HP Smart Tank 6001 Wireless All-in-One Ink Tank Printer, Scanner, Copier with 2 Years of Ink Included, Best-for-Home, Cartridge-Free Refillable, AI-Enabled (2H0B9A)

Who uses a printer besides me?
I’ve been using home printers for over 40 years now, most of them HP. At one time I have used Cannon, Epson, Lexmark, Brother and probably others but usually HP most of the time. My last printer was HP, about a $650 one, duplex, color, scanner, copier that worked fine once it warmed up but that was OK since it was older and worked reliably, not too hard on cartridges, so I made allowance for the warm up time. It finally quit, signed off with “Printer Error, Contact HP” on the screen. Of course there is no calling HP unless you desire to engage a game of mental masturbation with Bots. I don’t know of any HP repair places for home equipment, although there may be some, there’s none within 60 miles of me. So I bought another printer, an Epson.I’m not clear who this printer was designed for; or the actual reality it was intended for. Someone was very proud of little blue strips of tape because 15 or 20 blue tape strips were everywhere inside and out, some difficult to get to or completely remove since they would rip, leaving tape mini strips. What was the reason for all the tape? Evidently the designer was afraid many of the little brittle plastic pieces were just too loose, possibly detach in transit, get lost in the device or snap apart and wedge down in the innards, rendering the machine inert. Perhaps there’s a required quota of blue tape in some of the countries this printer is sent to, or possibly blue strips of tape is a sign of good luck, or deters evil sprits, or harbors a favorable sign of good crops this season, or blue tape is synonymous with blue ribbon, a sign of top quality in some places. I’ll never know because the Epson never worked. It sat mute. It did power on finally, but as a “wireless” device in a house overflowing with wireless devices it did not commune with anything I know of. Could it have mated with the garage door opener, ready to spray 3 color ink all over the door in the up position? Did the HVAC system tell it to sit down and shut up? There was a get started CD disc enclosed but it was obstinate, wouldn’t play or just blank. A “get started CD” in these times? Really? So the question remained: who was this printer designed for? Did the designer believe a customer would buy another Epson printer based on this experience?So I had to buy another, this time a HP. Opened the box top flaps and instantly wondered, again: What kind of folks package stuff this way? A for appearance F for functionality. Impossible to remove anything- the packaging is so tight. I paused to see different methods: foam endcaps could be 2 piece, tops and bottoms, so remove the tops and pull the printer out. Or a pre-attached lanyard to pull the whole business out of the box. Instead I held back the flaps, turned the box upside down and shook the printer out of the box, no biggie. HP must considers their printer to be better than Epson; only a few strips of blue tape verses the boo-koo strips on the Epson. And only a couple of cardboard spacers in the guts. HP uses the exact same method of ink storage however, must be a government thing; a rated plastic container with a nuke proof cap, vac sealed in poly vinyl for each of 4 bottles, need scissors to open. An unusual item in the HP is the print heads, one color one black, each sealed in aluminum foil plastic. Can’t miss where they go because orange plastic identifies rest in the locations. Theres more to the print heads locator however- it happens to be a whizz bang construct of several convoluted plastic shapes with metal inserts and metal screws, some numbers stamped in the various pieces, and even a bar code strip with a SN. This silly thing if pretty cool by itself. It obviously had a critical role to play somewhere along the line but not anymore; it’s a one timer, a trash icon is stamped on it. This curious piece comes out and 2 print heads go in.Like every other gadget this printer is wireless of course but also with a port for a connector, I know better than to buy one otherwise. So, plugged it in, connected the cable to the computer hub, loaded paper and clicked print. Printed front and back perfectly. Then it printed a test page on its own, I didn’t ask it to. Perhaps the printer is so proud of its capability its showing off. OK fine. Good printer! The box it was packed in barely held all the wrappers: styrofoam, ink bottle wrappers and seals, cardboard spacers, containers, plastic and of course the obligatory handouts of notices, regulatory statements, waste disposal instructions, various exposure warnings, FCC statements, chemical alarms, notice to users of the US telephone network (6 paragraphs) other caution statements, notes, advisories, battery warnings (what batteries?) and be careful! admonitions. In 10 different languages. I think there was a warranty slip of paper in with the other slips of paper, in other languages, not certain, as all that detritus crapola goes into the garbage first. And you may be comforted to learn that all the multitude of paperwork is not only good for the dozens of countries this printer may be shipped to but also good for the countless HP printers between the 660-670-, 710-720, 750, 6000, 7000, 7300 series models. I’m not impressed but good on HP!I’m glad HP is successful since that is a major factor contributing to the quality of THIS particular printer. Working thru all this minutia is not working like pouring concrete is working but, with all the capability and accomplishment of HP- someone somewhere has likely mentioned that a top quality color duplexing printer scanner copier, requiring no final assembly by the user and designed to last years with only ink bottles to replace would be a sure winner. A printer with only 3 steps out of the box: plug it in, fill the ink tanks, push print. Talk about building a forever base of loyal repeat customers! An entire generation would live and swear by such an appliance. But who uses a printer besides me?

In 2017 I bought an Epson ET-2850, because for years before that Epson never let me down and I was off of HP at the time. Anyway, things have really changed and that printer was a nonstop source of frustration.Fast forward 6 years and I had just had enough. Settled on the HP Eco Tank 6001, and it’s just so much better in every way. Prints much, much faster. It can do two sided printing. The WiFi connection is actually usable without jumping though hoops. Photo printing quality is on par but takes less than a quarter of the time.I can say setup wasn’t exactly a breeze and was a bit frustrating, but that’s a one time thing. Printer had to be online for the setup to complete.My printer’s IP is now blocked by my firewall. It will never speak to anything on the internet again. This ensures no unwanted firmware updates that disable functionality, which is apparently an issue some people have faced.The printer didn’t come with a USB cable but I had one lying around. It’s the old square type. When you set the printer up, you’re forced to “choose between USB and WIFI” and it disables whatever option you don’t choose. I was able to reenable the USB right after however, and both work fine side by side. This made my life a lot easier because printing from PCs is a pain over WiFi (can’t cross LAN segments) and printing over USB is nearly impossible for mobile devices.I can’t speak for ink costs as I’m not a heavy user, but once you’ve used an eco tank type printer, the idea of having to pay for cartridges every few months is just a bad memory. You are saving HUNDREDS of dollars.One of my main gripes with my old printer was trying to clean the print heads when nozzles clogged. At first it was possible, but it got to a point where nothing I did worked. If that ever happens with this printer, the print heads are replaceable, easily.

Love this printer. Great price point and solid performance after a really easy set up. Great colour output and print speed. Trays are a bit flimsy but acceptable at this price point. Now I want to see how long the ink lasts – if it lasts two years I’ll be happy but it’s easy to see HP makes their money when you buy their toner.

I had trouble with Wi-Fi/Bluetooth setup, but today it went well. I don’t know what I did wrong, but is working fine now.I use the printer frequently mostly personal. I also do things for others like helping them with income tax and always make copies. My biggest project is a memoir and will need to print numerous pages sometime. Since the printer hasn’t been here but a few days it hasn’t been tested.I used the scan feature, and copy and want to learn some of the shortcuts.Once I have time to do more I am sure I will be satisfied.Thanks