LaserJet M601 base model

HP LaserJet M601, M602 and M603 Cartridges

HP LaserJet M601, M602 and M603 printers are mono laser printers designed for fairly high volume use\\\\.

All machines use a conventional mono laser design, a standard or high capacity black cartridge to build up the image. Finished images are put on the page using a transfer roller.

The printers share a general design and a set of cartridges. The cartridges slide straight into the printer body (rather than dropping into a tray like smaller models). Cartridges are fairly complicated, each contains toner, developer and photoconductive drum as well as a waste toner compartment. There is also a separate waste toner bottle for belt cleaning.

To change cartridges simply fold down the front of the printer and slide the correct coloured unit out. Replacement cartridges come with an orange protective cover and a sealing strip which need to be removed before they slide into place.

If you want to recycle your cartridges replace the old unit in its packing. Some recycling routes will be able to use the cover - although not the packing. Packing protects components from breakage.

Spare Parts

	The HP CC493-67913 (CE265A) Toner Collection Unit for CP4025/CP4525/CM4540/M651/M680.
	CC493-67910 (CE249A) Transfer Belt Kit for CP4025/CP4525/CM4540/M651/M680. At the time of writing (Sept 2014) the belt kit also includes the secondary transfer roller, tray 1 pick-up roller, and feed and separation rollers for trays 2, 3, 4, and 5. However note that HP can and do change the content of kits without notice (These are engineering parts).
	CC493-67912 (CE427A) Fuser Kit for CP4025/CP4525/CM4540/M651/M680. (Note: this is the 2220 Volt unit for UK/ European use. The US Canada and Mexico need Part:

The CP4025/CP4525/CM4540/M651/M680 are all the same engine and they take many identical parts -(and some differ) .

Component life for these parts will vary with printer use. However it is worth noting that although a fuser may cost more than £160 that is likely to be about 0.1p per page - scarcely significant by comparrison with the cost of toner. (And toner for these machines is comparatively cheap).

Up to date price and availability information is in our catalogue here. .

Basic cartridge information is:

	HP CE390A (90A) Black M601/M602/M603/M4555 yield c 10,000 pages.
	HP CE390X (90X) Black M601/M602/M603/M4555 yield c 24,000 pages. (*)

(*) The CE390X cartridge is aimed at giving better value black print to M601 owners.

Up to date price and availability information for cartridges is in our catalogue here. .

Related Models

HP publications refer to the CP4020 which might be the "family name" - there is no printer called that. HP were presumably reserving the "namespace" for subsequent models.

Most printers are based on "engines". As a printer buyer the "engine" doesn't have much immediate impact on you, but it does change the experience for technicians, parts suppliers and cartridge remanufacturers.

Price Per Page-Image for the M601/M602/M603 print cartridges

Type	Code	Street Price (UK)	Yield	Per Page
Black Standard	CE390A	~£93	10,000 pages
Black High Yield	CE390X	~£212	24,000 pages

Cartridge Value

Lets not fool about. Manufacturers original cartridges are not directly "worth the money". The cartridge is a plastic box with a few dollars worth of rollers and some toner inside.

Cartridges are where printer manufacturers make money. The printer market is very competitive - there are a couple of big players in Canon and HP, then lots of sizeable companies snapping at their heels: Samsung, Brother, Lexmark and Epson (There are a dozen big manufacturers).

Particularly at the bottom end of the market manufacturers tend to hold the price of printers down in order to sell cartridges.

The market for cartridges is NOT competitive. Original cartridges are only available from their official distribution channels. There are obviously hundreds of distributors and thousands of retailers worldwide but all the manufacturers set a high factory gate price so distribution doesn't have big margins or much ability to cut prices.

Users like cartridges in some ways: for instance there is very little mess and cartridges make fault-finding easier, since fixing a problem is often just a matter of trying a new cartridge.

Cartridges also provide the finance for R&D to improve printer designs.

There is no question that, for what they are in themselves, cartridges are expensive and that annoys buyers.

Internally, cartridges are fairly complicated, but given the price of them it is perhaps no surprise that as well as the original brand there are also compatible makers and remanufacturers.

Compatible cartridges are copies of the original manufacturers design. Manufacturers give no help to competitors, obviously; in fact they hinder them by having patent and other intellectual property rights to stop copying. Patents only last so long so ultimately copies become possible. Cartridges also carry cryptographic chips and printers will often ///

Remanufactured" cartridges can be cheaper - at its most basic all the refiller does is to put more toner powder in. In these fairly big cartridges that is 500 grammes of plastic-powder which could cost under $10. Refilling is likely to cost a shop much more because franchises that know precisely how to do the job can charge a premium for materials.

Changing Cartridges

The print cartridge is located in the front upper part of the printer. To remove a cartridge open the top cover, grasp the handle of the used print cartridge and pull out. Support the base of the cartridge as it slides out. Do not touch the green roller, doing so can damage the cartridge.///

An HP original new cartridge comes in a black bag inside a box. (The old cartridge might be put in the bag and the box for disposal - they should be recycled.)

HP don't recommend shaking the cartridge - probably because that too often leads to a mess. They do suggest rocking it back and forth half a dozen times - this will help distribute the toner and break up any tendency to caking. Do not touch the shutter or the surface of the roller.

Remove the shipping lock and the shipping tape from the new print cartridge.

Align the print cartridge with the tracks inside the product, insert the print cartridge until it is firmly seated, and then close the top cover.

What Cartridges Do

Print cartridges deliver a controlled pattern of toner powder to the page being printed. Toner is made from microscopic particles of plastic with electrostatic properties. Laser printers work by attracting toner from developer to drum, then from drum to page using static electric charges. The laser-scanner controls where charges appear on the drum.

These HP print cartridges contain most of the main components of the print process: toner, developer, doctor blade, developer roller and waste scraper. This generally makes it easy to solve print problems - if there is a problem with print quality change the cartridge.

HP Say:

Achieve professional results on business documents, and get reliable cartridge performance. HP Color LaserJet toner cartridges ensure you stay productive and avoid wasted time and supplies. HP cartridges are specifically designed for your printer.

HP says these cartridges use Enhanced Low-Melt Toner Technology using 15% less energy. The toner formulation is based on styrene acrylate plastic. The MSDS for the black toner says:

Component/substance	CAS number	% by weight
Polyester Resin	Trade Secret	55
Iron Oxide	1317-61-9	50
Amorphous silica	7631-86-9	3

Competition

HP had some competition from re-fillers within a year and re-manufacture of these cartridges is now well established. Re-fillers can offer cartridges for as little as a third of the HP price. Because the low capacity version of the cartridge uses the same OPC drum, doctor and scraper blade as the larger ones, a refill may well be possible without changing those components.

To get full life out of high capacity cartridges we think a full refurbishing would be needed, not just a refill.

As usual we only recommend refilled and compatible products to users who have sufficient technical ability to distinguish problems with a cartridge from faults in the printer.

With a bit of knowledge and a toner-rated vacuum cleaner to deal with any problems, a mid-large organisation can save a lot of money by running big printers like these using refilled and refurbished cartridges.