I was just wondering if more people have had bad experiences with HP inkjet printers. Just a few days ago, my parents' HP inkjet printer (HP Deskjet 3820) broke down after only 3 years. The USB port was broken, which they were unable to fix. I also used to have a HP inkjet printer (I think it was a HP Deskjet 930c series) which also mysteriously stopped functioning one day after around 3~4 years.

Before my parents bought the HP inkjet printer, they used to have an Epson Stylus 800 (a black & white inkjet printer). That thing was like a german tank; it was noisy but it never refused duty. It's actually still being used by a family member. The only flaw it had was sometimes it used to not load the paper correctly, and we had to remove the paper manually because it got stuck.

If I compare the quality of the now almost ancient Epson printer with the HP printer my parents used to have, I'd say the Epson was way better. The ink in printouts from the HP printer always bleeded a bit. If I remember correctly, with the Epson this was never the case, or at least not as apparent. Also the Epson printer used to start printing way faster than the HP printer. I heard this also has something to do with the fact that from when Windows replaced the good ol' MS-DOS, inkjets were made without an internal processor or something to make them cheaper, but if someone knows the specifics, please share it with me. I never really liked HP printers in the first place. They're ugly business printers, and in my experience they're not very durable. The only reason my parents bought one was because they wanted a colour printer.

Today, I bought a new printer for my parents (well, they payed, but I selected it ). A laserjet this time, to be more specific, a Samsung ML-1610. This printer finally looks like a real machine again, unlike those crappy HP printers. It only prints black & white because my parents rarely need to print something in colour anyways, and colour laserjets are way more expensive. This printer only costed € 69,-. I could hardly believe a laser printer was that cheap. Especially since there's a toner included with it for 1000 pages. I know an original toner for 2000 pages costs around € 79,- (although I've also seen them for € 57,- but I'm not sure yet if these are original or refilled toners), so the actual cost for the printer without the toner is just 69-79/2 = € 29,50. And the printouts are razorsharp again, no more bleeding at all (duh, it's a laserprinter). Also, after I printed a page with the laser printer it feels nice and warm.

The cost per printed page is also alot cheaper with laserjets. Like I said, for the samsung a toner for 2000 pages costs around € 79,- so the price per page would be 79/2000 = € 0,0395, possibly even less because I only checked in one source. According to HP, one inkjet cartridge can print about 200 pages at 5% ink coverage. At bol.com, a 25 ml original HP inkjet cartride costs about € 30,- (which I think is cheaper than what we usually got ink cartridges for). Using these numbers, for the ugly HP printer one (bleedy) print costs around 30/200 = € 0,15. That's almost 4 times as expensive as the Samsung laserjet!

Note that this is just my personal experience. I'm sure there are alot of good printers, so I don't mean to advertise Samsung in particular, but I like the new printer alot. Feel free to post your experiences. Maybe I could've just been unlucky with HP printers, but I probably won't buy any HP printers again in this lifetime.

Regards,

unstable

Edit: € 79,- for a 2000 page toner seems a bit too high even... all other places I checked, they were cheaper, so between € 60,- and € 70,- seems more accurate.

My little printer history:

1. some Epson Color Inkjet
Colorchannels always clogged up. At this point I'd succesfully build an anti-color printer zone in my immediate environment.

Who needs colors!

2. Canon BJC-30


Had this one for quite a while, it had a high tolerance for cartridge refilling. Pfff refilling.

Who needs ink!

3. HP Laserjet IIIp


Got it for free because it was 'broken'. Plugging in the powercord, printercable and installing the driver did the trick to 'fix' it.
Had this one till the great tonerincident of 2001.
(Long story, but to sum it up. I managed to fill an entire room (and myself) with a silky thin layer of toner. Little tip: NEVER CLEANUP WITH WATER AFTER A TONERACCIDENT!)

Let's give HP one more chance.

4. HP Laserjet 6L


Great printer.... if you don't mind to sort out printed and unprinted sheets of paper. Taking one sheet at a time was too much to ask, printing on stacks of 25 sheets didn't seem to be a problem. At this time I completely lost fate in HP.
Fact: If you try to print with the HP Laserjet 6L which is stripped from it's body you'll end op with nice black sheets. Page filling... 95% (5% due margins).

Ok, byebye HP.

5. Brother HL2030


This is the printer i'm using right now. Cheap printer, no complaints yet. Internal storage of up to 250 sheets, no more dry paper. Rock solid!

Brother... Because you can always count on family!

Greetz BaRa

Thanks BaRa, nice post! The Brother HL-2030 was actually my second choice, but the samsung printer fitted better on my parents' shelf.

Regards,

unstable

Hi there,

my Customer (Iam IBM employee and responsible for about 200 ppls) only use HP Printers. Some Years ago the used to buy the HP consumer Deskjet PRinters 56xx Seris, 38xx Series. They broke apart after about half year / one year....because the simple printed too much, also the ink is more expensive than the printer itself, it mabye is a good idea to buy the printer, print until the enclosed Ink is empty, then throw away the printer and buy a new one again.

Meanwhile my Customer uses only HP Pro Series Printer for Large Workgroups and Networks, like Laser Jet Colors 5600er Series etc...etc..no problems any more. Seems like HP really produes cheap, crappy consumer printer and highquality highend printer fpr Companies To sum up thins i would say: Inkjet Deskjet Crappy, LAsrjets are very cool and worthy. I used them up from HP LAserjet II D to 4+, 6, 1100, 2300 ,..., 5600er Series...would never switch to other printers for my company

Ray