Epson CX5400 question. And ink consumption!

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Terry

I quite like the features of our Epson Stylus CX5400 printer. And it was a
gift.
It not only prints and/or copies it is also scanner.

However it won't print at all if any of the three colour cartridges, or the
black cartridge are low or empty of ink.

Recently had situation where the black was 80% to 90% filled and one colour
ran low.
I needed to print out several black text pages.
Couldn't print anything until I purchased a new set of colour cartridges.
The Users Handbook confirms this is so.

But does anybody know a 'work around' for this problem?

Also this thing is an 'ink hog'. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone for
printing.
And the cartridges are very expensive. As result I will never buy a printer
without investigating ink mileage and cartridge costs!

I'm a retiree that used to run a business; but I wouldn't have used this
machine! To my mind $150 plus per year for the limited amount of printing
we do now is ridiculous?

Since we do very little colour printing and any black text does not normally
need to be of 'Presentation quality', I may set up an el cheapo black
printer for most of my normal and infrequent text printing or quick copy of
this and that! Right now it's cheaper for me to email a file to an associate
and then pay to have them print it!

Summary: EPSON CX5400. Nice machine but the ink consumption precludes using
it very much. Would not recommend or buy another.

Any comments/advice would be appreciated.

Terry
 
Terry said:
I quite like the features of our Epson Stylus CX5400 printer. And it
was a gift.
It not only prints and/or copies it is also scanner.

However it won't print at all if any of the three colour cartridges,
or the black cartridge are low or empty of ink.

Recently had situation where the black was 80% to 90% filled and one
colour ran low.
I needed to print out several black text pages.
Couldn't print anything until I purchased a new set of colour
cartridges. The Users Handbook confirms this is so.

But does anybody know a 'work around' for this problem?

Also this thing is an 'ink hog'. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone for
printing.
And the cartridges are very expensive. As result I will never buy a
printer without investigating ink mileage and cartridge costs!

I'm a retiree that used to run a business; but I wouldn't have used
this machine! To my mind $150 plus per year for the limited amount
of printing we do now is ridiculous?

Since we do very little colour printing and any black text does not
normally need to be of 'Presentation quality', I may set up an el
cheapo black printer for most of my normal and infrequent text
printing or quick copy of this and that! Right now it's cheaper for
me to email a file to an associate and then pay to have them print it!

Summary: EPSON CX5400. Nice machine but the ink consumption precludes
using it very much. Would not recommend or buy another.

Any comments/advice would be appreciated.

Terry
Click to expand...


Sorry but that unit, like all without their printheads affixed to the
cartridges, will not function without the full complement of tanks. If you
knew you wanted to do this, you should have bought an HP (no, I don't like
them very much as I haven't had good experiences with them, but they do have
the heads affixed to to the tanks).

Printing without all tanks containing some ink would damage the printhead
and, if the unit is still under warranty, invalidate it.
 
If all you print is black, then a laser printer would be your best bet.
Most inkjet printers today are color so you would have a hard time just
having it print only in black.
 
Everyone who buys a color inkjet printer should be made aware that the
printer will use up the ink in it, in all the colors, over time during
the cleaning and start up processes. Most color inkjet printers are a
wrong choice if you only need a black and white printer.

I believe some HP printers can print without the color cartridge installed.

The fact that you must install and keep filled the color ink cartridges
on inkjet printers is not an accident of design. It is intentioned.

Inkjet printers, in terms of their cost and output, are amazing. But,
remember that the reason the printers are sold so inexpensively is
because the company (any of them) is relying upon getting their profit
from you on the sale of ink, (and paper) so, yes, the designs are made
cheaply on the hardware side, and this in turn causes more ink wastage.

Whose, fault is this? Ours!

Epson's early color inkjet printers cost $700 US but used ink cartridges
that had the lowest cost per page yield of any OEM ink, because the
cartridges were huge and relatively cheap. Epson also provided a two
year warranty of these printers. They also had totally separate black
head and gang color head, and separate cleaning stations for the two.
You could tell the printer to only clean the black or the color head.

Several other companies offered much less costly printers, with shorter
warranties, but costlier cartridges. Guess what consumers started to
do? In spite of the fact that the Epson printers produced superior
image quality, people bought the other brands because the initial
investment was lower. So, guess what Epson did? Yeap.

So, people, stop complaining unless you are willing to pay considerably
more for the printers themselves. These companies are into this for the
profit, not to make you all currency forgers for under $100. This
technology is amazing. It takes a lot of R&D to make it work, and it
improves all the time. Someone has to pay somewhere.

If you are willing to pay double or more for the printers, let the
companies know, and maybe if enough of you really are willing to do so,
the business model may change, and ink will be cheaper but the initial
acquisition cost of the printer will be much higher.

Or, how about this. Someone sells you the printer with a certificate
that guarantees your ink cartridges at 1/3rd the price, but the
certificate, which you buy costs $300. For that, you are guaranteed ink
cartridges at 1/3rd the regular price for five years.

Art
 
Go read the recent articles re. Printers and Genuine inks... They come
down heavily in favour of the manufacturers in cost, quality and
permenance (compatibles loose by large margins in all these three
areas).
Also the costs work out very respectable when compared with like (try
comparing the cost per print of a 10 x 8 glossy with that of an
inkjet).
If you want a low cost black and white which will still run when you
run out of colour you should have bought a laser printer (you cannot
leave an ink jet dry, it has to draw ink through the heads or they will
block forcing you to use half a cartridge of ink to unblock or replace
the print head, they must have cartridges). You use this for business
you should have done the research and bought the correct printer
instead of complaning that the printer is not up to the job!
 
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