5 ms·

This is outrageous. Only a small percentage of owners know this kind of tricks. Imagine the environmental damage created by thousands of users throwing away per

by dexzod 4y ago

This is outrageous. Only a small percentage of owners know this kind of tricks. Imagine the environmental damage created by thousands of users throwing away perfectly usable cartridges. I always feel bad about throwing away laser printer cartridges, they have so many components that are working just fine, there should be a way to just refill the toner and reuse it.

grishka 4y ago
TIL people actually throw laser printer cartridges away instead of having them refilled for pennies multiple times over.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- culi 4y ago
  more modern printers have smarter chips that are harder to reuse and the printers can even permanently brick themselves if it thinks you're using non-proprietary cartridges
  - synaesthesisx 4y ago
    Generally some folks will re-use the proprietary cartridge, but manually refill them. In the mid 2000s I used to do this with inkjet cartridges - you could remove some of the labels/wrapper on the cartridge to expose a port that was accessible via syringe, and refill the reservoirs with cheap ink.
chaostheory 4y ago
If you think Samsung is bad, HP is much worse. Stay away from HP printers including laser
- onemoresoop 4y ago
  Is Brother any better? So far happy with my Laser Brother, way happier than the nightmares I've had with inkjet printers. But I have to admit we changed the tonner after less than 2000 pages. I assumed the cartrige had small capacity and didn't arise my suspicions. Should I worry?
  - Syonyk 4y ago
    No. They just run X pages and assume the cartridge is empty. You can reset it with some faintly annoying incantations, and I'd suggest doing so until you notice actual print quality issues. Especially on black. The logic is... reasonably sound from a print quality perspective. "We know the cartridge can print XXXX pages of reasonable coverage without any fading/dropouts/etc. If the user replaces it at that point, they will never have any print issues." If your goal is "flawless printing," it's a reasonable enough path. It's just not particularly cost effective for the end user. It is, however, cheaper and more profitable than actual toner level sensor/mixing device/etc. But, yes, there's a hidden menu to reset the toner counter on Brother, and in my experience, there's at least another 50% of rated capacity pages lurking in the cartridges unless you print very toner-heavy pages.
    - actionfromafar 4y ago
      You can gently turn the cartridge over and, back and forth. This will shake toner loose, and you can turn a "gray" cartridge black again. But you may also get a little toner on you or the floor, so beware.
      - Syonyk 4y ago
        Yes, and if you're trying to save every penny, that's reasonable. Brother doesn't prevent you from doing this, you just have to look up the toner counter reset process, which is trivially found online. It's exceedingly unreasonable for something like a small office printer to have people constantly reprinting things because the toner is almost, but not entirely out, so please remove the cartridge, shake it gently, etc. Remember, the paper you're spending on partial prints and the toner you're applying isn't free either, and people's time isn't, either. Neither is the carpet cleaning of the toner spot in front of the printer from people trying to stretch it. I'll reset the counter on mine, give it a shake, and run it until I see any impact on printing, but as soon as I notice any streaking, I just replace the cartridge. It's not worth the hassle to fight for 100 pages of toner to me at this point in my life.
- max-ibel 4y ago
  Ye olde Deskjet 500 was pretty good, however.
- Dylan16807 4y ago
  > Stay away from HP printers including laser Do you think that applies to the Neverstop models? They have an internal toner tank that refills with syringes, so this kind of nonsense isn't really possible.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- neilv 4y ago
  Is this recent from LaserJets, or involves HP software off-printer? My HP LaserJet Pro 400 series m401n will keep printing even as the print quality fades, presumably due to actually low toner. (This is running with CUPS and open source PCL drivers on the client, talking TCP to network passthrough to printer's USB, no HP-written software used off-printer.)
- chimprich 4y ago
  A full refill for my HP 8725 seems to be £158! The previous identical cartridges cost £85, and that was an insult. This is getting beyond ridiculous. It's not like printer tech has improved much in recent years. I suspect a lot of what they're charging me for is R&D into how to prevent customers from using 3rd-party cartridges and a big profit hike to congratulate themselves for doing so successfully.
rolenthedeep 4y ago
You can buy kits online to refill your toner carts. It's cheap and fairly easy to do. You just gotta make sure you get the right kit for your printer, as most have a chip in them that acts as a page counter. You typically have to replace the chip when you refill. Some models like mine require you to melt a hole into the cartridge, there's no external access to the toner tank. Make sure to do your research and don't buy the cheapest kit you find. The quality of the toner does matter and will greatly affect print quality.
briga 4y ago
If you think that’s bad, consider that some printers are literally cheaper to buy than the ink replacements. Since new printers come with cartridges it can be cheaper to just buy a whole new printer whenever you run out of ink
- aidenn0 4y ago
  Beware that some printers come with cartridges that are the same size as refills but contain less ink/toner (or are at least programmed to tell the printer they have less)
  - techdragon 4y ago
    I think the entire situation is best summarised as ... "Beware of printers" They basically all (but I will leave room for the possibility of a non-evil printer vendor) suck in a myriad of different ways from poor quality, to all the various dark/anti-patterns in both the original sale and the subsequent consumable sales.
    - bigfudge 4y ago
      I actually want a printer, but know this and have put off buying one for about a year now because I can’t be bothered to spend hours working which is the least shitty.
      - joshspankit 4y ago
        If you don’t need colour, find an older black and white toner printer. Cheap and reliable.
      - dkersten 4y ago
        Same for me. I’ve wanted to get a printer for quite a while but don’t want to spend the time researching which one won’t try to rip me off, lie to me and defraud me. So I haven’t bought one.
      - pmx 4y ago
DangitBobby 4y ago
Also intentionally telling your users they are out when they aren't is literally fraud.
culi 4y ago
Or how about the environmental damage of implementing a chip onto every cartridge that is at least 10x expensive as the ink and plastic materials and who's sole purpose is to enforce that you're only using proprietary cartridges for your printer

by dexzod 4y ago

grishka 4y ago

TIL people actually throw laser printer cartridges away instead of having them refilled for pennies multiple times over.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
culi 4y ago
more modern printers have smarter chips that are harder to reuse and the printers can even permanently brick themselves if it thinks you're using non-proprietary cartridges
- synaesthesisx 4y ago
  Generally some folks will re-use the proprietary cartridge, but manually refill them. In the mid 2000s I used to do this with inkjet cartridges - you could remove some of the labels/wrapper on the cartridge to expose a port that was accessible via syringe, and refill the reservoirs with cheap ink.

chaostheory 4y ago

If you think Samsung is bad, HP is much worse. Stay away from HP printers including laser

onemoresoop 4y ago
Is Brother any better? So far happy with my Laser Brother, way happier than the nightmares I've had with inkjet printers. But I have to admit we changed the tonner after less than 2000 pages. I assumed the cartrige had small capacity and didn't arise my suspicions. Should I worry?
- Syonyk 4y ago
  No. They just run X pages and assume the cartridge is empty. You can reset it with some faintly annoying incantations, and I'd suggest doing so until you notice actual print quality issues. Especially on black. The logic is... reasonably sound from a print quality perspective. "We know the cartridge can print XXXX pages of reasonable coverage without any fading/dropouts/etc. If the user replaces it at that point, they will never have any print issues." If your goal is "flawless printing," it's a reasonable enough path. It's just not particularly cost effective for the end user. It is, however, cheaper and more profitable than actual toner level sensor/mixing device/etc. But, yes, there's a hidden menu to reset the toner counter on Brother, and in my experience, there's at least another 50% of rated capacity pages lurking in the cartridges unless you print very toner-heavy pages.
  - actionfromafar 4y ago
    You can gently turn the cartridge over and, back and forth. This will shake toner loose, and you can turn a "gray" cartridge black again. But you may also get a little toner on you or the floor, so beware.
    - Syonyk 4y ago
      Yes, and if you're trying to save every penny, that's reasonable. Brother doesn't prevent you from doing this, you just have to look up the toner counter reset process, which is trivially found online. It's exceedingly unreasonable for something like a small office printer to have people constantly reprinting things because the toner is almost, but not entirely out, so please remove the cartridge, shake it gently, etc. Remember, the paper you're spending on partial prints and the toner you're applying isn't free either, and people's time isn't, either. Neither is the carpet cleaning of the toner spot in front of the printer from people trying to stretch it. I'll reset the counter on mine, give it a shake, and run it until I see any impact on printing, but as soon as I notice any streaking, I just replace the cartridge. It's not worth the hassle to fight for 100 pages of toner to me at this point in my life.
max-ibel 4y ago
Ye olde Deskjet 500 was pretty good, however.
Dylan16807 4y ago
> Stay away from HP printers including laser Do you think that applies to the Neverstop models? They have an internal toner tank that refills with syringes, so this kind of nonsense isn't really possible.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
neilv 4y ago
Is this recent from LaserJets, or involves HP software off-printer? My HP LaserJet Pro 400 series m401n will keep printing even as the print quality fades, presumably due to actually low toner. (This is running with CUPS and open source PCL drivers on the client, talking TCP to network passthrough to printer's USB, no HP-written software used off-printer.)
chimprich 4y ago
A full refill for my HP 8725 seems to be £158! The previous identical cartridges cost £85, and that was an insult. This is getting beyond ridiculous. It's not like printer tech has improved much in recent years. I suspect a lot of what they're charging me for is R&D into how to prevent customers from using 3rd-party cartridges and a big profit hike to congratulate themselves for doing so successfully.

rolenthedeep 4y ago

You can buy kits online to refill your toner carts. It's cheap and fairly easy to do. You just gotta make sure you get the right kit for your printer, as most have a chip in them that acts as a page counter. You typically have to replace the chip when you refill. Some models like mine require you to melt a hole into the cartridge, there's no external access to the toner tank. Make sure to do your research and don't buy the cheapest kit you find. The quality of the toner does matter and will greatly affect print quality.

briga 4y ago

If you think that’s bad, consider that some printers are literally cheaper to buy than the ink replacements. Since new printers come with cartridges it can be cheaper to just buy a whole new printer whenever you run out of ink

aidenn0 4y ago
Beware that some printers come with cartridges that are the same size as refills but contain less ink/toner (or are at least programmed to tell the printer they have less)
- techdragon 4y ago
  I think the entire situation is best summarised as ... "Beware of printers" They basically all (but I will leave room for the possibility of a non-evil printer vendor) suck in a myriad of different ways from poor quality, to all the various dark/anti-patterns in both the original sale and the subsequent consumable sales.
  - bigfudge 4y ago
    I actually want a printer, but know this and have put off buying one for about a year now because I can’t be bothered to spend hours working which is the least shitty.
    - joshspankit 4y ago
      If you don’t need colour, find an older black and white toner printer. Cheap and reliable.
    - dkersten 4y ago
      Same for me. I’ve wanted to get a printer for quite a while but don’t want to spend the time researching which one won’t try to rip me off, lie to me and defraud me. So I haven’t bought one.
    - pmx 4y ago

DangitBobby 4y ago

Also intentionally telling your users they are out when they aren't is literally fraud.

culi 4y ago

Or how about the environmental damage of implementing a chip onto every cartridge that is at least 10x expensive as the ink and plastic materials and who's sole purpose is to enforce that you're only using proprietary cartridges for your printer