Assistance with buying an old HP500 42" roll feed printer

[tc3dcad60731]

Hey ya'll

My old printing company that I used is going out of business and they asked me if I was interested in buying the old HP500 42" roll feed printer. It does 1200x600 dpi in color and B&W and I have seen the quality from it. Further, If I bought it my printing costs would be cut in half!!!! My concern is that it only has the 4 months left to the original 1 year waranty and it is costly to extend that out meaning $500/year which means my cost savings just went out the window.

Does ANYONE have comments about the quality of this printer, the life span, maintenance costs, or the same for any other printer??? I do not want to pay money out on this if it would be better spent on a different model. I did find out that refurb printer costs are high so I feel like I would be getting a good deal here.

Thanks in advance!

[Mike.Perry]

Hi

Please note I have *moved* this thread from the AutoCAD Plotting (http://forums.augi.com/forumdisplay.php?f=34) forum to this one, as I feel this particular forum is a more appropriate place for such a topic.

Thanks, Mike

Forum Moderator

[rkmcswain]

We have two of them. The color quality is subpar compared to a 1050CP. We only have them because of the 42" roll, and very rarely use them for color. BW is ok.

We have never placed a service call for either one. One is 5.5 years old, the other 5.0 years old.

[tc3dcad60731]

5 years and no service call! That's not bad.
Most sheets are B&W except the iso's on elevations sheets and of course the occasional large print visualization.

Thanks!!!

[rkmcswain]

5 years and no service call

That may have been a bit misleading. They are not used continually each day. The majority of our printing (±7,000 sq ft/day) is done on an Oce TDS800.

[jaberwok]

I know several companies that are using the 500 - none has any complaint.

[tc3dcad60731]

Well we do all of our work and save it in dwf format for presentations or print 11x17 for check prints. ONLY the final prints are done in 24x36 and since we are a small firm we are not talking whole lot at the time. Maybe 50 sheets a month.

Again, thanks guys.

[aggockel50321]

Have used our 500ps for the past five years at approximately your output (50 per mo). No service contract on the machine & no problems.

[tc3dcad60731]

This is all great news and greatly appreciated feedback!!!

Now, I just have to figure out how I am going to pay since he was willing to finance it out and now he wants pymnt in full because of his business partner wanting to be done with it all.

Again, Thank you all!!!!