HP Photosmart 309g-m ink usage, etc.

[2L84me]

I purchased this all-in-one from NewEgg.com in January 2010 for $119 on sale. I was thrilled because I was looking forward to owning an HP printer. I used to have an old dot-matrix and loved it. I was replacing a Lexmark X5150 which had served well for five years, but was giving me problems feeding paper, especially envelopes. Also, I thought the ink for the Lexmark was expensive. I was replacing cartridges on the Lexmark about every 3 mos. at a cost of $78.

Since buying the HP Photosmart 309g-m all-in-one in January 2010, basically less than 3 mos. ago, I have spent $178.50 on ink as of April 22, 2010.  Yes ... One hundred, seventy-eight dollars. I have replaced all color cartridges three times since January and they now need replacing a fourth time. I have also replaced the black cartridge three times and the photo black once, although I have printed a maximum of four 4 x 6 photos -- only those printed as a test when I first installed the printer.

I do not print extensively every day. The printer is for home use, almost exclusively printing occasional greeting cards, five 8.5 x 11.0 pages per week of 5.5 x 3.5 postcards using Microsoft Publisher 2002 (4 per 8.5 x 11.0 page, not using all the page space), greeting card envelopes, or other relatively small projects such as two 8.5 x 11.0 pages per week of 3.5 x 2.0 business-size cards with color images (10 cards per page) for a children's Sunday School class.  

I have kept a record on my computer. Since last replacing all color cartridges, black cartridge, and photo black cartridge between 3/31/10 and 4/10/10 -- a MAXIMUM of 22 days, I have printed 112 documents, some of which were entirely black text, and some of which were 4.375 x 5.75 envelopes (i.e., small). That averages to approximately 5 documents per day, although, as said, I do not print every day. NO PHOTOS, and several documents in black text only or small envelopes.  

The point of this post is not to ask a question -- unless it is how does HP get away with making and selling such an blatantly avaricious product. The point is to warn others and to vent my EXTREME anger and frustration. This all-in-one is a total rip off.

I have read other posts on this forum from those who have similar ink usage issues, and not just with the 309g. If it were possible, I would post every where on the web to warn people about these HP products. I personally think it is abominable that they are allowed to produce this kind of product when they KNOW they will rake in a fortune on printer ink.

Do not be misled by the sales pitch that individual color cartridges are a bonus. All color cartridges run low within days of each other and nothing color can be printed if one of them is too low. In addition, it is not possible to determine which low cartridge is responsible for the inaccurate colors on the printed page. Recently the color on a project printed streaked and it required replacing the black cartridge to cause the color to print correctly. I have had similar experience with needing to replace a magenta cartridge in order to correctly print a project where most color in the image was green, yellow, or blue. And, it is not necessary to inform me that the cartridge colors must mix to produce the exact color. That is not the point. The point is it is misleading to advertise that it is a helpful feature to be able to replace only the colors needed when that fact is useless practically speaking.  

There have also been other issues with the 309g-m. The learning curve was extreme, and I am not a novice. The software is limited. It is necessary to create a new paper size under custom sizes for every project that involves something other than the preset sizes HP has decided "most people" want, and that includes something as simple as a half-sheet of 8.5 x 11.0 paper. It is not possible to print two-sided projects correctly if the project is a 4.25 x 5.5 booklet (half an 8.5 x 11.0 page greeting card format to avoid "quarter folding") produced in Microsoft Publisher 2002, because HP's software arbitrarily decides the user needs certain margins to allow for binding. Thus it is not possible to customize the software to individual creativity. As a matter of fact, if one changes paper size to 8.5 x 5.5 and the format to booklet in Publisher, HP's printer software will not even allow two sided printing.

The scanner bed is slightly raised so that scanning a page from a large book, or a portion of a large sheet does not produce a clear image because the original cannot be placed flat on the scanner bed.  Scanner resolutions had to be modified to prevent grainy or speckled image results. The scan to computer option on the LED screen does not work unless one has the HP Solution Center enabled on startup (or takes the time to start it before attempting a scan).  

I have read HP's article about ink usage and find that they have designed this equipment to USE INK.  Between every document printed, if you choose to print only one copy, the printer "adjusts" itself, using ink. Every time it is turned on, it "adjusts" itself, using ink. Every time it has set idle, even though on, for a period of 5 min. or so, it "adjusts" itself, using ink. And it was designed this way ... not, as HP asserts, the provide superior printing, but, rather, to provide superior bottom lines for HP from ink sales.  

It is a travesty that HP is allowed to do this.

This may never be posted, but I hope it is, and I hope people read it, and I hope others do not get stuck with $119 all-in-ones that cost $178 in ink within the first three months to print color documents, no matter how small or how infrequently. I can't imagine what I would do if I were trying to use this for a business! As soon as I am able to afford it, I will ditch this piece of equipment and buy something else. And HP can be assured I will not stop talking about it for a LONG time.

[dchow007]

I agree with 2L84me. I also bought the HP 'touchscreen' printer thinking I was buying a great product. Totally wrong. The printer has been in use 3 weeks. It took a little time for the setup and each time you turn the printer on and off, it goes through a process of aligning the heads. Well after 30 pages it is now showing out of ink. The other colors are also 1/3 to 1/2 empty. I only printed out 8.5 x 11 documents that it 10-20% coverage. Not one pictures and no big graphics. I won't even bother putting one replacement cartridge. Time to replace it with a Lexmark that will more than 30 pages to a ink cartridge!!!!

[johge]

                  I have had this piece of @#$!!! for about 6 months. I got it because of the duplex printing and it filled the family needs. First thing was the wonderful driver install failed at the last screen, after it had detected the printer (wired) with a reserved IP address. OK so I give it another try and it fails again. I fiddled with it for about 2 days and gave up and manually installed the printer from th "Printers and Faxes " on the Windows XP Start button. It prints and I left it there for about 6 months. Oh! almost forgot the wired connection would go to sleep and it would not wake up unless I turned it off and on. I never did use the USB connection. Yes it sucks not only just sucks but sucks the ink dry in a paultry few pages. This thing has been a pain in the butt from day one. So recently my daughter wanted to scan some doc's and she complained that she couldn't get it to work. I had recently switched to the wireless connection and killed the wired one. It worked well and printing has been good with the exception of the buckets of INK. Which I just replaced after less than 200 pages on the last cartridge refill. Bought refurbished, still they werer $40. Come to find out The drivers necessary for scans to get to the desktop are actually in the "complete" monster driver package that would never install.The printer asks for the location you wish to scan to so I went with USB port and use a thumb drive. So scanning works it just can't see the desktop and that is what the monster drive package has..... the twain driver for the desktop.

               So I go to HP get the latest Photosmart premium 309g driver  and try again, "boom" , failed. Called HP the tech logged into my computer tryed 4 times and failed. He abruptly announced that it was my router and pretty much said "goodbye". Printing uses port 9100 with no settings or ACL's to open ports. The little toy Netgear router just ain't that cool as to require ports behind the gateway to be opened. This all means that HP has got some bad people writing drivers and some other not so smart folks supporting them.  Now I spent over 2 hours on my cell with this joker and got dumped.

Soooooooo I will not be buying any more HP printers and I will try to get rid of this little toad. I recently retired from a 30 career in the IT business. Tech, Manager, Network engineer and back a few years I was responsible for either recommending and or authorizing equipment types, vendor and model. Printers were 90% HP and with no complaint. They were workhorses. This just is not true any more. HP has slipped steadily down the into the ditch especially with their "everyman" models. I have been planning to buy a GICLEE quality printer as a tool for a phtogaphy hobby I have recently become addicted to. I have just crossed HP off as a candidate. I will be sure and communicate to the fair number of other phtography nuts, digital photography nuts,  to avoid HP printers and look at Epson, Canon and possibly Kodak. Cheers

[iraplowman]

Also bought the 309g, but it was cheap only $69 dollars.  I do not like the fact that there is hardly any software--I had HP 940C and a photosmart 385, and both had great software for printing pictures.  309g is the worst unit I have ever purchased.  I had contacted hp support because of color problems (must be out-sourced) and they were no help so I used PICASA 3 to adjust colors to get a decent print.    I am going to refill the cartridges myself instead of paying HP's outrages prices on the ink.  Anyone know who provides the best replacement inks?

[Anonymous]

I'm seeing a lot of comments posted on the 309g's ink use, but your experience seems most like my own.  I ran into another 309g owner at an Office Depot and that individual reported the same sort of results.  My question is this:  at what elevation is the town in which you live?  I (and the person I met) live at about 7500 feet and the 564 cartridges act as though the ink is is actually evaporating.

Thanks

[MacRam]

I have had the same problem with my HP Photosmart 564.

I bought this multifunctional to replace an Epson one. I've always used HP and I was not enjoying using that Epson.

Bad move!

This equipment cost about US$ 450 in my **bleep**ing country named Brazil, the country of taxes!

I've been experiencing the same problems with the ink cartridges. They are over within 2 months and I rarely use the printer function. What scared me most was the fact that a could see the bars of the ink level droping about 10% after a put a new one color cartridge and printed a single monocromatic sheet of paper! How is this possible?

HP created a gold mine with this printer and their propaganda of "use original produts".

I can even find cartridges of 6mL in my country. I cannot import those cartridges and I can only buy the 3mL version, that It was not available at many stores in january, 2011.

It seems that HP Brazil had problems with their containers.

Well, I will complain here, at HP Brazil, at public sites of complainments until I get a answer from HP.

I've always liked HP Products, but after this horrible printer, I will certainly buy products of others...

[dstardavis]

Which printer do you reccommend.