I was surfing the web looking for some new post topics. I stumbled in to some forums and pretty quickly found quite a bit of resistance to Epson printers. Intrigued by the sentiments expressed I had to forge on to find out more. Here are the details of my wanderings through cyber space.

Epson printer owners most commonly expressed their displeasure with the fact that Epson printers have a propensity for clogged print heads. Forum contributors also said that these clogs often could not be remedied, meaning a new printer needed to be purchased or a large amount of money needs to be spent on repairs. Because Epson printers are so inexpensive, it does not make sense to pay for repairs. Epson is one of the few printer manufactures that puts the print heads inside the printer, rather than on the cartridge. This is the reason clogged heads are such a problem.

Another common complaint was the speed at which Epson cartridges use ink. Way to fast! I’ve read a lot of complaints about the cost of printer cartridges, but not much about how soon they run out of ink. The reverse was true of Epson cartridges. Complaints center on the fact that Epson cartridges run out ink way to fast, even accommodating for their lower cost.

A word of caution on Epson printer cartridges. While the price tag for a single cartridge is generally lower than other printer cartridge manufacturers, remember Epson sells ink tanks. This means you need to buy an ink tank for each color your printer uses. Many of their cartridges are priced around $14, so if your printer uses black, cyan, magenta, and yellow you are going to pay $56 every time you replace the entire set. Many of their new printer models also include a photo cyan and photo magenta cartridge. Add another $28 ($84) to your replacement cost. From a pure cartridge cost, not much more economical than anyone else.

Forum contributors also expressed concern for how often the print head cleaning utility needs to run. It is often done automatically, so the printer owner has no control over how often it happens. When the print  head cleaning utility runs, ink from the printer cartridge is used.

To be fair I took a look at the ratings of Epson printers on web sites like CNET and PCWorld. Both the critics and users rated Epson printers fairly high, typically three stars out of five. The bulk of the positive comments were for print speed (fast) and the (high) quality of prints Epson printers produce.

The last Epson printer I owned was the Epson Stylus 640. Despite being loud I loved it. But once it died I switched over to HP printers and have never been back.

If you own an Epson printer I need you to step up and let me know what you think about it. We’ve got to answer this question . . . Are Epson printers any good?


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