Epson Stylus CX4200 Inkjet Printer

I have owned this printer for approximately 7 years. It has been very dependable and makes great copies. The only draw back is that it will not print black and white copies if any of the color cartridges are empty. This is because each time it prints, even in black and white, a tiny amount of color ink is used to prevent the nozzles from becoming clogged. Just a minor problem; I made sure I had replacement cartridges on hand. I would recommend this printer for the home office.

I inherited this printer, so it sat in a box for over a year before I used it. Even after sitting for so long it still worked--ink and all. When the printer stopped working because Of low ink, I replaced all ink cartridges and was back to printing. This is a small, space efficient printer/scanner. The replacement ink cartridges are economical--three color cartridges for about $30.00. I also own an HP all-in-one printer with fax. The HP is a workhorse, but the cost of ink is double the price of Epsons cartridges and last about as long. If your printing needs are modest, youre not printing your novel or 40 pages of notes a day, this is a reasonable printer to consider. The print quality is great, and photos can be printed directly from your camera.

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.

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.

The 4200 is slow printing, but reasonable in type appearance. Color is good. Seems OK so far. Replacement Ink cartridges are expensive.

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.

I cant add much more to the chorus. This Epson is not only worthless, but actually offensive to the user. This made me change from having no opinion on Epson to despising them. Great strategy, Corporate Dudes! If you would like to know what people think of it, check auction sites where these printers sell for fifteen bucks. Positive(s): at least the scanner doesnt require ink (but I bet they fixed that with the next model). What a joke.

I like this printer most of the time, but Ive become upset with one very poor design flaw: black-and-white printing is disabled unless the color ink cartridges have ink in them. As their website says, Q: Can the printer still print if an ink cartridge is expended or not installed? A: No. The printer will not operate if any cartridge is expended or removed. Its best to always have extra cartridges on hand. With this bizarre design, not only is it best to have extra cartridges on hand, but necessary. If you run out of any color ink, you can no longer print in black and white--very inconvenient.

Ive had this printer for just over 2 years. With light use, the cartridges last for a while. The problem is that the print head does not clean itself properly and now anything I print has a smudge at on the side of the paper where the print head changed direction (going back and forth). No amount of head cleaning fixes this problem.

Owned it about 1 year and made about 50-100 prints in that time. Then it stopped printing, saying cyan ink was out. Bought a new cartridge, same problem. Called tech support; thats where you repeat the online troubleshooting page you just finished doing, but in case youre really dumb, they read it to you. Bottom line, its a hardware problem, so they give you the phone number to the closest repair facility...of course, they give the FAX number. Then they bring you to their loyalty page. Loyalty is a TWO way affair...it requires Epson to make a good product so Ill buy another product. Im sure Ill be lining up to make another Epson product purchase...NOT!