A Review of the HP Deskjet 5550

For about two or three years I have owned an HP deskjet 5550. The Deskjet 5500 is a proficient printer which hasn’t caused me many headaches and is relatively simple to use. Overall, I would recommend the HP deskjet 5500 if you’re a home computer user not looking to do major printing and if you have some tolerance with occasional minor glitches.

I mainly print short documents, a few pages or so, but also every once and a while print documents over 100 pages in length. In both cases, the HP deskjet performs very well. The jam level has been almost non-existent. Spooling time is quick even though I’m not using the most up-to-date cables between my PC and the printer. I don’t know exactly how long the ink cartridge lasts, but I definitely don’t feel like I’m running to the store every month for one. In general, I am very satisfied with this printer.

But there are some glitches I feel I need to point out. Perhaps the most frustrating is the bizarre default printing the hp deskjet does whenever it’s turned off than on again. It begins to print test pattern sheets and I have no idea how to stop this from happening. You can’t delete e from the printer box. Usually, if I turn the printer on and off again, it’ll clear. But it’s a definite paper and ink (and time) waster and I’m not sure there’s any explanation for it.

The other issue I encounter I could probably fix if I worked on it a little. The printer default speed, for some reason, is FastDraft. Not only is FastDraft (very) loud, but on a document of any length, it’s very clumsy and can result in bent pages and jams. I think the only jams. So, I always need to remember to go to “properties” before I print and reset the speed to everyday or normal. It’s kind of an annoyance, but again, I haven’t really looked at how to change the default. However, the fact that the deskjet 5550 has a speed exists which is so loud and inefficient is an inherent problem.

My final complaint would be the size of this badboy. It’s sort of a bubble-shaped printer, pretty sizable. I guess that’s how most printers are, but it’s kind of bulky and you can’t really put anything on top of it.

Other factors: Installing the printer was fairly easy and it’s very simple to physically set-up. I haven’t had call to use HP tech support, so I can’t say if they’re n the ball. Again, I feel like I get good mileage on the ink cartridge, but that’s dependent on how much a person’s printing. Printer cartridges way in at about $27 bucks for black ink. I find this a little pricey, but sort of the going rate, so what can you do? Buy on ebay.