Posted by Jessica Ward on 3/1/10 12:31pm
Msg #324782

Printers... Anyone have an HP 5000?

I've got an HP 3600 and have fairly well burned it up in 13 months of use. It's been a great workhorse and I've gotten far more than the expected number of prints out of it, but I'm seriously considering a major upgrade to an HP 5000. This is for my office printing--not mobile.

Curious if anyone else is using a machine this "oversized" for our kind of work--are you glad you went to the bigger machine or is more frequent replacements of the smaller machines working better for you. I asked my printer man to snoop around and see what printers the title and escrow companies he works with are using--and they're using this HP machine.

Would love your thoughts on this before I take the plunge.

Reply by Karla/WA on 3/1/10 1:11pm
Msg #324787

I used an HP 5000 for about 3 years, but I was looking at putting about $300 into replacing rollers, etc. It was a serious workhorse and it was compatible with the remanufactured toner cartridges, so that was nice. I was also needing to increase the RAM in the machine and that was going to cost me $100 or so. I just took the plunge and purchased a SAMSUNG machine that I am very happy with.

If my HP wasn't needing so much work, I would have stayed with that and used it until it didn't print any longer....but I was starting to spend a considerable amount of time printing (pages 1-30 in a batch, then 31-50, etc...). I am very happy with my Samsung. Good luck.

Reply by Vince/KS on 3/1/10 1:42pm
Msg #324789

For years I stuck with HP and had a full spectrum of products from them. But, after years of support, I was tired of the HP proprietary attitude and changing of drums, discussions of what was required to keep a warranty active and so on. So, I started looking at what other units were being used at companies with heavy print needs.

My local bank uses a unit with an IBM logo on it, but I recognize it as a Lexmark printer. The Sams Club, Walmart, Costco stores all uses Lexmarks. The local VA document office is manned by a fellow that says he goes through about two to three cases of paper a day. He uses a Lexmark printer with compatible cartridges.

So, I bought a Lexmark T642 dtn as my primary printer, replacing a large capacity HP about three years ago from a dealer that sells multiple brands. The local distributor eventually agreed to match the best available price I could find on the internet. I’ve not been sorry as the machine has had nearly no problems and the cost per page is really low. The only jams I’ve had is when running two-sided copies of very large “other” non-loan document files. It has not needed servicing, other than basic cleaning, since purchase.

I’ve got a new Brother 5340D, as backup, that is rated at 32 pages a minute, but the speed is lower and cost per page is far higher on the brother, even when considering the ridiculously low purchase price.

But, I still see the local UPS store has a print shop that uses all HP equipment and they seem to be happy with the machines and the service agreement they have.

Reply by Jim/AL on 3/1/10 7:46pm
Msg #324817

Agree with Vince, also have the Lexmark T642, fast machine n/m

Reply by cawest/PA on 3/1/10 5:13pm
Msg #324802

Just got the HP 8500 Jetpro Office wireless and very happy with it. Got 50 dollars back from my old one at Offie depot and got the printer on sale but the wireless part is great as I can print from anywhere in the house from my laptop.

Reply by Jessica Ward on 3/1/10 5:17pm
Msg #324804

Thanks all for the ideas--I will look into the Samsung machine as well. I've plugged my printer into a wireless router, and I'm totally loving that as we've got multiple machines in our home office, and just one printer.

I had not thought of looking at Sam's or Costco for a printer--I never go into those places anymore because it's just too easy for me to impulse shop.

Thanks again for the ideas!

Reply by Vince/KS on 3/1/10 6:26pm
Msg #324812

Sams and Costco do not carry heavy duty printers for sale -

they just use them. The products they sell are for much less typicall usage. The frustrating thing is knowing they use the high end Lexmark printers but do not carry the cartridges for public sale. Simply not enough sales to apparently merit the stocking of the cartridges.

Reply by Frank/NC on 3/1/10 10:04pm
Msg #324832

I don't know what you are planning on paying for an HP5000. However, I just purchased an HP3015x from HP. The printer is $1000 plus $160 for an additional 2 year warranty. After negotiating with them, the purchase price was $900 plus the $160 warranty. There is a rebate of $280 from HP making the final price $680. This is pretty good for what is a real work horse fast printer that hopefully will last years. Also, if you pay for it with American Express they add another year to the warranty, totalling 4 years.

Reply by Jessica Ward on 3/2/10 10:11am
Msg #324874

I've got a quote on a re-manufactured HP 5000 for $485 including one year of service calls and a warranty. Original list price is $1985. My regular "printer man" has a slew of them he's been picking up from business as they close-and he re-manufactures them, warantees them, etc. It's a win-win for him, because I'm unlikely to use it to its full 35,000 per page a month capacity, so he wont' have to service it a whole lot. Still thinking on it, but it would bring my per-page costs WAY down. (I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'm actually using an HP CMYK printer right now--it's very reliable, but burning out, and expensive per-print).

Jessica