Customer Reviews

HP Color LaserJet 4600 Printer

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I have used HP Color LaserJet 4600n printer for a year, and while it has impressed me with fast printing and good features, it has periodically produced inconsistent colors on the outputs. For a printer at this price range, it is very disappointing. Unlike the two previous reviewers, I have never encountered toner leakage nor smudged/blurry outputs. My experience has been that after printing every few hundred pages or so, the output would look a little too blue, or too red, or too yellow, and progressively worse over time. To make it look normal again, I would have to re-calibrate the printer, sometimes more than once. After another few hundred pages, the problem would resume.

I have installed the latest firmware (dated 7/22/2003, downloadable from HP's web site), but to no avail. The inconsistent colors just keep on happening. At HP's user support forum, a lot of people also seem to have this problem.

This problem also occurs when any toner cartridge is low on toner (in fact, the manual does say something to that effect). Also, after I change a toner cartridge, I have to calibrate the printer at least 2-3 times before the output is normal again. Each calibration takes about 5 minutes.

The toner cartridges cost $180 each (cheapest online price) for cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges, and $130 each for black. Each cartridge has a microchip inside that "tells" the printer whether it has been used on that printer. This is, of course, a way to discourage the buying of refurbished cartridges. Since consumable items rack up *major* revenue for manufacturers, they always want you to buy the ones THEY make.

One important issue related to toner cost is toner coverage, which is the percentage of a page that is covered with toner. Knowing the toner coverage helps to determine how long a toner cartridge will last. The 4600n printer keeps a record of your historical color coverage, which you can also print out. After a year of printing mostly color graphics of varying sizes, the printer shows that my coverages for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) are 11%, 13%, 12%, and 7.5%. Based on HP's claim that each cartridge lasts for 8000 pages at 5% coverage, I was able to calculate MY page count for each cartridge: 3768, 2998, 3294, and 5398 pages for CMYK respectively. With the above toner prices, that comes to about 24 cents per page. Note that I only print pages of varying sizes. If you always print full-size pages, your coverage and cost per page may be significantly higher.

The HP 4600 series comprises of several models: 4600, 4600dn, 4600dtn, 4600hdn, and 4600n. They all have a few differences in features from one another. So be sure to check out the product info at HP's web site, and confirm with the seller which model he or she is selling. The model number is labelled on the printer itself.

This is an amazing color printer - fast and perfect color reproduction. However there is a serious flaw with the toner cartridges. We have had toner leak out of two of the color cartridges, covering the inside of the unit with the powder. This was not due to installing the cartridge incorrectly since they both worked fine for 3-4 months before the problems occurred. It is nearly impossible to clean out all the toner powder from inside the printer (my company has outstanding IT support and they have given up). Everything now prints with a hazy yellow background. Our IT guys contacted HP and they deny the problem, but if you search the web you will find many other folks with the same problems. Between the down time, the cost of replacing the cartridges (around $250 each), the mess (we still have a magenta spot on the floor) and now the printing problems I have to recommend avoiding this printer until this problem is corrected.

i have been using an HP 4600 for about 2 years now. There is one more printer of the same model in my building. BOTH printers have developed this problem of printing a nice, fat magenta line across the backs of pages. This problem was not so bad on my printer until just recently, but now over 50% of what I print goes straight to the recycling bin becuase the printer ruins the pages with that line!! VERY ANNOYING!!! It works great other than that. It seems like a problem that would be easy to resolve but its NOT. NO ONE can fix it! We have called several repair people who have come to look at it and they are all stumped. The only advice HP will give is to simply clean it with a damp cloth. This resolves the problem long enough to end your help session with HP and then the line is back again! The other 4600 in the building was just replaced becuase of the red line problem. I am on the verge of losing my mind and/or replacing mine!
They don't even make this printer anymore. I wonder why? HA HA!!
I have been lucky enough to not have the "dirty pages" issue, but this red line is just as bad. It comes off with an eraser, but its still noticeable enough that you can't use the pages for distributing to the public- too crappy looking!
THIS PRINTER IS A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY!

I work for a government department (USDA), and we have an HP4600 that has developed a serious problem with the toner cartridges.

For several months, the printer has performed extremely well, producing fast and accurate color output. On performance I would rate it 4.5 stars. However. . . read on...

Suddenly, the print output began producing a wide reddish band on one side of the printed page. Further inspection revealed that the magenta cartridge was leaking toner. Efforts to clean the printer and restore the print quality were not successful. A major repair or replacement may be required.

NOTE: There was no printer difficulty (paper jam, power outage, print interruption) that led to this problem.

I found this web site, after "Googling" the HP4600C and the specific problem. I discovered that my suspicions were confirmed. I am grateful to the other members here at this web site who wrote their reviews and help me track down the problem.

HP needs to stop the denials and FIX THIS PROBLEM. There is either a serious quality control issue with the toner cartridges or a serious printer malfunction that is leading to cartridge failure.

This printer started off wonderfully. Then, over the past year, the toner leaks and noise from the printer is unbearable. My office has tried to contact HP but to no avail. The HP service department doesn't speak english. In fact, their gibberish sounds like the adult speech from a Charlie Brown cartoon. What's worse, problems with the printer, or the non-caring attitude of HP? At this point, after 2 years of operation, we've decided to launch the printer from our office roof top. We'll video the coverage and send to David Letterman. HP has lost a very long-standing customer.

We've had this printer at my office for about 2 1/2 years. It's a giant waste of money. Magenta cartridges spew toner everywhere. Cyan cartridges streak. It's even worse when you use the manual feed. HP has no answers because they deny all the issues. HP's support is lackluster at best anyway. The first time when this machine was under warranty it took me three weeks worth of phone calls to get anything accomplished with them. Stay away from this printer at all costs. If you own one it makes a nice doorstop or paperweight. This is totally unacceptable considering toner and printer costs. I expect more from a product with the HP brand stamped on the box. To bad you can't give 0 stars.

Obviously HP has a design flaw on the magenta cartridges. I have also experienced leakage from only the magenta (why only this one?)

Our company has two HP 4600dtn units located in completely different states and both are experiencing nearly identical print quality problems.

After 12 months (Unit 1) and 6 months (Unit 2) of use our print quality has degraded substantially and many times is so poor that we are unable to send out client literature.

For the $8,000+ our company has spent on these printers we should not be getting the kind of smudges, streaks, specs, and blurry lines you might expect from a cheap ink jet with a dirty cartridge head.

The print quality problems are made worse when you use the duplex and/or booklet features.

Our pre-purchase tests (on new units in the showroom) and our early experience was excellent. However, it seems that these machines are anything but "maintenance free" and trying to make them fully automated may be what is causing the degradation in quality over time.

We would not spend this money again on these machines and based on this and other problems we have seen with HP we are seriously considering switching vendors.

Printer has had very light use and suddenly developed mostly magenta & cyan toner leaks. The excess toner is streaked and transfered to every page resulting in full length page striping. The print outs are absolutely useless for presentation and barely useable for drafts. HP denies there is a problem however I see that I am not the only one with this issue. Won't buy HP again. This is clearly a defective product design. There is no resolve. Your printer is now an expensive and rather large doorstop.

Now we have this printer for nearly 2 years in office use, and before purchase we find that this printer has a good price per printout. But noone expected that some of the cartridges make stripy printout (with black, cyan and margenta)when the cartridge is only 50% used.... so the price per page doubles due to some misconstructed cartridges.
The support is also annoying - noone feels resonsible for this problem and the printout price rises by 100%

We won't buy another HP color printer