Hewlett Packard Photosmart C6180 All-In-One InkJet Printer Review

I have rued the day I switched from Epson and bought the HP Photosmart C6180. At the time I need an All-in-One and Epson didn't have one. The HP C6180 has been nothing but trouble ever since. I have a home office with 3 Apple computers, as well as 2 PCs, with the C6180 as the network printer.

The C6180 is far from user friendly with unclear instructions from initial installation and set-up to use of the various features. There is even more unclear troubleshooting guidance. Customer support, what's that with HP? I have found the software to be unstable as well with some features working one time but not the next or suddenly packing it in all together. This often means having to uninstall/re-install if you want to get them back. Downloading updates, don't count on it since most updates generally fail.

Network use; fast and easy to set-up a wired network and the network sees and tests the printer and scanner fine. However, when it comes time to print it is hit or miss whether it actually will or not. Same with scanning documents to the computer.

Printing: often times you will find your documents in the print queue, having failed to print, with the printer in idle. Click on stop and then resume, the printer suddenly wakes up and decides to print. Often times it just fails necessitating quitting and restarting before it will print. Double-sided printing - good luck, hit or miss as well.

Quality of printing text leaves a lot to be desired. The text is far from sharp and clear and the ink tends to smear. Same applies to printing colours in text. I found the quality of printed images to be very good but again watch out for damp inks. Make sure you handle all printed pages by their edges when (and BIG if) they actually print and come out of your printer to avoid smudging. I'm not sold on the quality and stability of HP inks either. Even after they are well dry they will sometimes smudge. Final word on inks, this printer drinks them like there was no tomorrow and they aren't cheap so budget accordingly.

I also find the C6180 to be a bit on the noisy side. It seems spend a lot of time whirring to and fro even if not preparing to print. Printer can be switched on and sitting idle when suddenly it starts to whir back and forth for what ever reason who knows. One can only assume some of this involves priming the various inkjets and/or self-test routines. If so that would explain why it goes through ink so fast as well. It also contributes to very slow print times with lots of goings on before the print process actually starts. Sometimes it is so slow I can actually go and make a cup of tea or coffee before it finishes printing out a page, and that's not one with images on it.

Before anyone points a finger at Mac as being the culprit in some of these issues I use a couple of PCs in the office with the C6180 as well and experience the exact same problems. A couple of friends who also have the C6180 report having the exact same problems and a computer engineer friend reports the same from several of his clients.

Bottom line, avoid the HP C6180 at all costs. I can certainly say I will never ever buy another HP printer or product again.