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hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,952
1,315
Hello, a salesperson told me that I don't have to care about the manufactured date shown on the box of HP toners for color laser printers. He said that as they are just powders, there is no expiration. Is this really true? Does quality goes down if the toners were made 1-5 years ago?
 
is there an expiration date on the pkg?
my guess is the laser toner will be just fine, keep in mind nothing stays the same and the printer itself will have aged too and its color calibration will have moved.

the base toner material is inert and the color dye dosnt have to be any to unstable either.
 
I think you're probably fine, as long as the cartridges are stored properly (and who knows?) and it's still in its hermetically sealed bag. Toner can settle. The manufacturers taught us to roll the cartridge on both axes before talking it out of the bag and installing. This also works to get that "last 100 pages" out of the cartridge.

Consider there is more to an HP laser toner cartridge than dust. Inside the cartridge are rubber-like fuser rollers, gears, and sensors.

All things being equal, I wouldn't buy it. But if you have one and want to know if it works, there's no harm in trying it out. Canon made this design such that the cartridge contains nearly everything that has to be replaced.
 
I think you're probably fine, as long as the cartridges are stored properly (and who knows?) and it's still in its hermetically sealed bag. Toner can settle. The manufacturers taught us to roll the cartridge on both axes before talking it out of the bag and installing. This also works to get that "last 100 pages" out of the cartridge.

Consider there is more to an HP laser toner cartridge than dust. Inside the cartridge are rubber-like fuser rollers, gears, and sensors.

All things being equal, I wouldn't buy it. But if you have one and want to know if it works, there's no harm in trying it out. Canon made this design such that the cartridge contains nearly everything that has to be replaced.
I'd ask the guys at urefilltoner in the UK. They've been making refills for years. No, I'm just a very happy, long term customer. They'll know the tech.
 
I have had the same toner cartridge in my OLD HP for 4 years ( only use to print turbo tax reports and a few forms )

the one in a new box will be sealed and the optical parts are shielded from light.

Just remember to ask for the price it sold for years ago :))
 
Can't speak toward color toner, however, B&W toner cartridges last for years, stored or not. I would be a bit worried about storing color toner cartridges over long periods of time considering the cost, and that for most HP color LaserJets 4 cartridges are needed. $$$
 
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