Customer Rating: 
Summary: A great printer and easy to fix errors/clogs
Comment: I have owned the Epson R300 and the R320. I have printed large volumes with both of them over the past few years ranging from basic home office docs to photographs. They are very well made, and worth every penny.
For those who complain about all of the ink usage and clogging: It is a PHOTOGRAPHIC printer. It uses very very tiny micro head technology and lays down a lot of ink to give that beautiful flawless photographic finish. And yes, the heads clog ESPECIALLY if you don't use the printer often. Keep this in mind when changing cartridges...you want to do it quickly so that the heads are exposed to air as briefly as possible.
Clogged Print Heads: (always run a nozzle check before starting a print job, especially if it's been a while since you've printed. It saves a lot of ink/paper and frustration).
Here are my tried and true methods of cleaning the print heads. If it's really bad (even after running the cleaning cycle), then turn it off then on, and pull the plug when the head moves over. Now you can slide it freely. Move it out of the way and lay a double layer of paper towel under the spot where the head sits when you change the ink cartridges. Move the head back over the paper towel into the ink changing station. Open the lid and remove the ink cartridges and look inside. The little prongs are what need careful cleaning. Heat up a little glass cleaner in the micro, and spray it gently and slowly over each head with a syringe.
Each cleaning cycle uses the INK to clean the heads. This does 2 things:
-it uses a lot of expensive ink
-it flows down into the waste ink pads, which will eventually give you an error message.
There are fixes for both of these problems:
I have been using a CIS (Continuous Ink System) from a company called InkJetFly (.com) for over a year. The setup was about $50, and is easy to install. The refill cartridges cost $5 each and hold FIVE times what a normal ink cartridge holds. INCREDIBLE photographic results with no clogging. I love it!
The waste ink pads are also an easy fix. Check out Ebay for a waste ink container for your model. They are a cheap and easy to install. There is a trap door on the back of your printer, and the waste ink pad is right inside (white when new, black when you've done a lot of printing/cleaning). The tube that dumps the ink is right under it. You just hook an extension tube up to the waste ink tube and it dumps it into a bottle. Done.
Last but not least: If you get a General Error, then another ink pad might be full. Look inside your printer lid. See the foam track that runs under the print head? On the FAR LEFT there is a little square of foam that gets soaked with ink when the head moves over it at the end of every printed row. Take it out gently and rinse and dry it thorougly. Put it back in and turn the printer off. Now press the stop, maintenance and Power buttons all at once until a message pops up that the error is cleared. IF THE INK PAD IS STILL WET, the error WON'T clear!
Hope this helps. I have learned all of these 'tricks' from trial and error, and it has saved me a lot of money and frustration.
Customer Rating:
Summary: After 2 months, I have to agree with the naysayers
Comment: At first this bugger printed great. I was happy. I bought six new cartridges for it around May 5th, 2007. I printed 6 CD/DVD's and maybe 10-15 pages (usually on economy or draft settings to save ink) and then it sat from about May 10th until about June 12th. When I tried to use it, The status monitor reported all cartridges approximately 2/3 full. When I tried to print, I got tons of drop outs in the printing so I tried cleaning the cartridges. The first cleaning helped a tiny bit, so I cleaned them again. Well, after about 6 cleanings it was beginning to look much better and I thought I was ready to go...but wait...it then reported that I was completely out of ink on ALL cartridges ???!! What the ???? That's right, I went from 2/3 full to empty after 6 head cleanings. Kinda expensive wouldn't ya say Epson? I'm taking the cartridges back to see if I can exchange them...this seems like a scam to me.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great when it works...
Comment: It is great when the heads are not clogged, but heads clog all the time and to clean them takes 2 sets of ink cartridges, even with an aftermarket solvent. It used ink so fast, it is cheaper to just buy a new one. I wish I had instead of all the money on ink.
Customer Rating:
Summary: There are MUCH better choices
Comment: This printer was a gift(and I am grateful for the thoughtfulness), but darn it, if you're looking for a great deal, this one isn't it.
1. every time it prints, it cleans the printer heads, wasting ink.
2. it goes through ink quickly and you can't just keep on printing if one it out. Nope, it has to be replaced.
3. You can't op NOT to print in color on the printers menu.
4. Replacing 6 cartridges costs more that the printer did.
I wasn't very impressed with the quality of the images it produced. I still love my Deskjet, and we've been using that instead.
The one thing I do like about it, is that it feeds small items better.
Customer Rating:
Summary: worst printer ever
Comment: do not buy this printer it has manufacture problem bought mine on amazon
lasted for 15 weeks and got error message parts in your printer has reach it life span need service bad thing is i live in GUYANA south america
and there is no epson dealer here if you think this review is about bad luck with the priner check epson site and it is there as one of the printers to be replace by warranty now if it is good why is it on the list of replacement printers no good epson need to get this right amazon is world wide for shoppers and if they keep doing this customers will shy away from their product another thing is the dvd tray keeps comming out of the back of the printer will not buy this product again and don't recomend it to any one oops i droped it from my balcony.
Summary: A great printer and easy to fix errors/clogs
Comment: I have owned the Epson R300 and the R320. I have printed large volumes with both of them over the past few years ranging from basic home office docs to photographs. They are very well made, and worth every penny.
For those who complain about all of the ink usage and clogging: It is a PHOTOGRAPHIC printer. It uses very very tiny micro head technology and lays down a lot of ink to give that beautiful flawless photographic finish. And yes, the heads clog ESPECIALLY if you don't use the printer often. Keep this in mind when changing cartridges...you want to do it quickly so that the heads are exposed to air as briefly as possible.
Clogged Print Heads: (always run a nozzle check before starting a print job, especially if it's been a while since you've printed. It saves a lot of ink/paper and frustration).
Here are my tried and true methods of cleaning the print heads. If it's really bad (even after running the cleaning cycle), then turn it off then on, and pull the plug when the head moves over. Now you can slide it freely. Move it out of the way and lay a double layer of paper towel under the spot where the head sits when you change the ink cartridges. Move the head back over the paper towel into the ink changing station. Open the lid and remove the ink cartridges and look inside. The little prongs are what need careful cleaning. Heat up a little glass cleaner in the micro, and spray it gently and slowly over each head with a syringe.
Each cleaning cycle uses the INK to clean the heads. This does 2 things:
-it uses a lot of expensive ink
-it flows down into the waste ink pads, which will eventually give you an error message.
There are fixes for both of these problems:
I have been using a CIS (Continuous Ink System) from a company called InkJetFly (.com) for over a year. The setup was about $50, and is easy to install. The refill cartridges cost $5 each and hold FIVE times what a normal ink cartridge holds. INCREDIBLE photographic results with no clogging. I love it!
The waste ink pads are also an easy fix. Check out Ebay for a waste ink container for your model. They are a cheap and easy to install. There is a trap door on the back of your printer, and the waste ink pad is right inside (white when new, black when you've done a lot of printing/cleaning). The tube that dumps the ink is right under it. You just hook an extension tube up to the waste ink tube and it dumps it into a bottle. Done.
Last but not least: If you get a General Error, then another ink pad might be full. Look inside your printer lid. See the foam track that runs under the print head? On the FAR LEFT there is a little square of foam that gets soaked with ink when the head moves over it at the end of every printed row. Take it out gently and rinse and dry it thorougly. Put it back in and turn the printer off. Now press the stop, maintenance and Power buttons all at once until a message pops up that the error is cleared. IF THE INK PAD IS STILL WET, the error WON'T clear!
Hope this helps. I have learned all of these 'tricks' from trial and error, and it has saved me a lot of money and frustration.
Customer Rating:
Summary: After 2 months, I have to agree with the naysayers
Comment: At first this bugger printed great. I was happy. I bought six new cartridges for it around May 5th, 2007. I printed 6 CD/DVD's and maybe 10-15 pages (usually on economy or draft settings to save ink) and then it sat from about May 10th until about June 12th. When I tried to use it, The status monitor reported all cartridges approximately 2/3 full. When I tried to print, I got tons of drop outs in the printing so I tried cleaning the cartridges. The first cleaning helped a tiny bit, so I cleaned them again. Well, after about 6 cleanings it was beginning to look much better and I thought I was ready to go...but wait...it then reported that I was completely out of ink on ALL cartridges ???!! What the ???? That's right, I went from 2/3 full to empty after 6 head cleanings. Kinda expensive wouldn't ya say Epson? I'm taking the cartridges back to see if I can exchange them...this seems like a scam to me.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great when it works...
Comment: It is great when the heads are not clogged, but heads clog all the time and to clean them takes 2 sets of ink cartridges, even with an aftermarket solvent. It used ink so fast, it is cheaper to just buy a new one. I wish I had instead of all the money on ink.
Customer Rating:
Summary: There are MUCH better choices
Comment: This printer was a gift(and I am grateful for the thoughtfulness), but darn it, if you're looking for a great deal, this one isn't it.
1. every time it prints, it cleans the printer heads, wasting ink.
2. it goes through ink quickly and you can't just keep on printing if one it out. Nope, it has to be replaced.
3. You can't op NOT to print in color on the printers menu.
4. Replacing 6 cartridges costs more that the printer did.
I wasn't very impressed with the quality of the images it produced. I still love my Deskjet, and we've been using that instead.
The one thing I do like about it, is that it feeds small items better.
Customer Rating:
Summary: worst printer ever
Comment: do not buy this printer it has manufacture problem bought mine on amazon
lasted for 15 weeks and got error message parts in your printer has reach it life span need service bad thing is i live in GUYANA south america
and there is no epson dealer here if you think this review is about bad luck with the priner check epson site and it is there as one of the printers to be replace by warranty now if it is good why is it on the list of replacement printers no good epson need to get this right amazon is world wide for shoppers and if they keep doing this customers will shy away from their product another thing is the dvd tray keeps comming out of the back of the printer will not buy this product again and don't recomend it to any one oops i droped it from my balcony.