Customer Reviews

HP 610 Digital Color Copier

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This part of my review was written in 2003 ...

I selected this model after a long search and comparison of high-end home/small office copiers. This one is loaded with features. If you want a copier in this price range that COLLATES, then this HP 610 is your ONLY choice. I almost went with another brand that claimed to collate, but only by scouring customer reviews did I learn what their advertising conveniently omitted: collation only works in black and white. If you are buying a color copier, what ... good is that?

Some other competitive models WILL collate color, but ONLY if the copier is connected to a computer. But I bought this one for my wife to use for materials for her Kindergarten class, and this machine will be a stand-alone copier for the near future. I already have a multifunction printer and a photo printer connected to my computer. The copier will be in another room by itself.

Setting up was easy. I did run into two small glitches: On step 7(4b), the instructions say "Push the printhead handles down". If you've seated the printheads properly, then they are ALREADY pushed down. This is unclear, and you could unnecessarily break one. When they didn't seem to budge, AND everything seemed to fit ok, I assumed they were already pushed down, and it turned out I was right.

The other glitch: Step 9, "Align the printheads". As the very last step you press the "Enter" button to align the printhead. A message appeared on the display, something like "Starting Process" (I don't recall exactly). Then the machine just sat there, apparently doing nothing.

While I was waiting, I searched through the manual trying to see if they mention how long this would take. Not a word. Finally I gave up, and tried to shut off the machine, but the power won't go off when it's in the middle of something. Finally, I took a chance and disconnected the power cable. When I powered it back up, it announced it was aligning and immediately went into action; only then did I know for sure that I did the right thing.

The few tests I ran on the machine went without a problem. I'm giving it 5 stars because of its great capability and so far it looks wonderful. I did not appreciate that this machine, out of the box, does double sided copying. Thats right, it automatically can copy BOTH sides of an original (if it starts in the ADF) and print BOTH sides of the copy. And, you can choose to do 1>1, 1>2, 2>1, or 2>2 copying. All, hands off.

The machine is slow and clunky. It has the most far ranging and bizarre assortment of wierd noises, clicks and clunks, you are sure the machine disintegrating inside, or some parts came loose and are systematically destroying the machine. You'd be better off being deaf; then you'd just notice that the machine is SLOW.

Its particularly slow when you are just making one copy or so. It is more at home when you have to make 8 copies of a 10-page color document, and collate them. That is a start-and-forget operation. So, this machine is less than ideal for a busy office, but for home use, the slowness and oddball noise is no big deal. ... For home use, this IS a very expensive machine ...but for a busy office not on a tight budget, you may actually want to step up in class.

I had a Canon PC-20 copier for 18 years before I bought this one and put the old Canon out on the curb. That Canon ... was R-U-G-G-E-D, and still working when I said goodbye. The HP is far lighter, and presumably flimsier. They just don't mak'em like they use-ta. I do worry about the durability of this machine, and there is some indication that it will prove to be sensitive to the paper that goes in through its feeders. So be careful. Make sure your blank paper is clean and perfect; if your originals are not in pristine shape, use the fixed platen rather than the document feeder.

Lastly, HP's reputation for quality and customer support has slipped in recent years. That is why I looked so hard to find an alternative model. ... I always decline extended warranties, but you might want to take a closer look at one if its offered where you buy this machine.

I'm giving this machine 5 stars, but remember, I've only done about 25 copies total on this machine. ....

Enjoy.

--------
Followup, May 2, 2006
Its still going. Its use has been relatively light, but continuous over the three years of ownership. Cartridges are expensive, so my K-teacher wife tries to do most of her copying at school; but when she needs the home copier it has been reliable.

Followup, August 2009
Machine was failing; kicked it to the curb.

I bought this for our home office/homeschool to replace a dinosaur, the HP 150 color copier. We shopped for a machine like the 150 that would simply make decent inkjet color copies and to our dismay found that most manufacturers are producing "multi-function" devices with the weak link being the copy function. They were all so slow as to be unuseable for making 100-200 copies per week. I finally found the 610 on-line as a "replacement/upgrade" to the 150. It arrived this week.

Set-up was straightforward. The footprint is a bit larger than the 150, but it also makes copies up to legal size so the scan bed is larger. It has a tray to feed originals into and a "two-sided" copy mode that works nicely. The quality is only mediocre in "fast" mode (my mode of choice for most copies). When set to "fast", text is a bit blurred, though certainly legible, and colors are noticeably subdued. it is decent/acceptable in "normal" mode. I have only attempted copies of pages with text and moderate graphics-no photos as yet, but my guess is that it would not be a great photo copier. The graphics I've printed are not extremely accurate.

The speed is acceptable, although it seems cumbersome and slow for single copies. But after initial warm-up/head cleaning and for multiples it is much quicker than the 150. Color copies produced at a rate of about every 5-6 seconds in "fast" mode.

The downside is the noise. It literally sounds like it is coming apart. I had a transmission go bad in a car once that was almost as loud as this copier! Thankfully, it resides in our homeschool room and not in my office where I make business phone calls. It would be impossible to talk on the phone in a 12' x 14' room while this thing makes copies.

The other big downside to me is the lack of Mac driver support. So far there are not even any "gimp-print" drivers available. I hope HP will correct this and produce drivers for us Mac users.

My final verdict is that it satisfies my need for a decent copier. With a hundred dollar rebate, making the total purchase around $300, the price is about right. I have no idea about some of the advanced features like collating, banner printing, etc. Most of these I will never use. All in all, for what we'll use it for, it's a keeper.

We bought this item new for our office a little over 1 1/2 years ago for $550 (the cheapest price we could find it for at the time) and it served us well, up until it quit working. The copies are a little slow, but it does have many helpful functions etc. I am giving it only two stars because even though it was so versatile and met all our needs it lasted less than two years and cost us $550. (That's over $275/year!!!)

Nothing but problems with this 610. Have purchased

endless printheads at about $36.00 each. Great when it works,

which is not very often. Very expensive to keep running.

Am replacing the unit after less than two years. Not

dependable.

I bought this machine a little over two years ago mainly for the features. Paid about $600 for it. After about a 1-1/2 years, copies began having white streaks in them, and then nothing. Copier would eject the paper, but nothing was being printed. Ran the self test and the print page came out great. Tried a few more cleanings etc and finally an error message came up "IDS failure, call HP". I did and they were absolutely no help. Finally gave up and found a local repair shop. Turns out one of the colour print heads was faulty. Cost me another $150 to repair. Why did the copier not tell me the head was needing replacing. I could have done it for 1/3 the cost of what I paid to get it repaired. Six months later, noticed the streaks again, but this time I replaced the ink cartridge first as it was empty. After another $45, same problem. . . white pages only being ejected. Ran the system check this time and I get the IDS - Ink Deliver System error on all print heads, but no error message saying so on the display. Do I replace all the print heads at a cost of $250 or do I get another copier. I chose another brand of copier.

My experience has been that the reproduction quality for color photos is good. The print is mediocre and does not compare to laser. The cost of the cartridges is prohibitive. The shelf life of the cartridges is very short, mine last about 60 days. You cannot use 3rd party cartridges, you cannot refill existing cartridges. I estimate it costs about $7 per color copy. I stopped using because it makes no sense to continue using it. It is now a very expensive paper weight. I would not purchase it again. I have found Brother and Samsung to be better choices.

We bought a 610 about 2 years ago and can quite decidely say it's the worse and most expensive piece of #@$%& that we have ever had the misfortune to deal with. For starters, the size of the cartridges was a bit of a shock, as it has to be the smallest cartridge that HP put together, their old 190, 170, and 310 cartridges are at least 2 or 3 times the size of this one. That in itself wouldn't be so bad but you have to use genuine HP cartridges that cost around 60-70 dollars a set, HP puts a small chip on their cartridge that makes it extremely hard to use third party ink supplies. They oughta be sued for that nasty little trick. And to add insult to injury the cartridges have a very short expiration date, even if you use them lightly, the machine pops up with "Replace cartridges" error message, after just a couple months! And don't forget the printheads, they have their own built in expiration date, you have the same story there, for about $120 per set.

So after the initial dismay we got over it and after about 2 months it wouldn't do a thing, just sat there and said "replace printheads". We shelled out and replaced and had the same story. So we called up the merry-go-round that passes for HP tech support and guess what, they stink even worse than the machine they support. I knew India has a bad rep when it comes to quality, but the techs can't even speak proper english, and their communication is absolutely awful, it sounds like they're speaking from inside a pail or barrel. But we DID get it replaced finally and the new one did the same thing, after a month or two, PLUS we have to reset it every time it gets tired of working. Also, the bottom is soaked with ink for some reason, probably a leak or something, making a terrible mess. We have since got a different machine and this one isn't used much now, anymore it basically sits there ticking me off every time I look at it. In conclusion, we've spent close to $300 after the purchase price and I think it's the worse (and the most expensive) disappointment HP ever made, not at all the legendary HP quality we're used to, especially not for $500. I know in the future I will avoid HP all-in-ones like the plague.

I RATE THIS PRODUCT HIGHLY. IT WORKED FOR ME IN EVER WAY.
IN FACT I AM LOOKING FOR ANOTHER ONE.

I've had this copier for years without a problem. Easy to open. Easy to poke around in, and it solves itself. I've just taken it out of boxes after moving from Hawaii, and having been in storage. Not surprisingly, the ink dried out, and the inkheads. I highly recommend this machine!

Boy, there sure are a lot of folks out there who hate this copier! Although inkjet is always more expensive and slower than a number of other printer-types (phase-change, laser, film amongst them), we bought this to replace a laser copier that was being repaired about once every other month by the time it was junked. Copying is somewhat slow, but reliable. We've used it in our medical office daily and yesterday (2½ years after purchase) the black print head went out. I have a replacement for all of the printheads (but can't find them!!!!). I've also not seen the ink in the printer expire the way the other reviews have. We never, I mean NEVER do color copying and when the black print head went out, the color is taking over and I think we replaced the color ink cartridge 8 months ago and its working fine. By the way, when I lost the CDROM for the XP driver, the only thing I thought was stupid was that I couldn't download it from the company website. I had to order it......but it was free and had the driver on the disc and it works perfectly. We paid about $325.00 for this thing and I guess I'd buy it again.