Why I will never buy another HP printer again. L26500 nightmare

[Sign Eagle]

We have had a 25500 in production for about 14 months and had problems twice which were both taken care of very quickly, 1-2 days. We bought at the end of 2011, had looked at Grimco, but there were a lot of problems noted here about them at the time and many others praising Advantage. As a result, we went with Advantage, our sales rep is very knowledgeable about the machine and has been most helpful. Our first machine was a 48" Mutoh about 10 years ago, the local sales rep didn't know squat and at that time Mutoh refused to communicate with the end user. We had a ton of problems and in spit of the local people and Mutoh we got 10000 square feet of material out in 3-1/2 weeks. After another 2 months we said, replace the machine or we'll see you in court. The machine was replaced and the new one ran without any service problems for more than 3 years when we replaced it with a Falcon II which has been running for 7 years now with just nominal maintenance. We really like the speed, quality and instant dry of the latex.

 

[mlackerman]

I don't know if you have resolved your problem with your L26500 but I had a couple of thoughts. I gather that your issue is that the printer keeps reporting an error asking you to lubricate the rails and that it just keeps asking and asking even after you go through the procedure. We had this problem. The first recommendation was to upgrade to the latest firmware, which is 8.0.0.3. However, this did not solve our problem. It looks like there is a bug in the system where is it not properly clearing this message and the next recommendation was to wipe the EEPROM, which sets the machine back to its just installed state. We did this about three weeks ago and have not had the problem since. I could tell you how to do this but I recommend that you get HP's OK first before going ahead. I should mention that while having this problem we just ignored the error and kept printing. The print quality was fine.

With respect to support, we have been reasonably happy with the support provided by HP. No dissing Grimco (that's where we bought our printer too), but I wouldn't (and don't) involve them in any problems with the printer. I go directly to HP. I call the following number 1-800-334-5144. When the system asks for your handle, say "DesignJet", and when prompted give the model "L26500". I have called five or six times in the last 3-4 months and only once did I get someone that was not very familiar with the printer (and this one person still gave me some information that was helpful). I should also mention that HP reorganized their support in (I think) Sept-Oct 2012 because of problems and it is much better now.

Good luck,
Martin Ackerman
Signs By Tomorrow
Boise, ID

 

[Typestries]

We run multiple HP latex machines. We do get the oil rail error, but just ignore it till the job ends, then lube. We print a lot, and lube a few times a day if needed. And we keep head pads in stock and change them out frequently.

BUT, in reference to the other codes/issues....this may be silly, but did you look at your power source? The voltage? The phases? Are you on 3 phase? The config of your phases, and the voltage they carry, may be an issue. We have stepped phases here, so if you mix phases on a 2 pole machine, it makes a difference. Especially with computer stuff. Are your voltages consistent? You'd need a good meter to check. Try this, swap your cords, or move the machine to another location..... rule it out, and give yourself ammo with HP-hey, you never know.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

Can you get the oil pads separately? I was told they only come in some maintenance kit that is $250. (I'm happily running a 25500)

 

[BadAss]

Well I guess I am nt the only one. I have kept my mounth shut for a year, hoping the Co. I bought my Equipment from would take care of issues. They never did. There service was the worst, the owner knows nothing about the equipment he sells (yet he came out to work on it, and had the nerve to ask me what I thought should be done on parts I had no idea what they were) Well then they sell out to another company, I still had problems, they told me that the new company bought them out but not there problem anymore. My HP was bringing up errors and was down for 6 weeks, I left emails and phone messages every couple days as I am trying to be a bit more easy going, (used to would have beat someones ***) anyway after about 6 weeks of this I get an email say "you know you calling and emailing all the time is not helping to resolve the problem, we are working on you behalf to get this fixed for you even though with the new ownership we are not responsible" and said they had a request in with HP on the problem but have not heard back. Well at that point I called HP directly thanx to the help of BigFish. They tell me that everytime someone calss about a machine it is put in the system by serial number. Well I give the tech the number and he tells me that the machine has NEVER had anyone call about it thriugh tech, But he was ready to help, had me printing in 15 minutes. But since that time the amount of problems with this machine has been overwhelming. Now out of warrenty it is $40 everytime we call tech support. Spent last week with both my Magenta and LT Magenta printing the same color. Finally fix that and now Aerosol fan failure and $460 to have a tech come fix it. Will never by HP again and will never to business with Large Fromat Printers (Now TORYON). Lies, and B.S. Kept quite over this for over a year at this point don't care and people need to know how a company treats their clients. The list of problems is actually longer, but don't need to fill up more space. Just a note to let you all know that I would have probably lost my business during this ordeal if not for Chris (CDIESEL) in helping me fix problems and printing things I couldn't with my Eq. down. So thanx to him and to the knowledge from Signs101 members. Mykel

 

[mgcustomgraphics]

buy mimaki... true workhorse

 

[MikePro]

buy mimaki... true workhorse

+1
although I'm a hypocrite, recently purchasing an HP L26500, but I am still currently running my Mimaki JV3-160sp and will be alongside the new printer for quite some time.

this thread has me worried... hopefully I'll have better luck wrangling this beast starting next week!

 

[BadAss]

Can you get the oil pads separately? I was told they only come in some maintenance kit that is $250. (I'm happily running a 25500)

Hey Matt , yes you can get the pads. It is a kit. I listed that in another post about the rail lubrication. It's like $30

order Part number for carriage felt kit: Q6651-60081 HP parts direct ordering: 800-227-8164

 

[particleman]

I've seen a handful of these in production now over the years. In my opinion they don't touch the reliability that was the JV3. If and when they are running they are sweet, quality is amazing. The shop I used to work for though, we constantly fought little issues with these machines.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

Hey Matt , yes you can get the pads. It is a kit. I listed that in another post about the rail lubrication. It's like $30

order Part number for carriage felt kit: Q6651-60081 HP parts direct ordering: 800-227-8164

Thanks for the info!!!

 

[Freese]

In my opinion, the L26500 is a step in the right direction, but still has their share of bugs and issues.

 

[tollerdad]

Our L25500 has been a great machine. I think they made some big changes on the 26500 so it's almost like a first model run.

 

[ProWraps]

our three 25500's have made us a lot of money. they are like any other printer. you just need to get to know how to use them properly. that includes their own set of issues and attributes.

i think a lot of the problems people have with printers is that they dont do enough volume to ever really figure out what and how to use the equipment.

 

[JoeBoomer]

Owned both

My last shop had a L25500 for about 10 months. Great Machine! It was a workhorse. Came from HP 9000s (solvent).


Switched jobs about 6 months ago. Have had L26500 for about 3 months now. Great Machine. Seems to take a little more to get profiles dialed in, but it's faster, stronger, brighter than l25500.

Both latex machines are great, low maintenance machines (knock on wood). Coming from solvent world (lots of problems), both latex printers have been awesome.

 

[Typestries]

I have a couple of 25's and we'll be adding two more this spring. Great machines! I've had every matter of solvent printers going back to the Océ Arizonas, this is the best iteration of a 60" printer we have yet to own.