Epson Stylus CX4200 Inkjet Printer

I have purchased a number of Epson printers over the years, but this one will be the last one I buy. I bought this printer because it had different carts for the inks rather then having a single color cart and a B/W cart like my prior printers. I figured this would make it more economical to print, but it actually made it more expensive! The cost of operating this printer has been very high, the ink carts (original Epson) have failed if I dont replace ALL of them at the same time! To add insult to the injury, the printer will refuse to print in B/W if there is no color ink. You cant even make a B/W photocopy even though there is a dedicated B/W copy button. This printer is nothing but a piece of junk and I imagine that all recent printers from Epson are the same.

I like this printer. It scans well, copies well, print quality is very good, and its relatively quick. I like that the ink doesnt run when wet and that each of the 4 colors has its own cartridge, so you dont have to replace all colors when only one color is out. I had a CX6400 which lasted 3 years and then just gave out. The CX4200 is one year old now, and there have been no problems.

I cannot recommend this printer. I second the reviews where one is not allowed to print B&W without 3 other functioning cartridges. My most serious problem is that after about a year of routine use, replacing cartridges when empty, etc, the heads on our printer are now clogged. They do not unclog with the head cleaning procedure because the darn thing is convinced its cartridges are empty. They are most certainly NOT empty, as we had just purchased a whole new set of cartridges. Arrrrgh! If I cannot get this printer to work pretty soon Im gonna unplug it and put it in the trash.

Adding to the chorus! Worst printer ever. When it does work its ok. But as soon as you get low on ink (which is really fast) it stops working! You then have to buy all the ink cartridges even if you just want to print in black. I am trashing it and getting a new one but it will not be an Epson. They should be ashamed of themselves but they arent!

If one color of ink is out, it prevents all printing. Even if you have a full black cartridge. Thats ok if you want a printer that doesnt print I guess. The cartridges run out quick. The color cartridges get used up even when printing in black only. The scanner is good enough, but does not scan 35 mm negatives.

I, too, am incredibly aggravated that I cannot print with only black ink. I ran out of blue ink but all my other inks are full, and I just want to print a black & white document. The printer wont print at all even though I checked the various print only black printer options.

It didnt have a USB cable in the package. That was the only thing that was a moderate inconvenience. However, its not worth getting worked up about. The printer is wonderful and the best part is that as soon as I hooked it to my computer, Linux recognized the printer and I was looking at a test page in seconds. As with any printer, I know all of those mechanical parts will eventually go bad, but Im looking forward to a year or two of really fine-quality prints.

There are two problems with this printer and the other Epson CX models. First, the printer will not operate if any ink cartridge is empty. If the black cartridge is full, and any other cartridge is empty it will not operate even if you want to print in black only. Second, these models have a tendency to clog from ink residue if you dont run cleaning cycles after each use, which exhaust your ink supply. This is a complete waste of ink and an expensive maintenance issue.

Not only will it not print without Color ink. It will say your out of color ink when your not. Im not just saying this out of frustration. If you pick up an empty cartridge, you can tell from the liquid moving around in it that its nearly full. If thats not enough I put it on a scale, 0.1 of an oz difference. Expect to have to purchase ink every other time you want to print something. As for functionality of the scanner and everything else, well that all works fine. The scanner is not very fast but it works alright. Its prints okay pictures.

Recently my low ink light went on in the middle of a project. I was not too disappointed - in fact I felt a bit smug because I had just purchased a half dozen black ink cartridges at a good price over the internet! So I changed cartridges and went on to continue my project. But the ink light was still on! I took out the cartridge, shook it, reinserted it over and over. I went to the Epson website to get a new driver. The new driver allowed me to see my ink status. The black cartridge was full, but the color was empty! In fact all 3 of the colored cartridges had suddenly become empty! How could this be? Im WAY too cheap to ever use color! I inserted my new black cartridges into the colored slots. No luck. Total loss. Trash can time. I will NEVER buy from Epson again.