The real secret behind HP 122 ink cartridges (CH561HL)

It’s a known fact that these ink cartridges are the biggest scam in the market for many different reasons, especially its low 120 page yield. The ink cartridge itself warns you about this fact on the packaging, which is completely unfair for a product that costs more than $10.

This ink cartridge holds but 2ml of ink and yields up to 122 pages.

box with printer hp

Personally, I find this very unfair, but that’s not even the biggest problem here. The actual issue is the discrimination going on in Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P., with all the respect they deserve as an enterprise.
This picture portrays an HP Deskjet 1000 printer, a very popular model throughout Latin America. Another successful printer in the region is the HP 2050 - J510. As you can see, both models compatible with the HP 122 ink cartridge. HP continues to evolve every year, but it seems they’re focusing on their own personal profit coming, of course, from our pockets, not on improving their products or offering more to their clients.

I will now show you why I oppose this particular injustice that’s happening in front of us.

ink cartridge 122 in box

This is the ink cartridge we Latin Americans are used to seeing all over the market. You can clearly see it’s compatible with HP Deskjet 1000, 1050, 1055, 2000, 2050, 3000, 3050 and 3500A printer models, products sold throughout the region. We recommend you read our post that talks about why HP 122 ink cartridges become damaged so fast.

We’ll now show you the Hp 61 Black ink cartridge (CH561WA):

hp ink 61 in box

Here we have the Hp 61 ink cartridge, which holds 4ml of ink, yields up 190 pages and is sold in the US exclusively. You may be surprised to learn this product is also compatible with HP Deskjet 1000, 1050, 1055, 2000, 2050, 3000, 3050, 3500A, 3051A, 3052A, 3054 and 3054A printer models.

You can try looking for this ink cartridge’s datasheet, but if you’re doing it from Latin America or countries such as Japan, India and China, the website will automatically kick you out: their sale is restricted in all of these regions.

Now, do you think it’s fair one ink cartridge holds twice as much ink as the other, but they cost the same? The only real difference between these two is the places they’re sold at.

Please keep in mind you must never try placing an HP 61 ink cartridge inside any printer that uses HP 1222 ones. The printer will not recognize the ink cartridge and send out an error message at once.

However, it doesn’t end with these two ink cartridges. Please allow us to introduce the HP 301 Black ink cartridge (CH561EE).

HP 301 Black ink cartridge

This ink cartridge is only sold in Europe and the United Kingdom. I already know what you’re thinking: is it compatible with HP Deskjet 1000 printers made in the USA? This ink cartridge also holds 4ml of ink and yields 190 pages, and costs the same as the ink cartridges we have here in Latin America.

In all honesty, knowing this is happening is very frustrating for me, since customers don’t really have anyone who stands up for them and this is a hard process to give and end to. It seems companies only want to earn money and make us feel like using their products is the best we can do. If you do the math, the cost of one page keeps increasing for us, who are supposed to be the poorest ones.

How is, then, that they don’t want us to refill our ink cartridges? We all know their raw materials don’t cost that much, so please don’t take advantage of us.

This, however, is just something I want to talk about, a claim I need to make and a single speck of sand in the sea of deception we’re currently living in.