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Considering buying an Epson Business Class Inkjet Printer?
Do a good bit of searching before you begin.
When I brought home my C82 I was thrilled with it's speed and quiet operation. I was replacing an HP 870 that had lasted 4 years.
I went to CompUSA wanting to get the best "business class" color printer I could, under $500. I expected to spend in the $300 - $400 range.
To my surprise, the highest end unit was the C82 at only $150. It looked like it met my needs and had one excellent feature that wasn't specifically on my list, the water proof ink.
Well, after using it for a few weeks I was disappointed to find how often I needed to clean the heads. Apparently, leaving the printer on but idle for a few days is not good. However, I did run a moderate number of pages through the printer (maybe 20 - 40 per week) and was happy with the output.
13 months after purchasing the unit it stopped printing black ink. The warranty had expired only 1 month (to the day) prior. I replaced the cartridge and cleaned repeatedly. However, now instead of streaked output I got no black output. During the cleaning, the yellow ran out. I replaced the yellow and found that it too stopped printing entirely.
A call to technical support and a replaced magenta cartridge provided the information that I would need to send it in for repair. The tech knew exactly what it was and told me that changing ink wouldn't fix it.
Thanks to the tips I found on this helpful site, I've downloaded a tool to reset my protection counter and cleaned out my waste bin. It was a mess in there so I have no doubt it was in need.
Unfortunately, the printer still prints nothing but blank pages.
It is my intention right now that I will never buy another epson product. Despite HPs resolve to lower the quality of their products (adopting the throw away mentality others have adopted) they still apparently produce the most reliable machines for business class printing. (FYI, Cannon printers typically have a very high cost per page and require head replacement periodically)
To my surprise, the highest end unit was the C82 at only $150. It looked like it met my needs and had one excellent feature that wasn't specifically on my list, the water proof ink.
Well, after using it for a few weeks I was disappointed to find how often I needed to clean the heads. Apparently, leaving the printer on but idle for a few days is not good. However, I did run a moderate number of pages through the printer (maybe 20 - 40 per week) and was happy with the output.
13 months after purchasing the unit it stopped printing black ink. The warranty had expired only 1 month (to the day) prior. I replaced the cartridge and cleaned repeatedly. However, now instead of streaked output I got no black output. During the cleaning, the yellow ran out. I replaced the yellow and found that it too stopped printing entirely.
A call to technical support and a replaced magenta cartridge provided the information that I would need to send it in for repair. The tech knew exactly what it was and told me that changing ink wouldn't fix it.
Thanks to the tips I found on this helpful site, I've downloaded a tool to reset my protection counter and cleaned out my waste bin. It was a mess in there so I have no doubt it was in need.
Unfortunately, the printer still prints nothing but blank pages.
It is my intention right now that I will never buy another epson product. Despite HPs resolve to lower the quality of their products (adopting the throw away mentality others have adopted) they still apparently produce the most reliable machines for business class printing. (FYI, Cannon printers typically have a very high cost per page and require head replacement periodically)
Now, Epson does make very high end printers specifically designed for graphic artists who need proof quality printing. These are coming down in price but still differ greatly from what business users expect for every day printing. Business users typically want fast output, easy networking and low cost per page. Graphic artists typically want color matching support, large paper sizes and full-bleed color.
I cannot comment on the quality of the other lines of printers, so graphic artists may still be served best by Epson lines.
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