Why HP Ink Cartridges Are Better than Most Other Brands

Though many different companies manufacture printers, HP brand printers, one of the oldest brands on the market, have long been considered to be of the very highest quality. Are there verifiable facts to back up such a claim?

HP makes inkjet printers for various purposes and customer needs. For example, there are business printers, photo printers, value printers for the average consumer, and models with specific technical uses.

Whatever type of printer it may be, HP has been consistently recognized for offering a print quality above and beyond that of their competition. The quality can be attributed to the advanced technology used in ink cartridges designed for HP printers.

While most brands of ink cartridge contain only the ink, the grand majority of HP ink cartridges come not only containing the ink but also with the printhead, a printer part that sprays ink onto paper during printing. Other printer manufacturers have the printhead installed as a permanent part of the printer.

Over a period of time, as the printer gets used more and more, this printhead can start to deteriorate and the quality of printing can suffer because of it. Eventually this printhead will wear out and need to be replaced. In most cases, replacing the head costs as much or more as buying a whole new printer so at this point the printer often gets thrown out and replaced.

The issue of printhead replacement is completely avoided by HP’s ink cartridge design. An HP printer retains basically the same quality of printing during its entire life because every time the ink cartridge is replaced, a new printhead is installed as well.

There are a couple of drawbacks to this system, however. The first is that the cartridges tend to be a little more expensive than some of the competition’s. Each time you replace the ink you’ll have to pay a little more, but this added cost will even out when you consider you would eventually have to pay to repair or replace most other brands.

Another drawback is that refilling HP ink cartridges is not very effective. The printhead that comes installed in the cartridge is not designed to work longer than the ink will last, so reusing the same cartridge will typically result in reduced print quality.

You’re usually safe with a single refill but after refilling it once, it’s hit or miss as to whether you’ll run into problems.