Opinions on HP laser printers vs. other brands

I have a 6 year old HP laserjet (1018) that keeps on chugging away. Its about as fast as it ever was (a decent 12 ppm), and I'd like to keep it as long as I can.

Every time I hear a strange noise (nothing that I haven't been able to fix, so far), I think about it breaking down and having to buy a new laser printer. I see online now that the cheapest HP laserjets are about $150 (I can live without wireless networking, since I can share it), while other lasers (Dell, Brother) go well below $100.

One reason why I bought this current HP is that my family has always had great luck with HP deskjets; they hardly ever broke down, and lasted for years and years.

I'm wondering now--are other companies now making printers that are as reliable as HP? Or is it still a matter of "you get what you pay for "? I looked on amazon's reviews for a Dell that was selling for $60, and some said that you HAD to use Dell ink (ouch), which would obviously eliminate any savings on the original purchase price (I've only bought third-party ink for this laserjet).

 

Yes.

There are printing devices from other makers that are as reliable as printing devices from HP and produce quality output. But regardless the brand, "you get what you pay for" is still a factor.

If you buy a budget $60 HP, you have budget $60 printer. Same with Brother, Cannon, Epson, etc. I would definitely stick with the popular brands.

Clearly - operating (ink) costs must be factored in to your purchase decisions. And it is also clear that MANY MANY users (and devices) have not had good luck with 3rd party ink - it is NOT created equal - though it may work with no problems.

You need to define your needs. Do you really need laser? What about color? Do you want just a printer, or do you need a MFP device (multi-function printing) that scans, copies, and perhaps faxes too?

As for sharing your printer - I advise against that simply because you must open up sharing to share a printer connected to your computer with other computers on your network and while that can be done securely, it does open up potentials for exposure to badguys. Therefore, I urge you to get a "networked" device that connects to your network via Ethernet (or wireless), or via USB (IF your current router supports printer networking with USB.

Plus, when the printing device is networked, the device can be physically, and centrally located anywhere on your network (down the hall, upstairs, across the room) - and most importantly - not on your desk taking up space. There is no "host" computer that must be up and running for others to print. No sharing requirements.

I recommend you check out Consumer Reports. They factor in the costs of consumables and because they are a non-profit organization that does not accept any advertising money from any maker in any of their publications, they are unbiased in their reviews.

 

Meaning, you've never used third-party toner? At first reading I thought you meant that the original cartridge has never been replaced.

 

As far as third-party toner, I've never had a problem with an HP deskjet and a laserjet. Well, there was one problem when toner got spilled all over the inside, but that was only after I shook it intensely after it started fading. I found that after shaking, I could get another 100 pages.

Now, I no longer do that shaking--I just recycle it and put in another.

I also had a problem with the "do it yourself" kits, when I tried injecting ink into the used-up cartridge. That worked fine once, the second time it spilled all over the place. Gave that up, too.

But I've never had a problem with third-party toner that was handled properly.

Is this what you were referring to? I can only imagine that the problem would be something like ink getting all over inside?

 

HP printers (inkjet) are very reliable in my experience. Earlier models got confused if you tried to hurry the process.

I had a so-called "Techie" condemn our first HP printer and I purchased a Canon MFC type with individual colour cartridges which saved costs when an indivdiual colour ran out.
The downfall was for me, the print head ceased working (out of warranty) and the new head was more than a NEW printer on "Special" price!!!!

I then tried and used Epson MFC's (2) which seem to be programmed to be serviced by Authorized Dealer Technicians ONLY at a minimum set charge.
One day they are working OK - the next they stop and a message appears saying maintenance is required - woops.
It works out cheaper to put the Service Cost toward another newer model and trash the original. "Throwaway Society" syndrome.

I've gone back to HP and my only problem with them is their insistence on using "ONLY HP CARTRIDGES. "
We get Cartridge World to refill genuine HP original cartridges which quite often show up as NOT RECOGNIZED as the Genuine HP cartridge.
A frustration we work out with Cartridge World so I would still recommend them. Neil.

 

I've heard about that, but I've never had an HP inkjet or laserjet that required HP OEM cartridges. Man that would stink in my position--the OEMs are $70, whereas I'm getting them for $10-15 on amazon (third-party).

 

The HP P1102w is the one that is in my price range--$120-150. Unfortunately, it has gotten a LOT of negative reviews because of wireless problems. I'm not sure where teh fault there would lie... Once my laptop reads the shared printer that we have, I don't recall any problems at all with the connection.

Are wireless printers in general, troublesome? I suppose if I did have problems with the wireless aspect, I could always share it, anyways....

 

I'm looking at reviews of the Brother HL-2270dw, and the reviews in general are better than the HP I was looking at.

One thing I've noticed is that the reviews tend to be either 4-5 stars on amazon, or 1 star--and typically the 1-star reviews are because the wireless print settings were goofing up.

I'm thinking that if in fact I do get a wireless printer, I should get it at a local BestBuy so I can return it quickly and easily if it does give me fits.

 

HP of most any component has one issue, drivers for new OS's. This applies to printers as well as computers. Sure, the basic print-n-scan drivers provided via Windows Update oftentimes works, however a HP printer that was released for Windows 7 in 2009-2010 will unlikely offer full support for the next version of Windows.

Even on HP's site, it was stated that mid 2011 model hardware & above should be fully compatible with Windows 8. This is the traditional way that HP does business, & so does others. HP also cuts more corners than most OEM's in the business & it's costing them now.

Google is your friend here & can lead one to what's good & not so good. One thing to look for is return of investment. It's not unreasonable to expect a printer (laser or inkjet) to be fully compatible with three releases of Windows. My current model, luckily has performed fully on XP through Windows 8.

Laser printers costs more than most inkjets, all the more reason to make sure that the OEM has a good track record of providing drivers across releases. Especially for professional models.

Cat

 

Cat, so you're saying that HP has a bad track record of maintaining drivers for old hardware? Interesting.

The HP Scanjet we have was working until an update to IE (was it 7 or 8)? From that point onward, we had to rely on an MS driver, that now works the Scan and Fax wizard--but we use it once a week or two only, so this is all the "functionality" that we need. Not sure who to blame there, HP or MS.

HP sure gets mixed reviews when it comes to business practices. I read several years ago of some of their printers that were designed to work ONLY with HP-brand ink cartridges. I've never owned such a printer, nor do I believe that this is currently done, but man that would have irked me to no end, to find that I had bought one of those. Fortunately, the only HP printers we've had have been workhorses that just kept on chugging and chugging and chugging, so I'll stick with them at least until that's no longer the case.

 

I disagree with that and don't feel it fair to single out HP for a common practice across the industry. There is no reason to expect a company to keep spending "new development resources" ($$$) on obsolete, superseded products years after they have gone out of production, OR to support "future" versions of operating systems that may or may not support legacy hardware. No company can promise that and all companies would rather sell you something new - plus no single company has control over future communication protocols.

And that's a complaint???

Oh? You dredged up a dormant thread to make a pretty serious accusation. Got a link because my friend, Google, does not support that.

Sure, HP's $75 printer/fax/copier/scanner has "budget" quality features compared to it's $450 all-in-one sibling, but you can say that for Cannon, Brother, and Epson too.

I agree. For many years I have had several HPs that indeed do, just keep on working. Considering how complex and mechanical these devices can be, especially if automatic duplex (both sides) printing is supported, that is remarkable, IMO.

I note my current HP OJ 6500 Wireless, which I have had for 3+ years, has driver support from MS-DOS to Windows 8 64-bit - including XP 64-bit!!!

Frankly, when it comes to printing devices, HP is where I look first.

Yeah, HP misstepped but they were bashed for the wrong reasons there.

What REALLY happened is this. But first, it is important to note that ink formulas, consistencies, viscosities, droplet size, drying rates, and all those things are critical to print quality, as well as the maintenance of the ink distribution components (jets) in the printer.

Printer makers do not use the exact same ink formulas in all their printers, and different makers have their own formulas too. In other words, it is not just the physical shape and size of the cartridges that is different, there are 100s of different inks.

When aftermarket inks came out, they used (and still use) "universal" formulas. And like most universal products, they work "okay" for everything, but not optimally for anything. Many many users experienced printing problems with aftermarket inks that went away with genuine inks. But also many ended up with clogged jets that could not be cleaned.

HP and other printer makers were inundated with returned printing devices clogged up with inferior ink. Also, the market was being flooded with counterfeit ink, sometimes in refilled genuine cartridges (often sold to unsuspecting consumers). So HP and other makers started programming their devices to detect genuine cartridges that had never been refilled, and yell at you if a problem.

HP, at one time, did go to far (IMO) and would halt printing if a non-genuine cartridge was detected. But that has changed (after consumer uproar) and aftermarket ink makers (at least the better ones) have changed too, improving their ink formulas and offering more (less universal) formulas. I note the HP Warranty states,

 

My point was that it's not unreasonable to expect a printer to last through three versions of Windows. There are other brands that does, so why doesn't HP follow suit?

Yes, there are other brands that are no better, however HP being the largest OEM for printers & even computers, makes them a prime target. Plus I have lots of experience, mostly negative, with the brand. More so than any other.

No, that's a different brand, a $69 Kodak AIO that performs fine across the last four releases of Windows. Using their software package, not simple print-n-scan drivers from Windows Update. It even installs on the latest versions of Linux simply by making sure that it's plugged into a USB port, then turn the printer on. No other user input is needed for the install.

Everyone has their own opinion in regards to the brand, these vary with user experience & other factors, such as setting up/troubleshooting for others. No doubt that other users has similar issues with other brands.

Cat

 

The HP 1018 laserjet that I have now (coming up on 6 years of use) was compatible with XP, Vista, 7, and according to the Windows 8 compatibility site, even with Windows 8. The HP driver page even says that it has drivers for Windows 2000, in addition to some server versions. Including Windows 2000, that makes 5.

Of course this is a printer only, as opposed to AIO.

 

They do! I provided a link to my HP that has driver support from DOS to W8, 32-bit and 64-bit - way more than 3 versions.