Customer Reviews

HP DesignJet 130 Large Format Printer (C7791C#A2L)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

We purchased this printer for the school district that I work at and I am the primary user. I love this printer!!! I have printed school marketing posters with full photo quality and it looks as though we hired a professional. I am not sure what a previous reviewer was talking about not being able to get paper anymore because we can still get it right from the [...] website. It has a variety of media it can print on from regular heavy paper, glossy photo paper, and even Tyvek. We use the Tyvek for our outdoor signage. It isn't a "super" fast printer but I can't imagine anything printing in this large a format printing very fast anyway. We have had local professional photographers come in and want to see it and look at samples and now they are considering getting one!!! This is a great printer and I would recommend it to anyone professional or to anyone just wanting to print out large format pictures. The WOW factor will never go away!!!

UPDATE: One of the previous reviewers talked about there being 12 ink cartridges to replace and although they are in fact correct about the 12 part they are not all actually cartridges. There are 6 cartridges: Cyan, Light Cyan, Magenta, Light Magenta, Yellow, and Black. This six ink system is what HP has switched to for any printer with photo quality output like its higher end Deskjets and most anything named Photojet. Although this sounds like a money making scheme to require more cartridges it is what some companies have been doing for years now and that is not requiring you to switch out a complete cartridge when only one color might be low. The other 6 "cartridges" are in fact print-heads that must be changed for each color as well. However, this is not required every time you change the ink but does make a great deal of difference in the quality of the printing if you don't change it when required. As far as I can tell from the system monitor it is every three or so cartridges however, I tend to think its based more on the amount of full page printing you do. We do a lot and we are no where near needing to change them yet. This is also becoming standard on these same 6 color printers as well because now with the 6 color cartridge it is no longer possible for the print cartridges to "travel" back and forth across the page with the cartridge chassis inside the printer. You know what I'm talking about the sound you could hear from most older printers was the sound of the ink cartridges and the ink-jets moving across the page. Now the ink is delivered in tiny tubes that allow only the six print-heads to move while the ink cartridges are stationary. So yes you must replace twelve different consumables but not at nearly the same rate as usual. There are monitors on the small LCD screen on the side of the printer and it will indicate the level of remaining ink in the cartridges and quality of the print-heads. Can't say enough good about this printer it is a sure bet.

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2009: As you can see from my previous post about this printer I was a huge fan. No doubt I still am a fan but with one word of caution now. About 3 months ago while printing a poster we were mid way through a roll when it must have caught the edge of the paper??? Well I canceled the job and pulled out the paper re-cut the edge and re"threaded" the paper roll. Since then about every three jobs it would align incorrectly after it cut the previous page and sometimes jam up again. I was annoyed but continued to use it and made an appointment with the local HP service office. When he showed up to look at it he couldn't figure it out, then he said it just might be some switches that help align the paper in the back where the roll comes in. He took it to his office and told us he would call when it was done. He called a few days later and said we were now the proud owners of a HP paper weight!!! He told us that he replaced everything he usually does with paper timing problems and then when that didn't work he called HP directly. They said it was on par with other users of the Designjet 130 after about 3 years and it means the roll feed system is no longer good. When he asked about replacing the roll feeder they said it was built into the printer and irreplaceable. They told him that they considered the Designjet to be like any other printer they have and it will reach the end of it usable life in a few years. WHAT!!! It has been two years and the printer costs 1200.00 Dollars!!! Ours was almost 2000.00 dollars since we bought the printer with the network card (designjet 130nr) Just beware all of you out there who are buying this with the thought that this printer is full of replaceable parts. This is like an expensive version of their normal deskjet printers and just like most of us wouldn't repair those we would just buy another, HP thinks you should do the same thing with this printer too. Ouch!

I have owned this product for several years. I print perhaps ten sheets a month. I have NEVER used this printer without a problem. I have the roll feed version. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. This week I bought and installed five new print heads - all but black which I replaced last month. The printer worked for one 24" x 36" picture. Then it started blinking - all but the black print heads blink. They are BRAND NEW and just worked fine, now they don't. They are OEM from HP. I tried to get on-line help to resolve the problem, but they would not allow me to sign on without the product code. I put in the serial number which should satisfy them, but no such luck. To get the product code from the back of the printer, I would have to disassemble the roll feed mechanism which is bolted to the back, right over the product label (nice planning). I have suffered with this printer in silence for several years. Today was the final insult. I cannot speak to the value of other products, but I caution anyone considering this printer to be prepared for CONSTANT aggravation.

I can tell from some of the reviews that some people are attempting to load manually from the back...If you don't have the automatic roll feeder you're MUCH better off loading all paper from the FRONT...With this printer and my old HP 100 wide format I probably have around 5% that kickback...Maybe half of those are non square edges and the rest user error while feeding...Someone stated they tried 8 times with no luck is outright laughable..

Also consider buying a CIS (continuous ink supply) to majorly decrease the ink cost...

So far the auto color match profiling works great and it's value can't be over emphasized...Especially is one uses multiple papers or canvas...

For the money there isn't a better 24" wide format printer out there...No doubt there is a slight learning curve and reading the manual completely is a must...It's obvious from some of the reviews that a few haven't read it...

I owned a HP 100 wide format before this one...The extra 2 colors and the auto color match profiling make the HP 130 a no brainer over the HP 100, 110 and/or HP 120...Not too mention the increase available resolution of 2400x1200...

Bottom line if you do a considerable amount of large prints and don't mind spending a little time to learn this printer, you'll be more than pleasantly surprised...

kd

I have the "nr" version of this unit (same printer with automatic paper cutter) HP Designjet 130nr..., I purchased this printer brand new directly from HP after being talked into it by one of the HP sales guys.., and an extended warranty also, what a mistake, a very big mistake! This thing never really worked correctly and had one problem after another time after time. The few prints I was able to get from it were a battle from the start. It had digital noise all over the place and miss-feeds all the time, I never could get the roll feeder to work correctly due to the odd set-up and VERY poor design of the paper feeder. Every day was a fight to get this unit to work and I can't tell you how many new prayers and curse words I went through over this piece of junk. Honestly I did a few good prints but those were very few and far between. The ink costs a fortune and never lasted, same thing for the print heads, of the few prints I tried to get (less then 100 total) I went through more ink then my daily office printer used.
For having a photo business I can tell you that this HP "IS NOT" the way to go. With the extended warranty plan you would think they would have helped me, well that is what I thought too - surprise! No way, I was left on my own with every technical problem and the few contacts I could make were routed to Pakistan where the English language is not a primary means of communication. After saying "what" 12 million times you'd think they would have someone that could have spoken clearer, well that never happened. Every request I had was left open ended and they NEVER returned the calls they said they would so now it sits collecting dust and useless. The drivers can not be updated and cannot even be re-installed, they can't be removed for some strange reason that no one at HP can figure out, this is not only on one computer but on two computers, I really gave it every chance in the book and also hired a professional computer technician to help but they still could not fix the driver problems. Trust me, save the money from this purchase and go buy a Canon or Epson and you will save yourself a million headaches. In every way I can think of this unit is totally a piece of junk and HP will not help you, I have the junk printer to prove it and the poor service record from them as well. Don't walk away from this printer - RUN AWAY from it. I don't often have so much negativity on a product but this one takes the cake - Pure Junk and HP should be embarrassed on many levels, in no way is this unit professional, it dosen't even qualify for hobby, it's just useless. If someone got lucky with one - good for them but I doubt it, if they like it today I could bet the day will soon come where they agree with this review and can even add to it.

I purchased this item in November 2004, Perfect printer for the digital artist! It prints amazing photos all the way up to 24"x36"! I print my pictures from my Olympus C8080 8 meg. Camera, Unbeliveable Quailty this HP designjet 130 will do! This printer puts Epson to SHAME!

The HP Designjet 130nr has a serious design issue with the ink well/pen carriage. The arms that act as "hinges" for the ink carriage's top locking clamp are too thin and will eventually break. In the mean time the printer will drive you nuts. As the clamp fails, the ink cartridges and pens will not make a solid connection. Symptoms include the 130 incorrectly reporting bad pens and or ink wells. As well the printer will randomly stop using a pen/color in the middle of printing. The dropped color will correspond to the side of the carriage that's failing first. DO NOT BUY THIS PRINTER.

i am always hesitant to tell people not to buy. I have bought some junk over the years ans shrugged it off, but this is just the worst! The paper doesnt load AT ALL from anywhere. Sure, after about ten attempts and five chewed pieces of paper later it will print but even at that it sometimes only half prints. Now some people who have bought this item find this situation laughable, and I aks them, why has more than one person, infact, why has a bunch of people had same issues? Indeed, it is a recognised universal problem with the designjet130. basically for the price they suck.

Second - even when you do get a so called awesome print, it leaves track marks and here is why. Some nutcase decided to design this printer with JAGGED EDGED METAL ROLLERS!!!!!! I mean wtf????? Especially on large pics, when using lots of black or dark backgrounds, the track marks just shine through and as for glossy photos - just forget it. ALSOOOOO - when using front loading, more often than not a horrble wheel mark from the rubber rollers are present from its harsh loading system. It basically pummels light paper and chews heavyweight paper. And by the way, thats even when you select the desired kind of paper before printing.

Seriously, i have no doubts some people have no problems, but I am highlighting this because enough people have had similar issues as i have to give this information some credibility. HP needs to have a look at this printer and make some adjustments - this is just terrible, i have had to close my online shop which i have lost out on because of this printer. I will not be using hp again - thats for sure!

DO NOT BUY (and by the way, i got my printer from amazon!)

I use the DesignJet 130nr with my older desktop G4 Powermac as well as my newer MacBook Pro. I've had the printer for about 2 years now, and bought it used from a popular on-line auction site. (It was terribly packaged, attached to a wooden skid with no protection! But it survived without any problem, very much to my surprise. Must be a tough little printer!)

Some/many people seem to have trouble feeding cut sheets of paper through this printer, so I decided to go with the 130nr model which includes the automated roll feeder on the back, which I VERY HIGHLY RECOMMEND! Roll paper is much, much cheaper than using cut sheets. If you buy the roll feed seperately, it runs about $600 from HP. It's worth it. Extra spindles to hold rolls are about $50-60.

I have used Epson printers in the past, but wanted to try something different because the Epsons clogged without constant use, and I wasted lots of ink with all of the cleaning cycles I had to do. But the print quality was very good. Anyway, this HP seems to really ration ink! I've been amazed at the large prints of my artwork and photos that I've been able to make and use so little ink! It's amazing. The inks aren't cheap, but they last so long that I'm not tempted to use third-party inks; I'll stick with HP inks.

Another huge plus is the software drivers included with the printer. I almost bought a RIP, but the quality of prints using the free drivers is so good that it isn't necessary (for me, anyway). Even making a 24" print of an image taken with my older 4MP camera came out incredible, which you wouldn't expect from only 4 megapixals. I was actually stunned by the quality, the way the software upscaled my photos without visible artifact. That alone is worth a good bit of money.

The printer itself has been very reliable (and sturdy, as noted earlier). The print quality is as good as it gets (use good quality paper, of course). BTW, whoever said that HP stopped making paper for this printer is wrong; I've ordered many rolls of paper from them, and they are very good quality, and reasonably priced. Very happy with the printer and HP paper.

This isn't the fastest printer, but at this price who cares? The faster ones cost several times more, so if you're not in a high-volume shop this printer is fine speed-wise.

As a graphic artist, and amateur photographer (for 3 decades), I can't recommend this printer highly enough. I'd also recommend using a Macintosh... :)

Well like may Graphic Artist I wanted to produce layout s in large
format. I have always heard how good HP was and how easy it was to use so I figured that me next printer should be the king of printers.
I can't tell you how upsetting this piece of crap is.
It is so picky that you need to load the paper just the right way for it to grip it and if you don't it will keep kicking it back out to you over and over again. I must have done this 8 times before I just wanted to beat the living hell out of it. Oh but it gets better, this thing is so stupid that it does NOT calibrate the colors on its own. It takes you to a website and you have to have HP do it for you. It still didn't print sharp. And get this I try to call their customer service for support and they charge .69 min. Where do these jerks selling crappy printers get off charging for customer service????
My god save your money and just print your stuff at Kinko's or a small needing printing company.
HP is a crap brand!

I had nothing but problems with this printer. I called up HP and got some guy from India that I couldn't even understand. Needless to say, after hours and hours of frustration, the problem was never fixed. I had spent so much money replacing the printing heads and ink because every time that you run maintenance on it, it eats up half of your ink reservoir. Finally, I cut my losses and threw it in the dumpster. The best decision I made.