HP B9180 question

[dpetersen]

I an in the process of reviving a B9180 . I have owned it for some time, but it has been stored for 5 years or so.
I would like to get it running to use or maybe sell.
The first problem is ink. HP has stopped making the #38 cartridge and I cannot find any still in date.
There must be a sub somewhere. I hope the printheads are still OK. Anyway, if anyone is aware of an ink source Please let me know.
Thanks
D Petersen

[Oren Grad]

Staples seems to still have some of the cartridges, not all:

https://www.staples.com/HP-Photosmart-Pro-B9180/cat_CL162890/0065e

But to be frank, I wouldn't invest any money or effort into it. A B9180 was my first photo inkjet printer. The print quality was excellent for its era, but mine died a messy and expensive death, drowning in its own ink as the excess ink sponges got saturated and the NEDD sensor became flaky. I spent a fair bit of ink and a lot of time fussing with it before it finally sank in that my efforts to fix it were going to be futile. As I eventually learned, this was very common with B9180's. The failure mode was inherent in the design and probably unavoidable once you hit a certain mileage.

[SergeyT]

I wouldn't worry about getting in-date inks for it. For as long at the inner package is sealed, even a decade old ones more than likely should be ok. Same ink as for HP Z series and have never failed for me.
Same goes about printheads. They identical to Z series.
Although I never had a B9180, have read a lot of horror stories back in the days, and agree with Oren. Probably is not worth the trouble.