It's a lovely printer, the HP b9180 is. When I finally understood the printer's need for control and set the color management to "Printer controls color", the blacks came out smooth and velvety, the print always true to what I saw on the screen. Since that fateful discovery, I have yet to see a single horizontal track streaking across large fields of color in a print. Image quality is superb.
I was also impressed with HP's customer service. When my printer needed new print heads less than a week out of the box, HP overnighted me a new printer, requesting I send the old one back in the arriving box. They also offered 1 year product replacement insurance.
So, why would I get rid of such a great machine?
1. The ink has a shelf-life. No kidding. Like milk, hp vivera inks have an expiration date. If you try to use these inks past that specified date, you will get an ugly message that says that continuing to use said inks will void your warranty. I happened to buy inks last fall to have on hand, not realizing that they expired in January 2010. Until I installed them. Oh yeah, and by the way, the only way to know when the expiration date is? You have to open the sealed packaging. At least milk prints the date on the outside of the packaging.
2. Did I mention the ink is really expensive?
3. The Vivera inks are water and scratch resistant, fade resistant to over 100 years. The catch? Only when printed on HP products.
The Ultrachrome K3 Ink for my Epson 2400 also claims the same caveats- color permanence and stability on premium Epson products. The big surprise is that Epson Ultrachrome K3 inks are stable, water resistant, and produce true colors on just about any good quality paper and canvas stock I have tested.
Which leads me to my final and most important reason:
4. The Elegance Velvet Fine Art Paper and Lyve Canvas from BreathingColor.com. Order a trial quatity of any of their products and they will include a sample of their papers and canvas. The richness and depth of the colors are breathtaking.
So, I bid my HP 9180 a civil adieu. I can't say I will miss it much because I haven't used it much after having thrown out over $200 worth of inks in January of this year.
Howdy!
I have to agree with Sara. I’m in a love/hate relationship with my B9180. When it works, I love the quality of the prints. When it doesn’t (which is <75% of the time) I hate the damn thing. I, too, am on my 3rd B9180. Throughout the 6 years I have been using them, they have been problematic. HP Customer service has been worthless. NO ONE in Bombay or Sri Lanka understands this printer but they'll happily sell me another latest & greatest. I have fought faulty heads, faulty firmware, faulty software, wasted ink, overflowing ink cups (NED), discontinuance, stubbornness, and capriciousness. I have bought new print heads, a CISS system, additional ink along with reams of paper. I've babied it, cussed at it, loved it and fed it and I can NEVER depend on it when I need it. Bottom line is I believe HP sold us a bill of goods attached to a boat anchor. If a firm offered a class action suit over this printer, I'd be one of the first in line to sign up! I have made it my personal pledge to never again allow another HP product into my home or business.
I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that it is impossible to own and maintain a printer capable of making multiple color enlargements (11×17 and greater) in the home or office. As much as I hate it, I'm going to have to use dedicated local or web based photo printers. When I ran a color darkroom in my basement back in the 70's & 80's, I didn't have as much problem making prints as I have had with inkjet printers. This situation is very frustrating.
That's how I feel and I'm sticking with it!
i loathe my B9180! same problem with inks – all expired, while I took off from photography to take care of my sick father. returned to photography to find all inks expired – although cartridges barely used. i cannot print. must spend…$42 x 8 just to get a print – and the cartridges are not empty.
loathe it. hopefully will sell it asap and will not buy HP again. that expiration date on the ink is a real con.
I purchased my HP B9180 to replace the Epson 2200. The Epson clogged all of the time, and I often had troble getting it to print right after I had replaced a cart. I had to have my first HP B9180 replaced under warranty. When I did, they sold me an extended contract and sent out a replacement that arrived the following morning. I have had this for a few years, ever since they came out. Yes it does use ink, but it has never clogged. I can change out a cart in mid print and it looks great. After my last Epson, (third one I had owned, and they all clogged) the HP thrilled and still thrills me with the way it prints.
Now does anyone know if they are having a replacement coming out? I thought I would check and see what was out there, and found that the B9180 wasn’t available from HP anymore. I see that you can still find a few, but I hope that HP is going to replace it with a newer machine. I still don’t want to buy an Epson.
i have to agree with everything you say- including the incredible HP customer service and the Epson tendency to clog after sitting idle for a while.
i wonder too what the replacement for HP will be and i’ll keep an eye for any press releases and update the post…
hopefully they will get savvy to how much it sucks to find out your ink is passed the sell by date after you have rendered it un-returnable by opening the package.
aww, that feels bad,I also have Lexmark printers and they also says the same thing too you know.
Nowadays you cant really budget things when you need them because of crazy policie. so have you decided what printer to use after saying bye bye to Hp?
p.s. well I think you had a better deal with your printer cause I remember last time when had a problem with my lexmark printer, took me almost two weeks to get e new replacement
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