HP DesignJet T830 review from small construction company

09 January 2023

This is the third report in our short series of DesignJet reviews to take you behind the scenes covering the experience of a company in the AEC sector, detailing their thoughts about using the HP DesignJet T830mfp printer, rather than offering typical reseller reviews. 

This particular business, Duke Construction are based in Dublin and actually served as a beta test site for HP, so we’d expect nothing but positive remarks, but nevertheless we feel it’s earnt it’s place to highlight how a small construction company fared with the HP DesignJet T830mfp and the experiences that they documented.

Duke Construction originally set up in 1991 and for the first 10 years focused on domestic builds but then later branched out into commercial work, working primarily within the public sector and charities. They often get involved in detailed restoration of existing buildings where they handle numerous drawings and plans, which is integral to its business as a contractor.

Drawings provided by the Design Team at tender stage are very important for pricing, but equally at the construction stage their plans need to be both very clear and accurate which is crucial to the project.

They originally used a third party to produce the drawings which had a 48 hour turnaround, and then they had to organise a courier to collect. Each drawing cost around 7-9 euros (£6-£8) and they’d typically print on average around 70-80 prints at a time so from a project point of view it was working out quite expensive (£420-£650 a time).

The T830mfp enabled them to do in-house printing for the first time and their comments about their experience was as follows:

1. It’s very simple and easy to use

2. The user interface is very clear, user friendly and easy to use all of the functions – whether you need to scan, print or copy

3. Swapping between the roll and tray is very simple and takes just 30 seconds to do

4. We saw huge benefits from the scanning capability of this printer – for example: 4 visitors to the office have drawn up details and sketches and have been able to scan it onto the printer as PDF’s and send them instantly to the design team for decisions so there is no delay – which enabled us to get prices agreed and get men on site

5. The team also use a HP Pro Slate 8 Tablet (not sure if that’s a plug or if they had this technology in place beforehand!) which they find both lightweight and mobile, and there’s an android app that enables them to sync it up to the HP DesignJet T830. This means if an architect comes in they can simply download the application onto their tablet and send drawings to print from anywhere in the office, without delay

6. The T830mfp can be moved easily from site to site which is beneficial – they just dismantle it and put it into a car

7. Moving the T830mfp directly onto site also helps the site managers because they can get a quick turnaround on drawings which have been revised and emailed into the office

8. Their site manager also has access to the HP Pro Slate 8 Tablet with 4G connectivity which gives him the ability to access drawings immediately from emails and print them off onsite. This enables any mechanical, electrical or structural issues to be quickly addressed onsite, which reduces costs

9. On building sites dust is a major issue and the T830mfp is a very robust printer which is suitable for using onsite (Quick Explanation Note: it has a roll cover which helps stop dust and debris being pulled through the printer to keep the printer in optimal running order – some of the lower spec models don’t have this which means there’s greater wear and tear on the printers…if you are using any printer on a building site, make sure you opt for one with a roll cover!)

10. Using the T830mfp they typically print off PDF’s, Microsoft Project, A4 sized datasheets for products and more

Brief summing up!

“We’ve printed 100s of prints but only changed the inks once, this means that from a cost point of view it’s very affordable and to have drawings on site is fantastic”.