Your choice of printers....

[Ozbreeze]

About 9 months ago i bought an Epson Stylus Photo 820 printer because i read that they were good for pictures. I HATE IT!!! It does pictures ok, but if i don't use the darn thing every day the ink dries up. Then i have to do extensive cleaning before i can print anything, which wastes tons of ink. I have hardly printed anything and have had to change my cartridges 5 times since i bought the thing. So i need a new printer

I'm wondering what printers you guys like and recommend.

[Taz]

I'd take it back and get it replaced because it shouldn't doing that

[Paddy]

I've got an 830. Its fine

[Gurm]

Some Epsons are like that. Luck of the draw. 820 and 830 are WORLDS apart. Trust me here.

The Epson Stylus 800 we had at work never printer properly after the first printing on any given cartridge.

The fix each time involved a lengthy series of commands. Shut it off, turn it on holding a, b, and d... unplug, plug. Now count to 10 and chant "babba ishram!" 1200 times. Look, it reset! Yay! It prints again... for 1 day.

Epson sucks. Buy an HP. They're pricier, the cartridges are expensive, and the software sucks, but the printer always works.

I

HAVE

SPOKEN

- Gurm

[Ozbreeze]

i had an HP before but when i printed pictures they were streaky. I figured it was because it was an older printer (i'd had it for about 6 years i think). So i researched and thought Epson was a better bet.....wrong. I'll probably go back to HP though....other than streaky pictures i never had any trouble with it

[Byock]

HP is the answer. My Epson Stylus 600 did the same thing.

[az]

Printers just aren't the right thing for Photos. If you only do b/w, laser.

For color inkjets, HP was always my first choice, but with their recent "the printer connects to us anytime it wants to tell us about what you're printing and we don't even give you an option to turn that off" stunt, they're out for me.

AZ

[Tempest]

Some inkjets (inks?) seem to be like that. My Canon S450 clogs up like that all the time, but the Canon BJC-5100 we have at my parents' place never does that, even when it isn't used in months. Must be one of those "so you thought you got a good printer for cheap" conspiracies...

[agallag]

I'm still using my 8 year old Canon BJC-4100. It was sitting in a box for at least 4 of those years, but a few months ago I decided I wanted to print some stuff at home, so I went out and picked up the high capacity black cartridge for 40 bucks. I blew the dust off the printer, installed the cartridge, threw in some paper, and of it went, good as new. I print maybe 5-10 pages a month, and it hasn't even had a single nozzle clog. Beautiful.

[xortam]

I have a cheap Lexmark printer (a gift) which will readily evaporate the ink cartridges. I rarely use the printer but I was getting P.O.'ed by having to replace the cartridges when I need it (usually around tax time). This last year I've been removing the cartridges and placing them in Ziploc bags when I wasn't actively using the printer. The cartridges are still performing like new after one year. I'll look for a self-sealing style printer if I decide to get another inkjet. Perhaps your Epson lacks this feature as well.

[Ozbreeze]

i have never heard the term "self-sealing" in conjunction with a printer before.....i will check on the replacement that i will soon buy

[xortam]

"Self-sealing" is just a term I threw out there. I don't know if printer manufacturers advertise this function or what they call it. I believe some ink-jet printers will seal the print heads during the idle state so that the cartridges don't dry out: At least this is what I recall being stated on this forum quite some time back. I notice that some of the cartridges come with a holder that seals the head when storing the cartridge outside the printer.

[Ozbreeze]

interesting

[Indiana]

Every brand of printers seem to have their shar of probs.
With the Epson, dryed inks seem more often a problem than with other manufacturers, HP can't seem to get that damn paper feed work properly over a longer time,....

If you're looking for the BEST photo printing, I think there's two major options:
1. The EpsonStylusPhoto950 (I think it might be called 960 in the US) - this is the best inkjet photo printer I ever saw. Unbelievable quality - no dithering visible at all due to it's 2 pl drop size and the 6 colors. Strong, vibrant and natural colors. Extra features like an automatic paper-cutter and direct printing on CDs. Finally single inks for all the colors (like the Canon have since some time)
Unfortunately the thing is damn expensive.

2. The new Canon i950: Very good photo quality, although slightly below the Epson Stylus Photo 950. A bit cheaper, but no extra features like cutter or CD printing.

If you want a great and really FAST allround printer with very good text quality and good photo prints as well at an affordable price, the Canon i850 is the first choice in this area, IMO. Seperate ink tanks help keeping the print-costs down, speed for text printing is at older laser-printer levels or above. Photo printing is a bit worse than the specialized photo printers due to this thing only having 4 colors, still looks good, though.

[Kurt]

-HP: dependable, you can find ink everywhere, a bit more pricey, excellent service.

-Epson: shitty drivers, you can mostly find ink everywhere, cheap, services varies greatly on location.

-Canon: overall good printers, can't get a clear idea on what their products should be/do, harder to find ink, generally good service.

-Lexmark: cheapest overall, have some excellent models, hard to find ink, dunno about their service anymore as we don't carry them since 1998.


to sum it up: either go HP for a good printer with excellent service and usually no problem (except for the cheap laserjets) or go Epson fo phot quality but you'll have to update the drivers until you get a stable one.

Also, remember to use exclusively the same brand for paper and printer as quality will defintely NOT be optimum if you use someone else's (it's both a quality problem and a driver thing...).