Very good light-duty cd-printer

I bought the refurbished printer online several months ago at a very low price ($60 delivered). The low price was due to there being no ink cartridges included. I had researched several printers and this Epson series will eventually have a near-cult following.

If you are savvy enough to get a bulk ink dispenser working, then you will be happy with this printer. I think that I've kept everying as cheap as possible. If I threw the printer and dispenser away right now, it would have cost me around .10 cents per full-color 8X10 print to date. Without factoring in the cost of the printer, around .05 cents per 8X10 photo. (Those are the ink cost, not the photo paper cost, and I'm NOT near ready to throw this printer out).

I purchased one of the 'bulk ink dispensers' at the same time, as everyone knows that the OEM ink carts are very expensive (There are 6 cartridges @ $15-$20 each). The only initial problem that I had was that the generic bulk ink dispenser ($40 online with 4oz of each ink color included) was not properly 'chipped' and the printer would not recognize the yellow cartridge. Contacted the manufacturer (ink supplier) and they sent me a new chip.

This printer prints very well with the generic ink and there are plenty of 'chip resetting' tools available for a low cost. I was running low on ink so just reordered another set of the 4oz inks yesterday for $30 delivered. You can buy refill kits that contain from 1oz to 1 gallon of each color. (6 gallons of ink is around $660 lol) This printer also works well with either dye or pigment based inks. I have had no problems with print-head blockage due to using the generic inks.

Some won't believe it, but with this set up I've printed almost 1000 cd's to date and the unit still works fine. I've also printed nearly 1000 jewel case inserts, 100 full-color 8X10 photos and dozens of other photos. I know that I've printed the equivalent of 1000 full-color 8X10 photos. Each CD and jewel case insert is equivilent to one 8X10 photo.

Like most home printers, this one 'wastes' a huge amount of ink during the routine cleaning cycle. I have mine set to dispense the wasted ink into a 4oz bottle (included with bulk ink dispenser). The ink is a mixture of colors but looks near-black and I mix it with the bulk black ink for additional savings. I haven't been able to tell a difference in the black color. I mix 1 syringe-full with what ink is in the black ink bottle about once per week. Believe me, more ink is wasted during the print-head cleaning than is used on paper- and I don't clean the print heads very often. When the unit is in the cleaning cycle, ink will literally squirt into the waste bottle. It amazes everyone who sees it. If not for the waste ink bottle, all of that ink would be squirted into a 'sponge' in the bottom of the printer. After about 1000 pages are ran through the printer, it will give an error message that it needs to be sent in for service. Free software is available online to reset the counter.

When switching from paper printing to cd printing, sometimes the printer is 'confused' and will jerk the cd tray through the machine. Leaving about 1' of clearance at the rear of the machine is therefore a good idea.

Multi-tasking will occasionally cause the printer to stop printing a cd. Clearing the Epson queue from memory can sometimes be a pain (and for every brand printer that I've encountered). The machine is precise enough that if a cd is rejected when partly printed, the same cd can be reinserted and printed again without blurring.

This printer does not want to 'grab' card-stock or heavy weight paper. It will usually grab heavy photo paper. To get it to print heavy papers, I have to gently push down on the paper when the printer is trying to feed. I have never had a paper 'jam', just the misfeeds. Cleaning the feed mechanism with alcohol seemed to help a lot. I think that some of the jewel-case insert papers that I used had a lot of 'scrap' along the edges that resulted in the feed problem.

Finally, using cheap ink and paper, this machine has produced some of the finest photos that I have seen. I've found heavy weight generic bulk glossy paper for .15 cents per 8.5 X 11 sheet. Coupled with the .05 per photo ink, I can print excellent quality photos for .20 per 8X10. I think that's great!

My total investment to date is $160, and that includes 200 full size sheets of glossy photo paper, the printer, the bulk ink dispenser, and the new ink for refill.

I know that this printer is not designed for the kind of use that I have subjected it to, but it has stood up to it and is ready for more. That warrants a '5-star' rating in my book.