Dec

18

Inkjet Printer Recommendations

Hey Everyone! My beloved 10 month old son, a curious soul, decided to rip the LCD display from my printer a couple of days ago. I’m in the market for a new printer and, from the emails I get from you guys, many of you are looking for good home printers, too. I had a Canon Pixma MP500. It was one of the best all-in-one (printer, fax, scanner) I’ve had though it had a tendency to get streaky on hi-res images. I had been using an Epson Artisan 800 but it died after a year and it never really handled heavier cardstock well. I’ve been asking around for recommendations for a new home inkjet that can handle most crafter-oriented cardstocks. Here’s what’s been recommended to me thus far:

  • Canon Pixma MP620
  • Canon Pixma ip3500
  • Canon Pixma Pro9500
  • Canon Pixma iP4500
  • Canon iP90
  • HP Photosmart 8000 (mixed reviews)
  • HP psc 750
  • HP 1200
  • Epson R340
  • Epson RX620
  • epson R1900
  • Kodak ESP 9 (mixed reviews)

The consensus is that a printer with a top-loading tray, rather than one that loads from the bottom and has to bend and spool through the printer, is best for heavy cardstocks. What are you using? Do you like or dislike it?



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Nov

07

Product Review Update: Epson Artisan 800

Back in February, I reviewed the Epson Artisan 800 printer. At the time I gave it a positive review and, admittedly, it was a really good printer – for a few months.

While I once loved this printer, it is now so problematic that I can no longer give it a recommendation. Here’s why:

  • After less than a year of use, it is now completely unusable due to an error message that keeps popping up on the display screen. (It says to turn off the unit and restart it. I do; the error pops up again. Lather, rinse, repeat.)
  • Constant paper jams. The paper tray feeder is exceedingly sensitive and paper jams are commonplace.
  • Printing on cardstock is hit or miss. I’ve found that when I’m printing multiple pages of cardstock that sometimes it’ll accept a few pages of CS and then reject the next page for no discernible reason. It’s the same cardstock – no tears, wrinkles, or other things that may cause problems.
  • Smudges, smudges, smudges. I spend a lot of time (and wasted ink) cleaning the print heads to get clear text prints on regular printer paper. I find that full-color photo prints get lines, streaks, and smudges in most print runs no matter what photo paper I use (fwiw, I use Epson’s own photo paper as suggested by the mfgr. and have tried other brands to no avail.)
  • See the comments on the original review for others’ experiences with this printer.

For what the retail price is on this unit I expect better quality, especially from Epson whose products I’ve been very pleased with in the past. This one simply disappoints after less than a year in use.



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