How is your experience of bringing a printer on an international flight?

[NP2015]

Hi All, 

This weekend I will bring my friend's HP Officejet Pro 250 overseas to use it in my grandma's birthday party. 

Have anyone tried bringing it in an international flight? 

I have tried to search online. It seems that:

* For checked in luggage

It is fine as HP Officejet Pro 250 can definitely meet the size and weight requirements. However it has battery and so I don't think it is allowed if it is not freshly new and packaged in a box. 

* For carry on luggage

Initially I was afraid that the ink will be an issue as there is restriction on liquid. But it seems below the limit and some suggested that it is better to take out the ink cartridge and bring it as a carry on even if we put the printer as a checked in luggage. 

How is your experience?

It will be good to know your story as some of us may have the same needs. I will share mine after this weekend's trip :). Thank you. 

Here are some online references:

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/2908411/all

https://www.quora.com/Can-I-bring-a-printer-on-an-international-flight-as-checked-luggage

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100419205157AAyuwb5

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/us-airways-dividend-miles-pre-consolidation-american-airlines/861590-...

https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k4314127-Permitted_items_in_checked_in_luggage-Ai...

Best regards,
Nugi

* Although I am employed by HP, I am speaking for myself and not for HP.

[Winterfell · Accepted solution]

Hi there,

I dont think there will be a problem if the printer can fit to your luggage or hand carry.

Battery should not be a problem because laptop or phone (except Samsung Note7) or tablet, are allowed on cabin.

As long as you remove the cartridge from the printhead, it should minimize any ink leakage. 

[Bob_Headrick]

If you remove the cartridge you will risk the nozzles drying out unless you have a cartridge holder or you put it in a container as shown in the document here.  The latter is problematic, you need to make sure the cartridge printhead will not contact anything.  This is easy for  stationary storage, not so easy for the kind of handling you would have on a flight.

There have been some recent changes (in the last week) in what is or is not allowed on flights to and from certain countries, I would suggest checking with the airline for the latest rules.

Personally I would suggest taking new unopened cartridges in carry-on, put the printer in checked luggage without any cartridges installed,  and storing the cartridges you currently have in the printer at home.

[NP2015]

Hi Winterfell, 

Thank you for your reply and reminding me to take out the ink cartridge out from the printer to minimize the possibility of ink leakage due to pressure difference in the plane. 

Best regards,
Nugi

* Although I am employed by HP, I am speaking for myself and not for HP.

[Dina_J]

What a great printer of yours!

As the battery is easy to be removed, I will hand carry the battery and check in the printer. The mobile size and the light weight will not take much of your luggage.

Do not to forget to put the Fragile label on the luggage to have better shape of the printer when you reached your destination. 🙂

Have a great trip!

[NP2015]

Hi Bob_Headrick, 

Thank you very much for your detailed reply. 

It is helpful to know the link you gave (http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03007680) on how to store opened cartridge and printheads. 

Thank you too for reminding me to check with the airlines. Your idea is great, I did not think of that. It is much easier if we leave the opened cartridge at home and bring my new spare cartridge. But for this trip, I will try to bring the opened cartridge to gain experience in case someday I don't have a spare cartridge. 

Hi Dina_J, 

Thank you! It is a good reminder to put fragile label if I decide to put the printer (after taking out the battery since this is a mobile printer) inside my checked-in luggage. 

Best regards,
Nugi

* Although I am employed by HP, I am speaking for myself and not for HP.

[NP2015]

Hi All,

Just to update, I have brought my friend's HP OfficeJet 250 mobile all-in-one printer and there was no issue in my international flights (Singapore to Jakarta return trips using Garuda Indonesia).

Thanks Winterfell, Bob_Headrick, and Dina_J for your useful suggestions.

I decided to bring the printer as a carry-on luggage. The ink cartridge was removed from the printer and kept inside a Tupperware container. The printer worked well. To ensure good print quality, I aligned the ink cartridge from the printer control panel to print the alignment page once I arrived at the venue of my grandma's birthday. The people there were happy to be able to print the photos from their mobile phone via wifi-direct.

Another lesson I learned was that the media size (4x6) may not match the image size in the mobile phone. So I needed to remember to select the option of fit to page in the HP All-in-One remote app to ensure that the image is not automatically cropped of even when we already select the right media size.

Best regards,
Nugi

*Although I am employed by HP, I speak for myself and not for HP.

[Planet8]

I just checked with Air France about taking my HP ENVY 5055 on an international flight from Canada to Europe, and there are no restrictions. This is an all-in-one, and has no battery. The ink cartridges I intend to take are sealed (unopened) and I was told they're OK too.