What color laser printer is easily & cheaply refilled at home from non OEM toner?

[J.G.]

Q: What color laser printer can cheaply be refilled with non-OEM toner?

For years, I bought the Costco HP inkjets which required ink priced at about 100 times what ink 'should' cost. I even tried the Costco $20 ink refills, but of course, HP makes refills almost impossible, on purpose, so I simply vowed to never buy another HP ink-based printer.

I bought an HP B&W laser printer, and have happily and successfully been buying $5 guaranteed-used-once C92 cartridges and refilling the C4092A black toner over the years at home, for about $5 for 250 grams of toner as shown below (after melting a circular hole in the toner cartridge):

The problem is my kid wants a color printer and the wife concurs.

I never again wish to go through the expensive ink-refill sheer hell of the typical HP inkjet ... so the 'only' color printer for me is one which I can easily and inexpensively refill, at home, from non-OEM sources.

Hence my question:

Q: Do you know of a color laser printer that can be as easily refilled from non-OEM sources like the B&W laserjets can?

[Frank]

I feel the same way about HP but have three of their printers.

I've been buying cartridges from Double Inks:

Re-inked cartridges for way less the cost of HP originals. I just put one of their re-inked color cartridges in one of my printers and the color was true to the original photo I printed.

Looking at my order:

Products

------------------------------------------------------

1 x Single Pack HP 23 Reman C1823A (1 Tri-CLR) () = $18.99 1 x Double Pack HP 97 Reman C9363WN (2 Tri-CLR) () = $23.99 1 x Double Pack HP 15 Reman C6615DN (2 BLK) () = $17.99

------------------------------------------------------ Sub-Total: $60.97 Shipping: $0.00 Total: $60.97

[Smitty Two]

FWIW, printing on a laser printer is MUCH less expensive, per page, than an inkjet, when buying the OEM supplies.

[mike]

I did this as a thought experiment. With a family, you'll have to do it for real. Estimate the cost of a color print. That's not the cost calculated by the 5% fill numbers of equal amounts of toner. Use the 100% fill of one color that your kids want to use for their poster. If the toners don't come separate, count on throwing out 2/3 of it. Don't forget the paper cost. Now, you've got a number. Put a coin jar next to the printer and make everybody put money in the jar for every print they make with the current printer. You're gonna need a big jar.

After a month, see how badly they want that color printer. While you're at it, ask why they needed all those B&W prints.

If you want to print photos, you've got another problem. A laser that prints nice photos is gonna cost you. My neighbor has a very nice HP ink jet that prints stunning pictures. He figures that, given all the ink he throws out for plugged cartridges, that it's costing him about $5/picture. The photo shop inside the Walgreens around the corner will make a nice print for 15-cents if you catch them in a sale.

I have three color printers. I haven't made a color print in 15 years. Color is over-rated if you're not in the advertising business.

[J.G.]

I know. I know. In fact, I had bought two sets of HP inkjet ink tanks, and, I put one set aside as an emergency spare - and I was using and refilling the first set - and then, at some much later date, I put the brand new (but a couple of years old by now) spares in to start the process anew ... and guess what? These never used cartridges ran out of time in just a month or three. (I don't remember the exact details but I was fuming that HP was so sinister.) I vowed never to buy another HP inkjet all-in-one printer for the rest of my life (just like I've vowed never to buy American or German cars ever again!).

I'm positive HP did that just to foil the refillers!

I have never refilled a COLOR laser printer. But I must say, refilling my B&W HP office printer is trivial. You just pour the bottle in the hole and seal it up with scotch tape.

Are the color laser printers as trivial to refill?

Is it the same pour-the-toner-in process, only perhaps three times over (one for each color)?

[J.G.]

I have no experience with color laser printers. Does that price comparison hold for color lasers also?

BTW ...

All I know is that refilling my B&W 92A (aka C092A) toner cartridge with

250 grams of black toner costs about $5 plus tax/shipping. An empty used-once HP 92A/C092A cartridge costs another $5 (plus tax/shipping).

A new HP 92A/C092A cartridge is about $34 (plus tax/shipping) on Amazon:

Note: I see a new non-HP C092A-compatible cartridge for as low as $12, but the reviews of this cheap alternative are horrific:

[HeyBub]

I have two Minoltas. Magicolor 1600W and Magicolor 2530DL. Both are, and have been, re-filled.

[J.G.]

My kid is going to Kinkos to print color. I think it's a few bucks each time.

Probably something like half a buck per picture. When you think of it, it isn't bad considering you're not paying to maintain the printer and buy printing supplies.

But, it's not convenient for them (the wife/kids).

That's a great point!

If we were to scope the 'perfect' refillable color laser printer, would it have SEPARATE toner tanks for the 3 colors?

Heh heh. I get where you're going. But these are 'women'.

Hmmm... that's a key point. Yes. They want to print photos!

I understand. And I don't disagree!

But, the comparison starts with scoping out a color printer that can be refilled.

Are these the specs so far?

1. Photo quality color laser printer
2. Separate toner tanks/cartridges for each color
3. Refillable by the home owner with non-OEM toner

[J.G.]

Can you refill with non-OEM toner? And can you refill each color tank separately?

[J.G.]

Oh. I know. I know Oren. I have had blue fingers many times!

The HP cartridges I had were actually tanks with sponges in them. So, you had to not overfill them, or they leaked. But you had to fill them before they went too dry or they leaked. Plus you had to drill the hole in the right spot or they leaked. Even so, you had to deal with the time stamps that they burned into the ink tank at the factory. There was no way around that.

You 'could' get past the time stamps they put in the printer memory for the cartridge. I tried the CMOS battery trick and shorting a pin on the motherboard ... but what worked best was to have THREE cartridges because the printer would only remember the unique id of the last two!

But all that effort simply turned me off because HP made it difficult on purpose to refill the ink in the ink tanks.

Note: Technically, these weren't cartridges because the ink jets were separate from the ink tanks in my HP all in one printer.

I'm OK with my HP LASER printer ... but I too will NEVER ever buy another HP inkjet in my entire life!

Contrast all that mess with the inkjets with the trivial refill of the B&W toner on the laserjet and I'm a believer in laser printers!

Hence the quest for a refillable color laser printer.

[Metspitzer]

With smart phones and laptops becoming more and more popular, just show the kids a photo hosting site. Printed pictures are so yesterday.

Photo hosting will allow you to view the photos everywhere on the planet.

[mike]

I have a friend who uses a Tektronix/Xerox color laser printer. It's not main stream, and the toner is expensive, but he trolls EBAY and buys up toner when it shows up cheap. He figgers he has two lifetime supplies of toner.

Might be interesting to see what toner shows up on EBAY and buy that printer.

I bought some mono refill kits for my Laserjet almost 20 years ago. Never used 'em because I keep buying full cartridges that show up on Craigslist. Got a closet full of 'em. And another closet full of $2 garage sale laserjets. Life is good here in B&W land ;-)

[Jim Yanik]

Metspitzer wrote in news: [e-mail]:

there's no reason a toner tank cannot have separate sections and still be refillable. KISS principle.

Not really. some folks want to print them for display. like in a picture frame,maybe to have on their desk.

Not if you don't want to put your pictures on the "cloud" for anyone to hack into.

[Metspitzer]

It is a shame that is true. A small portion of the population screws it up for everyone.

[John]

So again, when dealing with inkjets get the one with the cheapest (in cost) ink, Kodak by a mile.

John

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, If your decision is to get a color laser AIO, Brother is not bad. set of

4 cart. on eBay goes for ~80.00 including S&H. Another thing to consider is power consumption when running. Some use more than a KW. (generates some heat) I believe Brother uses about 600W or so.

[HeyBub]

Yes and yes

Suggestion: If you find a printer you like, check Ebay for refill kits. If no kits are available, well...

Caution: Some (all?) printers have chips on the cartridges that inform the printer when it's out of toner. Just adding toner is insufficient for making the cartridge work - you have to replace the chip. Refill kits usually come with replacement chips. The chips are about 1/3rd the size of a postage stamp and are held in place by one teeny phillips screw. No big deal to replace them.

[J.G.]

BTW, I don't need an 'all in one' printer.

I already have the HP laserjet 3200m B&W all-but-one printer: a) It's a printer b) It's a fax machine c) It's a copier (but it is a sheet-feed copier) d) It's a scanner (but it is a sheet-feed scanner)

So the only thing it doesn't do is scan big stuff because it's not a flat bed style.

BTW, I learned, by accident, that this 'office style' HP laserjet 3200m printer is MUCH MUCH MUCH more robust than my 'home style' HP d135 printer.

So, one 'trick' is to avoid the home marketed printers in favor of the office-marketed printers.

At least that has been my experience so far with refilling the toner.

Hmmmmm.... Are there 'any' office style inkjets? Or are all the office-style color printers lasers?

[J.G.]

Certainly the Hewlett Packard HP d135 officejet that I had owned contained the evil ink tank chip; but the B&W HP laser printer that I now have, has nothing of the sort.

So it's not 'all' printers ... luckily for us!

The task is to find a color laserwriter that allows refilling.

[J.G.]

I have to say, refilling the HP 3200m laser printer is as KISS as it gets!

1. You buy the soldering iron hole-melting tool (optional).
2. You buy toner at the same time (about for 250 grams).
3. You melt the hole & pour in the toner.
4. You put scotch tape over the hole!

Here's a picture of my refill yesterday, in fact:

The 'white' circle is a bit of finesse ala' alt.home.repair hints. I scotch tape the white plastic top of an orange-juice pull-out over the melted hole. Voila!

Total costs for, say, five years toner is something like: a) Original HP C4092A (92A) cartridge (about $40) b) Refills about every six months (about $5 each) c) Empty used-once cartridge every 2.5 years (about $5 each)

Because of the ease of refilling, I LOVE my HP 3200m laser printer! Because of the cost of refilling, I will NEVER buy an HP inkjet or officejet printer ever again for the rest of my life!

Of course, if I go 'color', I'm assuming the refilling of the color laser printer will be as simple as the B&W is currently.