Printers are very useful products. But to retain their usefulness, we need to maintain them and use the right specification of consumables and ink cartridges.
Even though different cartridges might be similar in build, have the copper contacts placed in the same area of the cartridge and fit into printers that they have not been specified for. This is not a guarantee they will work with a printer they have not been specified for, or even if they work, the non-specified cartridge will not damage the printer.
This is because each type of cartridge has been designed and manufactured to work with a certain specification of printers. Apart from the physical features which are visible to the eyes, ink cartridges have software embedded within them, and this embedded software expects to interact with a particular specification of the printer software. They also might come with different types of ink designed to work with a particular printer head.
A classic example is the HP 61 ink, which is one of the workhorse inkjet cartridges from HP that works with over 30 different types of HP printers. For reason of cost – the original HP 61 ink is one of the inexpensive inkjet cartridges from HP – some users believe they can substitute it for printers requiring HP 63 ink because both have similar construction and fit into the same size of cartridge holders within the printers.
Please do not attempt this. As HP 61 ink and HP 63 ink cartridges are intended for the different set of printers. Going ahead with this switch will usually cause the printer to give an error notifying you of the incompatible cartridge. If you are able to override that error or the printer does not give the error, you stand the risk of damaging your print works or the printer or both.
If cost is a concern, the better option is getting a remanufactured inkjet cartridge from 123ink.ca. Offered on this site are the Remanufactured HP 63 XL Ink F6U64AN F6U63AN Cartridge Black and Color Combo High Yield from Moustache® and the Remanufactured HP 61 XL Ink cartridge Combo High Yield also from Moustache®. Both are high yield cartridges currently going for the special promo price of $49.99 and $39.99 respectively. And give the same quality as the original HP inkjet cartridge.