Epson Stylus CX7400 Color All-in-One Printer Reviews

• Don't buy unless you want to reinvest your money

  
  By A252LWZG29RNLA on 2007-11-02
  Here's the deal... EPSON tricks you. Does it print well? Yes, but you can't print a B&W page without having color working. And worse yet, it uses teeny bits of color each time you print B&W so that you can't just NOT use color. I am a PhD student. I discovered this in the middle of printing an assignment. I scrambled to the lab at the university. Later I found out the whole thing STOPS and cannot be forced if you don't have ALL your ink loaded. So Cost of ink: Black: $16, colors, $13 each, times 4= $68; New canon printer at Wal Mart--which ALLOWS you to force B&W printing and has all the same functions of my EPSON rip off: $54.88.
  
  Peace of mind: Priceless
  
  

• Great All in One Printer!

  
  By A2PWTF40Y14NI7 on 2007-10-08
  After trying Lexmark and HP Deskjet All in One Printers, we tried this printer. Great quality print, easy to use copy feature, and automatic color restoration for scanning our old photos into the computer! Great price especially considering it comes with the large capacity "69" ink cartridges, which are pretty inexpensive (about $10). Only quirk we found was in scanning "textured photos" (some of our old photos have a series of hemispherical bumps on them) it gave a dust like effect (glare maybe?), but nothing a simple dust remover routine couldn't fix. Textured photos are so rare, we are probably the only people who will have this issue. Software even works with Windows 2000, XP, and is Vista Ready! Good stuff.
  
  Definitely would recommend to all!
  
  

• RIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPP OOOOOOFFFFFFFF!!!!!!

  
  By A1SYH34LK4CPYZ on 2008-05-28
  DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!!!
  
  Well, it looks like I am about to join the multitude of other voices who just discovered the "ink problem". First off, I ran out after several months even though I use my printer like once a week. And the printer simply locked up, not letting me continue to print regardless of the ink level. I'm sorry, but if I say print, you print; I don't care if I get some faded or near invisible printout, I don't need dark ink for directions to cousin Jenny's baby shower. Unable to refill the ink at local Walgreens, I bit the bullet and dropped 16 dollars for a new black inch cartridge, plugged it in, and the printer still didn't print. It was out of cyan ink. DID I EVEN PRINT IN COLOR??? I spent a good part of twenty minutes while my four year old complained of interrupting her webkinz session, looking for an option to print in black and white only. The result...nothing, it still wouldn't print. It won't print in Black and White because I didn't have the color Cyan (say what???). Now I need to purchase the other three colors (somehow, despite never printing in color, I am less then 25% on all three colors). I got this printer for free with a new computer I purchased, and I made the fateful mistake of selling off my old HP printer for $10 at a garage sale. Thought it was a deal at the time, now I am thoroughly regretting it.
  
  DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!!! I will never consider Epson again.
  
  

• Reviewers suffering from Operator Errors on a GREAT PRINTER

  
  By A38OOG8KQ48OZB on 2008-07-17
  It seems that many of the other reviewers simply don't understand how to operate this printer. Epson prides itself on being one of the best printer manufacturers. As a photographer, I wouldn't trust any other printer to my photographs. First of all, to make black, you need all colors. That's simply a printing fact. But, you CAN use only black ink if you go into the printer dialog box, choose the third drop down box, change the option to print settings and choose black ink only. Secondly, I have never had a paper jam with this printer. It is so simple to use and does a GREAT job with all functions. True, the inks don't last exceptionally long but the quality is great.
  
  

• Seems Fine, Until You Run Out of Ink

  
  By AUA4RCP030A4Q on 2008-02-20
  I got this printer a few months ago, and I was satisfied with the amount of features for the price. I replaced the original ink catridge when it was low, and it worked fine. I have NOT printed in color, though, and yet my color ink catridges are down to 25% or less.
  
  I replaced my black ink catridge a few days ago and have only printed about ~50 pages of black text. The paper jams, and then suddenly it says my black ink catridge is empty and needs to be replaced. There is NO manual override. It does NOT allow you print unless you replace the black ink catridge! This is so frustrating, since I know it is not used up, and even the last page before the paper jam was perfectly printed!
  
  The troubleshooting guide on the Epson site for this printer also will not load. I always bought the cheapest printers, and just when I spring for an all-in-one, it disappoints me.
  
  On the plus side, the print quality is great, and there are a lot of features. However, on the minus side, if you run out of black ink, you are STUCK. You cannot do anything (not even clean nozzles of print heads). Also, given my experience, one paper jam can cause your printer to suddenly decide you're out of ink. If I could still return this printer, I would, and instead I'd just buy a cheap, regular printer with no bells and whistles to break.
  
  
• This printer is a RIP-OFF!
  By A3NSMV9WGY2IAT on 2008-01-22
  I purchased this printer a month ago to use at work. The printer seemed great for the price, had a nice look to it, printed well (although a little loud). Everything was fine.. UNTIL it ran out of ink. As has already been mentioned in a previous review, this printer uses color ink even when you only print with black text. When the colored ink runs out, you CANT PRINT unless you replace it. Thus, you get to buy 4 different colors of ink, and of course Epson recommends that you use their ink.
  
  After this ripoff.. I will never buy an epson product again!!
  
  
• Epson stinks!
  By A1UWHOB4EDZQ8T on 2008-02-26
  This printer was so bad I threw it on the trash-heap 3 weeks after buying it. The cartridges are hideously expensive and very difficult to replace (you have to rely on the printer to put the cartridges in the right position, which it won't do, and then if you just manhandle the thing, out of complete frustration, it won't recognize that you've replaced the cartridge!!!!). The software is constantly prodding you to buy Epson replacement cartridges and I suspect prompting you to replace them before you really have to do so. Uggh. It's easier just to print stuff at work. I'd love to know if anyone has a recommendation for a reliable, easy-to-use all-in-one printer that is not merely an excuse to sell !#$_$%@ replacement cartridges. I will never buy an EPSON product again. Also, what genius had the idea of giving the number 69 to the replacement cartridges -- a number that looks exactly the same upside-down.
  
  
• Horrible product, misleading -- not compatible with Windows Vista
  By A35WP5LHJSZ4HC on 2008-04-13
  I will never buy an Epson printer again. I bought this printer with my new Windows Vista computer a few months ago. Epson advertised this printer as being Windows Vista compatible, and offered a deal on it. While the printer works, the scanner does not. This is due to the crappy Epson Scan software which does NOT work with Windows Vista. I could not get the Epson Scan software to install, I kept getting a message that it found the driver software but "cannot find file specified." After numerous e-mails and uninstalls/re-installs (and restarting my computer over and over again), nothing worked. Of course, Epson support was slow to respond to my inquires, so this took weeks.
  
  Finally, after some searching on Google, I figured out this was a problem with the Epson Scan software and it has affected many users of Windows Vista who have bought many different Epson scanners/all-in-ones, see [...]. The problem is that in order to install its driver, Epson Scan requires your operating system to have the system file usbscan.sys, which used to be on pre-Vista versions of Windows but is not included with Windows Vista. Epson Scan was really designed for pre-Vista versions of Windows. They did not take into account the fact that usbscan.sys is not part of Windows Vista.
  
  Also, one cannot readily copy this file (assuming you can get a copy of it, I did from an older computer) into the necessary driver subfolders in the Windows system32 folder due to access restrictions.
  
  Epson should not be selling Epson Scan as compatible with Windows Vista, it is not. Or at a minimum, Epson should warn consumers that their scan software will not work with Windows Vista (actually it won't install), so that consumers don't have to waste so much time, like me, doing unnecessary uninstalls/reinstalls at Epson's Support's request.
  
  I guess one can buy other scanning software that works with the scanner and is truly compatible with Windows Vista. I haven't tried that yet.
  
  I will never buy an Epson printer again. I typically get HP printers and never had a problem.
  
  
• Good deal!!!!!!!Excellent!!!!
  By A2K94L4460J48M on 2007-10-25
  Good quality prints. Nice design, Has valuable software included. Simple to use, frills free. Vista Ready. Pretty fast print speed for text and images. The only con I have is that it doesn't have 1 touch scanning. No biggie. Prints from memory cards easily also. Overall great value for the money.
  
  
• Don't buy this printer!
  By A8JTXPHLAKK6I on 2008-06-10
  Just don't! The paper regularly jams. The problems caused when the black ink runs out have been noted in many other reviews. The ink is very expensive and not always easy to find. While the print quality is decent when the stars are in alignment, you can do better than this!
  
  
• Easy Installation, works fine. Recommend Highly
  By A3BLF9N0652JRE on 2008-01-20
  I've purchased 4 of these printers (2 were cx 4400's). Have had no issues. Easy and fairly fast installations. Prints fine for a low end printer. I'm a Computer service business, and need a reliable, easy to install printer for my client's, and this fits the bill. I believe the customers having issues are doing something wrong during the installation, or just received a rare defective unit (My vote: they're probably doing something wrong).
  
  I switched from HP's to Epson's because of the installation software. HP's software for their AOI printers is very unreliable. Very long installation time, and half of the time it fails all together. Not something I want for my client's.
  
  
• Good for occasional use only
  By A3GZEPAN7ZWO6M on 2008-03-31
  This device is great if you are just using it to scan documents to files and not actually using it as a printer at all. And it would probably be OK if you do mostly color printing: the ink isn't really all that expensive if you are comparing it to replacing color cartridges on other machines.
  
  However, I made the big mistake of buying this when I print a number of documents each day, and over 99% of my printing is b&w. Having to continually replace color cartridges in order to use the black ink is clearly a device to get the purchaser to spend money on something that is literally being thrown away. According to the documentation, the rationale for using color ink when not printing in color is that it keeps the print heads clean. I am dubious. My first assumption, when using this printer, was that it must be creating "black" by mixing all the colors together; the cartridges were emptying so fast. And I thought I was being clever by finding and clicking on the "Print Black Only" option. But it made no difference.
  
  My plan is to continue using this "printer" as a scanner and for my kids to occasionally print school projects in color. When I buy my next set of ink cartridges (probably tomorrow), I'll be also picking up an HP deskjet of some kind, because I know they make printers that have no problem printing in B&W with an empty color cartridge.
  
  
• I wouldn't recommend this printer
  By A3CLQZYBFQHL5P on 2008-02-21
  I was very disappointed with this printer. The quality of printing is fine, but there are lots of inexpensive printers with fairly good quality. Epson has built kind of a dirty trick into its ink cartridges. If any of the ink cartridges is very low on ink, the printer won't print ANYTHING in ANY color. AND, you cannot refill the cartridges yourself or buy inexpensive refills, because the cartridge is programmed to shut itself and the entire printer down once any cartridge gets below a certain level of ink. You are forced to keep the printer stocked with all three colors plus black to be able to print at all, AND you are forced to buy expensive Epson cartridges. I also found the paper was difficult to load, and the printer is very "picky" about the paper you put in it. If you try too heavy or too thin of paper, it will not print.
  
  
• the worst printer ever
  By AA47BVJLQB9NS on 2008-03-03
  This is the worst printer in my life!!!
  I emailed Epson company.. 2 times and then they said they will replace it.
  Here is my emails...
  
  First mail
  -------------------------------
  
  I have had the printer for less than three month and am already on my third
  multipack of ink which costs more than the printer. Even for B/W printing,
  it uses all four color print cartridges which makes no sense, even if you
  set your print preferences for black ink printing only.
  I think this print should be recalled.
  Please let me know how do I do to solve this problem.
  
  ----------------------------
  Second mail
  ----------------------------
  I said my CX7400 was abnormal condition!!
  Even for B/W printing,
  It uses all four color print cartridges, even if I set the print
  preferences for black ink printing only.
  (exactly same amount of all inks)!!!
  I used CX3810 before buying CX7400, so I can tell what the problem of
  CX7400!!!
  
  -------------------------------
  
  
• RUN FROM THE EPSON CX7400
  By A1O561R5NBTD6W on 2008-03-24
  I purchased the Epson CX7400 in Dec 07. The indigo,magenta and yellow ink cartridges are $13 apiece in the BX and the black ink is almost $20.00 I set my computer to print ONLY in black and white!!!!!!! and yet within 20 pages of print had to replace the yellow and red cartridges. WHAT!!! I called Epson (562) 276-4382 and asked WHY my colored ink was going down when I wasn't printing in color? The Epson rep said the printer "uses a little color" EVERY time you print even if just black and white. That PHD who wrote a previous review was CORRECT. I told the rep "A LITTLE COLOR" it used up ALL my YELLOW AND RED and my blue is half full. My black was only a quarter gone. This rep SENT ME FREE OF CHARGE 10 ink cartridges (2 red, 2 blue, 2 yellow, 2 black) without my even asking. THAT FOLKS TELLS YOU EPSON KNOWS THEY HAVE A LOSER. I started over with 4 BRAND NEW INK CARTRIDGES and COUNTED EXACTLY how many copies I got from each color PRINTING ONLY IN BLACK AND WHITE. I reached 105 copies before the black ink went out NOT the 300 promised by the Epson rep. In fact although the PREVIOUS print job levels had RED FULL and YELLOW at the half way mark, blue just slightly gone and black almost empty, when I printed the next page THE RED, YELLOW AND BLACK INK levels indicated EMPTY!!!!!!!!!!!! I replaced the black ink with one of the ones the company sent and just took the red and yellow ink cartridges out and put them back in because there was NOTHING wrong with them. When I printed the next copy, LOW AND BEHOLD the RED was now a 1/4 down and the yellow down to within a 1/4 from bottom and Black was of course full and blue down about a 1/4. My old HP color printer NEVER did this. As soon as EPSON opens today, I am calling them and I WANT MY MONEY BACK. THEY CAN TAKE THEIR FREE INK CARTRIDGES and shove them because unless they plan on supplying me with free cartridges for the rest of the life of this printer, it is NOT worth it. What a RIP OFF! P.S. You all are going to think this is CRAZY but I SCAN all of my tax receipts (back-up) and some of the receipts are yellow or blue or some other color. I did NOT print-just scanned a colored document. When I went to print the so-called "yellow colored" scanned document in BLACK AND WHITE, the yellow ink level FELL more than a 1/4. RUN RUN RUN FROM THIS PRINTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
  
• It is a waste of money
  By A5HJFG74C2ONP on 2008-05-04
  It stopped working and said the ink cartridges were empty and need to be changed after I printed only a few pages. I couldn't believe a brand new printer ran out of ink so fast. My dell printer lasts for a few years. I know for sure that ink catridges are not empty. I already wasted my money in buying this printer. I don't want to waste any money in buying these only last-for-a -pages ink cartidges. Don't waster your money in this printer.
  
  
• DO NOT BUY
  By A1421OXDRJ2UVH on 2008-04-22
  expensive ink. uses colors while printing black only.
  cannot recommend. will not buy another Epson!!
  
  
• Excellent Purchase
  By A1FLDWBQ3LZ8V2 on 2008-02-29
  Excellent all in one printer. Installation was quick and easy. The print quality was excellent. You DO have the option of solely printing in black and white if you do not want to use up your color cartridges and the cartridges are not expensive as some claim. Scanning is quick, simple, and easy. Printing can be loud, but you can turn on "quiet printing", which does indeed work. Overall, this is an excellent all-in-one product for the price. Highly recommended.
  
  
• Biggest Piece of S*@#
  By A3QFDFN9L8KWHC on 2008-03-28
  This Printer by far is the biggest piece of sh%@ I have ever owned!!! It used all the ink in a very short time. I'm afaid to look at it because I feel it uses ink when I look at it. Big disappointment!!!! Seems to be stuck on black and white. I still haven't gotten a color print from it yet and I'm almost out of colored ink lol. Think again before throwing your money into the trash bin!!!!!
  
  
• BAD
  By A20L25ZNQTG8RK on 2008-04-02
  this printer is the worst... i got it for free after buying a new laptop and i still want to throw it away... DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY
  
  
• Worst printer ever--this ink thing??!!?
  By A36PRWPL040VXV on 2008-07-16
  Like others have said, there is ABS. NO manuel override for this freaking printer. And it always goes out at the freaking worstssss timeszzz. If I could kill the printer, I would!!! Believe it. It's been the source of a regular headache. It prints and scans well, but once you print a few pages or so, and the printer is low on some ink color that you DON'T EVEN NEED--your whole print job is finished! I would never recommend this.
  
  
• How could you not love this printer?
  By A1T593PYR4W42M on 2008-08-10
  Interesting story: I just purchased the printer from Office Max (Great price, by the way!) and THEN I read these reviews... I was so afraid that I made A MISTAKE because of the bad reviews.
  
  Far from true!
  
  THE PRINTER WORKS GREAT (I just tested all options) and it comes with very cool software for calendar creations and such... Very easy to use, and very helpful!
  
  It is absolutely Vista compatible! I don't know why others are having problems!! Scanner works perfectly with Vista! No, I am not talking about the Beta, I'm talking about the latest Vista...
  
  As for the ink: Please, consider that all ink jets use a lot of ink. If you are concerned with ink depletion, follow the review which explains how to print B&W. Also, I like to print "drafts" sometimes--look in the print options before you print--because it saves an amazing amount of ink. That is, of course, if you don't mind a little less quality.
  
  Would definitely recommend!
  
  I went in the store for a simple all-in-one printer, but this one had the BEST PRICE and it prints AMAZING pictures. So much more than I wished for!
  
  Beware of the negative reviews, they scared me for nothing.
  
  
• Save your money!
  By A7K3OLWYSX28U on 2008-06-26
  Pretty much the same feelings as the rest of the reviewers. Don't waste your time and save yourself a bunch of money. Because of this printer I went out and bought a laser.
  Goes through ink very quickly and cartridges aren't made to be refilled nor are they cheap.
  I gave it two stars because what this printer does, it does reasonably well. It'll just cost you $$$'s.
  
  
• All in one printer
  By AGXTZMCJGPL9G on 2008-07-30
  I used Epson for years because of reliability and low ink cost. The 7400 worked well right out of box, easy setup also. The only problem was loading paper requires care
  
  
• Great printer; no problems!
  By A3TBVC709MYN1Z on 2008-10-23
  I have owned this printer for about a year and have not had any problems. I wonder about the whiners; haven't they figured out that ALL inkjet printers use ink and are priced cheap to get you to buy more ink. The printer companies don't make any money on the printer, just the ink. Think about it: how much did you pay for the printer? What is the cost of a replacement set of ink cartridges? Cost of printer minus cost of cartridges (they came with your printer) is the true cost of the printer. About $20? If you want to save money on ink, buy off brand cartridges and after one or two cycles of using them you will have killed your printer and then go buy another printer; remember $20 more than a set of OEM cartridges?
  Also the operation of ANY inkjet printer uses ink from all cartridges on warm up. Why do you think the heads go back and forth when it starts up? It is cleaning the heads of ALL cartridges and sprays some ink through a sensor at the extreme right to align the printing. When you only print one page every now and then it will use MORE ink than if you printed multiple pages at once, because of this cleaning and aligning cycle that takes place when it starts up.
  If you want to save ink; spool your print jobs, check your settings and use lower quality output. Print often, if your printer doesn't get used very often your heads will plug up with dried ink and a cleaning cycle may not clear it, rendering that cartridge useless.
  The quality of the output of this printer is very good, and the copy and scanning features come in handy for sure. I have been very pleased with it. Also it has a feature that no-one has pointed out when you are very low on Black ink and still have color it asks you if you want to continue to print with a blend of color ink to make the black instead of not printing at all. Nice!
  As to the guy who has the PhD and is complaining about this printer,I don't know why you brought that up. A PhD doesn't make you a expert in anything but what you have your PhD in. I guess it has gone to your head and you are trying to impress us with your knowledge. To prove my point, there are only THREE color cartridges, not four. Your math is wrong, must not be your major. As to the Canon printer, check their support section; same thing as Epson, small amounts of color ink is used during start up. Duh!! Personally, I have been in computer and PRINTER business for over thirty years. You get out of a printer, computer, or what ever what you put in. Treat it with a little care, check your supplies and you will get better service. Of course there are some true pieces of junk out there, but this is not one of them.
  
  
• just so so
  By AYXEG95ANH1KQ on 2008-03-26
  very loud, slow when print the first page. quality is so so
  
  but nothing beat the FAR
  
  
• A super printer and scanner!
  By A34HWO58Y65N10 on 2008-05-19
  This is the best inkjet printer and scanner I have owned in 25 years. Super quality prints and scans. I would buy another in a minute.
  
  
• Had this for a month and its dead
  By A3D28XMM3TDFB3 on 2008-07-26
  I really don't do too much printing or scanning. However, we went on vacation and I wanted to print some of those pictures. Ive printed may half a dozen when the printer decided it didn't want to work anymore. It will print 3/4 of the picture before it starts feeding the paper crooked and getting ink all over the edges.
  
  I tried all of the trouble shooting, cleaning the nozzels, different paper, etc, but nothing works. Epson says to call them, which seems crazy to me after one month. Im just going to avoid Epson from now on.
  
  
• NO STARS!! DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!
  By A1BE6E7VR38H5X on 2008-08-08
  DON'T BUY !!! I bought an all-in-one CX7450 this piece of tr#*h never recognize the ink cartridges, I was about to returned it to the Target store where I bought it but I saw the yellow paper that says Important! Call us first before retun this product. I did it, BIG MISTAKE they offered to send me a new printer which arrived 5 days later, but SURPRISE it was not a new one; they send me a refurbished one.Then I thought if it works who cares and then SURPRISE the same thing! it decided not to recognize the EPSON cartridges as originals and ask for replacement. Called the customer service and they wanted to send me another one when I asked what would happen if that one has the same RARE defect?, she said WE'll send you another one. I would be traped on a trance forever. WORST machine I ever bought. I WILL NEVER BUY FROM EPSON AGAIN. DON'T BUY BEFORE YOU READ USER REVIEWS.
  
  
• Headed for the recycling heap
  By A1AJT1FCZNAZAB on 2008-08-15
  This printer was thrown into the deal when I bought a new pc from a major retailer. It reminds me now of the simple truths of "no such thing as a free lunch," or "you get what you pay for." The printer when it was new out of the box printed decently, although it sounded like an old Yugo trying to shift gears. My problems started when I started getting messages that the ink was low. Those messages came much too early in my opinion, as this printer is used lightly for personal use, and is never used to print large quantities of documents. I have been replacing cartridges far too often, and they are expensive. Like some other reviewers, I was surprised that I cannot print black only when any of the three color cartridges are out of ink. I just bought replacement color cartridges (again) only to find out that the black cartridge would not print even though it was showing about 1/3 ink remaining. I went through all of the clean nozzle steps, diagnostics, etc., and finally got a message that the black ink was now out. I am fed up with this printer. I have used HP printers in the past, with decent success. I will not buy an Epson, or accept one for "free." This Epson printer seems to be designed to sell ink cartridges. Buyer beware. To the recycling center this printer will go, or maybe I will use it as a boat anchor. Too big for a door stop.
  
  

• Durabrite Ultra Ink Black for Stylus CX5000,CX5000v,CX6000 & CX7000F
• Stylus Color CX5000 and CX6000 Durabrite Cyan Ink
• Stylus Color CX5000 and CX6000 Durabrite Magenta Ink
• Stylus Color CX5000 and CX6000 Durabrite Yellow Ink
• Durabrite Ultra Ink, Multipack

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