ink consumption for photosmart premium C309a [ Edited ]

[aimeeduff]

I actually work in the industry, so if anyone is interested on looking at other options please give me a call on  

[text removed for privacy] I am based in perth and Just ask for Aimee

[rhowald]

This printer is nice... But the ink usage is outrageous. 26 pages and it is telling me that the ink is low. I guess the premium in the name is a premium for HP.

As someone who has bought computer and printers from HP before I will not buy their products going forward.

[rookwood]

Between Obama and keeping this printer in ink, I ain't gots no monies left!

[Mr_Dudley]

Bob, when I purchased my unit I too was informed that the ink cartridges were only introductory and not standard e.g. just to get me enough time to get back to the shop to buy the fuller cartridges.  As stated previously, it wasn't long before I did have to replace all the cartridges.  All has worked well till just recently where the black stopped working.  I checked the levels and all is well there including the larger black cartridge.  No change.  I then did a deep print-head clean and still no result.  The unit is approximately 2.5 months old and has done precious little work as I have a HP Laserjet 400N to do my non-colour printing.

What can I do from here as I am sure I shouldn't need to replace the printhead this soon?

[Bob_Headrick]

---

Mr_Dudley wrote:

Bob, when I purchased my unit I too was informed that the ink cartridges were only introductory and not standard e.g. just to get me enough time to get back to the shop to buy the fuller cartridges.  As stated previously, it wasn't long before I did have to replace all the cartridges.  All has worked well till just recently where the black stopped working.  I checked the levels and all is well there including the larger black cartridge.  No change.  I then did a deep print-head clean and still no result.  The unit is approximately 2.5 months old and has done precious little work as I have a HP Laserjet 400N to do my non-colour printing.

What can I do from here as I am sure I shouldn't need to replace the printhead this soon?

---

What country are you in?  A relatively new printer should be under warranty, I would suggest you contact HP for warranty service.  

I do not believe there are any small "starter" cartridges.  My unit came with standard cartridges, but the first set gets about 20% less pages due to the ink used for the initial priming of the system.  The standard cartridges are not very large, I use the XL cartridges to avoid having to replace cartridges frequently.

[wastedsunsets]

wish I had found this thread before I wasted my money on this expensive piece of crap !!!!! Will never use HP again 

[edwardoplunkett]

I was able to get 46 pages out of my machine in the first 30 days or so. Then I received an ink failure message. I reported this to HP support today and received the following response:

Dear Edward,

Thank you for contacting HP Customer Care.

I gather from your mail that your HP Photosmart Premium All-in-one Printer-C309g is displaying ink failure error message after printing around 46 pages. I see that the cartridges in the printer are the introductory cartridges.

Edward, I realize the importance of the issue and will make sure that I give you appropriate information.

I am glad to assist you and work to best of abilities towards fixing this issue.

Causes:

• Introductory ink cartridges.

Solution:

As you are aware that, the ink cartridges that come along with the printer are called introductory print cartridges; introductory print cartridges carry special ink formulations required for printer initialization. During initialization, inks in the introductory cartridges mix with inks in the printer to create a normal ink formulation. After initialization of the ink, the printer will print couple of Alignment sheets. Since you were able to print 46 pages using only the introductory ink cartridges, it has proved its functionality to its maximum. After the introductory print cartridges are empty, you will need to replace it with the new set of ink cartridges.

We look forward to hear from you.

If you need further assistance, please reply to this message and we will be happy to assist you further.

For information on keeping your HP and Compaq products up and running, please visit our website at: http://www.hp.co.uk/diagnostics 

Sincerely,

Sophia
HP Customer Care *** Do Not Delete Serviceticket ***
{ticketno:[8044526373]}
*** Do Not Delete Serviceticket *** 
I am going to try and blow this thing wide open. There must be hundreds of thousands of reasonable people that expected their ink cartridges to print more than 50 pages. I am awaiting HP's further response to this issue. My 11 year old son just came home from school. I just told him this story - He says major rip off Dad.  Hmmmm 
E

[amieg]

I too got suckered into buying the c309a. last July.  This past summer we went through cartridges faster than my other photo printer, but recently we have been going through all the cartridges every 2 weeks.  we are only printing in black and white, single sided photo paper.

Does anyone know how much ink is really in the cartridges, the regular and XL.

It sounds to me that hp has misrepresented the number of pages per cartridges and might be responsible for their misrepresentation.  I would think they have to use the same standard when stating how many pages you get for all of their cartridges. 

I don't know much about the printing process.  Do the C309A cartridges have less ink, are they putting the ink on thicker, or is the cartridge not really empty. 

thanks

amie

[dontubelieveit]

The printer is a vampire with ink.....and  even though you are printing color pictures, it is drawing from the black cartirdge - possibly the large one from the explanation given to me.  It does improve slightly after the initial start up cartridges - which are NOT introductory cartridges as suggested here.  HP explained to me that the initial cartidges expire sooner  because the printer has a bladder type operation - and these "bladders" must fill first.  As you continue to use the printer, you are no longer performing this start up operation.  But it will continue to run through ink of course.  The quality of the pictures printed is second to nonefor home processing - but you will spend a lot on ink.  It is not efficient that way.  I have had the printer for possiby a couple years now.  I just don't use it to print all my photos.  Cheaper to get them done at Costco, when I want them. 

[mish39]

Even though I don't print photos much on this machine (C309a), the ink seems to only pull from the photo black ink cartridge.  Photo black is empty, but the other XL black is 100% full.  When I print a boarding pass, there is almost no color, even when printing in black and white.  Why would this be when the black xl is totally full?  If I try to take the photo black ink out of the machine, the printer will not allow me to print anything.

I contact HP and they are sending me a new photo black ink cartridge free of charge.  However, I don't foresee this solving the problem long-term.

Has anyone else had this problem?