ink consumption for photosmart premium C309a

[Jim72]

If potential HP C309a customers would read this forum, HP would lose 90% of their sales from the get go and HP would be forced to come up with a real solution to this ink gobbler.  The C309a uses all the color cartridges on common black printing.  Try printing only in black and you will see all the cartridges being used.  I have bought my last HP printer.  Your printer must be set to the highest resolution and thinks it is printing photos.  Change your setting to everyday printing and it will start using from the other black XL cartridge or you have a printer with defective software.  If I'm wrong, someone else with step in and correct me.

[dontubelieveit]

You are 100% correct Jim - on all counts.  I love the quality of the photos that the c309a prints - but very frustrated with the problem of how it uses the ink.  It is my very first HP printer and I would really have to consider carefully before buying another.  This printer does not live up to the count HP says you will get out of the cartridge and i mean nowhere close to what they say.  I bought this when it first came out - but if I had seen the reviews that are on this board since - I would not have even considered this printer.

[Felicitous]

The 309a is particularly bad regardless of using:

1. Starter Cartridges

2. Normal capacity

3. XL capactiy (the cost of which is excessive)

Full set of XL cartridges = circa £85 from HP site.

SOLUTION:

I have now stopped using it and bought a Kodak (why didnt I do this before) equal quality, good consumption, cheaper cartridges. FULL SET of cartridges (which lasted longer) £19.99  ;o)

Likelihood of buying another HP Inkjet anytime soon .....................................................guess !

SO instead of increasing their revenue from me they have stopped it dead ------ great marketting idea HP !!!

[jaimenm]

Incredible silence from HP.

[Bob_Headrick]

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jaimenm wrote:

Incredible silence from HP.

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This is a peer to peer support forum, users helping users.  If you want a response from HP you will need to Contact HP.

[wastedsunsets]

I have soved my problem !!! I gave away the 309a to some one else and am now happily using a Canon MX 870, I will never use a HP printer again 

[Willieh811]

I am also very angry about this issue. I have a game store and we have to print game covers which takes about 60% of a page. I purchased a complete brand new ink cartridge last week and kept track of how many game covers we printed. We were suspecting that the printer was not printing that many pages as we have replaced the cartridges over 30 times in the past 5 months. To my surprise we were able to print only 12 game cover pages in color. This is a far cry from the 300 pages that HP claim the printer can print. On top of that, I tried to use remanufactured cartridges and the printer will not accept them. I then tried to refill a set of HP cartriges and I found out that the printer keeps track of the last two sets of cartridges and if you refill them it will not accept them displaying the ink cartridges as empty. 

I cannot afford this printer and I feel that it is a lie that the ink cartridges, even the color cartridges, claim you can print 300 pages in color. Perhaps only 4x4 pictures and based on the result we are getting, I will bet $1000 with HP that you are lucky if you can print 50 4x4 pictures. 

I have always bought HP printers becuase they were a good value. The HP Photosmart Premium are horrible, they are not economical and HP is overstating the printing capacity of the cartridges. If other people are having the same problem, please, contact me at [Personal Information Removed]. [Legal Discussion Removed] In addition, it looks like HP keeps a tight control on the prices of their cartridges as the price veriance is less than $2  between vendors. Which tells me they have control over the price of the ink cartridges to avoid price competition.

HP is too greedy and is not truthful on their advertising.

[filgrastin]

I recently had a problem with my HP 309a because I purchased a cartridge that was defective.  When I took the cartridge back to the store they very gladly gave me a replacement cartridge which I replaced but the printer was still not responding.  I removed all of the ink cartridges and removed the cartridge holder and put the cartridge holder in alcohol and needless to say the alcohol became black in a few minutes.  I continued to empty the alcohol and replace it until it was almost clear and then I rinsed the cartridge holder in lukewarm water until the water was clear.  I waited for the cartridge holder to become completely dry and shook it gently until there was no trace of water.  All in all this took several hours because I wanted to make sure there was no water in the cartridge holder.  I replaced the cartridge holder and replaced the ink cartridges and held my breath while the printer went through all sorts of noisy motions.  Finally the noise stopped and I did all of the tests using the set-up button.  Everything checked okay, even the fax feature that had stopped working when I put the defective cartridge in the printer.  I must say that I did this without knowing if my printer would work or not but I felt that I had nothing to lose and had resolved myself to purchase a new printer.  A week has passed, I have used my printer on a daily basis, faxes arrive and I am able to send them without any problems.  Where did I learn how to do this?  I received several suggestions from the HP forum and then I went to the Internet and  received several suggestions, I combined them and it worked. 

[Bob_Headrick]

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filgrastin wrote:

I recently had a problem with my HP 309a because I purchased a cartridge that was defective.  When I took the cartridge back to the store they very gladly gave me a replacement cartridge which I replaced but the printer was still not responding.  I removed all of the ink cartridges and removed the cartridge holder and put the cartridge holder in alcohol and needless to say the alcohol became black in a few minutes.  I continued to empty the alcohol and replace it until it was almost clear and then I rinsed the cartridge holder in lukewarm water until the water was clear.  I waited for the cartridge holder to become completely dry and shook it gently until there was no trace of water.  [snip]

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You were lucky, but I would not suggest this method for anyone else.  First, alcohol may damage the printhead which could require a replacement.  Shaking the printhead after soaking it in water is also not a good idea, as this can allow air to become trapped in the printhead.   I have seen other suggest blowing on the printhead with compressed air or a hair dryer, these are also prone to cause damage to the printhead.

For those with black not printing after replaceing a printhead I would suggest the post here.