How reliable is it to buy a third party or compatible laser printer cartridge for my HP laser printer?

I have a HP 1012 laser printer. I need another printer cartridge refill. The off brand laser printer cartridges I see online are about half price compared to the HP brand itself. A lot of the companies selling the off brand printer cartridges get good reviews online. Would you recommend buying a new offbrand laser printer cartridge from one of them? How reliable is it to buy a third party or compatible laser printer cartridge for my HP laser printer?
I would never buy an OEM cartridge. I like my HP Laserjet 1018, but I'd never pay 60-70 bucks for it. I just go to amazon and find my cartridge there (I type in the HP number for it). Then, I look for ';compatible'; cartridges. I've been doing this for over a year and I've always been pleased with the results. I only pay 25 bucks for them, also. Buying through amazon you always have that as protection as their policy is the buyer is always right. How reliable is it to buy a third party or compatible laser printer cartridge for my HP laser printer?
Hi David. In my opinion, refilling with third party cartridges is perfectly fine and one of the most cost effective methods of printing, particularly for those who do a lot of printing.





I have been printing quite a lot of pages lately because of my thesis and I guess my printing budget would have gone at least three-fold higher if my room-mate hadn't gone for refilling my HP printer with the one like this: http://www.printcountry.com/refill_kit_v鈥?/a>





I had absolutely no problems as far as using a 'third-party' thing is concerned. I guess, its just a technical hoax being played by companies so that users only go for their products but yes, one has to keep in mind that the manufacturing quality of these third party kits is not compromised. So, if you do decide to go for a third party refill, make sure the player is in game for quite a while and is playing fair and square, know what I mean?





Some people go for refilling their kits themselves. This wiki page tells a good deal about pros and cons of refilling kits: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkjet_refi鈥?/a>





Best,


Tarun






check your local walgreens.they have good deals here. 10$ for black and 15$ for color.even had them free one day