HP C4096A Laser Toner Cartridge – Comparing OEM And Re-Manufactured

HP or Hewlett Packard is undeniably the leading manufacturer of printers and printer cartridges. Whether mono or colored the quality of their printer’s output is superb. HP had the 2100 and 2200 series of printers and both are compatible with the HP C4096A laser toner. But with the coming in the market of re-manufactured HP C4096A, many users are shifting to its use over the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer).

Whether original or re-manufactured, these cartridges are laser toners which give better quality print than ink cartridges. Toner is powder used in laser printers and even in photocopiers. This produces a better printed text or image.

Features of HP C4096A

These laser toners are designed to work with the HP laser jet printers – the 2100 and 2200 family. As laser, the printed documents are better than the inkjet as this features a 1200 dpi quality printing of texts and graphics. This is a one part black print cartridge that uses the ultraprecise technology.

The printing specifications: the color is black and the print technology is laser. As for the page yield back, a cartridge’s average yield is 5,000 standard pages and the declared yield value has complied with the ISO/IEC 19752.

This is also governed by environmental specifications. Its operating humidity is 10 to 90 % RH. The storage humidity is the same, 10 – 90 % RH. Operating temperature is 59 – 89 degrees Fahrenheit and the corresponding storage temperature is -4 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

What is the difference between the C4096a OEM and Re-manufactured (sometimes called re-filled)?

The major difference is on price. When you use the re-manufactured cartridge, you are paying half or sometimes even less than the OEM price. This will involve a large amount of savings especially if you are in the small business of printing who has a need for more cartridges.

Other factors taken in consideration are the quality of print and the average yield per cartridge. If people agreed on the first difference of price reduction, many conflicting views about the quality and average yield come out. There are some who aver that the print quality is not too different, meaning the quality of print using the re-manufactured kind is as good as the OEM. But there are those who stick to their experience that the outcome from an original is much better. The same statements are said about the average yield. To some, they are the same and sometimes more because with the refill, the cartridge is filled to the maximum. In the OEM, manufacturers fill the cartridge at specific level, not really full.

Advocates of the re-manufactured even insist on the positive effect of the refilled cartridges towards a “green environment”. This could just be from the fact that instead of the empty cartridges disposed improperly, they are sold to re-manufacturers.  Thus this would result to minimizing the volume of environment hazard trash.

As a personal point of view, one reason I could give about the difference in print quality may arise from the type of re-manufacturer. Did you have your ink refilled by a reputable company?

In the end, it is still upon you to decide whether you will stick to the HP C4096A OEM cartridge or not. If your documents are not really demanding of high quality prints, then you can settle for the cheaper re-manufactured. But if you always want your C4096A prints to have the best result, then the OEM is more trustworthy.