Epson Stylus C88
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"Curse of the clogs" on by riredale
Pros: pigment ink
Cons: pigment ink
Summary: We've gone through a C80, a C84, two C86s, and a C88. I've bought them because of the unique qualities of the Epson pigment ink--waterproof, smearproof, fadeproof. Unfortunately, we have had so many printers because each printer seemed to last a year or two before getting clogged nozzles. You would not believe how fast the printer could drain the 4 color tanks while trying to unclog the nozzles! Even then, there came a time when the nozzles just would not unclog, and the printer went to the scrap heap with the purchase of another printer.
So mixed feelings about these printers.
For better or worse, we now have a couple of Canon IP3000 four-color printers, which appear to be bulletproof. We bought them on eBay, since they are no longer available in stores. Check out the eBay prices for these babies--upwards of $200 for a discontinued printer!!! Why? I think two reasons: (1) reliablity, and (2) nonchipped ink tanks, so you can refill with third-party ink and print for next to nothing (maybe $0.50 a tank).
Oh, and did I mention that the IP3000 printers (pretty much all the Canon printers, for that sake) can be cheaply retrofitted to print CDs and DVDs?Updated
One other thing--
If there were some easy way to replace the plugged nozzles, that would have helped, but this is a service-center-only item with Epson.
By contrast, the nozzles on our new (old) Canon IP3000 printers can be user-swapped for about $40 in maybe 10 seconds, tops. -
"High ink consumption" on by ecolban
Pros: Cheap, but that is irrelevant when ink is expensive
Cons: Too expensive in ink consumption
Summary: The printer software decides when the ink cartridge is empty. After printing a few pages (I have not counted them, but I would guess approximately 20 B/W pages), it decides that the cartridge is empty and will not print until the cartridge has been replaced. The print quality is still fairly good and shows no signs of ink running low when this happens. I am better off throwing out this printer and buying another brand.
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"Good Print Quality and good speed on text" on by imc18
Pros: Color fast ink is teriffic
Cons: Excessive Black ink waste when heads are charging!
Summary: I consider Print quality and speed very good! But printer consumes too much black ink when the heads charge up when you turn printer on..I had a C86 and ink waste
at start up was terrible..My 740i Did'nt much ink at all when turned on.. -
"Long time Epson user... until now." on by coverlands
Pros: pretty decent photos. Where you set print resolution drives speed. If making a card with picture, it can be quite a wait when set to highest res for pic clarity.
Cons: Ink usage is high, cartridge cost is high. Fairly noisy.
Summary: Their tech support is so unsatisfactory that I don't believe I'll buy another Epson. Most companies do pretty decent email correspondence to resolve an issue - not Epson. I had trouble re-installing drivers on my XPpro PC and they pretty well bailed on me so I likely won't purchase another Epson. I've had 3 and they've progressively gotten worse in consumer cost of ownership.
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"Overall, a great workhorse for me" on by kkennedy16
Pros: 1. Under $100
2. Uses separate ink cartridges
3. I can print on nearly ANY kind of paper and/or printable product
4. Photos print beautifully!Cons: 1. Sometimes it does eat paper, envelopes, cardstock...
2. At times, takes a while to warm up (so I just turn it on first, then the computer)
3. Espon ink is EXPENSIVE (I will look into 3rd party refills)
4. Max print width one side is 8.5"Summary: After moving away from Lexmark (I thought they were great, but was concerned about them going under) this is my fifth Epson Ink Jet printer in the last 7 years... I run a small home-based graphics business that is very print-heavy. I typically print on 60lb linen card stock, in all kinds of sizes and overall, this printer is a workhorse and does the job I need it to do and it looks great for what it does. I've also printed on fine handmade Italian paper, and coarse funky homemade paper (one lady made her own for her wedding invitations) and it worked, even though I thought it didn't look great, the client was very happy - go figure.
Anyways, the point is, sure, the printer has some flaws (who and what doesn't?) and it's eaten paper along the way and the ink can get pricey if I'm running large jobs (or my kids have gone nuts on the disney site, printing out coloring pages) but for the quality of the ink and the prints, I'd rather keep this old workhorse than buy a different brand and have to re-learn a whole new system, find out whether or not it can handle the kind of paper I run through it and everything else I do with it...
So yeah, I love my Epson C88. One day, I'll have to replace it and I will buy another one so long as they keep making them.
Originally bought mine at Staples for under $100 (all of them) and I also turn in my ink cartridges there, so I get credit (in $) to spend any way I'd like at Staples. Now that Staples doesn't sell Epsons anymore, I buy them direct from the Epson website, usually with free shipping.
