Customer Reviews
K5400 Quality Problems 
2008-04-19
My experience with this printer can be summarized as "horrible". Within its warranty period, HP has replaced the entire unit twice (the first time with an equally but differently defective unit) and replaced the black+yellow print head, three times. Each of the 4 calls to HP technical support lasted over an hour. (#1 black print nozzles clogging continuously, #2 replaced bad print head with another bad print head, but decided to send new printer instead, #3 replaced black print head again, #4 new printer has paper feed and head alignment problems). When it is working, it is reasonably fast, and the print quality is good. However, it does spend an inordinate amount of time and ink adjusting and aligning itself. The network model I have, also crashes about once a month and has to be unplugged and plugged back in before you can use it again.
Pretty solid printer. 
2008-02-26
Pretty solid printer. I usually print documents in the economy mode and the quality is reasonable and fast. It is a bit loud and took quite awhile to set up. I have been using it for about a month with no problems.
best ink jet out there, but still issues 2008-02-16
I've run 8200+ pages through this printer, with no problems. It's all been black only text, in draft mode. However, it ran out of Yellow, and refuses to print, even though I don't print color. Its also running low on Cyan and Magenta. HP support said that the printer cleans its print heads on occasion, and over time will consume the color, even if not printing in it. I'm not sure if its possible to turn off auto-clean, or tweak some other setting, but having to replace the colors every 6mos even though I don't use them is a bit annoying.
My printer came with Ethernet, and duplexer. The Ethernet is great, and is helpful for those with more than one PC, or wireless. The duplexer doesn't work as good as that of my old laser. The HP Tech said the duplexer works best with a heavier paper (24#) and printing in Normal instead of Draft, in order to slow down the paper. That makes sense, as this printer is fast, and really cranks though a print job at laser speed, at least with text.
I went with this ink jet because I got tired of the smell from my old laser. For that, it gets the job done.
It leaks! 
2008-01-30
My office has had two of these that leaked ink internally when new.
I would stay FAR away from this printer.
too new to tell . but so far so good 2007-12-28
It is too new to tell. However, everything appears to be working to the product's specifications and it is easy to use . I am still learning about it.
Perfect for my needs 
2008-06-30
I bought this printer after looking for a very long time, for a duplexing, network ready printer. I wanted something that could:
- work with any operating system. (I have BSD, Linux, OS X, and Windows XP)
- use separate ink tanks, and optionally high capacity ink
- separate the ink tanks from the print heads
- offer a low TCO.
To that end, I was a success in picking a k5400dn (bought mine elsewhere)
I do a lot of transcribing my school work from analog, to digital form, in an attempt at getting higher grades, and keeping immaculate notes, for reference later. I print about 20 sheets a day, sometimes more.
The reviews here had me convinced I would buy a lemon.
I admit, when I first got it, it didn't work at all! This was due to some strange directions about shaking the print heads exactly 5 times like incanting a spell. It wouldn't print anything. So I reasoned, "Hey, looks like the ink is stuck somewhere, or some air or something", so I pulled the print heads back out and shook them like the fancy ink pens they are, throwing expensive HP ink everywhere. It worked, but prints were out of alignment, and the software couldn't fix it.
So, I took the print heads back out, and put them back in, this time paying careful attention to their physical alignment. From the top down they are little boxes, the trick is to get the top and bottom edges aligned.
After that first day, its worked beautifully. I duplex almost everything, and it hasn't jammed yet. [My trick to duplexing is I don't feed my printer with whatever I have lying around. I use only recommended media]
I've owned it between 1 & 2 months, and have printed 697 pages.
Would recommend!
Never buy an HP printer 2008-06-14
The K5400 that I bought 4 months ago worked fine for 2 months. Then black banding appeared on all output. HP sent me a new Printhead which was faulty. I then got a replacement Printer. The inkheads are now only fair condition after 4 months and ONLY 1,300 prints of varying density of colours. Lots and lots of wasted print-outs, so it cost me when using Premium paper at $14 for 150. The time and stress of frustration just isn't worth buying this item even if it's very cheap. My advice is BUY EPSON !
UPDATE comment: BE AWARE of printhead costs at $59 each and fail after approx 1500 printed pages at 5% coverage. These figures are from HP.
S: Hello Brian .
S: Welcome to HP Total Care for DeskJet and Photosmart products.
S: My name is S****.
S: How may I assist you today.
Brian Willmot: My K5400 printheads show 'fair' after only 1310 prints... they are faulty I think....
S: Could you provide me with a detailed description of the problem, which would help me assist you better?
Brian Willmot: hello S
S: Yes.
Brian Willmot: they show 'fair' thats the problem
S: Is the Printer is unable to Print anything on the page?
Brian Willmot: Printer is working ok
S: Okay.
S: The Printer is unable to Print in Black.Right.
Brian Willmot: Printer is working FINE
S: I understand that the Printer is uanble to Print after 1310 Prints.right.
Brian Willmot: Why are they showing 'fair' after on 1300 prints, they showed 'good' until now... this cant be right
Brian Willmot: Printer is printing and working FINE
S: After 1200 pages the Printheads Health status willl be fair.
Brian Willmot: So you are saying that the printheads will 'fail' after another 1200 pages ?
S: Brian, let me check the Printhead Yield .
Brian Willmot: thanks I will wait ...
S: I am sorry that this is taking more time than usual. May I have a few more minutes?
Brian Willmot: sure
S: Thanks for your time and patience.
S: The Page Yield of the Printhead: 1,500 Pages @ 5% Coverage.
Brian Willmot: So I take it this means that they would probably fail and show 'bad' after 1500 at 5% coverage yes ?
S: By Performing regular maintenance we can increase the Page Yield of the Printhead.
Brian Willmot: I have manually cleaned them apart from software driven cleaning to stage 3 ....
S: I appreciate all your efforts to troubleshoot the issue.
Brian Willmot: Thanks for the information
S: It is my pleasure assisting you.
S: This HP Officejet Pro K5400 Printer cartridge yields approximately 860 pages
HP printer K5400 sucks not to mention does not work 2008-04-27
My tek guy took a total of 4 hours with HP teks inorder to determine why my brand new printer did not work. They would not send a new replacement until they had exhausted all options for failure, costing me $137.00 in labor. They finally agreed to send a rebuilt printer, which it too did not work, again keeping my tek on the phone for an additional 4 hours to determine the cause. They sent a second rebuilt printer and guess what - it too did not work. Again 4 hours on the phone with my tek. $500 in tek time later they agreed to take back the Amazon purchase and the 3rd bad printer and send me a check for the purchase amount. I spoke with a case mananger, who explained that HP teks have a procedure they have to go through before they can OK a replacement be sent. So what if it takes 4 hours of the customers time and money. I noticed while all this was going on that no stores sold this version of printer - it's a bust. Move on to something else or you'll end up paying 5 times more in set cost/time that the printer is worth. Amazon should dump this model ASAP. The only reason I gave it one star is because they stayed in touch and sent me my money back.
Defective Ink Heads 2008-04-21
The printer works fine most of the time. I have not had any of the problems the other folks have talked about.
However, I have had three ink heads go bad. The first one I just thought it was a fluke, and replaced myself. At 65$ I was not happy.
The second one failed and I called HP and talked to a tech on India. Besides the language issue, he did well, and they sent me another ink head.
I purchased a third one, since I needed the printer before the one HP was sending me was to get here.
That one just failed, so I am on my third. I am going to call HP and get another ink head.
At this point it is about time and aggravation.
The ink is not a bargain either. At this point, I wish I had purchased a laser printer.
Or anything else for that matter. I am a small business, and this is really aggravation I do not need.
HP K5400 2008-04-21
I've had the HP K5400 for several months now. I am disappointed in two things, it seems to eat ink, I'm always running out of one color or another. I'm just a home uses so I don't do a lot of printing. Second when I've run out of one color and want to switch to just black, it won't let me do so unless I replace the empty cartridge.
