Customer Reviews

HP OfficeJet Pro K550 Color Printer

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

The K550 is a close cousin to the 2230 which it replaced (at least in my home) and the 2000C and 855C before that (both of which I owned and used for several years each). The 2000C still is my favorite -- best built and by far the most economical with ink. The 2000C got twice as many pages per cartridge as the 2230 which followed, and if initial results are an indicator, the 2230 gets nearly 2X pages/cartridge as the 2230. There's clearly a trend, and its heading south. I paid $210 for the printer, and 100 double-sided brochures later (one run), I just placed two orders for replacement ink cartridges totaling $200. Ka Ching! Music to HP's ears. (Amazon's not competitive on the ink cartridges, by the way.)

On the plus side, the form factor is improved -- same width as the 2230, but not as deep. Much better looking, if you care. Easier loading of ink cartridges, and easier-to-read individual LEDs over each cartridge rather than the hard-to-read LCD display of the 2230. (There's a reason HP wanted to make changing cartridges quicker and easier.) The tray holds more paper (100 sheets of blank brochure paper, about 92 pages after one side has been printed.) Flimsy tray, though.

Paper feed is improved. The whole machine operates much quieter than the 2000C or 2230.

Do the pluses make up for the minuses? Not for me. To date, it appears that I'll get 1/4 the page count per cartridge as my 2000C. However, 20% of the ink was gone after the heads were initially charged, so it's a bit difficult to know for sure. I've kept a spreadsheet of ink usage since the 2000C, and I print primarily one 2-sided brochure, so even though my evaluation is based on 8-10 years of printer ownership, my printing application has been quite consistent.

Print quality is better than earlier HPs, but not stunningly so. I've printed one 4x6 print, and it's not as good as an Epson R800 or PhotoStylus 2000 or 2200 (own them). Print speed definitely is faster, at least 2X over the 2230 and 4X over the 2000C for my brochure (matte brochure, normal print settings).

Print driver is less intuitive and user-friendly than the 2230, in my opinion. The software wizards at HP still can't manage to deliver a print driver that will cancel out a print job. Same as with the 2230 and 2000. Why doesn't HP ask us users for what we'd like to see in a printer driver? The printer appears to clean and recharge the heads as unnecessarily frequent as before (on job cancel for example). My opinion of HP's ability to design a print driver isn't fit to print.

Bottom line: what can your pocketbook afford for consumables? I made a mistake I shouldn't have made -- I believed HP's hype that the K550 was an advancement over the previous printer series in terms of lowered ink consumption and cost. Carla Fiorina may be gone, but her legacy lives on. You'd think after three previous HPs of the same series, I'd learn to be wary, but I thought, maybe just maybe this time ... Just like Charlie Brown punting the football, with Lucy the placeholder.

This printer could be just right for you, but so far I'm disappointed.

I have always been a big advocate of HP printers, as having worked in the printer division, I saw the quality produced (5 years ago perspective).

I was very excited in getting the new K550, as I have business needs that this printer should fulfill. Plus, a collegue at HP gave it big reviews.

However, there are 2 things I'm finding frustrating.

1) The printer driver on the CD-ROM and HP website (FULL VERSION- 150 MB size) was acting like a VIRUS on my PC! I uninstalled the driver, and reinstalled, and the same issue took place- taking 95% of my computer resources! So I loaded the MINIMUM VERSION- 100 MB size) and the driver seems to work fine, however I do see a few items missing in the driver display that were in the full version.

However, at least my PC is working again!

2) The paper pick-up feeder is grabbing 2 pages at a time, and in other times is blasting pages through without printing. (The latter may be a function of MS Word)

Due to this, I find myself praying each time that I send a document to the printer to print!!!! Why should I wonder if it will print properly!

I hope there is a fix to the driver issue and and maybe the pickup problem.

At least that's my perspective,

A former HP'er

I only have my experience to share: out of the box, my K550 came with a defective black/yellow printhead. This printer, unlike the vast majority, uses separate printheads and ink cartridges. The theory goes that the printheads last far longer than the ink cartridges, and it should save the end user money by only replacing ink.

However, when you start with a bad printhead, you might just be out of luck. In addition, it is very difficult to find a local store that carries such an item in stock, without hunting it down. Major electronics and office supply retailers have told me that it is only available online, which is rather inconvenient if you consider the necessity of keeping basic printing in the office going.

I had a bad customer support experience with the company that manufactures this printer which included a non-English automated (yet good ol' fashioned) hang up after twenty minutes, and then another twenty minutes on hold with a real life person. Finally the online version of support was slow but friendly though ultimately unable to help.

Therefore, I cannot recommend this printer out of my own experience, as the defective black/yellow printhead, lack of local availability for parts, and poor customer service made for quite a poor (albeit shortlived) experience.

While the HP K550 has outstanding print quality and is blazingly fast, very poor quality control, bungling customer service and major design flaws render it a failure.

Right out of the box, we were hit with the now-familiar refrain of a bad black print head. As one familiar with occasionally defective hardware, I thought little of it and contacted HP support. After over an hour of having me jump through hoops, the CS representative finally had to concede that I was correct and that my printer had the same problem afflicting thousands of others. I gave them my shipping information and they assured me that I would have a new print head right away.

A week later, after no print head arrived, I once again contacted HP CS, and asked about the replacement parts. They assured me that it would ship right away and I soon received an email confirming shipping and thought little of it.

Another week later, with still no print head, I contacted HP CS again. They researched the order and found that they had shipped it to the wrong country. Not county, mind you, COUNTRY. OK, fine, they'll ship another...

They did so after another week passed and after four more days, I got the print cartridge. Grand total days putting off major projects: 29.

This would all be a bit more understandable if the printer did not also possess several other design issues:

1. One of the worst-designed and unreliable paper feed mechanisms I've ever had the misfortune to deal with. Paper jams are very common and the inaccessible feed roller system make clearing them a major undertaking.

2. The printer's re-start time is horrific; after a cold power-up, the machine has to cycle through numerous time-consuming self-tests. This is not conducive to saving energy and these days, should be considered a form of industrial eco-crime.

3. On top of all this, the machine makes occasional horrific grinding noises during self-test, grinding teeth off the transport belt.

I sincerely hope that this lemon will last long enough to amortize 50% of my investment so that I can justify donating it to some poor victim, err... charity. Alas for the days of my trusty 940C and woe be unto me for trading it away for this beastly concoction of cobbled-together detritus...

I am sick at heart to have bought this printer before reading these reviews. I also have the same yellow/black printhead problem - straight out of the box and it failed to work. I have bought my last HP product. You can fix the problem by first shaking and tapping the dud yellow/black printhead and then, repeatedly in my case, cleaning the printheads using the HP utility kit that comes on the CD (it should automatically install). Three times I cleaned the printheads going through levels 1 to 3 each time. It is a great way to waste expensive ink. HP agreed to send me a replacement printhead, which was no concession since the priner is less than a month old, but after nearly four hours messing around and putting through two calls to HP support, I was exasperated. Truly this model is to be avoided. If it was a car, it would be subject to immediate recall. There was a time when HP was the gold standard in printers. No more it seems.

I just got this yesterday (06-16-06) and so for it hasn't printed anything

in black. In the past 21 hours I spent 3 hours with HP, most of it on hold. Before calling HP I had already did all of the recommend setup and maintenance. I came to the concluesion that the Y/B pin head was not working. When I finaly was able to talk with a human who was in the right

dept. I told her what I had done and ask for a new print head. After 11/2 hours they agreed that I was right and they will send me a new pin head,however it will take a week to get it.

I am not without a printer, hooked back up my old relibable HP 895cxi.

Keep tuned for the continuing story.

Drivers loaded first time no problem. I was printing in less than ten minutes out of the box. I've got a year and a half old computer with XP Pro. Printer is a little larger than most non "all in one" machines. Ink usage so far is not quite what HP claims but very good. ( note, check the settings, docs in 300dpi are still very good, at higher settings excellent,and compare to laser quality.) Prints very fast, good clear docs. It can print a decent picture, but that's not what this unit was built for. I use it for contracts and other docs. Have had NO problem cancelling print jobs. If you glance at the manual, and don't have too many other problems already with your computer this is a document printing monster, and I've been very happy with it for a month now. I've got about 700 pages thru it with ZERO problems.

I was attracted to this printer by its speed, and the fact that a duplexer can be added.

The first disappointment came when, after less than 150 pages printed, the black toner began running low. During setup, the print head alignment process uses a RIDICULOUS amount of ink, so that may have contributed to it.

But the main problem was that, using regular Staples-brand 24-lb. paper, this printer constantly misfed. Two, three, up to SIX sheets would get pulled out of the tray at once, resulting in very inconsistent printing to say the least.

Stay away from this printer. Don't be fooled by the speed and slick design. If you can't print more than 10 pages without a misfeed, then what's the point?

I am on my fourth warranty replacement. I chose this printer because it had the following features: available additional paper trays, duplexing, wireless, and networking. The print quality is excellent but three printheads have failed on me (always the yellow / black one) and the paper feeding from the additional tray is not very reliable. I would LOVE to believe in the product but I just can't. I know this is not a very technical review but 20+ hours total spent on the phone with HP customer support and countless instances of them sending the wrong item (magenta blue printhead instead, sending the printer but not the heads, etc.) have me beat! Good luck to anybody who purchases one.

Firmware is a small piece of software the manufacturer of a product like this includes in one of the many chips in an electronic device. The firmware controls - sometime in conjunction with the products driver software - how the product works.

The larger the number of updates the more likely it is that the product has had (and probably will have) serious technical problems that can lead to malfunctions or simple inconveniences.

This printer had 13 firmware updates, a sign of numerous problems the manufacturer tried to fix with what comes out to "Band Aid" patches. Again, 13 UPDATES - an incredible large number for a device as simples as a printer. The previous reviewers who gave the printer 5 stars must have been incredibly lucky indeed.

I was not as lucky. Although the printer seemed to work fine at the beginning - most do - problems arose quickly with the print quality. Black ink was not printing at all and I had to follow detailed and tedious instructions to clean the print heads. Now, the paper - the HP brand of paper - jammed in the printer three time, causing the print heads to be damaged - a replacement cost of almost as much as the printer itself ($120.00).

My recommendation: Stay away from HP products at all - especially now that HP has to recuperate the costs of its `merger' with Compaq (which usually is achieved by reducing the quality of products).