How good are Hewlett Packard Printers

[Trigger 37]

Thanks to everyone that gave me some feedback. I did some more investigation on HP printers and I find that the better ones not only have separate ink tanks, they also have a separate printhead for each color. This could really get expensive. I can see it would be easy to take those out and replace them but I suspect that each printhead is going to cost more. I mean that one Canon printhead is already $55 but if you have to buy 4 HP printheads at $15 to $20 each, that really gets to be a pain.

Not many people said much about Epson printers. I find that there are just as many of those available and need repair as Canon. They have separate ink tanks like Canon, but the printheads are not designed to be easily replaced. I've heard this is because Epson uses Piezoelectric ink jet technolgy so there is very little possibility that their heads over heat and burn out. They just get clogged up with all the Epson Pigmented ink. I've also read that the cleaning carts work great in Epson printers, but you have to either make them yourself and use carts with chips on them and have a resetter, or it is much more difficult to do.

I have an Epson 1280 and the inside guts and operation is very close to what Canon printers look like. I've also read that the R200 and R260 are very good printers and that the C64 or C84 are also very good. Anyway, if anyone has an opinion I would like to hear it.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I think if you check closely you will find that the HP printers that have separate ink tanks have two print heads, not four, each handling two colors. So it's not quite as bad as you suggest.

My main concern is that it will require a more intensive head alignment, somewhat like when you have two cartridges with built-in heads, one for black and one for three colors.

 

[InkMon]

Sorry I am late replying. I have been busy. Lifeline is like the Salvation Army. It's a charity store where people donate unwanted goods and they sell it at giveaway prices for charity. I could not help myself I bought a Lexmark X1150 multy function less fax for $5. Downloaded the driver and connected it. I did nothing else but put some photo paper in, selected a photo to print and out came a perfect print. Who would give something like that away? Maybe the same person who gave away the brand new java 2 book complete with disk for $2. If I visit this store too often I will have to move into a larger house.

This Lexmark seems easy to refill and the output is very good. It has a good scanner also.

Maybe I should recycle some of this stuff on Ebay.

 

[doctorwho52]

I'm a refiller. Here's what my customers say about printers.
EPSON Highest costing but best print quality. However, if you let the print head dry it cannot be cleaned. It's cheaper to buy another than to repair. Some models cannot be repaired.
HP Best for the money on the market. I think the cartridges were designed for easy refill.
LEXMARK Good quality printer for most home use but short lifespan; usually about two years. Cartridges are easy to refill.
No customer feedback for other brands.

Doc

 

[fotofreek]

Our Walgreen drug stores have refilling stations but do not refill Canon carts. In addition, the big box office supply stores give rebates for empty Epson, HP, and Lexmark carts but not Canon carts. Is this the general rule with most storefront and/or commercial refillers? Could that be the reason that Doctorwho didn't have feedback on other than Epson, HP, and Lexmark?

 

[Trigger 37]

Doctorwho,.. I want to strongly disagree with your conclusions. I have about 50 printer under my care at this moment and I have created repair mauals for Canon and HP printers and I'm working on Epson. I personally own many Canon printers and Espon printers.

The absolute worst printers of any brand is Lexmark. Close behind that is HP. The very simple answer on which printers are best is to examine how each company supports their printers. HP will not sell or make availabe any repair manual for any printer. They also do not have any repair parts. They design their printers for limited lifetime and never provide any help to fix them. They don't want them fixed. They want you to buy a new printer. They put all of the money that other companies spend on creating maintenience manuals, spare parts from vendors, plus all the people it takes to answer the phone, look up the part, shipping, service, etc. and use that to advertize their new printers. They also sell their ink for a rediculous price of $7634.00 per gallon.

While epson makes a high quality printer, the quality is not as good as Canon. It is also almost impossible to get any Service Manuals for Epson, and getting parts is even worse. It is not true that Epson printheads can not be cleaned. There are all kinds of information on this web site and others to teach you how to clean Epson printhead. What Epson has done in their world wide law suit is to prevent anyone else in the world from supplying compatible ink carts. I project this will be the beginning of the end for Epson.

I have torn apart and repaired every printer that Canon has made from the i550, i560,.... all the way up to the ip6700, including the Multifunction printers like the F30, F50, MP730,--- MP830 series and all of the S series printers. I have created Detailed repair manuals for all of these printers that I sell from time to time. I have sold them to people all over the world and I have had nothing but positive feedback. The Canon printers are very durable and some have lasted for 10+ years. Absolutely everything in a Canon printer is fixable or replaceable, and you can buy the parts directly from Canon. Canon Standard Service Manuals and Parts Catalogs are easyily available on the internet. When I sell one of my repair manuals for any printer I provide all of the Canon Service Manuals and Parts catalogs along with my own detail repair manual. My manuals contain detailed digital photos showing each and every step on how to repair all the critical items in any Canon printer.

My final answer on this thread is,... if you want to find out how good a printer is, search this and other web site for how to buy spare parts or service manuals for the printer. You will soon find out that they really don't exist for HP, Lexmark, or Epson. If a company won't even both to create these for their printers, that will tell you what they think of them.

 

[rehardwick]

Here are a couple of links about the Epson R260 printer.

http://www.alotofthings.com/viartshop/article.php?category_id=10&article_id=483

http://www.alotofthings.com/viartshop/article.php?article_id=813

 

[ghwellsjr]

But, Trigger, the doctor was not commenting on which brand of printer was the best, he was telling us what his customers, who presumably are getting refills from him, are reporting. He probably doesn't have any Canon customers because those who are interested in refilling do it themselves. And he isn't telling us about repairing the printer, just the cartridges with the built-in print heads. So I think you are both right and you are telling the bigger story.

I have tried to talk many of my friends into buying Canon printers and I have bought some used ones to supply my friends with chipless Canon printers but they generally just go out and buy the cheapest printer they can find which is usually Lexmark or HP. Sad.

 

[jflan]

It's amazing how this thread represents a microcosm of the present-day inkjet printer industry.
Satisfied customers on either side of the fence.
BTW, well stated Trigger 37...I'm on your side of the fence.

 

[pharmacist]

Unfortunately most people look at the lowest purchasing price possible. This is quite shortshighted. You must look at the total cost of ownership and Lexmark is "wellknown" for it's lack of it. In some cases buying a new printer instead of buying new cartridges is cheaper. This is horrible ! And even when refilling the Lexmark are very bad printers and the print quality is very low compared to Canon and Epson printers.