We never agreed to only buy HP ink, say printer owners : technology

[–] [email protected] 82 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (6 children)

After switching to laser, I truly don't understand how inkjets still sell. Is it purely for photo printing at home? Because outside of that specific use case, laser is far superior on every axis.

A toner cartridge lasts for years and years, even with limited use, and it nets you thousands of pages. Laser printers aren't even that expensive anymore, and I'd argue they're cheaper than inkjet after having to refill the latter just a single time.

Edit: and something I didn't know until I got one: toner doesn't run if pages get wet. There have been a few times where that has been handy.

[–] Poayjay 22 points 8 months ago (1 children)

My wife has a cricut. It’s a little CNC plotter table that can make custom stickers, signs, and whatnot with a very clean UI. They are pretty popular with the stay-at-home mom crowd. If you know a better way to high quality color prints on specialty papers I’d love to hear it. I know that sounds sarcastic, but I mean that with absolutely zero sarcasm. Please tell me.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That sounds like a legitimate use case, tbh.
Sometimes the complexity of a "better" system isn't worth it when a "lesser"-but-easier system exists that produces satisfactory results.

I know PCB etching enthusiasts have developed a way to transfer laser toner onto copper PCBs.
I wonder if there is a similar system that could be done, but between print paper and product paper.

[–] SpaceNoodle 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The transfer is done because it's really hard to feed a PCB into a printer.

Color is the main concern.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Ah, right enough. I remember destroying a $20 inkjet so I could feed PCBs through it.
I stopped prototyping my own PCBs before I got into UV transfer or toner transfer. Its been a good many years

[–] SpaceNoodle 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

One lab I was in used a CNC mill to route boards. It was pretty effective, and really great for custom geometry like encoders formed to the back of motors or boards doubling as structural components.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I bought a 3d printer with an eye to get back into PCB fab... Either by swapping to a CNC head, or by printing plastic onto PCB.
I just don't make enough PCBs these days to justify the FAFF of making it work. Which is a shame. I bet if have a lot of fun

[–] Son_of_dad 21 points 8 months ago (11 children)

A color laser printer costs $400+ where I live. That's why people still but inkjet, Cause you can buy those for $50.

To poorer people, that's always the grind. You know you're gonna pay more in the long run, but you can't afford the initial investment in order to make those savings

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Laser printers are literally the same price most likely. In the us market (atleast) you can get them for $60 from Dell / etc. you don’t have to spend $200+ on a laser typically.

Most people don’t need color. Monochrome lasers are dirt cheap.

That is of course unless there’s some issue with availability wherever you are

[–] Son_of_dad 1 points 8 months ago

The cheapest Dell laser printer where I live is $200 and that's a black and white, the color ones are $300 for the cheapest

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Color laser printers basically need a full printer assembly for each color, which drives up the cost. I believe there's LED laser printers that can do everything in a single assembly so they're typically cheaper

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

When I was in college I just bought new printers on sale when I ran out of ink because it was cheaper than buying refills.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Because on a shelf with inkjet printers, lasers cost 5* the upfront cost. Of course you make that back by not buying 50€ cartridges everytime you print because the ink is dry, but consumers don't think about the type of printer they're buying.

[–] snausagesinablanket 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

https://www.theprinterpros.com/HP-Color-LaserJet-CP1518ni-Printer-Refurbished-p/ypc-cp1518ni-hp.htm

600 DPI and the toner refills are cheap as fuck. I have had 2 of these and they work great.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

I don't doubt it. But in a Walmart these are next to $50 inkjets and guess what people are going to pick.

[–] mojofrododojo 0 points 8 months ago

yeah but it's HP so at some point you're going to wake up to it raping your cat with some absurd excuse about ink prices. will it make sense? no. Will your cat forgive you? NO.

HP Innovation at work.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

My dad prints a lot of schematics and diagrams on 11x17 to mark up and edit for his job, but color laserjets that can handle 11x17 don't seem to exist outside of the humongous office printers with 5 1000-sheet paper drawers. Probably because the toner cartridges need to be bigger.

He's got a Brother ink tank inkjet, though, which is pretty much the next best thing.

[–] Landless2029 3 points 8 months ago

Tabloid.

I freaking LOVE tabloid printers. Its such a niche printing need tho.

[–] 0110010001100010 6 points 8 months ago

Yeah I've been using laser printers for years, fuck inkjet. I'm still on the starter cartridges from my current one and it's pushing 5 years old. Though I print very little. Unlike ink that dries out, toner is fine for a very long time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I'm more confused by the fact that anyone owns a printer at home tbh.

[–] Sterile_Technique 33 points 8 months ago

Yeah fuck HP. Not buying one of their products ever again, printer or otherwise.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago

I’m sure they’ll think to include a small piece of paper that says something about mandatory binding arbitration and waiving all rights that can be legally waived, in the next version.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago (1 children)

When my printer runs out of ink I buy a new printer.

They make a loss on the printers and I rarely print

[–] [email protected] 26 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Back when I was getting into electronics, I used to drive around during hard waste collections on the lookout for interesting devices to pull apart. (One man's trash is another man's treasure!)

Honestly, it was shocking how many printers and scanners were being thrown out. Every second hard waste pile had one. These were devices that looked 3-4 years old at most.

Clearly many people employ your strategy, and the companies are to blame. The volume of waste they're incentivising with their business model is criminal. I hope HP get everything that's coming to them.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I remember when I was a teenager, Walmart sold shitty printers that came with ink for $35... Replacement ink for that exact model was $20/cartridge.

[–] PriorityMotif 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Those starter cartridges had far less ink in them than the replacements. It didn't matter if you refilled them yourself though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

And most people never even finish them.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Colleges are a huge problem with this. They charge per page, it's reasonable... but a lot of the Laptops used to come with coupons for near free printers. So basically all of them get chucked at the end of graduation or even each year.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

If Greenpeace really cared every cannon and HP employee would be nailed to a cross lining the path to their headquarters.

[–] Gigasser 1 points 8 months ago

Supposedly you can convert some inkjets into resin 3d printers.

[–] graeghos_714 14 points 8 months ago

I dropped HP printers when I tried to use a new ink cartridge and it was out of date and wouldn't print. We have 2 Epson's with refillable ink cartridges now.

[–] Mango 8 points 8 months ago

Ever find yourself signing a Eula with dollars at a Walmart?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

HP "sought to take advantage of customers' sunk costs," printer owners claimed this week in a class action lawsuit against the hardware giant.

Lawyers representing the aggrieved were responding [PDF] in an Illinois court to an earlier HP Inc motion to dismiss a January lawsuit.

Among other things, the plaintiffs' filing stated that the printer buyers "never entered into any contractual agreement to buy only HP-branded ink prior to receiving the firmware updates."

In the case, which began in January, the plaintiffs are arguing that HP issued a firmware update between late 2022 and early 2023 that they allege disabled their printers if they installed a replacement cartridge that was not HP-branded.

It added that the printer owners can't claim damages for being overcharged under federal antitrust laws because consumers who buy products from an intermediary can sue the manufacturer for injunctive relief under those laws, but they can't sue the manufacturer to recover damages resulting from an alleged overcharge.

HP CEO Enrique Lores has made no secret of the fact that it hopes to pull customers into a print subscription business model.

The original article contains 449 words, the summary contains 182 words. Saved 59%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] Sam_Bass 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Did you read the eula?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

yes you did its on page 382 of the eula

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Not legally binding. Companies can kick you off their services, but they can't legally make you do anything IRL like agree to arbitration or only buy their ink, etc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

i was mostly joking, i hope hp gets fucked if thats at all possible.

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