Epson WorkForce 30 Color Inkjet Printer (C11CA19201)

After a year of hard use the print quality of my Epson C88+ was going south, so I purchased an Epson Workforce 30 from Amazon and received it yesterday. First thing this morning I set it up and started printing a major report for my home-based business using MS Publisher's desktop publishing package. I needed six copies of the report and each copy is about 80 pages, with dense text, and color photos and/or multicolor figures on nearly every page. The last few pages of the report just came off the printer at 8pm.Print quality was superb at the medium -- print plus photos setting -- when the printer started printing this morning and the last page looks every bit as good as the first, with no printhead cleaning required in a very long day. Yes, I did use about 2/3 of each ink cartridge (according to the printer's ink usage utility) but I printed about 480 pages! After reading previous reviews about this printer's ink consumption I'd ordered two extra sets of printer cartridges to insure that I'd be able to finish the print job, but didn't need to change cartridges.One thing I did not know when I ordered the printer and extra cartridges is that there are "69 series" standard capacity ink cartridges and "68 series" high capacity ink cartridges available (my fault, I wasn't reading the fine print when I ordered). Checking the price of these at Amazon I find that the high capacity black ink cartridges are actually slightly less expensive than the regular and the high capacity color ink cartridges are only nominally more expensive than the regular. I wish I'd paid closer attention when I ordered as I'd have saved myself considerable money by buying the high capacity cartridges.As you may have guessed, I burn through these printers fairly quickly, but they are essentially disposable. As I'm writing this the printer is $69.24 with free Prime shipping and it comes with a set of "69 series" cartridges valued at $58.37 with free Prime shipping. So I figure I'm paying $10.87 for the printer. I run them until they smoke and when they die I pitch them in the trash and order another of the same model so my extra ink cartridges aren't orphaned as they quickly become the big expense. Still, I can't complain about getting 480 pages out of a set of ink cartridges.All in all I'm very well pleased with the print quality and speed of this printer and it easily paid for itself today. If it lasts a year as my four Epson C88's each did, it will pay for itself several times over. That's a great deal!

This is my second Epson printer, just like the first. My first one crapped out after about 4 years of heavy use. It preformed excellent until its last printing breath. I buy many cartridges ahead, so when my old one died I had to find a new one that would take those cartridges. Found another new one (I don't think they make this model any more) and I bought it. Price didn't come down but it was worth it. I didn't want a "all in one" because they are ink hogs and I didn't want an HP (had a few before) because you have to buy ink even though one of your colors is still full. The work horse is exactly that ... a work horse. It prints beautiful photos and does documents at Lazer grade printing. I hope Epson has a good replacement for this printer as I'am very satisfied of all the years of good service it has given me.

I bought this printer to print out about 40 pages of color pics. It had the same resolution specs as a large format printer I had and it came out the same as a $250 printer. The Epson dura-brite ink is the best on the market, I think. It's alittle clunky sounding when it begins to print but does not affect the printout. As far as guzzling up ink, I have not found this to be the case. After 40 full color pages, only a tiny amount of ink was used. Good item for the price & super fast Prime shipping!

First, some of the reviews I've read on this printer unfairly compare it to much higher end models. This is a BASIC home/office printer. I use it at work and print about 20+ BW docs a day and only an occasional color photo. I have an Epson R320, R340 and an Artisan 50 for the good stuff. But I needed a little workhorse that would eliminate me from running to the receptionist's desk every time I wanted to print a document to the network printer at work. The first thing I noticed was this is the FASTEST printer I've ever owned -- I LOVE it! Unlike my Artisan 50 at home, the 30 is LOUD -- but hey, the boss knows I'm working. Besides, I don't know how much quieter it could be with the carriage moving back and forth so fast. You can quiet it down using the properties and sacrificing some speed if it bothers you. Setup was very easy and Epson has a great Windows 7 support page for the newer printers. However, I'm running win98 on my work PC so I can't comment on it's compatibility with Win7 (The only reason I mention this is because it was helpful with my Artisan 50 at home). Overall I've had good luck with this printer. BW print quality is great and color is decent. But if your want a photo printer, you have to spend more money to get high quality photos. I feel that I got more for my money than I expected. I wanted an inexpensive workhorse and that's exactly what I got. So far the only downfall is the typical overpriced Epson ink.