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

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):
http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/...g/9007348.jpeg

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?

On Sat, 18 Aug 2012 16:56:13 -0700, Oren wrote:

Even if you refill the cartridge in HP they will error with a time stamp
-- there is a trick / hack to get around the limitation on them with a
time / date stamp. I don't bother anymore.

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 suggest looking at a Kodak AIO printer / fax / photo printer.

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)?

On Sat, 18 Aug 2012 18:19:30 -0600, Tony Hwang wrote:

As far as color ink jet goe, HP will be the last one to touch. I am
happy with Canon and Brother is OK too. All ink jet, laser printers in
my family is Canon.

Can you easily refill the Canon & Brother printer ink?

I was an 'expert' on refilling the HP printer ink ... but alas ... it's
STILL a hugely frustrating process, what with the drop-dead dates and all.

Do the Canon & Brother ink tanks have time stamps?

J.G. wrote:
On Sat, 18 Aug 2012 18:19:30 -0600, Tony Hwang wrote:

As far as color ink jet goe, HP will be the last one to touch. I am
happy with Canon and Brother is OK too. All ink jet, laser printers in
my family is Canon.

Can you easily refill the Canon & Brother printer ink?

I was an 'expert' on refilling the HP printer ink ... but alas ... it's
STILL a hugely frustrating process, what with the drop-dead dates and all.

Do the Canon & Brother ink tanks have time stamps?

Hi,
I never refill. I Buy non-original ink cart. on eBay.
Have not had any trouble printing text or photo. Ink jet is
Canon Pixma MP990. Monpchrome laser is Canon Image class one.

HP turned me off two ways. Frequent paper jam and cost of ink.

On Sat, 18 Aug 2012 17:58:07 -0700, mike wrote:

Estimate the cost of a color print.
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).

If the toners don't come separate, count on throwing out 2/3
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?

After a month, see how badly they want that color printer.
Heh heh. I get where you're going. But these are 'women'.

If you want to print photos, you've got another problem.
A laser that prints nice photos is gonna cost you.

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

He figures that, given all the ink he throws out for
plugged cartridges, it's costing him about $5/picture.

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

On Sun, 19 Aug 2012 01:18:22 +0000 (UTC), "J.G."
wrote:

On Sat, 18 Aug 2012 16:56:13 -0700, Oren wrote:

Even if you refill the cartridge in HP they will error with a time stamp
-- there is a trick / hack to get around the limitation on them with a
time / date stamp. I don't bother anymore.

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 hate when that happens. I guess the windows registry reads embedded
(EPROM) info from them and stores it the registry. Hence the hack to
get around it. I'm not sure, but there is a hack for the problem.


I suggest looking at a Kodak AIO printer / fax / photo printer.

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)?

I can't say. The few ink cartridges I refilled (and my last) I used a
syringe to fill them. Messy is saying it lightly, even when being
careful.

No more HP in my location....
--

On Sat, 18 Aug 2012 19:25:37 -0600, Tony Hwang wrote:

I never refill. I Buy non-original ink cart. on eBay.
You can't do that with the HP inkjet I had because there
is some kind of electronic 'signature' and time stamp
hokey pokey stuff specifically designed to thwart you.

That's why I'll never again buy an HP color inkjet.

HP turned me off two ways.
Frequent paper jam and cost of ink.

I'm ok on the jamming. But now that I've had the B&W
laser, I'm enthralled at how reliable it is compared
to the multiple HP inkjets I've had. I'm done with ink.

I just want to know what you guys use as a refillable color
laser printer.

On Sat, 18 Aug 2012 18:46:20 -0700, Oren wrote:

The few ink cartridges I refilled (and my last) I used a
syringe to fill them. Messy is saying it lightly

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.

No more HP in my location....

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.

On Sun, 19 Aug 2012 01:43:41 +0000 (UTC), "J.G."
wrote:

On Sat, 18 Aug 2012 17:58:07 -0700, mike wrote:

Estimate the cost of a color print.
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).

If the toners don't come separate, count on throwing out 2/3
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?

After a month, see how badly they want that color printer.
Heh heh. I get where you're going. But these are 'women'.

If you want to print photos, you've got another problem.
A laser that prints nice photos is gonna cost you.

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

He figures that, given all the ink he throws out for
plugged cartridges, it's costing him about $5/picture.

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

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.

On 8/18/2012 6:43 PM, J.G. wrote:


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

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 ;-)