code INKSAVEHP to take advantage of this offer.

Today through January 15, 2011, Pacific Ink is offering FREE SHIPPING on all HP ink and toner cartridges. Buy one . . . buy 10. You’ll get the free shipping either way, and the confidence of that comes with knowing you are using genuine HP brand printer cartridges. This offer is also valid on all remanufactured and compatible HP ink and toner cartridges.

Here are December’s printer ink coupon codes. These are some good ones. You can save 10% on manufacturer brand cartridges and 15% on all compatible brand cartridges. Visit Pacific Ink to use the coupon codes.

Are you able to guess the dates in world history that correspond with these codes, and the dates shown? The answers are below.

DELAWARE – December 7

W1XAV – December 7

ALABAMA – December 14

TELEGRAPH – December 14

ROCK – December 21

WYNNE – December 21

IOWA – December 27

PLEDGE – December 27

——————————————————————————

Answers:

December 7
1787 – Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.
1930 – W1XAV in Boston, Massachusetts broadcasts video from the CBS radio orchestra program, The Fox Trappers. The broadcast also includes the first television commercial in the United States, an advertisement for I.J. Fox Furriers, who sponsored the radio show.

December 14
1819 – Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.
1902 – The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from Ocean Beach, San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii.

December 21
1620 – William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
1913 – Arthur Wynne‘s “word-cross”, the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.
December 28
1846 – Iowa is admitted as the 29th U.S. state.
1945 – The United States Congress officially recognizes the Pledge of Allegiance.

My last two posts on HP’s settlement (HP Class Action Lawsuit Settlement, HP Settlement) have received quite a bit of attention. Put best . . . HP, your loyal customers are not happy.

I use the term loyal because I was quite surprised a the number of times the word was used by individuals leaving their comments. From their descriptions, these individuals currently own more than one HP printer. They have also purchased many HP printers over the years. I’d call that loyal, and a $5-$8 e-credit is not making them feel any better about what HP has done to them. One comment pointed to the fact that HP is “engaging in stupid tricks to outsmart their loyal customers.”

Many “commenters” also reminded me of Epson’s 2006 class action settlement. Like HP, Epson issued e-credits to customers with certain printers. Epson irritated a lot of customers with their settlement response to the law suite that claimed that a substantial amount of ink was left inside cartridges when the printer indicated that the cartridge was empty. Sounds familiar, huh? A lot of the Epson printer owners switched to HP printers when they received their e-credits. Even more switched when their e-credit codes were not accepted by Epson. HP printer owners are hoping they won’t see the same thing happen when they get a chance to redeem their e-credits.

HP customers are seeing this settlement as an out for HP against future lawsuits. Still others see it as a winfall for two parties . . . the lawyers and HP. How? Well we all can guess that these lawyers had to be paid pretty well to make this all go away for HP (who were they representing again?). Even the best intentioned of lawyers comes out a winner as he/she is paid to do his job. They get a great hourly rate.

HP wins because they are issuing you a credit for $5-$8 to use to spend at their online store where you will have to spend at least $9.99 to get a cartridge. Their most inexpensive cartridge is $9.99, but a customers commented that their cartridge cost $30-$40 at the HP web site. This process is costing HP just about nothing, but could in turn reap them some huge revenues. The settlement is for $5 million. If each customer gets a $5 e-credit, then 1 million purchases will be made at HP’s store (assuming everyone buys). Let’s say after the e-credit is applied, the average customer spends $20. That’s $20 million in revenue for HP. Not a bad turn of events.

My favorite comment . . . One “commenter” provided a new definition for ISP, which typically stands for “Internet Service Provider”. He decided we should reapply the term to our printer. ISP now stands for “Ink Sucking Pig”

Keep the comments coming. I want to hear what you all area thinking. I’m reading them all. Thanks!