What is TRUTH & DETAILS about Expired HP cartridges...

[OverRunWithSons]

I recently got a used HP Deskjet 5550 Printer (I think these are as old as 2002), I see a ton of expired Ink on Ebay, the sellers say they always work, but when googling this issue, I see many of these inks (or computers, etc) have some kind of timer and it will deem the Cartridge useless and lock it up. I surely don't want this problem, but have no clue on how to BYpass this problem (some say change your Computer clock, some say something about a chip in the printer to block with paper, some say putting tape over a contact) I am HIGHLY confused, and also wondering WHICH inks & HP printers even have this "timer" thing? Does the Deskjet 5550 printer have this ? Then I seen where HP got sued over this problem with expired ink, so maybe the new cartridges do not have this issue at all anymore, anyone know the details to share ?? Thank you all. I got this printer solely for Pictures, I use it rarely, maybe 1-3 pages a week.

 

[Smile]

I recently got a used HP Deskjet 5550 Printer (I think these are as old as 2002), I see a ton of expired Ink on Ebay, the sellers say they always work, but when googling this issue, I see many of these inks (or computers, etc) have some kind of timer and it will deem the Cartridge useless and lock it up. I surely don't want this problem, but have no clue on how to BYpass this problem (some say change your Computer clock, some say something about a chip in the printer to block with paper, some say putting tape over a contact) I am HIGHLY confused, and also wondering WHICH inks & HP printers even have this "timer" thing? Does the Deskjet 5550 printer have this ? Then I seen where HP got sued over this problem with expired ink, so maybe the new cartridges do not have this issue at all anymore, anyone know the details to share ?? Thank you all. I got this printer solely for Pictures, I use it rarely, maybe 1-3 pages a week.

If ice cream has expiration dates as long as 2 years then it is logical to assume that pure water with tension regulators will last for very very long time if it was kept under normal conditions and is sealed. So unless the sellers did something to damage the cartridge seal I think the ink is fine. I used some ink for canon that is 4-5 years old still works fine. Color profiles confirm that there are no drift of color too.

Don't know about the lock feature on HP printers. Perhaps someone else can share some light on that.
BTW you should print at least nozzle check pattern at least once a week to avoid possible clog problems.

 

[Grandad35]

I got a HP 5550 about 6 years ago, and refilled it for about 3 years before switching to my i9900. The 5550 was then given to my son, who still uses it for light duty printing at home. I acquired 3 complete sets of carts (56/57/58) so that they could be rotated in sequence as they emptied to fool the printer into thinking that they were new carts (the printer only remembers the last 2 carts, so a third cart appears as new), and the same 3 sets of carts are still in use today. The point of this is that I don't believe that the 5550 looks at a date code on the carts or my old carts would have failed by now. I believe that this "feature" was only added to HP printers at a later date (http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inqui...-inkjet-cartridges-have-built-in-expiry-dates).

BTW - the 5550 is built like a tank and is very reliable (and refillable!). However, it is slow and I could only get about 800 square inches of photo prints before a set of carts had to be refilled. Note that you can probably print more pages than this before the carts actually become empty, but it is difficult to prime a color that has emptied. It was MUCH easier to refill a little early and not have to worry about priming than to deal with the hassle of priming. I found that it cost about $3.00 to print an 8"x10 photo using HP's ink, so refilling makes a lot of sense if you plan on printing very much.

 

[OverRunWithSons]

Granddad35-- Thank you SO much for your reply, this really helps. I am up for this refilling business also, but in the mean time , I just wanted to know if I could buy expired ink, Some are as old as 2004 on Ebay, see how that goes, then do the refilling maybe later. I do not have the Photo 58 cartridge yet, and anxious to see the difference in pictures compared to the 56 black I have in the printer. If you don't mind me asking, where do you buy your Ink to refill and is it JUST as good, reliable as HP's ink, without FADING over time? I always buy cheap ink for my canon's & the Fading is absolutely dreadful. So I only use them for NON-pictures. I got the Hp 5550 for occasional reliable Pictures and school work for the kids, It is SLOW but this does not bother me at all. ANy advice you could give me, I would be much much appreciative.

 

[billkunert]

I had an HP PSC2110 which used the 56-57-58 cartridges. The only real difference I saw using the 58 cartridge was a slight improvement in skin tones. They tended to be a little less red and more natural. I think the main reason for the date on these cartridges was for warrenty purposes on the carts. It would prevent you trying to exchange an out of date cartridge if it failed. I never noticed any failure to print after the expiration date. I refilled and always used ink from MIS Supply ( www.inksupply.com ) with excellent results.
Bill

 

[Grandad35]

The #56 cart is filled with pigment black for printing text, and I doubt that it is used when printing photos. The #57 is filled with C/M/Y and these 3 inks by themselves cant generate good blacks. The #58 cart replaces the #56 when printing photos, and includes PM/PC/K (dye based). The PM and PC give better control of the color in the lighter tones (as mentioned above) and the dye black allows deeper blacks to be generated. I refill my Canon carts with Formulabs ink, but I use bulk ink from Atlantic Inkjet in the HP carts (the ink is now over 4 years old, but still works OK).

Longevity is one of the downsides of refilling. For a lot more information on this subject, look at Sample 31 (HP ink/paper):
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/inkjet-fading.php
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/inkjet-fading1.php

If you have fading problems, do you have any sources of ozone in the area where the prints are displayed? For example, many of the popular air ionizers put a lot of Ozone into the air, and can cause rapid fading (see the second article for details). If you have an Ozone problem, using swellable paper can be a big help (I believe that HPs recommended photo paper is swellable, and it is used to generating their longevity numbers). Do your prints get exposed to direct sunlight or bright fluorescent lights? Direct sunlight will fade prints very quickly, and bright fluorescent lights (typical of those used in many offices) have quite a high UV content and can also greatly accelerate fading.

 

[fish]

I once printed out shots of the moon on swellable paper and it took forever to dry (actually tacky for a long time) leading me to believe that the black was pigment ink from the 56 cartridge. This was on a HP PSC 2175. Easy to refill but too little ink, and needed to refill too often.

Swellable paper helped the fading problem but the InkTec ink still faded quite a bit faster than OEM.

 

[mikling]

The time taken to dry with swellable paper is not an indication that it was pigment. Swellable paper can take a long time to properly dry out because the outer surface dries first and this prevents what is underneath from drying out equally as fast. I occasionally use HP Premium Glossy which is a swellable paper and it takes over three days to properly dry out. Once dry the surface is perfectly flat but before that, the swelling will be evident by the texture of reflection of the surface. Swellable papers do not work well with true pigment inks.