HP C5180 printer, £49.99 Tesco in-store

meester · 6 July 2008 at 11:37PM

This is an all-in-1 printer designed for excellent photo printing.
It uses the excellent 6-ink 363 series of cartridges.

According to my printer cost analysis this is by far the cheapest way to print photos at home

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=612353

It's a much better product in terms of printing than the C5280 model.

Bargain - I picked one up in Tesco yesterday, I guess all Extra stores that will have them.

Lord_Jason_The_Invincible · 7 July 2008 at 9:06AM

I got one of these for that price about 3 weeks ago... you're right - it's the best value-for-money printer out there at the moment and you can print/scan directly from a range of memory cards...

Beware however if you are thinking of using this as a network printer (it has an ethernet port to connect directy to your router) - the drivers for Windows Vista are rubbish and buggy! I'm a software developer by trade and had an inordinate amount of difficulty of getting this working - so I dread to think how the lay man would cope!

Other than that small gripe - the print quality is fantastic for the money paid and you can connect it directy to your computer via usb.

:beer:
Jason

meester · 7 July 2008 at 9:48AM

Lord_Jason_The_Invincible wrote: »

I got one of these for that price about 3 weeks ago... you're right - it's the best value-for-money printer out there at the moment and you can print/scan directly from a range of memory cards...

Beware however if you are thinking of using this as a network printer (it has an ethernet port to connect directy to your router) - the drivers for Windows Vista are rubbish and buggy! I'm a software developer by trade and had an inordinate amount of difficulty of getting this working - so I dread to think how the lay man would cope!

What problems did you have?

I just installed the software and it worked. Only problem was the Photosmart Essential hung when scanning one of my directories of photos because one of the photos was corrupt.

Other than that small gripe - the print quality is fantastic for the money paid and you can connect it directy to your computer via usb.

For most home users USB and printer sharing will be easiest, but I just plugged mine in over ethernet to my router and it works.

I have to say the UI of the printer is streets ahead of my old Brother all-in-1.

Sid_Harper · 7 July 2008 at 10:19AM

Do the ink/heads dry out beyond ever recovering to original standard if not used for a while? That's why I dropped using inkjets but could do with a photo/CD printer for very occasional use

meester · 7 July 2008 at 12:04PM

Sid_Harper wrote: »

Do the ink/heads dry out beyond ever recovering to original standard if not used for a while? That's why I dropped using inkjets but could do with a photo/CD printer for very occasional use

It has some sort of special ink recycling technology that means it doesn't waste ink/need to prime itself regularly. Not sure if that translates into longer lasting ink or not.

Sid_Harper · 7 July 2008 at 2:08PM

Thanks meester - your other thread was seriously comprehensive! Just thinking if I should be getting those - just need to check which use these 363 carts and can print direct onto CDs/DVDs!

Ted_Hutchinson · 8 July 2008 at 9:17AM

I've phoned my local Tesco Extra's (Grimsby Cleethorpes S!!!!horpe Peterborough) and none of them have this printer so not all Extra's have them.

Lord_Jason_The_Invincible · 8 July 2008 at 10:32AM

meester wrote: »

What problems did you have?

I just installed the software and it worked. Only problem was the Photosmart Essential hung when scanning one of my directories of photos because one of the photos was corrupt.

For most home users USB and printer sharing will be easiest, but I just plugged mine in over ethernet to my router and it works.

I have to say the UI of the printer is streets ahead of my old Brother all-in-1.

The problem I experienced was with Windows Vista - the driver software installed perfectly but I found that no prints were being sent to the printer.
To resolve this - I had to un-install the printer and re-install it using the Printers > Add new Printer function and selecting the existing driver from the selection.
The Digital Imaging monitor now won't auto-detect the printer on the network, but I can print ok... the solution wasn't at all obvious and as I say - it is specific to Windows Vista 32 and having this printer on a network.
I also have Vista 64 on another machine - but haven't attempted to install the printer on this machine - so would be interested to hear from anyone who has done that...

:beer:
Jason

Ted_Hutchinson · 9 July 2008 at 8:53AM

As I was a bit dissapointed that my local Tesco Extra's didn't have this in stock I searched Amazon and found Demand-IT selling a NEW not used or refurb for £44.99 with Postage & Packing: £4.99 so about the same price in total. But no clubcard points of course.

Although they haven't got any more listed at that price at the moment it may be worth keeping an eye of Amazon to see they return.

Ted_Hutchinson · 10 July 2008 at 8:50PM

The HP C5180 arrived this morning and I've just set it up and printed my first photos. I'm very impressed with the print quality. It's fine for what I want. Many thanks to meester for pointing out this was a bargain price printer that prints at a reasonable price per print.
I didn't have any problems setting it up. It prints fine both directly from a card and from the PC. Will try some scanning next and see how fast it is on black and white.

HP C5180 printer, £49.99 Tesco in-store

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