Ink guzzler. Review on Epson C45 Inkjet Printer

Hello Reader!

I bought the Epson Stylus C45 around 2 months back at Chenoy Trade Centre, Secunderabad for about 2.4K. The deal at the time was - 1 black cartridge free, 2 years on-site warranty. Very very powerful printer driver, loads of options. B&W Prints are ok. Color prints are not ok, massive color caliberation required. The good part is over.

The printer is squarely aimed-designed-built for the low end user. Compared to a Canon design, this looks like a brick.

The paper tray is slide-out plastic tray at the bottom. Its curved and even on full extension doesnt fit an A4 page. Also, if kept slightly unbalanced, the tray rubs against the table surface i.e. the tray is not covered at the bottom with a lid. Kinda like a Kinetic rubbing on a speed breaker.

The rear paper-in has a weird tray that allows the A4 paper to curve backwards. If you load too many sheets, multiple papers tend to enter and jam the feeder.

The printer is noisy during operation. Not the most silent equipment in my house. Wont crib too much though (have used DMPs in the past).

Printer tends to waste phenomenal amount of ink everytime you switch it on/off, press paper-feed. Result: cartridge runs out. My first black cartridge ran out in 55 black prints. Hell, at 450/- per cartridge, the cost of ink per print alone is 8.20/-.

After a cartridge change, recently the printer developed serious paper feed issues. The paper just wouldnt enter the printer. After loads of paper-feed cycles, the printer finally started to load paper. The cause: A tiny piece of thermocol from printer packaging. The remaining thermocol is ground up and smeared against the metal roller inside the printer. In this context, if you see white/pink cream inside the printer, dont wipe it off. Its grease and essential for the lubrication of the printer head.

One worrying factor while loading paper by pressing paper feed that I observed was - the printer seemed to recharge/clean the jet after every so many paper feeds. If true, this is dumb electronics. Not only, I wasted 8/- per paper eject, the waste ink sponge will become full too and will require factory service (Epson's recommendation).

Another piece of dumb electronics is the cartridge ID chip. Stuck to the cartridge is a tiny smart chip. The chip is supposed to count the number of prints taken using the cartridge. Its not a measurement of ink remaining - just print count. The printer driver decrements the amount of ink remaining based on the count from the chip - not a real measurement of ink remaining. I dis-assembled a ink cartridge to verify. Inside, its all plastic. No wiring or chips to measure ink volume.

If you pop-in a non-Epson cartridge (less than 350/- for black), the printer warns you against using non-approved ink. This looks to me like a clear case of MRTPC. Heck, in this age of complex Intellectual Property laws & DMCA in US, I am sure enough clauses exist to render MRTPC completely in-effective.

The ink cartridge maybe cheaper than HP, but in HP you get a brand new head and more ink. Upto 18ml vs 5ml of Epson.

The 2 year warranty is a good option, though I suspect, when the time comes, Epson will claim inability to repair the printer and offer a Buy-back instead. Or they will give me a repair bill higher than the printer's original cost.

Any advise as to which legal clause I can use against such tactics?