this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2023
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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.

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[–] tony@lemmy.hoyle.me.uk 147 points 1 year ago (1 children)

HP haven't always been this bad, but they are this bad now, and nobody should be giving them money.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] macrocephalic@lemmy.world 104 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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.

[–] Sanity_in_Moderation@lemmy.world 62 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Rule 4. If you absolutely need to, buy a Brother.

[–] T4V0@lemmy.pt 32 points 1 year ago

*Brother laser printer.

[–] abhibeckert@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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.

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[–] frezik@midwest.social 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] Reygle@lemmy.world 55 points 1 year ago (12 children)

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.

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[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 53 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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".

[–] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

HP pretty much pioneered enshittification

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 51 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] seaQueue@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (5 children)

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.

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[–] art@lemmy.world 41 points 1 year ago (9 children)
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[–] Pxtl@lemmy.ca 40 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

For well over 20 years, yes.

HP practically invented the concept of "destroy the brand name of your high end professional equipment with the worst consumer garbage ever." Their inkjets are infamous

They were early pioneers in the art of enshittification.

[–] EchoCranium@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In the 80s and 90s HP printers were great. They just worked, even in rough dirty manufacturing environments. You could just about drop kick one, and it would still print out a page for you. Now they're crap. The investment firm that owns the brand is past beating the dead horse, now trying to squeeze every last dollar out of the carcas.

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[–] WindowsEnjoyer@sh.itjust.works 39 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

HP doesn't stand for "Huge Pain". It stands for:

  • H - Fuck
  • P - You

That's the unofficial moto of the HP company - "Fuck you!".

Seriously, anyone who still buys HP products, they disrespect themselves.

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[–] MeanEYE@lemmy.world 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

HP use to be good and reliable. Then it all went to hell for some reason. These days just buy that one Brother laser printer everyone has and you are good to go.

[–] timtoon@kbin.social 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That is some glorious DGAF reporting by The Verge there

[–] MeanEYE@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Yup. And to be honest, I understand the sentiment.

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[–] coffeebiscuit@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago

No, but they worked hard for it.

[–] Number1SummerJam@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Big printer companies need to be regulated better by the FTC. The whole cartridge issue is a waste of resources and costs a lot more than it costs to produce.

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[–] fr_mg@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Once upon a time there was a company called Hewllet-Packard that made the best programmable calculators, vendors made the best demonstration: hitting the calc against the floor, picked up the pieces, assembled it and it worked again! (almost beat Texas Instrument). The same for printers, pcs, laptops, good mainframes (i learned fortran in a hp3000), almost any Hewlet-Packard electronic product was among the best. In 90s became HP, since then everything they made is a shame.

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[–] dinckelman@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I will never buy a home printer at this point, especially not from HP. It's significantly cheaper and more convenient for me to go to a printing center next-door and get everything done for pennies.

If somehow I had to start printing things in mass quantities, the only option I would consider is something like the Epson EcoTank. You can clearly see how much ink is left, and you can refill it yourself too. They can't randomly just tell you that your cartridges are faulty, brick your device, or ship you a cartridge that has less than 5ml of liquid inside, but one that costs upwards of 50$ a piece

[–] Kerrangutan@lemmy.one 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

EcoTank printers don't seem to give a shit what ink you put in them as long as its liquid and preferably the right colour

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[–] Whattrees@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 1 year ago

HP sucks donkey balls. Printer, computer, laptop, all-in-one, doesn't matter. Friends don't let friends by an HP.

That said, ET-2800 is an Epson brand printer, specifically the base-model "Eco-Tank" printer that uses bottles of ink instead of cartridges. HP makes a few under the "Super Tank" line. If that's the right model number, that might help explain driver issues if you have an Epson printer being controlled by HP drivers.

If you plan on keeping it, make sure to set a calendar reminder or set up a task to print at least one color page every month to keep the ink from drying out in the print head. If you decide to replace it, consider a brother laser, especially the black-and-white only models. They are tanks

[–] danielfalk@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

OK, I know this post is pretty anti-HP which is totally fair, but honestly just stop buying the cheap inkjet printers. I discovered ink tank printers and they are a game changer.

In all seriousness, you might want to try out the HP Smart Tank printers. Almost exactly 2 years ago I bought a HP Smart Tank 7000. It is awesome, and not at all like you describe.

I wanted to be done with junk printers for good, so I set out to buy a laser jet. I can't remember how I found out about these ink tank printers, but they have pretty much the same benefits of laser printers. They print reliably and quickly, the ink lasts forever, and is not only cheap to replace, but you can use 3rd party ink (sold by the bottle. No cartridge means no chip!). My wife is a teacher and prints stuff all the time, including in color. 3 kids use it for homework assignments. I literally refilled the tanks 4 days ago for the very first time. (And only 2 of the 4 tanks at that--black and yellow were down to about a quarter tank.)

I use Linux exclusively and the printer works in Ubuntu and Pop OS out of the box, and without having to install additional drivers or some proprietary app that runs in the tray all the time.

Only downside for me is that sometimes it will go to sleep and my computers don't see it and I have to go over and turn it on/off again. It's pretty rare, and I don't know if it's actually a printer issue as much as a Linux issue.

I liked the printer so much, I bought one for my Mom this year in May. She's got Windows, and I told her I'd come over and help her set it up some time because she is not at all good with computers. Turns out I didn't need to because she set it up herself! (I did help her with the Android app though later on).

I can't help but gush about this thing. Kind of dumb, I know, since in 2023 you'd think all printers should be able to work like this at a minimum.

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[–] Bdaman@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Just wait till you run into one of the HP printers that will not work until you sign up for the HP subscription service, and only use HP subscription ink cartridges, and only if it’s allowed to access the internet to report back that it’s printing. The subscription actually set the number of pages per month you are allowed to print, on the hardware you have them money for.

And it only works for a device with the HP app installed. Total garbage.

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[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Honestly, pretty much, yes. Their home printers have basically always been this bad. But then inkjets are universally bad anyway.

HP's Business class printers for offices and schools are actually pretty good, they make a decent laser printer and they make a decent copier. But their $50 home models have always been garbage.

As someone who ran a computer lab for years, my advice is this: Always always always buy a laser printer. And personally I've had only mixed success with all the major manufacturers HP/Lexmark/Canon. I always recommend Brother because they mostly market to offices and corporations, and nobody wants to upset corporate partners, so they're incentivized to actually make a good product.

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[–] systemguy_64@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

ET-2800, By HP

Uhh, you sure that's an HP? Do you have the wrong model?

The ET series are EcoTanks by Epson, (Shaq's Printer) HP almost always uses 4 numbers and sometimes a letter at the end for models. Or Mxxx for Laser

Don't get me wrong, HP = Horse Piss, but the shade should be thrown at who deserves it.

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[–] LinuxSBC@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I used to have an older HP LaserJet, which was really good. Their more recent printers just keep getting worse, and I feel like they're coasting on their reputation. Brother laser printers are what I've found to be the best modern printers.

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[–] SirEDCaLot@lemmy.fmhy.net 14 points 1 year ago (4 children)

IT person here. Avoiding HP is a good idea. But a better idea is don't buy shitty cheap consumer level inkjet printers from any brand. Most of them have this sort of bullshit, although not usually as bad as HP does. Instead I suggest buy it for life. Get a nice color laser machine, spend a few hundred bucks, and you will have a printer that lasts until you die. I like the Canon MF743CDw, it's a little on the pricier side but it scans both sides of the paper in one pass. Also does color duplex printing.

If you don't want the extra size or weight of a color laser, get a black and white laser. How often do you really need color? And if you must get something cheaper, get one of the newer inkjet printers that use refillable ink bottles rather than cartridges, like there is an actual ink tank on the printer and you refill it with a squeeze bottle rather than replacing the cartridge.

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[–] jo3shmoo@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's pretty much always been this way with the HP ones. Years ago when wireless printers were not the standard, we used to connect a printer to the family Windows PC and then share it on the network. We got a new one set it up, and the printer refused to be shared. Turns out HP had explicitly blocked network sharing in their Windows software driver for that printer. Never purchased another one since. Brother isn't perfect, but I have multiple 8+ year old Brother laser printers still in service right now and they "Just Work."

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[–] elxeno@lemm.ee 12 points 1 year ago

🌎👨‍🚀🔫👨‍🚀

[–] zquestz@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

Simple answer, ages ago there was a time when HP made okay printers. In the past decade or more, they have not. Stay away.

The bloatware and software stack is just abysmally bad.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It was fine before Carly Fiorina took over and brought in the 1980s MBA style of management (the same that killed or nearly killed quit a lot of household names).

Think of it as the first wave of enshittification, back in the 00s.

Ever since then, HP consumer-grade products have generally been pretty bad, especially (but not only) their printers.

Interestingly, the business-grade stuff was still pretty decent, but I'm not up to date on whether that is still the case.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 11 points 1 year ago

HP printers have been anti-consumer garbage for at least 10 years. Anyone who's buying one these days just isn't doing any research into the brand. They are THE example that gets brought up when people talk about this kind of shit.

[–] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

They were actually taken to court over their machines breaking down and disabling functions that were ok. For example, your cartridge head is broken, but you can't use the scanner either because the software shuts down all functions.

[–] Aloha_Alaska@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well yeah, I mean not always but for probably 20 years their laser printers have been terrible, and their inkjets have been not consumer friendly for even longer than that.

For instance, I once had an HP color laser printer that was designed in a way that toner dust would build up on the prism and mirror, causing streaks and splotches to be printed on the page. The official recommendation was to buy a new printer, and the local repair shop said is it even though it’s a known issue and they’re capable of fixing it, getting it apart and putting all the pieces back together is such a time consuming hassle that it would be just as cheap to buy a new one. A $300 color laser printer. If I did it successfully, I would need to do it again in a year or two anyway. I now have a Brother; it’s black and white only but has been rock solid.

I did see on The Other Site a discussion from a year or two ago that Brother isn’t so great anymore, but the consensus seemed to be that they’re still better than anything other than maybe those Epson printers with the ink reservoirs.

I remember that my high school, college, and first couple of jobs had amazing HP laser printers, but sadly those days are gone and the company is a shell of what it used to be. I would not buy an HP printer at this point.

Sorry for your suffering but welcome to the club.

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[–] Grass@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Inkjet has been garbage since day one. Get a brother laser, use Noname toner from your local ink shop, be happy and never tinker with a paper printer again.

Eventually 2d printing with a 3d printer will be better than inkjets. Except not really. I'm kinda surprised I haven't heard of any open source paper printers.

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[–] ccunix@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Laserjets up until generation 5 were amazing. There are laserjet 4s still trucking away churning out pages. I personally had a LaserJet 4MP that I sold when I got married due to its extremely low wife acceptance factor (it was huge, loud and ugly. We both regret that decision because 20 years later it would probably still be working.

Basically, what Brother lasers are now is what HP laserjets used to be up until ~2004. We can debate the exact switchover year ad nauseum, but you get the idea.

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[–] fubo@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

The HP LaserJet 4MP was pretty decent, but that came out in 1993.

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago

HP's inkjets have always been cantankerous, but the business printers they made in the late 90s were tanks.

[–] RanchOnPancakes@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes. Ever since we left behind parallel ports and drivers that could fit on a single floppy.

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