So my mother recently bought an ET-2800, By HP we had an HP printer before and we got a new one because the old one would not work with my sister’s Windows 11 Laptop. So I had to set it up for my mother, the manual said you can use it without the app. But there was no way to physically do that. Anyway, I downloaded the app on my phone (android) and the app would not connect to the printer. So I used my mother’s iPhone and it would connect. The setup process was stupid proof. And after I got it all full of ink, it was very painless. However, this is where the H in HP should stand for HELL. Because a few months go by and my sister and my mother need some papers printed. No problem. I thought to myself, so my sister tried to print it wirelessly. Couldn’t find the printer, I said ok maybe it’s a dumb driver, USB didn’t work either. I asked my sister to send it to me, so I can print it on my w540 running rocky 9. Rocky picked up that I needed drivers and installed them. Wireless didn’t work but wired showed up, I thought sweet I can just print the paper and get back to what I was doing. However, when I clicked print, the printer would grab the paper and run it though but not put ink on the paper. My mother asks me to forward the email to her to try to print it on her phone. I send it, and it prints, and the paper come out how it should with ink and the paper is finally printed.
After this experience with this printer, it makes me rather aggravated at this purchase, and no longer want to buy from HP. I have looked at Brother printers and there are no Proprietary ink cartage, and or laser printers. I purely wanted to talk about my experience with HP printers and would like to know what others have for a printer for recommendations, for when eventually HP kills support and makes it a paper weight, I’ve read many negative experiences with HP printer, specially from Lois Ross man and their anti consumer products.
HP haven’t always been this bad, but they are this bad now, and nobody should be giving them money.
Carly Fiorina destroyed HP. She tanked product quality by using cheap plastic parts instead of metal and she can’t manage people. She’s a terrible leader and on a personal level she’s just not right in the head, as she embraces trumpism, is racist, elitist, etc.
I beg to differ.
The old LaserJet 4s, 5s, the IIs and IIIs, the 8000 series, all those were great, well built printers with metal frames and heavy duty parts. They were made to last.
We still have a LaserJet 5M that prints reports hooked up to an airgapped Linux server. The printer never breaks down or needs anything more than toner. Yes, it’s slow. Amusingly slow. The page count is over 250k. The fuser is starting to ghost but it’s easily replaced. We just don’t care enough to do it right now. The printer doesn’t care.
Try this with any printer built after the Fiorina era and you’d be hard pressed to.
I’m all ears if you have a specific model in mind that was shit before Carly. Because, before her, HP was an industry leader. Now it’s cheap plastic junk, and it’s squarely on her failure as CEO that led to the company’s demise.
She’s also the only person to lose in the same presidential primary twice!
She lost as a candidate, and then after she conceded, lost again as Ted Cruz’s VP candidate.
I can’t believe the GOP actually pushed her as having “business experience” in her Senate run. She’s often cited as one of the worst CEOs ever. She made HP into another race to the bottom shit company, and it has yet to recover.
HP was the gold standard back in the day. Money says you can still buy kits and toner for IIIs, IVs, and Vs.
Work gave me a tiny HP laser when we did a refresh, and it’s a damned beast. Probably 12-yo, thousands and thousands of pages, never a glitch or jam. Toner cartridges are $18 and last forever.
Rule 1: don’t buy an HP printer
Rule 2: don’t buy an inkjet printer
Rule 3: don’t buy a printer unless you absolutely need to.
This. Every brother laser printer I’ve ever used (both in my own home and at work) has been reliable and never failed aside from the occasional cartridge change/etc. And even those were proceeded by a dismissible software warning or just caused mild artefacts on the print out. You can still print even when they need maintenance.
Brother inkjet really aren’t better than HP. I have one and the scanner doesn’t work if the ink is out. And it reports no ink waaaay too early. I can trick it into printing longer and almost double the life of the cartridges.
Maybe brother laser jet is better? I’m sure hp laser is too though
There are good reasons to buy an inkjet. Just not any under $150. Photographers don’t touch lasers, but their inkjets might have 11 ink cartridges.
Rule 3 should be considered more often, though. For what you’re paying for the convenience of printing at home, you can buy a lot of printed pages at FedEx.
I 100% agree with this. Sadly, rule #3 applies to me (my job involves dealing with banks and lawyers).
I have had two HP inkjet printers which were unmitigated dogshit. Money-grabbing, thrown together pieces of shit. You get more types of jams than at a craft jam shop.
Five years ago, moved to a Brother laser printer. Little difference in purchase cost. AND IT NEVER FAILS.
I’m now on my second (dropped first one downstairs when moving house) and it is just as reliable.
Each to their own, but for me: Brother Laser Printer every time.
15 years ago HP was among the best in the business. They made workhorse products that did millions of pages (and those old models continue to)
Today HP is a malware and telemetry company who won’t let the average consumer use their printer without a logged-in HP account slurping telemetry about every aspect of their lives. Any consumer who buys a printer with the letter “e” in the model number is paying money to be spied on. Anyone who buys a non-“e” model is still doing so, but in a less VISUALLY obvious, and obnoxious way.
This is not random assumption. I’m a tech. Anyone who buys an HP Printer today and asks me to install them gets a fast education on why they shouldn’t cut the packing tape on that box.
Buy Brother.
15 years ago is almost 2009 now. I remember HP being shit back then already so maybe add another 10 years to that 15.
I was looking to buy an ET. Then I learned about the sponge. While you’re free to refill the ink at little cost there’s also a sponge that cleans the heads or soaks up excess ink. I have forgotten the purpose, but it’s a 2 dollars sponge, you can easily get something like it and replace it. But the printer won’t reset the counter for the sponge. Unless you want to download sketchy stuff off of a Belarusian website, your only option is to ship the printer to Epson and pay them for the trouble.
That maneuver is about the same price as a new ecotank.
Since writing the above I did some late-night googling, and it seems that Epson US has caught enough flack for this, and now offers a one time key for a reset utility https://epson.com/support/epson-ink-pads-reset-utility-faqs.
If I buy a printer it’ll be a brother laser, or a professional inkjet… And I don’t see the latter happening.
They look like good machines if you are printing a lot and need an inkjet (like for photo printing)
If you are only using a printer occasionally for letters or shipping labels, laser printers are probably a better option. Sure, they need more space, but they cant dry out and dont require cleaning programs.
Yeah, I have a network attached brother black and white printer. It’s pretty great. It handles 98 percent of my printing workload, no fuss, I honestly don’t remember the last time I changed any toner. Has a scanner on top that works if I need it.
If I want something big/nice and in full color I can always go down to the print shop. But for your common printing it’s great.
Yeah, HP are terrible now.
They weren’t always this bad, I had a laserjet 4000 that was made around the turn of the century and it “just worked”.
weren’t a
Average Cory Doctorow enjoy-er
Very Based
–edit i accidentally quoted “weren’t a” i enjoy his books, i now realize it looked like i was mocking him. that was not my intent :P
I still have a LaserJet 2200 and it will be pried from my cold dead hands. The plastic has gone brittle on some spots of it, and the front manual feed cover has long broken but it still dutifully works.
There’s always a post where someone’s asking if HP printers are really as bad as they seem.
Yes. Yes they are. Spread the word. Friends don’t let friends buy an HP printer.
Brother has always been my go-to. I’ve owned exactly two. One I bought in 2009 and one I bought 3-4y ago. They’re basically zero hassle.
