C42 not plus, not negative. (Epson Stylus C42+)

Member Name: il_cacciatore

Product:	Epson Stylus C42+
Date:	08/05/07 (221 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap initial purchase price

Disadvantages: Expensive oem cartridges, cheap build quality, annoying software and noisy .

...Introduction...

I got my Epson Stylus C42 plus when I first started university 5 years ago (took a sabbatical year) at a discounted price with a new computer that I bought from the dreaded PC world. The PC is long gone but the C42+ has just just recently died at the time of writing. So I decided to write this review in it's memory.

...Print Quality...

The print quality from this printer as you will probably know from the price tag is not of fantastic quality (a claimed 2880 x 720 dpi), there are printers out now that can achieve twice the quality that this printer is capable of. However I guess at the time it wasn't too bad and started out good but over the years quality started to slide with ultimately producing smudge marks across the print out due to the cartridge sliding back and forward. This persisted even after print head cleaning and me trying to clean the cartridge tray to no avail. Black and colour prints were of the same average quality. I've tried printing on all different types of paper and cannot say that I have had any major issues.

...Speed...

It is pretty slow, even for an ink jet. It took me over an hour to print 100 pages in black and white.

...Noise...

The printer when printing produces quite a lot of noise and this is down to the cartridge sliding back and fourth as well as the 'clunk' sound when each new sheet is being fed. It is just marginally quieter than the old 'dot matrix' printers that you used to get back in the day. I also have a feeling that a large part of the noise could be attributed to the shoddy build quality of the casing.

...Build Quality...

Build quality of this printer is alright and is nothing spectacular, it is fairly basic grey plastic injection built parts with a clear see through lid which allows you to see the cartridge sliding back and fourth. Though it is evident that Epson have tried to keep the price tag down as it seems to be designed to have the minimum of movable parts such as the paper out tray which had an annoying habit of retracting under the printer allowing the paper to fall all over the carpet unless you pulled it open before every print out. Just down to a design flaw.

...Design...

Well, theres not much to say apart from it isn't going to win any awards for style. Taking into the consideration the paper tray problem I have had, it all was pretty functional. One nag was to change the ink cartridge before it was empty took some skill as you must press one button for 3 seconds, any less then it would cycle a sheet of paper and any longer then it would not do anything!

...Cartridges...

The print cartridges for this printer retail at £16.00 for black and £20.00 for colour (and thats web prices) so as you can see, print cartridges are quite expensive. As a consequence I refrained from buying them when at all possible opting for refilling and buying non-oem cartridges. The cartridges for this printer feature an electronic chip which when empty stop you from refilling them, you can work round this buy buying a chip re-setter which will fool the printer into thinking that it is a new cartridge you have just inserted, an annoyance but manageable.

It can be said that when printer manufacturers manufacturer a printer that is cheap to buy then their print cartridges will be more expensive and vice versa.

...Reliability...

As I have previously mentioned, it lasted for 5 years doing some serious printing for university and during this time I have had no reliability issues; It has worked when I needed it to work. It eventually packed in when it would no longer cycle paper and would just chew them. Suppose it would be fair to expect it to last forever.

..Software...

The drivers for this printer are available on the web but are bundled with epson status monitor software. This software allows you to monitor the levels of ink in your printer and will 'pop up' when it thinks you need to buy a new cartridge.

The ink level monitor is handy, don't get me wrong but I feel that this software could be considered 'nag ware' because it will hassle you when the ink is low and will try and redirect you to an epson backed website, you can select 'remind me again later' but the next time you print the same pop up will appear again. Another annoyance is when you insert a non-oem cartridge, the software will pop up again telling you that it is not 'oem' and will cause print quality to be rubbish and will want you to insert an oem cart. You can select cancel so this annoyance is also manageable.

...Instruction Manual and Product Support...

Throughout the life of the printer I have never had to use the manual or epson product support so cannot comment on these items.

..Ease of Use...

This printer is simply 'plug and play'. The software is easy to install and self explanatory even for the novice. The printer itself only has two buttons, one power and other maintenance. It couldn't be easier to use.

...Conclusion...

Although a cheap printer, you get what you pay for. Its simple, made with cheap parts, looks cheap and print quality is nothing amazing. Ink cartridges could be expensive if using originals but non-oem are available. If your wanting a cheap work horse then you couldn't go very wrong with it in my view but better printers are around nowadays.

© il_cacciatore 2007

Summary: Cheap, but you get what you pay for...

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