So my mother recently bought an ET-2800, By HP we had an HP printer before and we got a new one because the old one would not work with my sister's Windows 11 Laptop. So I had to set it up for my mother, the manual said you can use it without the app. But there was no way to physically do that. Anyway, I downloaded the app on my phone (android) and the app would not connect to the printer. So I used my mother's iPhone and it would connect. The setup process was stupid proof. And after I got it all full of ink, it was very painless. However, this is where the H in HP should stand for HELL. Because a few months go by and my sister and my mother need some papers printed. No problem. I thought to myself, so my sister tried to print it wirelessly. Couldn't find the printer, I said ok maybe it's a dumb driver, USB didn't work either. I asked my sister to send it to me, so I can print it on my w540 running rocky 9. Rocky picked up that I needed drivers and installed them. Wireless didn't work but wired showed up, I thought sweet I can just print the paper and get back to what I was doing. However, when I clicked print, the printer would grab the paper and run it though but not put ink on the paper. My mother asks me to forward the email to her to try to print it on her phone. I send it, and it prints, and the paper come out how it should with ink and the paper is finally printed.
After this experience with this printer, it makes me rather aggravated at this purchase, and no longer want to buy from HP. I have looked at Brother printers and there are no Proprietary ink cartage, and or laser printers. I purely wanted to talk about my experience with HP printers and would like to know what others have for a printer for recommendations, for when eventually HP kills support and makes it a paper weight, I've read many negative experiences with HP printer, specially from Lois Ross man and their anti consumer products.
What do you think of the Epson Ecotank?
I was looking to buy an ET. Then I learned about the sponge. While you're free to refill the ink at little cost there's also a sponge that cleans the heads or soaks up excess ink. I have forgotten the purpose, but it's a 2 dollars sponge, you can easily get something like it and replace it. But the printer won't reset the counter for the sponge. Unless you want to download sketchy stuff off of a Belarusian website, your only option is to ship the printer to Epson and pay them for the trouble.
That maneuver is about the same price as a new ecotank.
Since writing the above I did some late-night googling, and it seems that Epson US has caught enough flack for this, and now offers a one time key for a reset utility https://epson.com/support/epson-ink-pads-reset-utility-faqs.
If I buy a printer it'll be a brother laser, or a professional inkjet... And I don't see the latter happening.
I have an ecotank and I like it a lot. It setup quick and works wired and wireless. The only thing I don't like is the print quality feels desaturated. Although I don't print for any art purposes so it doesn't matter too much.
They look like good machines if you are printing a lot and need an inkjet (like for photo printing)
If you are only using a printer occasionally for letters or shipping labels, laser printers are probably a better option. Sure, they need more space, but they cant dry out and dont require cleaning programs.
Have no experience with Epson outside of 1 complete trash-teir $50 inket, which was hot garbage which of course it was- sorry.
We have one A3 format in the office for 8 months and its been amazing