Epson R2880 vs. HP Pro B9180

Got my hands on a Epson R2880, to replace my HP B9180. I've seen several reviews pitting these two against eachother, but this is my 2c:

1. Print quality is very similar. The R2880 gives better B&W prints though and does 5760 DPI. The HP might be slightly better in bright colour, but it makes little difference in the real world in my opinion.
2. Set-up and maintenance is much better on the R2880. The B9180 needs ages to calibrate and align itself out of the box. The R2880 was ready to print in under 5 minutes. Very impressive.
3. Printing is quieter and the printer shakes less in case of R2880. Great if your desk isn't built to handle the massive shudder of the B9180.
4. The Epson printer driver is light-years ahead of HP. Options for widening the platen gap, ink drying time between strokes, Advanced B&W mode, etc. Coming from the HP which has little in the way of configurability, this is heaven.
5. The R2880 takes up quite a bit less space. This is primarily because it has a top feeder as opposed to a feeder-tray that stick out in the B9180's case. Also this top feeder allows for feeding some papers that the B9180 can only feed through the front-slot (especially thicker ones). If you do that on the HP you need lots of space behind the printer, so the paper can stick out from there while printing. The Epson has a similar option, but doesn't seem to require it as often, because the paper doesn't get bent back on itself during printing.
6. The Epson does require you to make a choice between glossy and matte black cartridges, with switching between them costing quite a bit of ink. The HP has no such requirement. 
7. The HP has a built-in network port, the Epson does not. Not an issue in my case, but it might be to somebody else. The Epson has three USB ports though. 
8. Although the HP is "built like a tank" (as is often pointed out), I'd say that underneath all that heavy metal it "feels" rather clunky. The soft whizzes produced by the Epson make it feel more like a precision instrument. Sure this is totally subjective, but I shelled out good money for each of these printers I should be allowed to be :-).
9. Not unimportant also, is that (in my case) I can get Epson ink cartridges from many places, whereas HP cartridges have proven to be both hard to find as well as expensive.
10. The Epson has a paper roll holder. Haven't tried this yet, but I'm looking forward to trying to print panoramas using this. 

In case anybody is wondering why I decided to do away with my B9180, here is why:

After a year I couldn't get a single good quality print to appear anymore. The heads were getting dirty constantly, resulting in banding and striping in each print. The repeated head cleaning that was needed (all the way up the highest level offered by the maintenance program) sucked up oodles of ink and still rarely managed to solve the problem. HP didn't want to do anything about it, since it was older than a year. "Pro" indeed. Finally it started splattering ink around like crazy. So much ink came out that I was covered by it when the paper came out: hands, arms, shirt, everything.

I was close to throw it out the windows, but in the end I bought a new set of printer-heads and a full set of ink-cartridges instead. Seriously hoping that this would result in proper prints again, even though this cost almost as much as a new printer. 

After aligning and calibrating I managed about 5 A4 prints before the symptoms developed all over again. A weekend of endless cleaning and calibrating later, the ink was all gone again and still the same symptoms. That's when I decided to throw in the towel.

Looking back at how many prints I made, and how many cartridges I bought over the duration, I'd have to conclude that the whole HP B9180 adventure has been extremely costly. Apart from the cost, the worst of it was that I just could not rely on the printer "just working" at all. Each time I printed it was a hit and miss affair. Instead of spending time studying the resulting prints and trying to find ways of improving them, I was struggling to produce any prints at all, let alone ones worthy of close scrutiny.

While I've read of people who are very happy with their B9180's, I am not one them. After messing about with it seriously (and believe me I tried everything) for a year, I have to say that a simply cannot recommend the HP Pro B9180 to anyone (Although I haven't used the HP Pro B8850, it is based on the same design so I would like to caution potential buyers of this printer as well). If you dig around a bit you'll find similar tales of woe regarding this printer, so at least I'm not alone. 

Whether the R2880 will end up doing better in the long run, I do not know. It does however give a much better impression out of the box on most fronts and Epson has of course been in this particular business (pigment inkjet printers for photography) for a lot longer than HP (the B9180 was their first attempt). I'll keep everybody (yes, all 3 people reading this blog!) up to date.

Comments

[James Duncan Davidson]

Sounds like you had the same basic issue I did. I think if the ink head clog detection sensor goes, it's pigpen time for the printer.

[Tammie Gardner]

I think you might find that your problems with the HP are actually an inkjet problem. I've had 2 Epson Stylus printers, do love the results, but have consistently had problems with ink streaks ... it might be more of an unalignment problem than anything. At any rate, i was considering a jump to HP with my next printer; considering your comments, i'll probably stick with Epson since, when it's working correctly it gives superb! fruit.

[Peter van den Hamer]

You may have needed to clean the so-called NESS ("spittoon") to get the HP B9180 working again. See my comparison of the same two printers: http://peter.vdhamer.com/2009/03/21/a3-photo-printer-mini-reviewa3-photo-printer-mini-review/

[Peter van den Hamer]

Correct URL:
http://peter.vdhamer.com/2009/03/21/a3-photo-printer-mini-review/

[Antonio Aguilera]

My HP b9180 was a disaster after two years and HP service worst, no solution after garantie. Last montths: much money in 4 printing news heads and tests and test, ink and ink. And finally I bought a Epson R2880.

[Joel Chudleigh]

in terms of ink cartridges which one is the better ? we have been using HP inks up till now, but I was just wondering..

http://www.euroffice.co.uk/hp-cartridges/

[reehasmith]

IF you are searching for best Ink cartridges or Toners than visit http://www.fazteck.co.uk/