Home > Consumer Reviews > HP Officejet 5610 All-in-One Printer/Fax/Scanner/Copier (Q7311A#ABA)

Like most people, I wanted an all-in-one to replace a stack of machines: an ancient parallel-port scanner, a nearly ancient fax that prints with thermal paper, and the free printer I got from my last PC. After using this model for a few months, I find it does much of what I want.

I like the ability to scan documents to files for achiving and the scanning of multiple pictures into seperate files.

I suppose I shouldn't complain much for a machine at this price point, but it has several drawbacks:

(1) After running about 200 pages through the fax/scanner page feeder, my fed pages now show up with a line through them. Documentation says to clean the small scan window (which I did to no effect). Otherwise, you're out of luck. Flatbed scanning does not show the line.

(2) Regadless of which scanner you use, the printer adds small margins to each page. If you're printing a document with no margins, it will cut off the edges.

(3) Unlike even the cheap printers bundled with my last two PCs, this one has no wake-on-network capability (that is, since it site in my office, if it's turned off and I want to print, I have to walk over to turn it on). In fact, if something is stuck in the queue and I try to print a second document, it hangs my system.

(4)Like most HP products at the bottom of the cost curve, it feels flimsy. Every time I open the cover, it feels like it's going to fall off.

We recently purchased the HP Officejet 5610 All-in-One Printer, Copier, Scanner, Fax to replace a clapped out 7 year old inkjet and an ancient parallel port truckbed sized scanner. Getting a fax (which we needed at home) and a copier (which we really appreciate) was enough to seal the bargain.

We've been running this unit for 3 months now - wife using it for faxing workers comp documentation, medical reports and resumes (coming off a work related accident). It is the most convenient unit we could have hoped for. It prints at a speed that rivaled our worn out inkjet (we don't do a lot of large document printing), copies documents and scans with a better quality than original document input (minus chopping of margains).

We have a second printer - a Canon photo inkjet that is now relegated only to photography printing. As expensive as ink is - the HP is still cheaper for office work than the 6 Canon tanks necessary for photos.

I've read a lot of horror stories related to installation of this unit - problems we did NOT encounter. Installation went without a hitch - we disabled our computer anti-virus program and everything spun right up. First time setup (minus the fax) took under 30 minutes. Our fax problem was our own doing as we have dual phone line jacks in our computer room and plugged the fax into an inactive line.

The unit itself priced out under $[...] where we purchased it - bought extra ink tanks as part of the overall purchase. Our unit came with a USB connector from HP, clearly marked on the carton.

At this price point - we got exactly what we wanted with no surprises. Printing is not fast - especially color. Photos are best printed on our Canon. Scans are good enough - but we keep a newer purchased Canon LDE series scanner in reserve for higher quality work.

Color combo ink tank is the greatest drawback - knew that going into the purchase - more expensive to replace the 3 color tank when only one color is out of ink. We're living with it so far - and we have no regrets with any of the functions the unit performs.

The product description for this printer should have read "You are purchasing this printer 'as is' -- all sales are final. In the event of failure, HP will do absolutely nothing -- so don't bother." We purchased this printer brand new in December. The printer stopped working in April (4 months later). We called HP tech support and here's a recap of the horror story:

* HP claimed it was the power cord
* They sent two replacement power cords (neither fixed the problem)
* Called HP tech support again
* They sent us a broken, refurbished printer
* Called HP tech support again
* The technician said "this happens a lot" and offered to send another refurbished printer
* We said "no" and asked to speak with the techie's supervisor
* Got a call back next day. We told the Supervisor that we wanted this resolved after 6 calls, one week of down time, multiple shipments of wrong or broken products, etc. We told the supervisor that we would post a review on Amazon if this wasn't resolved satisfactorily (please send a new replacement printer). He said "look at our Amazon sales volume -- that won't hurt us."

HP's warranty and technical support is non-existent. If you're lucky enough to get a technician on the line, you will have a great deal of difficulty communicating with the individual. They especially have problems with serial numbers, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses (they like to drop digits and letters). We had to repeat these data points 5 or 6 times EACH phone call -- very frustrating. Also, when the calls didn't go well, we asked to speak with the techie's supervisor. Most of the time they said "I don't have a supervisor." One of the techie's had a sense of humor -- he gave us the phone number for the president of HP.

I've been a loyal (and critical) Canon customer in multiple product lines. I thought I should try an HP printer -- it was a horrible mistake. The Canon PIXMA MP530 is a top-quality, supported printer with amazing performance. Don't look at the Amazon sales volume -- read the Amazon reviews. We're not the only ones that have had problems with HP of late.

The HP 5610 does have one useful feature -- it works great as a door stop.

BEWARE. This printer has one MAJOR design flaw: The print rollers slip on special paper such as Business Cards or any kind of labels. HP has 2 "Workarounds" but for it but neither fixes the problem. They only address the slippage at the top of the page but do not address the constant slippage throughout the rest of the page. I bought 2 of these printers for my business but can't print my business cards, mailing labels, or any other labels. BTW, very poor client service; once I mentioned the "workarounds" not working they stop responding. Selling printers on Ebay. BEWARE

This is a decent printer that certainly serves it's basic purpose. Their are some things about it I find troublesome. For one thing, when printing in black ink, the printer uses ink from both the black and color cartridge. This causes the color cartridge ink to run out more quickly. When you select the "just black ink" option, it does only use the black cartridge, but the print is so faint it is virtually unreadable. And the printer won't work without a color cartridge installed.
Also printing photos requires sheet size photo paper. When I tried using small size photo paper, it would always go in or come out crooked so that I could never get the photo printed on correctly.

Generally it is a good printer with good colors and print quality. I just hate that the it is designed to manipulate the customer into purchasing unnecessary amounts of ink.
Also trying to convert from fax or scan back to copy mode is a pain and usually requires turning off the computer and printer and turning them on again. And if you cancel a print you have to do the same thing to clear and print again.