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Epson Stylus Photo 820 Inkjet Printer

Epson Stylus Photo 820 Inkjet Printer

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Pure Junk
Review: To say that I HATE this printer would be an understatement.

1. I have had it for a year and a few months, and it has yet to print an acceptable photograph, despite hours of tweaking the very tweak-able settings.

2. INK DRINKER. The cartridges may look cheaper than HP, but do not be fooled...they last only for a few pages, and seem to...evaporate? over time if not used.

3. CLOGGED! If you leave it for a few days, it will not print legibly and the nozzles must complete a cleaning routine, which is slow, and uses up the aforementioned expensive ink. (I used an entire color cartridge just doing this every week or so.)

4. If you use the USB cable, the printer's own vibrations interrupt the signal and it quits printing halfway through a job.

5. If you call Epson, they will not answer your questions until you pay them...

6. Mine stopped working entirely today, although it was still able to do self-tests and nozzle-checks and stuff. I replaced the parallel cable. Still not working. Plugged in the old HP printer...works on the first try.

Printing should not be this frustrating. Although I just spent another $... on cartridges, I have no qualms with throwing this waste of plastic out my 4th-story window right now. I intend to laugh merrily as it hits the pavement below and shatters into a million pieces. Rarely does such destruction satisfy this pacifist.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst printer ever
Review: I have nothing positive to say about this printer. The print quality for both photos and text is extremely poor. After trying every print setting and massive amounts of paper (both plain and glossy photo), I was never able to get a decent photo-quality print. It went through ink very quickly, it was very noisy, and the paper feed worked about 50% of the time. The sad part is that I bought two of these printers at the same time, one for my daughter headed off to college and one for myself. We both experienced similar problems with our printers.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst Printer I've Owned
Review: I am not a big fan of inkjet printers to begin with, but I couldn't turn down this printer when it came free with my iBook. Compared to other inkjets I've owned by Canon and HP, this printer is the pits! It hasn't been worth the USB cable I had to buy to hook it up with.

The first major problem is the paper feed mechanism. Unlike HP mechanisms that gently lift the paper from the tray and roll it into place, the Epson relies somewhat on gravity and a rotating rubber wheel that attempts to "flick" the paper into place. The problem is, with just the slightest amount of dust on this wheel, the "flick" doesn't quite get the paper to where it needs to be. Margins are consequently always off, or the paper completely misses the feeding wheels. What is more, sometimes the printer doesn't even realize it isn't feeding the paper properly, so it just starts blissfully squirting the ink on itself!

Secondly, the black ink cartridge clogs after just two or three days unused (even in the off position!). This means for infrequent use, you have to continually clean the nozzles, wasting gobs of ink in the process. It doesn't help that a $25 black cartridge from Epson lasts less than 100 sheets of text to begin with!

Yet another problem with this printer is its speed and noise. The noise level is incredible for a printer this size, and it literally grinds away for minutes sometimes in between pages or print jobs without actually printing anything (apparantly realigning the print heads or something). Combined with the several minutes it takes to print out just a single high-quality black text page, be prepared to wear ear protection to get anything done.

I really cannot say one good thing about this printer except that photo output is rather brilliant and stunning. As a general purpose printer, however, avoid it at all costs, even at no cost! After a phone call to both Apple and Epson, I simply deposited mine in the trash chute and chuckled as it loudly tumbled 16 floors to the dumpster below.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: a combination of contradictory things...
Review: It's hard to rate this printer since I do have very "contrasty" emotional impressions from use of it.

Pro: quality and again quality! If you are patient enough and can live with 22 minutes of the best-resolution printing of a single page, you will get what you are looking for - QUALITY. You will see the difference between 5 and 11 megapixel original files easily since this guy uses all the information hidden in 11 megapixels. Sometimes you do need an enlarging glass to see all the details printed (if you use the slow high-resolution mode mentioned above). If you use ICM settings and spend some time calibrating your monitor, the color accuracy will not cause any questions as well.

Contras: 1)noisy; 2)printing head easily gets clogged and you spend such amount of time and ink cleaning it that the cost of this device will no longer look low...

Conclusion: I personally will be looking for a replacement, probably from Canon brand.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst Printer Ever
Review: This is the worst printer I've ever used. If you are using it for photos only, it might be okay (albeit, still not great). However, if you need to use if for printing on paper, be prepared for some major frustration. Paper gets jammed repeatedly (even heavier weight paper) and the quality is poor when it does decide to work. I've already sent back one and am currently using the new replacement printer. Same old jam problems...same poor quality. I've wasted at least 2 1/2 hours on the phone with their customer service people(who were very nice I have to admit) and have wasted additional time packaging up and returning their products. Just such a dissapointment....I detest this product and hope to save you some frustration. I feel like hurling mine out the window. Don't bother with it!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: DRINKS THE INK, CLOGGED HEADS
Review: We had this only a few weeks before the heads were completely clogged, and we always turn it off right after printing. Wish we would have brought it back right away. Have now had it about 7-8 months and it continuously has clogged heads. You have to go through the cleaning cycle about ten times every time the heads clog, and that sucks the ink very fast.

The picture quality is great if you set the drivers up right, but the factory "photo" setting is horrible. Figuring out how to get the settings right took lots of time, ink, and epson photo paper. The new drivers helped, but not much.

We previously had an Epson 740 and loved it, but we wanted the 6 color printing. The pictures do look better, but just not worth the cost of ink. I wish we would have bought a 6 color HP at just 50 dollars more

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I am a believer!
Review: Epson's 6-color ink holds great promise for the skiled photographer. If you have calibrated your printer with the paper stock and ink you'll be using, you can achieve stunning results.

The only drawback seems to be the longevity of the prints. To get archival quality prints, you should move up to Epson 2200.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Dissatisfied
Review: After three months of quality print work, the printer has just stopped working; installed new drivers - no dice - just won't print!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: drinks ink like crazy!
Review: My 820 seemed like a bargain for its low price and seeminly high dpi and such, but the bargain turned into a money pit. I was printing maybe 30 or 40 4x6 prints per set of cartridges... I now own an HP 7350 that looks just as good and it printed 135 4x6s on oneset of cartridges.

The whole borderless feature is overated. Just print three 4x6s on a sheet of photopaper and trim with scissors. It's all-around cheaper.

I would NOT recommend this printer unless you own stock in Epson.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: NOT a printer to depend on....
Review: I'm currently late for work, trying to get something to print for my job. It's a report with pictures, and this printer, for the umpteenth time, is having problems with keeping the print head clean. I've been through the cleaning utility about 10 times this morning.
This is a problem that plagues this printer, and it only matters when it's crunch time. No problems when there's not a deadline, but I have people at my office waiting on me, wasting our time and money, because I depended on this printer. Never had such a problem with one of the HP printers, and will look into a purchase of one of their models for the workplace.


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