It has been just about three weeks since my reliable, 10-year-old HP LaserJet 1000 finally printed its last page. Considering its age and the fact that I had sensed something amiss for about three months, I was not surprised when I smelled a faint electrical scent coming from our office area. Of course, this just happened to occur at the same time my wife was asking me why her recipes weren’t printing out. Then, being the genius that I am, I managed to put two and two together. Sure enough, as soon as I felt the printer, I knew where the source of the smell had originated within the printer. With this conclusion under my belt and with my wife’s urging, I immediately started looking around for a replacement for the printer that had served me so faithfully. While my search took a few days, I finally located a worthy replacement at Amazon. The printer I chose that I felt would best meet my specifications was the HP P1102w LaserJet printer.
With this decision made, I proceeded to Amazon where, in mid-July, I placed the order for my new printer and received it within a few days. At the time, the printer was priced at $115, with no required sales tax being charged, and free shipping for Amazon Prime members. Knowing how long my previous printer had lasted, I thought the price for the printer was fair.
Being one who can’t wait to dive into something new, I was delighted when my new printer arrived and I was able to start the upgrading process. Fortunately, with the help of my experience and the enclosed instructions, I found this process to be fairly straightforward. However, like with any HP printer — no matter the model — make sure that you also install the latest firmware. I discovered the necessity for this after reading a comment in the Amazon review forum where one reviewer for the HP 1101W stated that they had trouble printing from their Apple iPad until after they completed the firmware update installation.
After the printer setup process is completed and your wireless system is connected, it is time to tackle ePrint. This is a fairly easy procedure that you begin by going to the ePrint website. Within the website you will be asked to select an email name in order to set up an HP ePrint account. Your new email will look like this:
johnsmith@hpeprint.com
Once you set up an ePrint email address, you can send any document, picture, or other item of your choosing directly to your new ePrint-supported printer. When choosing to print an item off of your new printer, a list of your supported attachments will become available. Once selected, any of these devices will allow you to automatically print from anywhere, anytime, and from just about any device.
What About Replacement Cartridges?
All of the OEM replacement cartridges seem quite expensive, and the cartridges from HP are no exception. Even at Amazon new replacement cartridges from HP are priced at $59.99, which is just too high for my taste, so I choose to go the non-OEM cartridge route. However, those of you who are familiar with my articles also know that I will check things out before suggesting that others follow my lead. That means that I have used non-OEM cartridges in the past. I first used them on my Canon 5220 color printer and found them to work fine. I then took a chance and had my old HP LaserJet 1000 cartridge refilled at Cartridge World again without any problems. I must note, however, that the cost to refill the used HP cartridge at Cartridge World was $40 — cheaper than new, but no huge savings.
Even given my earlier success with non-OEM cartridges, however, I was somewhat reluctant to use them in a new printer since I thought using one could potentially void the warranty. That left me with two options: I could either wait until the cartridge that came with the printer had to be replaced and then choose to get the cartridge refilled, or I could try a non-OEM cartridge. With these options in mind, I began a search around the Internet and found a surprising deal on Amazon’s website.
The deal I found included the price of shipping and consisted of two replacement cartridges for only $20.24. I know, I thought the exact same thing: this sounds too good to be true. However, after reading 59 reviews (45 positive 5-star ratings, and only 14 negative one-star ratings), it was this following review that caught my eye:
Results? I’m sold. Best I can tell, my LaserJet M1212NF sees this cartridge as an HP original. It doesn’t throw any errors, either on the little device screen or via the software. Prints look perfect as always. Literally no discernible difference in performance between HP and this, and I’m pretty particular.
Twin Pack non-OEM replacement cartridges
After reading this review, I took a chance and ordered the cartridges via Amazon with a three-business-day delivery. Sure enough, the cartridges arrived on time, which was a pleasant surprise, but what I found inside was even more surprising. The individual cartridge package was very similar to how HP packs its products, and the cartridge itself appeared to be almost identical. However, what was more important is that when I inserted the non-OEM cartridge, it worked perfectly and I have successfully printed over 100 copies within the past two weeks without a smear, smudge, or streak. Even upon careful inspection I cannot discern a difference in the print quality between an HP cartridge and my replacement cartridge.
Over all, I am very satisfied with the HP LaserJet P1102w as well as the performance of the discounted print cartridges and would recommend them to those seeking to save a few dollars and get still get a quality result.
Comments welcome.
Ron, thanks for another great article. I don’t use a printer much. But I’ve always thought the color inkjet printers were really a waste. I just don’t need color when I mostly print text. I think laserjet printers are the best solution, and HP has always been my preferred brand of printer. Your choice of this HP Inkjet and cartridge bring this printer into an affordable range for me to consider.