Please help me fall back in love with my HP B9180 foto printer.

[Pacific Photos]

Yeah guyz, just jonesing on the new large format printers and the Canon rebates...lookin' at my wallet...no dough.  How cum when the good deals are all goin' down  you dont have any "dough".
A lot of you guyz have been setting me straight on what could be my next purchase....the quality of the new stuff is mind boggling and the prices are geared for "the Great Recession" ....well, almost!
 So how cum do I not like what I got?  Be content marty...make it work...be happy ?
   I guess it might be because my lil sweetheart, the fabulous HP B9180 is using a lot more ink on it's daily cleaning cycles?? I guess I am falling out of love with the escalating cost of those #38...27micro litre cartridges ($41.with "free shipping" from hp)   ....maybe I am falling out of love with the Hp B9180 cuz Snow Leopard kinda "orphaned" me with junky software, even on the "Updates"!   maybe I be falling outa love with her, cuz she is developing quirks and noises at 624 total prints thru put!!
my dear Sicilian Wife hopes that I fall back in love with the HP B9180, cuz that is what we got...... love the one yer with!
  Have any of you guyz found modified ink carts?  Like really tall suckers? that stick out (does not matter for "looks").....  I think I could fall back in love with this little sweetheart, The Hp B9180... if I could solve the small inkcarts 'boogaloo'.?? 
2.) Is it traditional, that a printer manufacturer starts us out with fairly good deals on the ink carts, then like a "dope dealer"...starts raising the costs a bunch???   These HP#38 Vivera Pigment ink carts started out at $ 27. bucks in '06...now at about $ 40.+??  same with Epson and Canon?
You guyz set me straight man?

[DarkPenguin]

You ask the impossible of us.

[Pacific Photos]

Yeah Dark Penguin...you are correct....it is a hard question or two or three.... I've followed your posts and I think you have been there * the  printer enigma "place"*,  as well?
   Which of the "big three printers" could you brag honestly about for day in day out reliability, ink consumption, available parts for repair...non arrogant engineering...?  Or have you like some, given up on trying to keep a printer going, hassle the new operating system snafu's,  and farm your work out to a photo lab??

[DarkPenguin]

Yeah Dark Penguin...you are correct....it is a hard question or two or three.... I've followed your posts and I think you have been there * the  printer enigma "place"*,  as well?
   Which of the "big three printers" could you brag honestly about for day in day out reliability, ink consumption, available parts for repair...non arrogant engineering...?  Or have you like some, given up on trying to keep a printer going, hassle the new operating system snafu's,  and farm your work out to a photo lab??

I've never had a printer that didn't eventually drive me insane.  Right now my Epson 2880 has been totally painless.  But then I haven't added up the ink costs.

I loved my B9180 but it just became more and more troublesome.  When the ink jumped to the near $40 range I ripped it out of my office and chucked it in the basement.  If ink was going to be expensive I was going to use something a little less cantankerous.

I've heard, btw, that the epson 3880 can be had for peanuts (like $800 range).  If this is true you might consider it since it has big cartridges and would eventually pay for itself in ink.

[Patricia Sheley]

2880vs3880= approx $1.27 per ml of ink vs $0.75 per ml or so...so does add up in savings quickly (as per Andrew Rodney estimations)  He also has made some nice arguments of late for printing from the print module in LR3 as opposed to from PS print...referring broadly to the Epson printers but I guess more and more the Canon also..

[natas]

If the cost of ink is your main issue then go get the third party ink from Hefger media (I have some I could sell you if interested). I am not big on third party inks, but these guys did there research and produced an awesome third part ink. I know longer have a B9180 since I bought a Epson 7900

[Mark Lindquist]

Try cleaning the NEDD.  I had 3 of these each consecutively replaced by HP within a 30 day period.  Last one, I sent back to the reseller unopened.  Oddly, recently, I picked up one on Craig's List as a giveaway because it was using too much ink.  I cleaned everything worked on it and got it going but it started SUCKING the ink down and I mean SUCKING.  I finished a quick job of 50 8x10 prints and unplugged it.  The NEDD had corroded to the point it's continually cleaning.  It's a real shame too because overall it was a great little printer and built like a tank.  Perfect prints when working right.  HP blew it on this one unfortunately.  I will toss this one in recycle and won't look back unfortunately.  With my Z3100 44" things are still going well - now THAT is a great printer.

Good luck with the B9180 - you'll need it...

[DarkPenguin]

First time I cleaned the NEDD I couldn't find it.  There was nothing metal where it was supposed to be.  Or so it appeared.  After cleaning EVERYTHING in the area I finally found it under a strata of ink.  Took forever to get it clean.  Helps tons, too.  The other thing to keep in mind is to never do two cleaning cycles in a row with the HP.  If it is still clogged after the first one wait a bit (1/2 hour) and try again.