My preliminary calculations suggest a large tax refund this year and I'm considering replacing my trusty DesignJet 130 with a HP Designjet Z3200 (24" model)
Many here are much more familair with wide format ink jets than I am and I'd appreciate any comments or critisims of my proposed purchase. Also recommendations of good on-line dealers would be helpful. It's easy to find sellers and prices with search engines, but they don't always give you enough data to select an appropriate seller.
Excellent choice, but also depends on what you print. If you print black-and-white, the HP is a no-brainer. If your work is color critical, HP's built in spectrophotometer and "push button" automatic paper profiling is a major time and labor saver. I've been printing on my 44" z3100 in a commercial environment for almost 5 years now. In all that time, no clogs. Back when I had Epsons I spent a lot of time and a ton of ink just dealing with clogs. The HP is a dream come true in regard to complete absence of clogs ruining prints. The printer is frugal with ink, and the ink isn't priced through the roof.
Almost no problems in almost 5 years. Print software / driver is kinda quirky sometimes, but effective. If your z3100, or for you, z3200, has been sitting for a few days or week without printing, I recommend powering off the printer, unplugging it for a few minutes, and powering back on before printing. Seems to solve any of those quirky problems.
I do not print much on sheets, but I've not had the problems others seem to have had with loading sheets. If you are going to print on sheets, you just need to go into the menu and disable some of the more annoying functions that make the printer very "skew sensitive" regarding sheets. Once those options are disabled, loading sheets has been no problem for me.
Now, the biggie: After using my z for almost 5 years, would I buy it again? 100% yes. Probably the single best purchase I ever made for my business or my work as an artist. Actually watching / waiting for a price drop or rebate deal on a z3200 as my printing volume has increased to the point I could use a second one.
I purchased my z3100 printer from Newegg. Inks and papers I get mostly from IT Supplies.
Good luck!