my HP B9180 died...

[usccharles]

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hi,

 

bought my B9180 about two years ago. it pooped out on me. the service center told me i have to change the motherboard or something and it'll be cheaper to just buy a new printer, considering the new one comes with new heads and a new set of inks.

 

so i did some research to see if anything changed in the printing market since my last purchase. not much has changed... B9180 is still there and no new printer has arrived at HP.

 

should i just buy the same printer? i love my B9180 and wouldn't mind getting the same printer, BUT, even though the printer is still available, there are not many people carrying them (i'm in Korea), like its going to be discontinued soon.

 

or should i look for another printer? I see alot of praise for Epson 3800 an 2880 but i'm just not sure...

 

any advice would be great. thanks~

[Shootist]

I'm in the states and have had a 9180 for about 2.5 years. In that time I have gone through 4 or 5 of them (don't remember the exact number) because I bought the 3 year extended warranty and they were replaced when I had problems. But I just love the prints I get from it.

If after the warranty runs out and if the current printer I have fails I'm not sure what I would buy. I certainly wouldn't buy a Epson of any kind/type/model. I've just heard to many bad things about them. So I'd probably look at a larger format HP or another B9180 and again buy the extended warranty.

 

Simple fact is the 9180 is almost 3 year old and the majority of people thinking about buying one have one. So there is no need for HP to keep producing them at the same rate they did when they were new on the market. That makes finding one harder.

[jpattison]

My B9180 is still going, but I would NEVER buy another Epson if it failed! The B9180 is so much easier to use, except for roll printing, but if you load a long sheet carefully it works fine. So much so that several friends now have a B9180, having pulled most of their hair out trying to make the R2400 work consistantly.

 

I think Epson have never bothered to work with Apple to get their drivers sorted.

 

John

[delander †]

I think that printing technology has not changed much in recent years. The big advance was pigment inks. If you are happy with your HP I would just get another one. I've just bought an Epson 3800 for its B&W performance and its use of bigger cartidges. Colour also looks fine.

 

Jeff

[marknorton]

I don't know about the HP printers, but the build quality of the Epson 3800 is shockingly bad. Lots of cheap plastic mouldings and flaps, all ready to break at a moment's notice.

 

The printer manufacturers obviously don't think it's worth it but I would willingly pay more for a printer which is better built and have a longer working life.

[delander †]

Mark, dont Epson already make the 4880 a more expensive and more solid version of the 3800?

 

Jeff

[usccharles]

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thanks for your comments. i just figured, like all other electronic gadgetry, printers would always be upgraded with newer products, like digicams. my HP has not given me any problems, except for pooping out on me, and i have not had any dissappointments with its printing quality. and i don't go any larger than A3 size, so i don't need a bigger more expensive printer anyways like the epson 3800.

 

i'm going to go buy another B9180 and try and get the longest warrenty package it has, so even if it is discontinued anytime soon, i won't have to worry about not being able to repair the thing within the next two three years.

 

thanks for your help!

[Ted W]

There's no margin on the printers, that's why the build quality is mediocre. The money's in the ink.

[ptarmigan]

Well I'd never ever buy another Epson printer. I too own a B9180 that has developed what may be a terminal fault. When I send something to print - anything, even a test page - the printer takes in 3 sheets of paper (one at a time). The third sheet gets stuck half way and an 'Out of paper error' is displayed. No matter what I do I cannot get rid of it.

 

HP Support said they'd call me back but haven't. The printer is 30 months old and out of warranty. I believe this to be a 'paper sensor' error but at present I don't know what I can do.

 

It's half empty of ink and what with the servicing costs, it may end up being as cheap for me to just get another. I am not very happy!

[Shootist]

There's no margin on the printers, that's why the build quality is mediocre. The money's in the ink.

 

Well you can't buy ink for a printer that doesn't work, well I gues you can buy ink but you can't use it in a printer that doesn't work. If they are doing what you say that is just foolish.

 

Well I'd never ever buy another Epson printer. I too own a B9180 that has developed what may be a terminal fault. When I send something to print - anything, even a test page - the printer takes in 3 sheets of paper (one at a time). The third sheet gets stuck half way and an 'Out of paper error' is displayed. No matter what I do I cannot get rid of it.

 

HP Support said they'd call me back but haven't. The printer is 30 months old and out of warranty. I believe this to be a 'paper sensor' error but at present I don't know what I can do.

 

It's half empty of ink and what with the servicing costs, it may end up being as cheap for me to just get another. I am not very happy!

 

When I was looking for a better printer then the Canon dye ink one I had I looked at Epson and just couldn't get along with some of the problems I read about and that you had to change out ink cartridges if you wanted to go from color to B&W and then back again.

So I bought the B9180. But after my first call to HP tech support, 2 months after the NEW B9180 arrived, I bought the 3 year extended warranty. I actually got it at the older lower price of $39.95US, now it goes for $79.95 or more.

I am happy I did because I am on my 4th or 5th B9180, don't remember it been so many. When they work they work well. Delivering great prints. But the next time you go to print something you have no idea if it's going to work or not, at least that is my experience.

Would I buy another if my present one fails once the extended warranty runs out, Maybe but only new and also another extended warranty. That is if there wasn't another model that gave as good prints and was more reliable. In any event I'd buy the extended warranty.

[ptarmigan]

Well finally after chasing HP yet again after they failed to call me back I got through to a toss@ who informed me he was their B9180 expert. There is no point on running though the diagnostics tests we could do as 99.9% of the faults are rectified by replacing the printer so as you are out of warranty and we therefore won't replace the printer there is no point in running through them.

 

His other comment was that I should have bought an extended warranty. Well the printer is just shy of 3 years old so a 1 year extension would have expired and a 2 year extension would almost have expired!

 

Not helpful. Eventually found a service agent for these printers - not with HPs help I might add - I have been told that although it may well be a small component failure, the replacement of the main unit upon which this small component resides is an uneconomical replacement. Best advice is to junk the printer and buy another one!

 

Bollocks!

[microview]

This is all bad news! My basic HP 930C, for stationery usage not photos, has worked now for 10 years without a hiccup. I have a Canon ip8500 for A4 prints but was favouring Epson for A3 since I understand the B9180 needs to be continuously powered. Which is hardly GREEN:(

[yanidel]

This is all bad news! My basic HP 930C, for stationery usage not photos, has worked now for 10 years without a hiccup. I have a Canon ip8500 for A4 prints but was favouring Epson for A3 since I understand the B9180 needs to be continuously powered. Which is hardly GREEN:(

Talking about GREEN impact, the huge number of plastic ink cartridges that I have to throw away (because of lack of bigger capacity) is a much bigger concern than the continuous power IMO.

[ho_co]

Considering 'green' attributes--

 

 

The HP B8850 is very similar to the B9180 and costs less.

 

The two use the same inks and apparently have the same print engine; however, the B8850:

a) won't accept papers as thick as the B9180 does;

lacks an Ethernet connection; but

c) doesn't need to be turned on all the time.

 

 

In the US, HP furnishes free postage-paid return envelopes for recycling used cartridges. Perhaps you should check with your local distributor to see if they've got such a program where you live. (My guess is that HP introduced the free recycling program because too many people were having their cartridges refilled instead of buying more HP ink. )

[wlaidlaw]

My out of warranty HP B9180 has died as well, with all the heads simultaneously saying they need replacing. I have done all the diagnostics and cures listed on various sites with no improvement, including taking it apart and cleaning out the ink cleaning area. I had 5 replacements in warranty but it seemed to settle down afterwards. I liked it as a printer and it does not use anything like the same amount of ink for cleaning that the Canon Pixma Pro 9500 I have in the UK does. The Canon seems to need one of its 10 cartridges replacing almost every time I use it. Extended warranty was not available in France when I bought my HP B9180, or given the problems in the warranty period, I would have certainly bought it.

 

Since a huge number of these printers seem to be failing after about 24 months (see net for whinges), I wonder if there is grounds for a voluntary extension of warranty by HP or suffer the consequences of a class action. Under EU law, I think a printer as expensive as this would be expected to last 6 years. As HP also has not bothered to write Snow Leopard drivers for the 1100 and 1200 Business Inkjets, I am not too impressed with them as a company at the moment.

 

For a replacement, I don't like the prosumer R series Epsons, as they require return to base to replace a print head and UK service for non-professional Epson stuff is abysmal. I might look at an Epson 3800, which are very popular but I would find the black ink switching from gloss to matte an irritating and wasteful procedure. The A2 size Canon, the Canon ProGraf iPF5000 had a dreadful reputation for cogs breaking in the paper feed system (my local printer offered me theirs for £250 and said I would be doing them a favour) but I don't know if the 5100 is better - any opinions?

 

Wilson

[microview]

Wilson: you will doubtless know the Epson 3880 is due to launch and replaces the 3800 with one ink change etc. Worth mentioning though...

[wlaidlaw]

Wilson: you will doubtless know the Epson 3880 is due to launch and replaces the 3800 with one ink change etc. Worth mentioning though...

 

Many thanks for that. I see it is due out tomorrow and it is cheaper than the 3800 was. It is also a lot smaller than the Canon 5100 but the downside it that it does not have a roll feed. Mind you the roll feed was what caused problems on both my R800 and R1800 Epsons, so its absence may be a blessing.

 

Wilson