HP toner cartridge

Author's product rating:   

Reliability	Excellent
Ease of Use	Simple
Quality	Good
Durability	Good
Value for Money	Satisfactory

Advantages:	Print quality, reliability, ease of use
Disadvantages:	Too expensive !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Here follows a brave attempt to make a toner cartridge review slightly more interesting…

It’s late on a Thursday afternoon. The nights are starting to draw in and summer is in its dying throes. A bank of dark cloud that has been moving across the sky during afternoon and has now nestled overhead. Already there are spots of rain beginning to form, a prelude to a downpour on its way.

In an artificially bright office a man sits at a desk, chin resting on his hand, staring out of the window into the gloomy English afternoon. He is lost in his thoughts. Suddenly the ringing of the phone disturbs the almost trance-like state he has assumed. In a reflex action he whips the phone off from its hook and answers;

“Hello, IT Department”.

On the other end of the line there is a woman’s flustered voice.

“Hello Bob, it’s Sally here. It’s my printer, I’m printing a document out and the black text is all faint on the page”.

Bob sighs and then asks.

“Which printer type is it? Look at the front of the printer and tell me what the model number is.”

From the other end of the line there are some shuffling sounds and then Sally replies, “It says Hewlett Packard 4500”.

Bob answers, “OK. It sounds like the toner cartridge has run out. I’ll bring up another one and change it out for you”.

Sally now sounds relieved.

“That’s great. Thanks!”

Bob gets up from his desk and moves into the storeroom of the IT Department. He surveys the room and eventually his gaze falls onto a pile of Hewlett Packard boxes stacked in the corner. He sorts through the pile and eventually picks up a box. It’s a fairly large rectangular box, with the Hewlett Packard name on the front and sides and labelled with a code number, HPC4191A. He gives a satisfied nod and then mumbles to himself, “can’t believe these particular toners cost nearly £60 a throw!” He then walks out of the room, out of the IT Department and in the direction of the stricken printer...

When he arrives at the location of the HP 4500, Sally is stood next to it. She is drumming her fingers impatiently on the top of the printer.

“I can’t believe it”, she says, “Right in the middle of a really important colour document that needs to be sent out by the end of the day and the printer starts playing up. Typical isn’t it?”

Bob nods and then offers,

“Well, I wouldn’t worry too much, it sounds like it’s just the toner and they aren’t too difficult to replace. On the HP 4500 you need to use the front panel to select which toner to replace, in this case the black one. It will whirr around for a minute finding the right toner. Then all you need to do is open the top of the printer, pull the old toner out, and then drop the new toner in. Simple!”

“Well if you say so”, replies Sally. She doesn’t sound totally convinced.

Bob is now clearly warming to his theme and continues,

“Yeah, the worst part of these toners is getting them out of the packaging. When you open the box, the toner is in a clear plastic bag, held in place by two polystyrene holders. You need to remove the holders and cut open the plastic bag to get to the toner. Then you need to remove the tag from the side of the toner to make it ready for use in the printer”.

Sally rolls her eyes and replies in a sarcastic tone, “Really? How fascinating!”

Bob ignores her ironic manner and removes the toner from the box. He presses a button on the slide of the printer and flips open the top. He then pulls the old toner out and then drops the new one in. The printer whirrs away for a minute and then flashes up on the LCD screen, “Ready”. Bob nods and then turns to Sally.

“There you go, that one should be good for the next 9,000 pages!”

Sally gives a slight smile and visibly relaxes. She seems pleased that the printer is back up and running. The worry of not getting the document printed on time was obviously making her feel tense.

“That’s great!” She says. “I’m glad I won’t have to worry about the black ink for another 9,000 pages. Anyway, my document isn’t quite that long!”

“Glad to hear it”, replies Bob. “You know these toners are pretty reliable. They are pretty expensive for what they are, but the quality of the print is clear and precise. You also don’t usually get problems with leaks, or with cartridge failures. In all, I reckon HP have got a pretty good reputation for reliability with their HP 4500 toners”.

Sally is staring at Bob now, with one raised eyebrow.

“Wow, you must be a real riot at parties”, she says in a mocking tone. “With your extensive knowledge of toner cartridges, bet you have to fight the girls off with a stick, don’t you?”

Bob grins, “Oh yeah, it never fails!”

“Anyway, thanks for the sorting out the toner.” she says.

Bob nods and then walks off towards the IT Department. Behind him Sally has moved back behind her desk and is starting to print her document out on the HP 4500 again.

Finally Bob is back at his desk. He sits down and leans slightly forward, rests his chin on his hand and his gaze returns to the window. The sky is now very dark and the rain is falling steadily, the drops sliding down the window pane. His thoughts wander and take him far away from the office. Even so, there is still a small part of his mind aware that the phone could ring at any moment, with another person on the end of the line, and another toner cartridge related problem to be solved….

Thanks for reading!