Innovera Print

How is Refilled Cartridge Compared With OEM Cartridge?

HP conducted a study on ink cartridge refill last year, comparing the performance of refilled inkjet cartridges with that of OEM cartridges. Not surprisingly, the results showed that original HP cartridges outperformed refilled cartridges significantly. We will look at the results to see how big the difference is and whether the study itself helps consumers to decide what to buy in their next purchase.

Original HP cartridges are manufactured by HP licensed partners while refilled ink cartridges are either branded refilled cartridges or cartridges from refill service providers. The research was conducted on these original HP cartridges: HP 92A, 93A, 98A, 95A, 21A and 22A. A range of branded refilled cartridges (Elite Image, Innovera, Nukote, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Rhinotek) and refill service providers (Cartridge World, OfficeMax, Walgreens) were used for comparison.

HP claimed that the original HP cartridges produced 46.6% more pages than the branded refilled cartridges and 85% more pages than cartridges refilled by refill service providers. Original HP cartridges were also more reliable. None of them failed in the tests while 27.1% of branded refilled cartridges and 41.1% of cartridges from refill service providers were dead on arrival (DOA) or had early end of life.

HP considers cartridges that cannot print or have substantial visible ink spilled in the bag or on cartridges as dead on arrival (DOA). Early end of life means that the cartridges produce less than 75% of the mean page yield of original HP cartridges for the same model. HP also included defective cartridges (DOA or early end of life) in their calculation of page yield (a protocol different from ISO standard). Therefore, if some refilled cartridges were dead on arrival, they produced zero page, the average page yield of all refilled cartridges would be reduced. HP did not report the performance of individual brands of refilled cartridges either. It is not known whether some brands performed better than the others.

Usually, cartridges sent for refill are not emptied completely, this can avoid drying out of the print head and the ink chamber. It is possible that some refilled cartridges are not filled up to full capacity in order to avoid overfilling and ink spillage. This may lead to lower ink volume and reduced page yield.

Although HP study proved that original HP cartridges are more reliable and print more pages than refilled cartridges, it is unlikely to stop consumers from using those cheap replacements. The protocol of the study was designed to exaggerate the differences between refilled and OEM cartridges. In addition, those who use refilled cartridges are usually environmentally concerned as they believe refilling is good for the environment. Some of them have a limited budget and they may not have high demand of the replacement ink. Refilled cartridges also take up a small percentage in the market of discount ink cartridges. The real competitors of OEM cartridges are the compatible or remanufactured cartridges. It will be more interesting if the printer manufacturers can conduct research to compare the page yield and the reliability of these discount cartridges with those of OEM cartridges.

About the Author

Kwan H Lo owns a review site promoting high quality discount ink / toner cartridges including Samsung toner cartridges and Dell printer cartridges.

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