Which ink does the HP OfficeJet Pro 9025e use?

The HP OfficeJet Pro 9025e takes the HP 962 family in both sizes, four colours each in a standard and an XL version. The e on the end of the model name matters as much as the number, because it marks a printer that was offered HP+ when it was first set up.

Whether that offer was accepted decides what ink the machine will accept now. Our tracker lists this model under HP+ and Dynamic Security. A printer enrolled in HP+ accepts Original HP cartridges for the life of the machine and the enrolment cannot be undone afterwards, so no compatible 962 will work in it. On a 9025e where HP+ was declined, third party cartridges can work, and the remaining risk is an update that starts refusing them.

Where you are free to choose, the arithmetic points the same way in every slot. The 962XL black prints 2,000 pages for $63.99, which is 3.20c a page against 4.40c for the standard black, so the XL saves about 27 percent. The colours move just as far, 3.12c on the XL against 4.43c on the standard, about 29 percent. Three standard colours cost $92.97 and three XL colours cost $149.97, so the only question is whether you print enough to finish the bigger tanks.

Ink this cheap is the argument for putting a business machine in a house. A black page here costs 2.40 cents, and the same page on one of the cheap HP DeskJets that take the 65XL costs 12.33 cents, on a printer that costs far less to buy. Which of the two is cheaper depends entirely on how much you print.

The print head on this class sits in the printer and HP does not sell it as a customer part, which is why the machine stops printing when any single cartridge empties, black job or not. Keep a spare of whichever colour drains fastest. If a cartridge is refused the moment you fit it, read the message rather than the cartridge: wording about a missing, damaged or undetected cartridge points at the contacts and clears with a wipe and a firm reseat, while wording about a cartridge that is not genuine HP is the firmware and will not.