HP Officejet Pro 8600 print with depleted cartridges

[sabretooth04]

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@gojuldeb wrote:

I just put a new black cartrage in and still cannot print in Black only. The printer wants the color cartrages replaced too. what a crock...are these prople from china? HP is certsainly not for the customer. 

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That is correct.  All cartridges must be good in order to print black. 

[jsbono]

Even when you have a full black cartridge, you cannot print if yellow for example, is depleted. This feature is awful and a super bad design. I have plenty of black ink, and can't print because the yellow cartridge is out. Its a weekend, and now I'm stuck waiting until Monday to print my black and white print job.

I will definitely look to buy a different printer next time.

[Alezis]

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@Bob_Headrick wrote:

This is not a method to sell more ink, it is to protect the printheads.  THe Officejet 8600 has separate ink supplies and printheads.  If the printer were run without ink in one of the supplies the printheads would be waving around in the air during printing.  The color without ink would be in danger of ingesting air into the "plumbing" or clogging the printhead.  When the cartridge was replaced later it may require repair or printhead replacement to restore proper printing.

....

This is insulting when I read "this is not a method to sell more ink"... to me it seems it is...

I print maybe a maximum of 300 pages a year and I ONLY print black and white invoices in DRAFT mode !!! THAT'S IT ! (at least that printer is fast in draft mode, that is one good thing) no picutres, no documents, no web article, no book... ONLY black and white invoices.

Strangely, even though I use XL cartridges that say 2300 pages for black and 1300 pages for color, how in the blue hell do I get empty color cartridges when I print in black and white ????

And to make things more insulting, it seems the printer flushes the ink cartridge in the cleaning tank inside the printer when you don't use it often enough (when you start a one or two page print, the printer makes a big bunch of noises for 20 seconds before spitting a page) so that you NEED to buy new cartridge ANYWAY even though you are FAR FAR FAR from being at 2300 pages OF BLACK TEXT in draft mode... and interestingly enough, not too far from the expiration date found on the original HP 950/951XL box...

That printer is a rip off, super bad desing... I got under the impression that I had a great PRO 8600 printer at an incradible price (got it at 99$ at costco brand new in the original box, no repack) with a long reserve of ink seeing the option of the XL cartridges so I would get ink for TWO OR THREE YEARS !!! BUT NO !! I feel I got sooooo riped off by this printer, I can't beleive this was sold as a good office printer...

And to add to the others in here, you CANNOT print black and white sheet (even if configured in the printer parameters) if one/any of the color cartridge is empty... Because this is EXACTLY what is happening right now... I cannot print ONE black and white invoice because I'm missing yellow when I DON'T NEED THAT COLOR to print my invoice...

I was trying to find if others too found that PRO 8600 printer is emptying it's cartridge when not under large load of print sheet and I found this forum... I could not resist to reply...

After all, I still feel this printer is rigged and programmed to EMPTY the cartridge REGARDLESS if you print 1500 pages or 50 pages after a year and a half, you'll get EMPTY cartridge ANYWAY... So we are OBLOGATED to buy new cartrige again... URGH... Makes me think something like VW dieselgate tricked firmwares...

Surprise, 42.95$ + tax + shipping for ONE freaken OEM color cartridge... 

Urgh...

I've been using HP ink printer/products for a LONG time, one of the first one I got was the deskjet 500 (no color back then) and never got other brand of printers after that... but this time, I think it's the end for the HP printers...

At least my DV7-3178 laptop is still rock solid after 7 years and it still perform extremely well (updated to 8gb of ram and added an SSD)... THAT was a good investment and it still works for 1000$...

[sabretooth04]

For what it's worth...

I have located a document that will explain in detail Ink Usage in Inkjet Printers.

[Alezis]

it kinda confirms what happend to my printer... if not used enough, the printer will empty the cartridges so nothing gets clogged or dries off... or to make us buy new cartridges after a year and a half a little bit after the expiration date accurs... that we will never really know...

I just know that I bought an ink cartrige that state I should make 2300 pages and I am freakn far from this 2300 pages taret and I need to replace them...

but thanks for the documentation I guess...

[Alezis]

Thanks the the HP experts who reply the right answers (not the ones we want to hear but it's the way it is...).

I wish HP would understand our frustration about this ink waste situation and design a better system...

1) your color cartridges WILL be emptyed EVEN THOUGH you DO NOT use color to print documents

2) if you have a single DEPLEATED color cartridge, YOU CANNOT print ANYTHING until you replace the depleated cartridge.

3) even XL cartridges will be EMPTYED if you do not use your printer ENOUGH so maximize your print because if you print 50 pages a year, you will have depleated cartridges ANYWAY color AND black ! Far from 2300 pages XL projected yeild...

This is a horrible design on a product that seems for professional office use (OFFICE JET PRO 8600) and this is where I got the impression I had bought a great product.

With all that said, HP should review how they handle this ink consuption non sense and get us a descent ink printer... I would not mind paying 350$ for a ink printer if ink cartridges were 4.95$, but now it's the opposite, printers are worth 99$ and a set of complete cartridges is 139$ !!! That is RIDICULOUSLY expensive $/ml and you will HAVE TO buy ink cartridges regardless if your print 50 pages a year or 2000 pages year (that last one makes sense at least)...

[Bob_Headrick]

There are different printer models for different uses.  If you print a few hundred pages per year or less the Officejet Pro 8600 is not the printer for you.  You would likely be happier with a model with two ink cartridges and intergrated printheads, something like the Officejet 8040a or one of the Envy printers.

You might also consider a printer suitable for the Instant Ink program.  This is a subscription service with plans starting at $2.99 / month for 50 pages per month.  Unused pages can be carried over for a month and the program can be cancelled at any time. See the document here for information.

[Alezis]

I agree with you that the pro 8600 was NOT the right printer for the quantity of print I make.

I was mislead in buying a printer with XL cartridges thinking I would have ink for 3 years before replacing cartridges, this is where many people get this wrong when they are missinformed by a sale representative at costco... great deal, wrong buy...

this critical information should be provided on EVERY printer as many people do not know about this "issue"...

[thernandez]

II agree, I will not purchase from any company that misrepsents itself in any way.