My Printer's a Gyp

Hi All,

My iMac came with a "Free" Epson Stylus Photo 820. Anyway, free after I
mailed in the rebate with all proofs of purchase and receipts copied in
triplicate and cashed the check.

Despite the "free" price, this printer has proven to be a real gyp. A
replacement cartridge cost $26.00 and I didn't even get 100 pages out of it.
I only printed a couple of photos. I estimate the cost per page to be about
25 cents on average. It also does a poor job printing envelopes and note
cards. Two things I print to quite often. Any recommendations for a
replacement? I'm willing to pay to have a good, solid printer for light
home use. I can't afford another "free" printer. Are there any
manufacturers who don't milk their customers on ink/toner refills? Does
anyone make generic cartridges for the Epson?

Brian

In article <BB377CBD.4CC6%bkmoore@rapid.ocn.ne.jp>,
Brian Moore <bkmoore DeleteThis @rapid.ocn.ne.jp> wrote:

 > My iMac came with a "Free" Epson Stylus Photo 820. Anyway, free
 > after I mailed in the rebate with all proofs of purchase and receipts
 > copied in triplicate and cashed the check.
 >
 > Despite the "free" price, this printer has proven to be a real gyp.
 > A replacement cartridge cost $26.00 and I didn't even get 100 pages
 > out of it. I only printed a couple of photos. I estimate the cost
 > per page to be about 25 cents on average. It also does a poor job
 > printing envelopes and note cards. Two things I print to quite
 > often. Any recommendations for a replacement?

Welcome to reality. Inkjet printers are cheap, but the ink is expensive
no matter what brand of printer you buy. B&W laser printers cost more,
but the toner is much cheaper. (Cartridges for my laser printer cost
about $100 and are good for about 4000 pages, or 3 cents per page.
According to its status report, I've printed 7800 pages since buying it
6 years ago; If I include the original purchase price of the printer,
it's cost me about 16 cents per page.)

Blackstone Research did a study of inkjet printing costs. Their report
"Tracking Printing Costs: A Cost of Printing Test Methodology" can be
found at <http://www.blackstoneresearch.com/articles.html>.

But you say you got only 100 pages out of the first cartridge? That's
well below Epson's specs for that printer. The black ink is supposed to
be good for about 540 pages of typical text, while both the black and
color cartridges should be good for about 370 pages of typical graphics.
("Typical" graphics meaning that each color of ink covers about 5% of
the page, on average. A dark full-page photo would need a lot more
ink.) Could you have been printing stuff that needed an unusual amount
of ink per page?

You may be able to save money by buying 3rd-party "compatible" ink
cartridges, or refill kits that allow you to reuse your cartridges a few
times before throwing them out. I don't know whether anyone makes these
for your particular model of printer.

What exactly do you mean by "a poor job" on envelopes and note cards?
Does the ink bleed into the surrounding paper, so that the test is fuzzy
and hard to read? If so, the problem is with the paper, and most
inkjets will do the same. However, you might be able to improve it a
bit by making sure you tell the printer driver what kind of paper you're
using, in the print dialog; it'll use more or less ink accordingly.

Try to find envelopes & note cards that are designed for use in inkjet
printers -- they'll have a coating that takes the ink better. The same
thing applies to paper for normal printing: you'll get poor results on
cheap paper, better results on high resolution inkjet paper, and best
results on "photo" inkjet paper.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->