Hi again Simon,
Since Kevin has covered the profiling question(s), I'll touch on the ink situation. When I first started printing with the Pro Graphic printers, 12+ years ago, I was questioning the viability of expired inks as well. However, after reading many posts on two separate forums I decided to simply use the carts until they were empty and could not be used any longer. Of course I have long since become a loyal member of LuLa, since this is definitely the place to reside. Now, as far as your expired carts are concerned, I would say that anything beyond three years might be a bit of a gamble, but certainly not a year or two beyond the exp date. Having said that I believe that as long as you occasionally agitate(gently) the expired carts, that will likely help them stay in solution and provide better results in the long run. I guess this all comes down to perhaps the use of a bit of common sense. In other words, how far do you really want(need) to push your luck? Although I imagine there might be others who will disagree with some of this, I will offer one important reason not to use carts beyond their exp date. You mentioned that there is some warranty on this printer. It has been my experience that if you ever require a warranty service call, one of the first things the tech will probably check is the carts and their exp dates. Also, if you will be using non-HP Papers it might be a good idea to put them "away" if a warranty call is necessary. Just one more reason for a possible warranty breach, although of course I do not know how strict the warranty provider might be in that case. Good luck Simon.
Cheers,
Gary
I looked into this issues about Ink and expiration dates. HP has an "official" bottom line when it comes to the use of expired inks in machines under warranty. The long and short of it is, that in each machine there is a log that you can get to and see the comments about use of expired inks. Every repair person accesses these logs. It is at HP's discretion whether to use the "official" version or not on a case by case basis, apparently. If you have a machine under warranty, don't use expired inks very long after the fact. If you have a machine that is not under warranty, then the sky is the limit with expired inks, up to the point you are comfortable using them.
Here is the "OFFICIAL" HP position:
"On the box is the sell by/ expiration date. Somewhere in very small print
on the printhead is either the expire date or manufacture date. If it's the
manufacture date then there is no other wording on it and the printhead is
good for two years after the manufacture date. If it's the expire date it
usually starts with that "expire or install by XX/XX/XX.
If the customer
has installed expired ink it does not void warranty of the whole printer
just whatever components that comes in contact with the ink. Which is ink
cart, ink tube system and printheads. And also any image or color quality
issues are not guaranteed until fresh ink is installed."
Draw your own conclusions...
EDIT: Another conversation with an HP representative about this stuff:
"We spoke yesterday regarding ink cartridges for the
Z3200ps. I was able to pose a question to a colleague that works on the
supplies side of HP. My intent was to address the question of why there
can be such variance in the dates published
on ink cartridge boxes. I’ve highlighted his explanation below."
"The warranty policy for ink supplies (and hence “dating” policy on the
retail boxes) can vary by product. For the HP 70 ink cartridges, the
end of warranty date, and hence the warranty policy, is set to be 30 months from the date of
manufacture. Nearly all supplies warranty and dating are based on when
the product was manufactured. This is why there can be a varying date
on these products, and why the customer sees these dates
be quite disparate. Manufacturing is done in batches, at certain times
of the month or quarter, and then they are dated 30 months out. As
they move thru the supply chain and distribution channel, they can get
intermixed and this will result in this variance in dates seen by the customer. HP does not have a “standard” window of
guarantee (or warranty), but we do try to ensure there is at least 6-12
months of “usable life” remaining (most often way more than this), once a
customer purchases the supplies."
FYI. -Just some more notes I found about inks and my discussions with HP.
-Mark
