Most-reliable Inkjet Printers Are Epsons

[Trevor]

Have had two Epsons, both very reliable, good print quality, and they take cheap generic ink cartridges. Only gripes are :

1) It stops printing when the ink reaches about one-third level -- for which I use a cheap cartridge chip resetter on the contacts.

2) The ink overflow pad shows full after so many copies (they want you to take it in for completely-unnecessary 'servicing'), and stops printing -- but there is a software fix for that on the Internet.

So, despite their best efforts, Epson have not made song-saleung (50 satang) off me since its purchase!

I also had a Canon and a Hewlett Packard (all-in-one). Both simply stopped functioning within 6 months of the one-year warranty expiration. Will never touch these makes again.

[Heng]

I have an old HP 310 notebook printer that has been working since 1996. My two desktops use aging HP 3550's that have been working flawlessly for 4-5 years each. I am considering getting one of those converted Epson ink refill systems though... anyone else here have one of those? Any chance of the ink in those "straw tubes" getting clogged up?

[ignis]

For me Epson was not good, the one I came here with was a near new C84, could not get ink, asked everywhere the only option was to re-chip it to accept C83 ink.. Epson Service Centre were hopeless on this. The price for re=chipping was high so I still have it in a box upstairs.

I then bought a new C83, from day one it was hopeless with one problem after another, 3 time it went back for repairs ended up selling it [very cheap] to a friend who said he could fix it.

Bought a Canon IP4000 that was 3 years ago and have never looked back, or had such a good printer

[Guest Reimar]

That's the difference in experiencing with Printer!

My oldest Printer is an HP 890 C Pro which is more than 10 years old and works perfectly. An 6 years old HP 1220 C works well too. Epson CX 5100 dead after 4 years of using, the Printhead fails! Epson R310 3.5 years old works very well, mainly used for CD printing ( a total of more than 8,000 pcs) and use external ink tanks with refilling the Ink from Epson Plotters!

Now I start using Brother DCP 330C Multifunction and have already 3 of them. Mainpoint for Brotherwas that the Scanner and even the printing, incl. Photo printing, works quite fast, faster than the new models from Epson. And the print quality is very good and reach in Photo printing nearly the Epson quality. To see the difference you maust have a good eye or a good magnifier!

Canon is out of any question for me because of very bad experiences. Lexmark is very good but to expensiv in Ink Supplys.

[Smithson]

I have an old HP 310 notebook printer that has been working since 1996. My two desktops use aging HP 3550's that have been working flawlessly for 4-5 years each. I am considering getting one of those converted Epson ink refill systems though... anyone else here have one of those? Any chance of the ink in those "straw tubes" getting clogged up?

I've got the ink tank system on a CX2800 and am very happy. The whole system was B4,700 and I've been printing dozens of pages daily and still have a heap of ink left. I'm sure the ink supply will outlast the printer. You can print color pics or web pages without ever having to consider ink costs.

If you are not printing everyday or at least every second day then the heads will clog, basically making the unit useless because it's not covered by guarantee once the ink tanks are installed. Others here have had bad experiences with the head clogging so beware.

[lopburi3]

For me Epson was not good, the one I came here with was a near new C84, could not get ink, asked everywhere the only option was to re-chip it to accept C83 ink.. Epson Service Centre were hopeless on this. The price for re=chipping was high so I still have it in a box upstairs.

I then bought a new C83, from day one it was hopeless with one problem after another, 3 time it went back for repairs ended up selling it [very cheap] to a friend who said he could fix it.

Bought a Canon IP4000 that was 3 years ago and have never looked back, or had such a good printer

I bought the same Canon at about the same time and have not had a problem with it. Have had to clean nozzles one time. This after owning Epsons (not price leaders) for the previous 5 years and never having more than a week of good service from them (mostly tied to low printing) with ink feed or cartridge malfunctions or there stupid ink monitoring. Every photo run required a multi cleaning using about half the ink supply. I accept they may work better with daily use but many of us do not use that way and pay a high price if using that brand. I believe, from reading, this was not unique to me. For me it is never return to Epson.

[Firefoxx]

As it is, YMMV.

Having to reset the chip to use the full capacity of a cartridge isn't good. Try looking at Canon cartridges. They're transparent, and don't have a chip. They use an optical sensor to check the ink capacity, and will actually be quite empty when the driver says it's empty.

One reason I don't like multi-function printers is their complexity, which means they have a lot more things to break. When they do break, you lose the whole shebang, instead of just a single component. I don't recommend multi-functions, from any brand.

[Smithson]

For me Epson was not good, the one I came here with was a near new C84, could not get ink, asked everywhere the only option was to re-chip it to accept C83 ink.. Epson Service Centre were hopeless on this. The price for re=chipping was high so I still have it in a box upstairs.

I then bought a new C83, from day one it was hopeless with one problem after another, 3 time it went back for repairs ended up selling it [very cheap] to a friend who said he could fix it.

Bought a Canon IP4000 that was 3 years ago and have never looked back, or had such a good printer

I bought the same Canon at about the same time and have not had a problem with it. Have had to clean nozzles one time. This after owning Epsons (not price leaders) for the previous 5 years and never having more than a week of good service from them (mostly tied to low printing) with ink feed or cartridge malfunctions or there stupid ink monitoring. Every photo run required a multi cleaning using about half the ink supply. I accept they may work better with daily use but many of us do not use that way and pay a high price if using that brand. I believe, from reading, this was not unique to me. For me it is never return to Epson.

The cleaning and associated wasted inks were what I experienced with the Epsons and HPs before, expensive and frustrating headache.

[Firefoxx]

As always, for ANYONE using the 3rd party external ink tanks on ANY brand/model printer: NEVER leave the printer idle for more than a couple days (if even one day). You're going to get clogged heads, usually permanently clogged heads (a cleaning cycle won't help, only a head change).

And again, YMMV. There are people who believe that brand X is lousy and brand Y is the second coming, while others will believe exactly the opposite. Believing that any single brand is totally bad/good is like believing that any nationality is totally bad/good. It's just not true in the real world. A person who bases his outlook of a whole on a single bad experience is really limiting his own vistas. I can tell you from personal experience (since I've used computers extensively since the time of mainframes and terminals) that EVERYTHING can break, no matter what the brand. You're just lucky with what you have good experiences with, and unlucky with the bad.

[Rinrada]

Had my old Epsom stylus 460 for over 10 years now and it has seen off both so called replacement HPs and Lexmarks...waste of $ and expensive refills.

Can buy B&W cartridges from our local PC world for under a pound and gives copies as good as new.... ...nice one

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

I've had three Epson's - the last one the Stylos Photo 830 which i bought for over 3.000 Baht. They all had the SAME problem - i don't print much, and sometimes nothing for a couple of months. Doing that with an Epson means "death" - the ink in the print heads dries and the heads can apparently not be cleaned but have to be exchanged. I've done that with the first and the second one of them, but when the exact same problem arose with the third Epson i just tried to sell it - NO WAY, nobody wanted to buy it because "the repair cost more than a new printer".

Now i'm using a cheap "Lexmark" from Tesco Lotus for 890 Baht, i can keep it standing here for months and then print something - and it will print perfectly. Also still on the first ink cartridges, seems to use less than 25% of what the Epson's used up (if i print, it's usually A4 sized photos). And when the inks are empty i'll throw it away and get a new one, as the printer (incl. inks) cost 400 Baht less than one set of new cartridges!

Best regards.....

Thanh

[Firefoxx]

Again YMMV.

I cannot tell you the number of times clients have come to me with stories of clogged print heads from external tanks. The printers were not used only for a matter of a few days. This also happened with *brand new* printers. And yes, they were professionally installed (which is really a misnomer, since these shops can't really be professional, since they're voiding the warranty).

[Firefoxx]

You really can't replace all the important parts... the most important part, the print head, is still the printer's own, and is still the one and only part that clogs up, and the part that costs the most to replace. The ink cartridges themselves are just tanks that hold ink.

I repeat, I think that "professional" is a misnomer. The definition of a "professional" is just a person who does something as his profession or job. Hence, any technician in any of the ink tank shops is a professional, and really, anyone else wouldn't know how to install these tanks anyways. Therefore, any time you go to a shop to get ink tanks added, you're getting a "professional" job.

The R230 is supposed to be *the* one to buy for ink tanks. Yet I've seen them clog up too. But again, and I stress this, YMMV. I'm glad that your system works, but like most things, it may just totally screw up somebody else's life, and therefore I present the flip side of the argument.