Opinions on HP DeskJet 3820c

[basmic]

I am looking for a printer which is sturdy, gives good print quality and within approximately £100 price-range, including VAT.

So far I have found the HP DeskJet 3820c to be the most respectable brand alongside a reasonable price of £85.77 <A HREF="http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-search.asp?action=search&tid=310&mid=240&ob=price" target="_new">http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-search.asp?action=search&tid=310&mid=240&ob=price</A> => <A HREF="http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-info3-info.asp?&m=y&quicklinx=21Y4" target="_new">http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-info3-info.asp?&m=y&quicklinx=21Y4</A> (full product information is available from: <A HREF="http://www.hp-expo.com/uk/eng/products/inkjet/c8952a.html" target="_new">http://www.hp-expo.com/uk/eng/products/inkjet/c8952a.html</A>)
-or-
Epson Stylus Photo 830 - £86.94
<A HREF="http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-search.asp?action=search&tid=310&mid=260&ob=price" target="_new">http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-search.asp?action=search&tid=310&mid=260&ob=price</A> => <A HREF="http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-info3-info.asp?&m=y&quicklinx=25YD" target="_new">http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-info3-info.asp?&m=y&quicklinx=25YD</A> (full product information is available from: <A HREF="http://www.epson.co.uk/product/printers/photo/styphoto830/index.htm" target="_new">http://www.epson.co.uk/product/printers/photo/styphoto830/index.htm</A>)

Personally I would prefer the HP for the sake of known durability, although the Epson would be good for economical reasons.

All I would lke to do is print letters, CD-covers, and perhaps a few photos off - nothing fancy really!

Anyhow, let me know which you guys would prefer.

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Basmic

 

[chillysalsa]

I'm in the same situation, looking at the HP 3820 in particular.

Has anyone had bad experiences with it? Can anyone comment on consistency in print quality?

I have to replace my Epson C60 - it keeps getting the print heads clogged! No matter how many times I do the 'print head cleaning' feature, or change cartridges, the prints are all missing fine lines through images! I've had the same problem with the Epson 600 and 680 stylus, they're all prone to this.

Can any one suggest a good printer for us???

 

[Ruthless]

I may be able to help you with the clogged Epson print head. Do you turn the printer off with its switch and let it cycle through its shutdown procedure, or do you cut the power to it by a power strip? I learned this on my 600, if you let it power down itself it clears the heads. If you don't the ink will dry in the print head and cause what your describing.

I still recommend one of the Epson printers, compusa always has the 820 or another photo quality printer for $100 and the cartridges are usually $25 for Black and $20 for color.

The HP color cartridge is $55! Black is $30!

Ouch.

 

[Ruthless]

Almost forgot, do you guys really think HP is especially durable? I think thier Laserjet series are incredible, but I've found their newest line of hardware ie, scanners, printers and external burners not to be up to that standard. Of course that's a really high standard.

Rob.

 

[Yahiko81]

We have the HP 3820's here at our company and they aren't that great. The color is ok and so is the speed, but the design of the unit is frightening. It's cheap plastic. I hate the input and output trays and these printers seem to have a bad habit of pulling paper crooked.

If you're an ugly bastard click <A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=faq&notfound=1&code=1" target="_new"> here</A> to feel better about yourself.

 

[basmic]

Well I went and pulled the strings required to get my printer....the HP Deskjet 3820c was what I settled for in the end.

I have the printer, setup. All is well, I have printed good quality graphics in both colour and greyscale/black and white.

Given I had a £30 Olivetti JP192 printer which cost a bomb to by ink-cartridges for, the quality I was used to was rather poor. So anything was better than the Olivetti JP192 was. Actually, it wasn't that bad of a printer - reliable, sturdy and always willing to be refilled.

A few gripes:
#1 I agree with <b>yahiko81</b> - particulary the "<i>seem to have a bad habit of pulling paper crooked</i>" bit. I notice my printer usually prints out slightly crooked - on expensive photo paper, this is extremely annoying. I found the paperwidth adjustment device to be a little on the flimsy side.... .

#2 Perhaps it's the cheap "try me out" cartridges they give you to kickstart you. But after a week of messing about with the printer, and a full A4 glossy sheet photo later, my cartridges indicate they are approximately 50% used on the inklevel viewer. I certainly hope this isn't going to the case all the time.

#3 Perhaps they could use capitals in future. I find seeing "hp deskjet 3820 series v5.1.2" in my Start menu rather lousy and flimsy. I would have much preferred "HP Deskjet 3820 Series v5.1.2". This is what I paid my money for, aside the actual product - wasn't it towards the development of the software and drivers too?

Oh well, to add a little sweetness to my gripes, I found a cheap source of ink-cartridges: <A HREF="http://www.inkjet-cartridge.co.uk/" target="_new">http://www.inkjet-cartridge.co.uk/</A> > <A HREF="http://websites.uk-plc.net/UK_Inkjet_Cartridges_PLUS/products/HP_C6615DC6578D.htm" target="_new">http://websites.uk-plc.net/UK_Inkjet_Cartridges_PLUS/products/HP_C6615DC6578D.htm</A>.

I hope my printer lasts as long as I've seen other HPs last, or I'll be moving swiftly on to Epson.

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Basmic

 

[chillysalsa]

I've picked up the 3820 as well.

The paper feed mechanism is working fine for me so far.

Text is quite nice, I'd say better than the Epson.

So far, I've set the printer to "Low Ink" and "Fast Drying Time" in the utility, hoping to get the maximum mileage from the cartridges. It does make things look slightly 'washed out', but it's still perfectly adaquate for my purposes.