As inks go, this appears to be very good stuff. In fact, they say it's guaranteed to last 200+ years, although I'm not sure who around me will go ask for a free cartridge if my documents or photos only last 150 years. More to the point, it DOES look great.
On the other hand, these cartridges are around 30 bucks a piece and I need 8, so it rather irks me that the cartridges are so small. Perhaps that's a comment more appropriate for a review of the printer design, but it's worth noting here.
Also worth noting is that you SHOULD NOT immediately replace the ink cartridge in your HP B9180 when you get a message from it saying that this or that cartridge is about to run out. I say this because, when mine said that, I checked the little meter that tells you how much is left and it said 40% of the cartridge still had ink in it. 40%! To me, 40% is not "about to run out," but I did go ahead and buy an ink cartridge -I just held onto it until it really became obvious that it was no longer printing that color. Only then did I replace the cartridge, because doing otherwise is needlessly wasting money.
I'm not quite cynical enough to say that HP WANTS you to replace (and recycle) the ink cartridges prematurely, but it obviously would make them more money if you do. Just keep your eyes open and you'll be fine.
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I use these Vivera ink cartridges in my 13"X19" HP b9180 photo printer, which I purchased almost 5-years ago. The printer cost several hundred dollars and I've used thousands of dollars worth of ink for it in that time. I get beautiful large prints but at what cost?
Now for the reason for my low rating: When I first bought these cartridges I was paying about $25 or less for each expensive but tolerable. Now the price has risen to between $36 and $41 per cartridge. In 5-years? That's way beyond inflation. It's price gouging. You can't simply re-ink these cartridges since the printer/monitor must be calibrated and would yield strange results if you did not to mention print degradation with refilled ink. I've also found no after-market re-inked cartridges anyway even if I was interested in them. You are forced to buy genuine HP cartridges for it and HP controls the price, period.
I believe each of the eight cartridges holds 27-ML of ink almost a secret held by HP since the cartridge capacity is not written down anywhere on the packaging nor is it available on HP's site. A quick calculation gives approximately $1.40 per ML of ink. Compare that to the new Canon Pixma Pro-1 printer (soon to be released) that has 36 ML cartridges at $36 each (MSRP which means you can get it even cheaper) and it works out to about a buck or less per milliliter. So HP Vivera ink costs at least 40% more than equivalent Canon ink. Just guess what my next printer will be.
Best Deals for HP 38 Light Cyan Ink Cartridge in Retail Packaging
Amazon is a great source for these ink cartridges...I have a hard time finding these HP 38 cartridges at any of my local office supply stores, Amazon is just a click away!
Honest reviews on HP 38 Light Cyan Ink Cartridge in Retail Packaging
When you receive this HP cartidge, you will find it very easy to install on a B9180 printer. They just snap right in. I never have any problems with clogs or color. Matte Black does have a slightly different texture than other inks, so you can see where the matte black lies on photos.
My only negative comment is that the ink does not last anywhere near what HP claims. Typically I can get about 30-35 5x7s before needing to replace an ink cartridge. Since there's 8 cartriges I figure each 5x7 costs around $5 or more. I can no longer afford this so I will either stop printing, buy another printer, or get 3rd party ink even if it means some quality issues.
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As of this writing, the Matte Black and Yellow cartridges sold on Amazon are fulfilled by Wild Dog Knives. These two cartridges were 3-4 years past their expiration date. My B9180 printer will let me override the expiration warning, but HP says expired ink can damage the printheads. Although there is a place on Amazon's Web site that shows that the cartridges sold by WDK are expired, the main page for this product does not. So, I ordered the two cartridges without ever seeing ahead of time that they were expired. I have been pleased with my HP printer and the inks as far as picture quality goes, however I give this product a 3-star rating because it seems that the ink empties too quickly on the HP 38 cartridges. I've spent a lot of money on ink and seem to have too few photos to show for it. However, I don't know if Epson or Canon are any better at ink usage and cost.
