What is ink expiration and will it make my HP ink supplies stop working?


What is ink expiration? Why does it exist? Is there something built into HP ink supplies that make them stop working on a certain date? These questions may have crossed the consumer’s mind at some point while printing. The simple fact of the matter, however, is that most HP ink supplies do not have ink expiration dates, so few users are affected. Of the small percentage of HP ink supplies that do have ink expiration dates, some will, indeed, stop working on those dates, while others have dates that can be overridden—causing minimal impact to the overall printing experience.


What is ink expiration?


Basically ink expiration is a built-in date on which certain HP ink cartridges will stop working. Air ingestion and water evaporation can cause ink to change over time. In printing systems where the printhead and ink supply are separate, older ink can adversely impact the printhead and the ink delivery components within the printer. With ink expiration, however, HP can prevent this from happening.


Why ink expiration?


Why do any HP inkjet products have ink expiration dates? To protect the printing system and ensure print quality, some ink cartridges will use an ink expiration date. If the cartridge still has ink on that date, it either stops operating or displays a warning message, which the customer can override. As mentioned above, most HP ink supplies do not have ink expiration dates at all. This issue affects only a small percentage of older HP ink supplies.


What is the ink expiration date?


It’s important to note that the ink expiration date is NOT the date stamped or printed on the ink supply. Rather, the printed date on all HP inkjet supplies is the “Warranty ends” date. To determine the ink expiration date on a particular supply, the consumer needs to consider three factors: the ink supply, its warranty date, and the date on which the cartridge is initially installed.

The table below provides additional information on the particular supplies that have ink expiration dates, the supplies that enable consumers to override the expiration date, and the process of determining the expiration date on those supplies with no override.

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