Hewlett Packard Photosmart C4180 All-In-One InkJet Printer
- Black Print Speed: 30 ppm
- Color Print Speed: 24 ppm
- Output Type: Color Printer
- Technology (Detailed): Thermal Inkjet
- Printer Type: All-In-One Printer
- All-in-One Functions: Copier Scanner
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Huge disappointment
Pros
Prints and copies great black and white text. Compact & nice looking.
Cons
Anything with color prints horrible with banding. Ink is expensive and runs out too quickly.
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
I may have gotten a lemon, but I certainly wouldn't buy this model again.
My old HP printer finally gave out. Since it produced wonderful text, photos, copies, and scans, I wanted to stick with HP. I did look at some other brands but ultimately decided to get the HP 4180. It printed faster than my old printer, had slots to read memory cards and a little LCD screen to enable me to print photos without using the PC. It seemed like it would be perfect. I won't describe all the detailed specs. You can click on View Details on the main review page to see those.
I actually had it for a while before I set it up and then I used it just to print some documents. Finally I got ready to print some photos. To my amazement, the color was horrible and just printed in bands of separated color. I tracked down the troubleshooting documents and performed the recommended cleaning. According to HP this uses a significant amount of ink and of course you can't specify that you just need to clean the color cartridge so both cartridges were wasted in the cleaning process (as well as a lot of time). That process finally produced a good sample document so I tried printing just a document that had color on it. Still I got the banding. I repeated the cleaning process with the same results. Then I decided I must have gotten a bad ribbon. I got another color ribbon. I had the same problem even after numerous cleaning attempts. I tried another cartridge still no luck.
Then my Mother-in-law requested my help in producing a photobook. She brought over several photos for me to scan in. Guess what? The quality was noticeably worse than my old printer/scanner. I guess that was by design and not a problem with the machine. It never occurred to me to check the scanner specs. I just assumed it would be at least as good as my old one or maybe even better. What a disappointment. We had to find someone else to scan in the pictures.
I normally make T-shirts for my kids and their friends on their birthdays but they tend to want a design that has color in it so that wasn't possible.
All in all, this has been an incredible disappointment. It still does a great job printing and copying documents and looks great sitting on the desk, but I expected much more.
I had bought my brother a similar printer for Christmas but without the LCD screen. I don't remember the model number but it produces beautiful photos. Maybe I just got a lemon.
I actually had it for a while before I set it up and then I used it just to print some documents. Finally I got ready to print some photos. To my amazement, the color was horrible and just printed in bands of separated color. I tracked down the troubleshooting documents and performed the recommended cleaning. According to HP this uses a significant amount of ink and of course you can't specify that you just need to clean the color cartridge so both cartridges were wasted in the cleaning process (as well as a lot of time). That process finally produced a good sample document so I tried printing just a document that had color on it. Still I got the banding. I repeated the cleaning process with the same results. Then I decided I must have gotten a bad ribbon. I got another color ribbon. I had the same problem even after numerous cleaning attempts. I tried another cartridge still no luck.
Then my Mother-in-law requested my help in producing a photobook. She brought over several photos for me to scan in. Guess what? The quality was noticeably worse than my old printer/scanner. I guess that was by design and not a problem with the machine. It never occurred to me to check the scanner specs. I just assumed it would be at least as good as my old one or maybe even better. What a disappointment. We had to find someone else to scan in the pictures.
I normally make T-shirts for my kids and their friends on their birthdays but they tend to want a design that has color in it so that wasn't possible.
All in all, this has been an incredible disappointment. It still does a great job printing and copying documents and looks great sitting on the desk, but I expected much more.
I had bought my brother a similar printer for Christmas but without the LCD screen. I don't remember the model number but it produces beautiful photos. Maybe I just got a lemon.
