I sure would love it if someone had a RELIABLE printer they could recommend that is capable of 24″ printing, and that does not waste black ink when switching from Matte to Glossy.

Thanks!

z3100 faulty belts
Before considering buying an HP printer please be warned that the belts that they use are faulty.

Whether this is planned obsolescence or simply HP using junk parts, I have tried contacting HP to let them know about it and find out what they could do….. of course….nothing but ignore my correspondence.

It’s very “curious” that the belt, although an inexpensive part, is the most difficult on the printer to replace. You literally have to take the entire printer apart to get at it. That the belt only lasts just over one year and is likely to disintegrate right after your warranty expires. You will first notice little black pieces appearing on your prints, which is the belt falling apart little by little.

You can attempt to replace the belt, but you will need approximately 8 to 12 hours and take the risk of breaking something else in the process.

My first belt “EXPIRED” one week after my warranty did. My business was down for two weeks while I found the belt and did the repair. Luckily everything went well…..for another year, and now the belt is disintegrating again. My friend also has the machine and exactly the same thing happened to his belt.

Please let me know if you’ve had the same experience, I’m sure there must be many of us SUCKERS out there.

Are you talking about the Z3200 here (or any of the other professional printers)? You’re not going to get only a few 8×10s out of those printers.

I contacted HP about my printer. Their response to me was:

1) They make the best printers,
2) but my printer is a few years old,
3) so I should upgrade immediately!

Stay far far away from their products. They are built to fail. I think that their bad reputation is starting to catch up with them. They’ve been discontinuing papers and it looks like other products are hard to find.

To make a long story short, I purchased the Z3200 – net cost after rebate $2250.00. An equivalent SP7900 would have been over $4500.00 to $5000.00 at the time. Also, the idea of having full profiling and user replaceable heads was desirable. I also was assured that the inks that came with the printer would last for some time. I didnt believe them and promply ordered 12 double ink sets from my ink supplier. This may e a mistake (see below).

After six months plus of usage I could not be more pleased overall. Ethernet linkage and some quirks in the printer control have given me some frustrating moments, but a power off and on has always cleared everything in one cycle.

As for printing, I am ecstatic!!! The output is phenomenal. The paper versatility is infinite and very high quality and I am only now replacing my first ink cartridge after more prints than I can even calculate (hundreds of sheets of letter and 11×14 as well as over 60 Super B and C Epson SmthVelvetFA and an entire roll of HPprofsatin). On my 4800 I would easily be on my 4th set of inks (330+ml vs 70ml on the HP). In addition, I have never had to run any kind of cleaning cycle, nor have I had a bad print because of a printer malfunction. (I did have an issue with some 11×14 paper early on, but discovered that I was loading it improperly).

I have had one issue with the software at installation but HP service was prompt and efficient. I cannot speak to any driver support issues over multiple operating systems but will ask about this if and when I need to contact customer support for any future issues.

To say that I am happy with the printer would be a bit of understatement. I like not having to switch and waste matte vs photo inks. I love the use of the gloss enhancer (the first ink replaced) and have fallen in love with glossy output again (I was an avid darkroom user for a couple of decades many years ago) and I love being able to buy any paper that I want to use and know that I will get terrific output.

Thanks Ric for this site and thanks for the review on the Z3200. It has changed the way I look at print output!!

Bill

Yet where are the Z2200, Z6200 and B9280? HP printer sales are faltering because they can’t produce new products and their current models are years old and fading (to put it mildly, when others are surpassing them).

Epson’s only failure is the ink swapping, and that’s not huge but significant. If Epson manages to cure that and stop charging $1000 for models that include a paper cassette for those of us printing volumes not on rolls, then HP can wave goodbye to the market.

HP drivers are a mess, and almost never get rewritten, just basically patched. They dropped the ball on Vista support and now we have Win 7 coming and they still haven’t even beta drivers ready. And now you have Vivid Magenta printers at high, (soon) mid, and low ends of the market to compete with.

What do you think will happen to the Zxxx market when HP basically loses interest? Support? Updates? Forget about them.

HP seems to give the writing the wall that this is the last gasp of their acknowledgement of this market by bringing a single printer to market and saying “hey look at us, look at us”.

Impressive results? Perhaps, but one product does not a market make.