Customer Reviews

Epson Stylus C120 Color Printer

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

It is FAST. When set to Fast Normal this printer flys and the text is laser like. It does dry fast. With the use of the Durabrite ultra inks I do see some bronzing in photos but only at an angle. The ink costs are $12.99 per color if purchased individually. Ink packs are at Staples and online for a little less than the individual price. For its price and size and the ability to replace just the color needed it's a bargain.
I have printed over two hundred pages so far of text (90%) and photos (10%)and the ink levels are just below half on the black and color cart (no paper jams by the way so far). Your usage will vary depending on what you are printing. Seems to be the same as my canon i9900 which I use for photo only work. Much better than my HP 7500 series (an ink hog if there ever was one, and it jams often). My Epson C120 does not shut down as another reviewer has indicated. It often sits overnight with the computer off and when I log on to my computer the next day it is ready. I do not remember seeing a setting in the driver for this but will investigate.

I purchased the epson c120 2 months ago, when my canon i560 broke down. Overall, while I've found the print quality of the c120 to be quite good, I've encountered three significant problems. For your information, I primarily use the unit to print a fair amount of text, not pictures. First problem, the unit consumes a great deal of ink even when set to print in standard text mode. I've found that it consumes roughly twice as much ink for the same output as my i560 with roughly the same quality output. Added to that, due to the unit being out only a short period of time, I can't find generic ink so must pay full retail prices for a full set of ink or about $75 per refill (very expensive). Second problem, relates to the small paper bin size. With the c120, I find that I can only load around 40 pages into the bin, whereas with the i560 I could load nearly 100 pages. Third problem, is that unit turns itself off after a short amount of time of non-use and then you must press a button on the unit for it to startup again, often taking anywhere from 30-45 seconds to power up again.

Given these problems, I'll more than likely toss the unit over the next few weeks. Haven't yet figured out the unit I'll purchase moving forward though.

I bought this Epson C120 at Christmas 2007 whilst visiting Los Angeles. I had to remove the ink cartridges before flying home to Florida to avoid leakage problems, then continued using it at home in January. The black cartridges ran out at the end of January after I had printed only 80 pages of black only text. I asked Epson what was the capacity of the cartridges, but they refused to divulge that information. (My old HP 825c, which is slower but still working fine, has 20ml cartridges which last me about 6 months between refills. The C120 cartridges by comparison appear to hold only about 2 or 3 ml). Epson told me they rate the cartridges by page yield, and they claimed an average of 375 pages for each black cartridge (i.e. 750 pages for the two cartridges). This is absolute nonsense!

I continued to harangue Epson by e-mail, and they eventually gave up and shipped me two free high capacity black cartridges. Unfortunately, the print heads must have been clogged beyond possibility of cleaning, because after 4 cleaning cycles, the black print pattern still showed less than 50% of nozzles working. Also, the monitor was showing both black cartridges as about one-third empty! Not only that, but the three color cartridges, which had been about 50% full, were now empty! And I had printed NOTHING except the tiny print-head nozzle check pattern.

I then called Epson Customer Service, and explained what had happened. It seemed to me that this was a very frequent problem, to which there was no solution, because they told me to throw the printer away, and they would send me a new one! This they did, and I will use the new printer until the ink runs out, then throw it away!

It seems to me that Epson, in their quest to manufacture cartridges which can not be refilled, have gone too far. They have succeeded in thwarting the efforts of all the ink refillers (nobody has yet said they can refill these), but in so doing, they have created an insoluble problem of print-heads which can not be cleaned by the user.

The Epson C120's been terrible for me! When any one of its tiny capacity ink cartridge empties, you'll be replacing *all of them* within a day or so, low or not. It's a great software design (if you're selling ink, that is).

And good luck getting good print quality for very long. This is the most frustrating printer I've ever owned - even worse than the old Canon BJ-4000 - and that was a real dog! ;-)

Maybe Epson thinks they can sell me more ink this way, but it's not going to happen. After using Epson printers *daily* for some dozen years (and my 'antique' Epson Stylus Color 600's still plugging along!), I won't buy another Epson.

Too bad; their older printers worked great. Had two 740's for about 5 years, and they were real workhorses.

I'll give the C120 one star because *when* it worked, output was pretty good and it was very fast, and a great envelope printer. But it was down more often than it worked. I've wasted way too much time and ink fiddling with this printer, so it has to be 'good-bye, Epson'.

Hope this review saves someone from going through what I've endured with this machine.

Dave Harnish
[...]

Nehemiah 9:6

UPDATE: discovered something else about this printer - every time it cleans the heads (done automatically - not by me) it uses up about 20% of the two black ink cartridges! I've printed fewer than 100 pages so far, and the two black ink cartridges are nearly empty. No wonder Epson sells this printer so cheap. Thank the gods my local after-market ink seller recently started carrying the cartridges for this printer, and at 10% the cost of the originals from Epson. Otherwise, I'd need to find another printer. Summary: prints fast, prints very clear, uses a ton of ink.

I have owned the C120 for 2 months-- Problems;

refused to share in a network, Epson refused help

Will not print a punched [3 hole] paper. Epson did not include this info in specs, but told me so, when I complained

just plain noisy

Have not changed to 3rd party cartridges yet--expect problems, though

will probably toss the thing when ink runs out

I would not consider this printer under any circumstance. It will not operate if any one of the 5 cartridges are empty. It holds two black and three colors. Epson should be ashamed of themselves. All they care about is selling ink. Jets have to be cleaned too often (yes I did use Epson ink) and two cleanings take nearly 50% of the black cartridges. I dumped it after two ink change outs.

total waste of money.. it says my ink is low/out in the cartridges when there is clearly ink left to use.. it wont recognize the generic cartridges i got for it and the ink is really expensive ... seems to jam easily .. another annoying thing is if u change the printer settings it will automatically switch back to its default settings... i'm done with epson forever because of this printer.. super frustrating..

I've owned this printer for less then a year. It already prints crooked regardless of what I do now. The text is off after printing ~20 sheets so I have to run the printer alignment which wastes a LOT of ink. Do not purchase this printer. It also uses so much ink per sheet even on the lowest settings. Good luck elsewhere. Shame on Epson for such a product.

my family and business were fans of epson. my office uses approximately 20 epson printers. the 82, 84, 86, and 88, we used and we thought it was good. when the 120 came out we bought able 4 or 6 thinking it would be better. the quality is reasonable, but the thing that just sucks is that it uses too much ink. i don't recommend buying this printer.