HP Color LaserJet 3600

...luckily we now have the HP Color LaserJet 3600. We got the printer a few months ago now so we have had a fair bit of experience and carried out all the routine maintenance you would expect to within the life of a printer.

Now I can't tell you anything about the packaging as we have a separate department who deal with all our technology bits, so they received the printer, unpacked it and brought it up to our office. What I can tell ...
...before but then we phoned HP and requested an engineer come and sort out this problem. The printer has a one year warranty with a response time of the next day. We reported the problem on Thursday and the engineer arrived on Monday lunchtime, not quite the next day but a fairly good response time, besides which the printer was still functioning, just about.
The engineer took the printer apart, removed all the trays and cartridges, etc. After ... more

I have been working in a County Council office for nearly eighteen months now; when I started we had a fifty year old black and white printer which sometimes printed and sometimes just add the paper but luckily we now have the HP Color LaserJet 3600. We got the printer a few months ago now so we have had a fair bit of experience and carried out all the routine maintenance you would expect to within the life of a printer.

Now I can't tell you anything about the packaging as we have a separate department who deal with all our technology bits, so they received the printer, unpacked it and brought it up to our office. What I can tell you though is what's included in the box.
- 1 USB lead (2m long)
- 1 black toner cartridge (Q6470A) will last up to 6000 sheets
- 1 cyan toner cartridge (Q6471A) will last up to 4000 sheets
- 1 yellow toner cartridge (Q6472A) will last up to 4000 sheets
- 1 magenta toner cartridge (Q6473A) will last up to 4000 sheets

When the printer arrived I thought it looked large and bulky (the dimensions are width 40cm, depth 45cm and height 40cm). Although the printer is legitimately hefty I have got used to the size and shape of it. The previous printer we had was probably of similar dimensions but never seemed so big as we never had to move it. The printer was also quite heavy at 27.1kg though this is not really a problem as we do not have to shift it around the office.

The connection was not difficult as we simply had to disconnect the previous printer and re-attach the new printer using the same cables. The printer was connected through a network cable and to a power lead. It was then ready to go, this was only possible because of the previous work of the IT specialist department. However if you were to use it at home or in a small office there are 2 USB ports built into the computer which could be used to connect it. The printer does not include wireless technology so must be connected via cables in order to print.

If you were considering buying one of these for your home or business you will need the following system requirements.
- 360MHz processor
- 64MB RAM
Varying levels of memory and processing power will be required dependant on the operating system you are using though this printer will work with Microsoft Windows or Macintosh Operating Systems,
- Windows 98 - Pentium - 90 MHz - RAM 16 MB
- Windows ME - Pentium - 150 MHz - RAM 32 MB
- Windows 2000 - Pentium - 133 MHz - RAM 64 MB
- Windows XP - 233 MHz - RAM 64 MB
- Windows 2003 Server - 550 MHz - RAM 128 MB
- MacOS - HD 160 MB
None of this was a particular concern of mine as pieces of equipment such of these are purchased by the Council on the basis of our system.

Once the printer was set up we all made some changes to the default settings. We set the printer to print all pages duplexed in order to save paper and also changed the colour settings to greyscale in order to save the colour cartridges. These few clicks before using the printer have probably saved the office quite a lot considering the cost of the cartridges and the packs of paper.

Now, to begin with all was rosy with this printer. We used it without fault for a few weeks unfortunately then things started to go wrong. One day out of the blue the printer started to spit out pieces of paper which nothing had been printed on but which had obviously been mangled through the printer. With some closer inspection we found that one of the print cartridges had exploded within the printer, the rollers and the paper tray were all filled with magenta powder, It didn't take long to clear it up, empty the paper tray of powder and run a few sheets through to get rid of the pink streaks that were being left on the prints.
For a little while everything then seemed to be fine except the magenta cartridge was now very low and soon needed replacement. Unfortunately the very same thing happened again only a few weeks later, we did the same as we had before but then we phoned HP and requested an engineer come and sort out this problem. The printer has a one year warranty with a response time of the next day. We reported the problem on Thursday and the engineer arrived on Monday lunchtime, not quite the next day but a fairly good response time, besides which the printer was still functioning, just about.
The engineer took the printer apart, removed all the trays and cartridges, etc. After hours of tinkering the decided that the black cartridge had initially been inserted incorrectly which had meant that when paper passed the cartridges it became lodged and created friction with the magenta cartridge which had caused it to explode. This seemed a little strange to me as we had replaced the black cartridge in between the two separate explosions of the magenta cartridge.
The nice HP man did arrange to take the printer away and a new one be brought as a replacement. This arrived on Friday after the engineer had been on Monday. We thought that this was a reasonable time for delivery.

Some of the nice features about this printer are that there is a built in LCD display which clearly tells you any relevant information, when duplexing the information on the screen tells you not to grab the paper, when more paper is needed this is also shown on the screen, etc. There are four coloured stickers below the screen and when the printer is idle the levels in each cartridge are displayed. When cartridges reach a certain level messages appear on the screen recommending that new cartridges are ordered and subsequently when they need to be replaced. The final feature which I think is rather cute and frequently occurs in our office is that if the collecting tray where the prints are released becomes too full a message is displayed on the screen and printing ceases until the tray is cleared.

The printer can print 17 pages per minute in either black and white or colour, which I think is rather impressive turnaround time for colour but rather disappointing for black and white. However it does not pose a problem in the office as this is the best printer and people are willing to wait for quality over quantity. The maximum resolution in either black and white or colour is 600 x 600 dpi, I don't really understand how this compares to other printers but what I will say is that the definition and clarity produced by this printer are exceptional.

The printer will work in temperatures between 10°C and 27°C and I have no idea what happens outside of these temperature ranges as this has not yet occurred within our office. The printer will also work with 10-70% humidity which should never cause a problem in this country. The printer can sometimes become rather noisy if for instance hundreds of sheets are being printed, apparently reaching a maximum sound emission of 55 dBA and even when idle the sound emission is 39 dBA.

Another thing to consider before purchasing one of these is the power consumption. The maximum power consumption is apparently 335 Watts when operating and 48 Watts when idle. Again, this was of no concern to me as I won't be paying the bills but if I were a small business I presume that this may be slightly more important.

The Council usually buy all our supplies and equipment such as this from Lyreco but as this is all done centrally I don't know exactly how much this printer cost the office but I did have a look at the HP website. The printer can be purchased for £399 excluding VAT, or £468.83 including VAT. The cartridges are available for £83 excluding VAT, or £97.52 including VAT, each of the colour cartridges is thought to last 4000 sheets (based on 5% coverage) while the black cartridge should last 6000 (but this is again based on 5% coverage). To me this does seem rather expensive however it would appear slightly more fair when considering the number of sheets which will be produced. I think in our office we change the black cartridge once every two months, meaning we print 3000 pages a month, or approximately 100 sheets per day. I think this is a realistic estimate of the printing within my office and so we probably do get close to 6000 sheets per black cartridge.

The reason we got this printer was because we needed a colour printer which could duplex. This printer does these two principle functions while looking relatively stylish. I think it is in fact quite compact when you see the size of the cartridges and the rollers, etc. I think it is a high quality printer but I do not feel it would be appropriate for home use, I certainly would not buy one for myself. I do, however, think that this is an ideal business printer as it can just be used for black and white printing or for those business which require a great deal of colourful material. I don't think that there is any office that could not benefit from one of these as there have been up to seventeen people using this printer and it has never struggled or strained with the workload. I think it's great, it's easy to load the paper and easy to follow the on screen menus if ever you need help carrying out any of the routine maintenance. Other members of staff thought this was such a good printer we now have a second one in our office.

And finally here's what HP think of it.
"In today's competitive business environment, color is an essential component to success. That's why you need a tool that can easily and effectively help you promote your business and increase profits. HP can provide you with just that tool - the HP Color LaserJet 3600 Printer series. Produce vibrant colors and realistic images on a variety of HP color LaserJet papers with HP's system of enhanced color technologies including new HP ColorSphere toner with patented additives. Create reports, presentations, and flyers on your own with HP In-House Marketing Assistant Software. Output is delivered quickly and reliably with speeds up to 17 ppm for color and black-and-white pages. The media type sensor automatically adjusts print settings to optimize the print quality for your different paper types, so you don't have to. And, the printer and supplies have been meticulously designed with your utmost convenience in mind. Here's a reliable, easy-to-use printer that's sure to bring you success."

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Sorry this review ended up so long, I started writing and just carried on and on, I hope it is still helpful?!

Although these printers have their fair share of advantageous features they simply were not man enough for so many prints. We have now replaced several of these printers with one industrial copier and printer. Thus I think that if you have a smallish office and don't print hundreds of pages a day I think that this printer would be great, if a little expensive 

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