Epson Stylus Photo R800 > Reviews > It prints.... money for Epson!

Author's product rating:   

Picture quality	Excellent
Printing speed	Average
Colour sensitivity	Good
Ease of use	Awkward
Value For Money	Very poor

Advantages:	when it works the results can be stunning, photographic quality prints .  Prints onto CDs / DVDs
Disadvantages:	Extortionate cost of Ink cartridges which CONSTANTLY run out !  Heads clog rendering the printer useless .

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

In a nut shell, steer clear.

Epson have asked for this poor rating by trying to rip me (a CUSTOMER) off by thinking that it is OK to charge £14 per ink cartridge, of which there are EIGHT (yep, a HUNDRED QUIDs worth) and which empty like a leaking bucket. Do you get a lot of ink in an ink cartridge for that price? No. You do not. You get a measley miserly stingy amount of ink which will disappear faster than you'd believe!

You may be thinking that I do a lot of printing, that I am in an office, but sorry guys, minimal printing at home. Expect to be replacing 1 to 2 cartridges per month, i.e about 200 quid p.a. on 'proper' ink cartridges - that damn 'ink-has-run-out-time-to-get-another-mortgage-or-sell-the-kids' light is constantly blinking at you. (Oh and I took one of these ink cartridges apart just to see if it really was empty and there must have been about 20% remaining).

Another thing you may notcie is that (uniquely to Epson) is that it is ILLEAGAL to refill their cartridges! Well according to their literature it is when you buy a new replacement ink cartridge.

If you leave the thing and do not print anything for a while (for fear of printing because it costs so much) and come back to it (in my case after about 1 week of non-use) then you'll find that the ink heads get clogged up with tiny amounts of dry ink and you have to clean the print heads - and yes, this happens with 'proper' Epson ink just as much as it does with the £3 alternatives (if you don't believe me, Google it - people have written guides on how to take your printer apart so that it can be cleaned for God's sakes).

You can ONLY perform the cleaning operation if ALL the cartridges have more than 10% ink remaining (not likely) and when you can perform the cleaning operation (which did NOT work after 5 consequtive attempts), each attempt will drain EACH and every single one of those cartidges about 5 % of it's ink!!! That's £5 to £10 a pop every time it gets clogged up & needs a clean ARRRGGGGHHHH

DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU. (If you think I am being severe, come back after a couple of months of using one and re-read my comments to see if you agree! - then write your own review)

All I can say is that I will NEVER, EVER buy or recommend to anyone an Epson product EVER again. I am not being angry, this is just my way of saying 'nope, this simply is NOT good enough'