4 ms·

The Deskjet 500 was a tank. Built to industrial standards, like all HP gear of the time. Later, their printers became flimsy, driven by marketing whims not eng

by chiph 3y ago

The Deskjet 500 was a tank. Built to industrial standards, like all HP gear of the time. Later, their printers became flimsy, driven by marketing whims not engineering. I gave up on them when I looked at the small mountain of dried ink that was inside from the constant cleaning cycles, and realized that it represented more money than I had spent on the entire printer.

WWLink 3y ago
I had two problems with mine: First off, it used the same crappy "vacuum sealed" cartridge with the built-in print head that cost like $60 when Canon and Epson were selling separate ink tank vs print head units. I replaced it with a canon, where I could hold the ink tank upside down and squeeze more ink into it with a really cheap refill kit lol. The HP required you to drill a hole in the cartridge and then use a plug to seal it (which often leaked). HP's inkjet printhead also makes a distinct annoying sucking air sound. Nobody else's inkjet does that. I don't even like their plotters for the same reason lol. The second reason was the rollers were made out of cheap rubber and my dj500 seemed to rather often need attention. Dude I have a 13 year old canon where I've never cleaned the rollers, never replaced the print head (maybe once? I forgot), and I have always used cheap generic ink from amazon in it. I've probably spent less than $100 on ink the entire time I've owned the machine. Sadly, newer Canons don't seem to be that good. I 'replaced' mine with a new one that I got free with a laptop, and it died after a year lol. Like, totally dead. Anyway, I stand with the Brother laser printer crowd lol. It seems like you either are small enough on printing that you can get by with a Brother... or you're big enough that you rent a Konica or a Minlota or a Xerox or whatever from some company that does all the maintenance for you. Outside of the inkjet printers, I understand the reverence for oldschool HP gear. Their power supplies and scopes were awesome. Still nice to use keysight gear.

by chiph 3y ago

WWLink 3y ago

I had two problems with mine: First off, it used the same crappy "vacuum sealed" cartridge with the built-in print head that cost like $60 when Canon and Epson were selling separate ink tank vs print head units. I replaced it with a canon, where I could hold the ink tank upside down and squeeze more ink into it with a really cheap refill kit lol. The HP required you to drill a hole in the cartridge and then use a plug to seal it (which often leaked). HP's inkjet printhead also makes a distinct annoying sucking air sound. Nobody else's inkjet does that. I don't even like their plotters for the same reason lol. The second reason was the rollers were made out of cheap rubber and my dj500 seemed to rather often need attention. Dude I have a 13 year old canon where I've never cleaned the rollers, never replaced the print head (maybe once? I forgot), and I have always used cheap generic ink from amazon in it. I've probably spent less than $100 on ink the entire time I've owned the machine. Sadly, newer Canons don't seem to be that good. I 'replaced' mine with a new one that I got free with a laptop, and it died after a year lol. Like, totally dead. Anyway, I stand with the Brother laser printer crowd lol. It seems like you either are small enough on printing that you can get by with a Brother... or you're big enough that you rent a Konica or a Minlota or a Xerox or whatever from some company that does all the maintenance for you. Outside of the inkjet printers, I understand the reverence for oldschool HP gear. Their power supplies and scopes were awesome. Still nice to use keysight gear.