Epson Stylus CX4200 Inkjet Printer

This is a good printer/scanner when its working properly and you have ink. Its user friendly too. My first one quit working all of the sudden for no reason. It wouldnt produce any ink. My second one is starting to die as well and I just bought it this year (although it was used). The ink is pretty expensive too and it wont work unless you have ALL the colors.

This printer ends up costing a fortune in ink. It always prints with all the colors, even if you select black only, and it does not print if any cartridge is removed or empty. It always tells me my cartridges are empty when they are not. It runs out of ink after printing about 20-30 pages of low-quality, black-only. It never seems to have ink when I need it most, which is frequently very inconvenient and has caused me to decide to buy a new printer even though technically this one is still functioning fine. Perhaps mine has some kind of problem, but I would certainly not take the risk and buy it again - nor will I be buying any Epson for my next printer if I can help it.

Mine just self-destructed. It sucked a piece of paper into itself, made a death whine, blinked its lights furiously, and died. I cant get the paper out. Also, all the other bad things you have heard are true.

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.

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.

Last year I purchased an Epson Stylus CX5000 printer and Ive been disappointed with it since day one. About two sets of ink cartridges in, I vowed to never use it again. Recently, I guess I had forgotten about my vow and I thought Id give it another try. This meant purchasing new ink cartridges. This printer wont let you print even if only one cartridge is detected to be low. I installed the new cartridges and by the time I went through all the diagnostics and so-called alignment, nozzle cleaning, etc., the printer software popped up a message saying I was low on ink again. Low on ink with the very colors I had just replaced. Needless to say, Im fuming. If ink cartridges cost what they are worth, which is probably around fifty cents, I might not be so mad. After all, it would only mean stocking up on the stupid things. But when I purchased these, the cost was outrageous. Also, why doesnt epson provide the customer with a recycling packet that can be mailed back to them for used print cartridges (free of charge). On the packet it says to dispose of them properly. What does that mean? At the rate these things get used up, whats this doing to our landfills? What kind of toxic chemicals are inside these things? My recycling company doesnt take ink cartridges. Im tempted to package all the used ones and mail them back to the epson and let them deal with it. Theyll probaby just throw them in the trash and Ill be out the shipping cost. The more I work with computer-related products, the more I believe the world was just fine without all this garbage and life was also less expensive. Sorry for getting philosophical on you. And no, I not buying another brand. This one will go to the recycling center and Ill get by without a printer. Im sure they all find a way to gouge you. Good luck! By the way, the one-star rating I gave this was only because I couldnt give it no stars. There should be a negative scale to rate this product. One star implies the product has some value.

Wonderful!

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.

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.

I purchased this printer 3 years ago. It is the biggest ink-sucker Ive ever known! I finally switched to non-OEM cartridges because I went through them so quickly. Ever time you turn it on, go to print, end a print job, turn it off--it would just use up ink. The sponge at the bottom was always completely soaked with ink no matter how often I cleaned it off and dried it up. I barely printed anything before it was time to change at least one of the cartridges, and, once one was due for a change, the other 3 werent far behind. Ive experience numerous paper jams with this machine. And who knows where its going to print on the page?!? The colors would also come out funny, ESPECIALLY if you used the scanner. I would scan an image and the colors would be completely different shades! And the quality really wasnt good for all the photo-printing features it boasts. Finally, my printer started making a funny noise last week--like a grinding. Nothing was dropped in there and the troubleshooter was a waste of time. After the noise, Id go to print and it acted like it would, but then itd start to feed the paper and itd just jam up on the right-hand side. I finally called tech support because I couldnt figure out what to do by fiddling around or using the internet. The guy finally said he couldnt help me and gave me the number and address for a computer repair place in town (at least I wouldnt have to drive too far). He told me to ask for an estimate and, if that was more (hint hint!), then he asked if Id consider looking at the Epson website. I promptly informed him that, if it cost anything, then Id definitely be purchasing a Canon and Id already been researching in the week I havent been able to print. So I called the number he gave me and was informed there was an upfront $50 diagnostic fee, which would kindly be applied to whatever charges thered be after the guy was done looking at it. For $50 I can purchase a well-reviewed Canon Pixma iP2600. For a little more, Im looking at the Canon Pixma MP470 (currently on sale at BestBuy for $79.99). So, after 3 years of hating my printer, it rebels for the last time less than 2 months before I start medical school and have all these other stresses going on. This was just what I needed to finally warn the world about this terrible, horrible piece of equipment!!! Time to go buy the Canon I should have purchased last time...