How good are Hewlett Packard Printers

[Trigger 37]

Hello to all the supporters of this forum. I have been doing a lot of work and repairing all kinds of Canon Printers, with great success. Now some of my friends are asking me about HP printers. I've never had one, but I guess a printer is just a printer. I do have an Epson printer but have not torn it apart yet. It is still new and under warranty. I do refill the ink in it and it works great, although I have had problems printing on thick paper, about 200 gm/cm.

Anyway, I would appreciate any comments from people that have HP's on their quality, performance, how the printhead comes out, how the ink tanks can be refilled, how serviceable the printers are, how good are their Service Manuals, etc.

I have seen some of them that have not only separate ink tanks but also separate printheads. This seems like an over kill, but who knows. I do see that many stores are selling a lot of HP ink and they are "Pushing" HP printers out the door. I have been so focused on Canon printers there could be some kind of mass market change going on and I'm not aware of it.

All I know is that the Canon iSeries printers and up through the iP Pixma series, the inside guts are just about all the same, and all of the service manuals are about the same. I've also become very very familiar with the MP730 multifunction printers or "All-in-Ones". They are much more difficult to service because there are sooooo many parts, but once you get them apart, the inside guts are the same. The printhead for the MP730 is the same one as the Canon i560 printer, and so are many other parts. The service and cleaning is the same for all of them.
I guess I also have to include the S Series printers since they are also the same.

Again, any comment you would care to make on the HP or Epson, please do. I only ask that you not waste your time on Lexmark or Brother as I feel they are junk.

 

[mikling]

A quick comment and nothing in detail. For the sporadic and very light user, I like integrated cartridges because most can sustain not printing for a good period of time and then still work reliably afterwards. I consider the sweet point of these printers to be the ones that use the HP56, 57, 58 series. Why? Refilling is relatively straightforward and the cartridges can be reset for a working ink level monitor. That makes refilling more reliable as you then refill when 25% of the ink is still remaining and not wait for poor quality prints. Even better yet, have three cartridges and rotate them and then no resetting is required at all. The print quality is not as good as the latest cartridges but are still very good. Their print speeds are also respectable and photo quality is also good.

Keep in mind that I like these for light volume use only.

 

[InkMon]

I have an older HP720c and one refill trick I can pass on is this. Cut two pieces of plastic the width of each cartridge and use that to slip in between the printer pins and the cartridges contacts. On my printer the printer pins are sharp and I lost one cartridge in just removing it. The pins scrapped away the copper. Since I have been using the plastic to push the pins back allowing the cartridge to slide out undamaged I have used the same cartridges over and over. This printer is my do all , I cannot help with dismantling my HP it keeps going. Any way I can pick up another now for $AUD10 at a charity shop.

Terry

 

[thrif-t]

Hi,, I just had my Canon IP4000 'die' on me - flashing lights error indicating
servicing required, and I saw that HP has a printer out that prints on inkjet
coated CD's and DVD's, and it was on sale for $80, so I went and got one today.
For refilling the color cartridge, I am going to use Dataproduct's Ink Station Refill kit,
it is an attractive and easy looking way to do refills, maybe not the cheapest in ink costs,
but then maybe their tanks can be refilled too!
So far so good, except they don't provide software to print to CD's if you
are running Windows Vista - at least so far they don't have a compatible version of their app.
I am using 3rd party software that works fine with it.

I guess I had better mention the model - Photosmart D5100.

Ron

 

[ltsang]

HP and all other kinds nowadays are not constructed like the good old days, they are cheap and flimsy, and are not meant to be serviced but go straight to the dump. Besides, so what if one can take it apart, you cannot easily find parts for them. I tried to repair an Hp6540, all one need is the circuit pad behind the cartridge which can easily be replaced, the laminated copper contact was broken, I can see where it was broken, the lines are so small I cannot easily solder them together, and if you have the part, that will become a perfect good printer again. But I check around, nobody except HP has the part which I dont think they will sell to you at a reasonable price. There were so many good printers like the Canon i560, HPs that use the good 45 and 78 that dont have chips or counter to reset. Why cant any manufacturer make a printer that allows users to buy ink and refill it themselves? HP 45 ,15 , BCI3s and 6 are the best cartridge to refill and they hold lots of ink. One just doesnt find these printers on sale anymore. Canon Epson & HP decide what the consumer gets: what makes the most money for them. Greediness is the reason behind the manufacturers. Look at the HP02s that holds 2-3 mils of ink! I bought an Epson R250 last week, the idea that no one can reset the chip in the 78 series made me brought the printer back and they gave me a credit until they have a refillable printer to sell, and I refuse to buy any new printers until I can easily refill it. By the way I agree Brother do not have good printers, but at lease they are cheap (less than $100 for a 5 in 1) and the LC 51 ink holds 20mil of ink and it is easily refilled.Lexmark will have no share in the market if they keep on selling those junk injets.

 

[mikling]

You can still get old stock Epson R340s which are jazzed up R200s/R220 etc and are very refillable and resettable.
These are the last of the sweet spots. The R260 R380 chip /firmware games are a vicious circle right now. Epson is fighting back hard.

 

[Trigger 37]

Thrift-t,... I'm sad to here you didn't try to fix your iP4000. What did you do with it. I would like to buy it from you for a reasonable price. Just because it need "Service". Also, I'm sure you know that the iP4000 also prints CD'S. There are CD trays and software for sale on eBay. That printer has always had the ability to print on CD's,... it is just that Canon did not want to make that feature availble in the USA. It is available in all other countries.

Itslang,... I guess I have to take your word for you comments on HP, but I totally disagree about Canon. There top end printers have always been good quality. Starting with the iSeries like the i560 or even the i550, and going up from there, I've taken all of them apart and the guts are great, they are made out of strong stuff, and are put together with care. The are designed to be repaired, not thrown away. Canon and several other web sites sell all parts for even the older printers.

InkMon, it sounds like your HP720C is a good printer and made to last. Have you ever found a good web site that has HP parts.

Thanks so far to all those who have provided good info on HP printers.

 

[websnail]

Just as a note, I've been working more with the K550, L7000 series MFD and keeping some cash spare for when I can play with a K5400..

In a word, these HP's are reasonably good for office style output, ie: documents, bulk print outs but not for anything like photos.. The speed and paper capacities are a real plus and it's very simple to add a CIS system to them thanks to the static cartridges and seperate printhead system.

I wouldn't use them for anything else like photo printing and as already noted they don't handle DVD or CD printing.

 

[InkMon]

InkMon, it sounds like your HP720C is a good printer and made to last. Have you ever found a good web site that has HP parts

Trigger37

It is 8 years old, funny you suggested that about spares. I visited my favourite printer spare place yesterday (LifeLine)and found one, complete with cartridges $2. I brought it home connected it up and printed a colour photo. It is unbelievable who would give a perfectly good printer away. I filled the cartridges removed them sealed the printheads with special tape I saved from a previous cartridges and have them stored. I placed my cartridges in the new printer, they worked ok and now my printer is the spare.

Happy days

Terry

 

[Trigger 37]

InkMon,... That is fantastic. I love it when anyone can save a printer that is about to go to the trash. I don't think we have such a place in the U.S. as "Lifeline". What kind of store is it. I'm guessing it is some kind of "Thrft Store"

Websnail,... is there no HP printer that is good for photo or can compare or compete with any of the Canon or Epson photo printers?