Epson 925 = Garbage
Written: Mar 20 '05
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Pros: Easy setup, many printing options, roll paper, memory stick slot
Cons: Frequent head cleaning,
requires powering off when not using,
horrible paper feed,
poor photo prints.
The Bottom Line: This is an extremely poor product. Combine that fact with the poor customer support we received, and we will never buy ANY Epson product again.
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| dwuori's Full Review: Epson Stylus Photo® 925 InkJet Printer |
OVERVIEW:
Overall I hate this printer. The photo printing is hit or miss: Sometimes it's great, sometimes it sucks. (I realize that my word selection--"sucks"--is not very professional, but it is still the correct term to use!) The print heads dry up if not used every 30 minutes. Due to this, it has to be powered off when not in use. The paper feed randomly grabs multiple sheets rather than a single sheet.
DETAILS
Why We Bought This Printer
This printer seemed very nice when viewing in the store. It had all the options we were looking for: Photo printer, Sony Memory Stick slot (proprietary and therefore not found on all printers), well-known brand, recommended by both Sony and our Best Buy sales person as a good match for printing from Sony cameras (DSC-P10 is the camera we bought at the same time).
Initial Use
Setup was easy: Just plug it in and go on Win2000 Pro. After that, the problems started. When printing to standard paper, sometimes it would grab one sheet... sometimes it would grab 4, 10 or some other random number of sheets.
Epson Support: First experience = Good
My first encounter with Epson support was very good. This, no doubt, was probably due to the fact that the product was still under the 1-year warranty.
About 11 months after purchasing the printer I was attempting to print some address labels. The sheet gobbler sucked in the page crooked, and jammed. It would not feed the page through so I had no choice but to pull it back out. Bad idea with address labels, right? Right. One of them peeled off the page and stuck inside the printer. This printer is locked up pretty tight, except to replace ink, so there was no way for me to get it out. I called and they sent me a replacement after going through the same troubleshooting I had already performed a few times on my own. They told me the replacement would be refurbished, which I didn't feel like I should complain about (I had second thoughts later).
The replacement arrived after about 4 days. The paper feed on the replacement seemed to work better than the old one, but the printouts were very poor. I removed and replaced the brand new ink cartridges ($30 apiece) and it printed nicely again. After a few days I went to use it again and the printout was missing the black tones. I check the ink level, which was still full, and ran the head cleaning/nozzle check routine. It printed nicely again. A few more days passed... same problem, same routine. It became my twice-weekly ritual.
Epson Support: Second Experience = Poor
I called support and they told me it was no longer under warranty. I explained that I'd just received the refurbished replacement, after which they informed that the warranty period was based on the original purchased date rather than the replacement date. So, I could get phone support for $10 per incident or use free email-based support. I asked the question, "if this refurbished replacement unit requires replacing as well, am I out of luck?" The answer was "yes". So by then I was mad.
I tried email support and got the response that I should turn off the printer when it is not being used, or the ink heads will dry out and the print heads will need to be cleaned. What a piece of junk! If you don't use it constantly you need to turn it off--and if the reader is familiar with the way a USB device needs to be removed from a system, then you know it is not a simple matter of "hitting the power button." When turning on in order to print, you must wait for it to go through the power-on routine each time. I now go through this power-off, power-on routine on a regular basis, but I usually need to clean the print heads anyway. I have never had to power off any other ink jet (Cannon or HP) when not using.
Photo Printing
Sometimes it's great, other times it sucks. No idea why. The camera is a 5mp so a 4x6 images should be pretty crisp. It is on the screen, but often becomes spotty on the printouts. It's like it's not able to use the colors for blending very well. Sometimes cleaning the print heads clears it up... other times it doesn't help.
The printer has the option of using 4-inch-wide roll paper. This seems cool because you get borderless prints that are cut by the printer. Unfortunately, the roll paper doesn't always load very well, and often it fails to cut the paper off in the right spot.
Price:
"Enhanced Features" aren't worth much without "Enhanced Quality." At $230 (July of 2003), this ink jet/photo printer had a higher-than-average price tag. However, due to the features it offered we felt that the price was reasonable. Now that we have used this printer and have discovered just how poor the performance is, we feel like we have been duped.
CONCLUSION
The performance of this product is so incredibly poor compared to the high expectations set for us by the product description, and vendor/salesperson recommendations we received, that we are more than just "disappointed" with this product. We have taken it personally and feel RIPPED OFF.
We will NEVER buy another EPSON product again.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 230
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
dwuori
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Reviews written: 4
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