Customer Reviews

Epson Stylus CX9400Fax Color All-in-One Printer

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(50)

 

 

I bought this printer from Amazon for under 100 dollars, no tax, no shipping. Here's what I got: an excellent photo quality printer, copier, scanner, pdf creator and fax machine with auto-feeder. I am baffled by the people who post one or two stars about this machine. Go to any store and you can hardly buy any printer, any copier, any scanner, any fax machine, or any pdf creator software for 100 bucks, and this unit has them all built into one nice looking box. There is also a very capable OCR application.

I am very tired of hearing how much ink costs. A printer should not be measured by the price of ink but strictly by how much it costs to print each page, and Epson tends to be at the low end of the spectrum. I also don't care how much ink is left in the tank or if it has a chip, again the issue is how much a page will cost me. I do not work for or represent Epson, and hope to point out the negatives as well as the positives. I own 3 Epson printers and 4 HP printers. I don't own Canon or Brother because at the lower end of the spectrum I think their products are very cheesy. Let's talk about the CX9400Fax. I doubt if a better value exists anywhere near the price range. My experience is that individual tanks are the better choice but I'm not sure it really makes a huge difference.

Don't even think of rating a printer by how "fast" it is, with inkjets that spec is a ridiculous fantasy ... there is just no such thing as 32 pages a minute in real life! I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised how much faster this unit was than just one generation ago. In photo mode I would estimate real-life printing to be four times faster than the CX7400 and at least as good, if not better. Epson has always excelled is photo quality and the CX9400Fax is no exception. As a fax machine it is adequate for home office use and the small number of faxes people send from home. Same with it being a copier and scanner, for the price it does a good job. It seems built a little sturdier than most competitive models. It sounds, well, like a printer. I don't know how anyone could expect a mechanical device to be totally silent. Ease of use is pretty close to flawless.

Here's a couple of "secrets" that address concerns some of the other reviewers had. First, if you think the printer is running out of ink too often and you swear you don't print that much, you are probably right. Epson, like some other manufacturers, has to prime the heads every time you turn the printer on, which uses ink. That costs money and I wish there was a better way. But, simple solution, leave the printer on 24/7. There is no logical reason to turn it off between each use , especially if you are using it as a fax machine, since it automatically goes in to a sleep mode. Another well documented Epson feature is that you can force it to print using only black ink. There are a lot of reviewers who say they ran out of all colors when they think they only printed in black and white. While they may be right, it's hard to blame Epson. The manufacturer clearly has a "black" only setting in the print options, plus they offer a high-capacity black tank for those who do a lot of text printing.

It is important to note that if you want to fax from a document that is on your computer you need to have the CX9400Fax connected to a phone line, just like any fax machine. It won't magically send a fax through your internet connection. There are ways you can do that but not with a traditional fax machine.

So, what is the image quality? In "draft" mode it is marginal but that's what draft mode means. Draft mode is not intended for quality printing, just to quickly print a document that you intend to throw out.
As you increase the quality settings, the Epson magic sets in. Normal mode is as good as any printer on the shelf. Photo mode is almost as good as it gets. The highest quality modes are marginally better, you have to have a fine eye to tell the difference, but the real story is that it is very hard to beat an Epson photo when printed at the best modes with the highest grade papers. Moral? If you print in draft mode and expect high quality you are seriously fooling yourself.

The final observation is that many people complain that a set of ink tanks cost as much as the printer or that printer manufacturers don't include an USB cable. Those complaints just can't be taken seriously. Can you remember paying over $500 for an inkjet printer only 10 years ago and how badly it printed? We have demanded that our consumer electronics be made by cheap labor in China, which has brought hardware prices down to a cost almost equal to the cost of materials. 100 bucks for a machine that does as much as the CX9400Fax is ridiculously low! Sure, it may be a throwaway, but that's what people want. The USB cable issue is even funnier. How many USB cables does the average person own? The percentage of people buying a printer who have never bought a printer before is near zero. And if you seriously don't have a USB cable you can find one for a buck-and-a-half right here at Amazon. And complaints about ink costs? They have stayed the same for many years. When you buy a car you need to fill it with gas, when you buy a printer you need to fill it with ink. It's what you choose to do. Gas prices have risen a lot more than inkjet prices.

My final somewhat negative comment about this printer as well as most competitive brands, is that they just try to do too much. Yes, I want a printer/scanner/fax/copier but the media card slots and LCD screens are overkill. Fine if you want them but I believe most people know how they can do the same thing and more directly from their computer.

MORE: read this carefully

After a few weeks of owning this printer, using it daily to print normal business documents, the ink level had hardly moved. Then one day the repair people were here to check the air conditioner and turned the power off for a few minutes. Ok, it wasn't a surprise to me because I know that printers need to "charge" when powered up, but when the power came back on a full 20% of the ink was used to prime the printer when if turned it back on. I have to repeat what I said in my review, NEVER turn this machine off, it uses almost zero power when in standby and I guarantee that if you turn it off every day you will use a ton of ink needlessly like so many reviewers report. After the power off incident, I am back to printing lots of normal documents each day and the ink indicator hasn't even moved. Verdict? It's not the printer's fault that some people go through a lot of ink, it's because they didn't read the instructions.

I needed a printer to replace my HP 2210, which lost its fax capability, and was considering the HP c6180 before I read some of the reviews here. The price is great, but I also considered the potential cost of ink (which is why I couldn't consider the Canon mp830). You can buy compatible ink cartridges from Amazon for 5.99.

It doesn't come with a USB cable, but you can buy one one anywhere for 6.99 or less.

Setup is a breeze compared to HP, and the sofware that comes with it doesn't claim squatter's rights to your hard drive. I couldn't get it to recognize the black ink cartridge and had to call Epson's support, which I connected to on the first try. After a few failed troubleshooting attempts, they gave me a reference number for a replacement cartridge -I called them on Friday evening, and it arrived the following Wednesday.

After installing the good cartridge, it completed its setup in a few minutes. I have had the opportunity to test everything except the OCR software. Printout is good, just select "black only" when printing text to avoid using too much color ink. Copying and ADF worked without a hitch. The fax also works fine, but I'm have a time getting it to pick up over my answering machine (my old HP had the same problem).

The only thing I can say that isn't positive is that it has a pass-through paper feed system -I personally prefer paper trays, but it works fine.

Epson would have accomplished what Lexmark tried to do if they had included a wireless network card, since everything else works great.

This printer is well worth the money. Unless you need built-in wireless or double-sided printing, you can't beat the value.

The document feeder is so important and it works well, if a little slow. Faxing on the previous model I owned meant lifting the lid each time you wanted to add a page to a multiple page fax, and that was brutally slow. Now it has a 30 page ADF which turns the corner on home office products at this price point. the new color screen is great and the fax quality is unmatched. Epson really anoys me with their multiple ink cartridges but that is the only thing that keeps me from giving it five stars.

will not fax, scan or print at all if any of the 4 cartridges need replacement.

magenta ink cartridge low? sorry, you cannot send a fax- even though sending a fax requires no ink.

same with scanning or printing black and white.

sort of like if your car wouldn't start if your wipers needed replacement

I initially chose this printer because of the fax feature, and because I had heard that Epson is generally compatible with Mac OS-X, and I had just purchased my first Mac. The install process is relatively simple, as long as you read and follow the directions exactly. I breezed over the instruction to NOT plug in the USB cable until told to do so, and made a mess of things for myself. But I learned alot about my computer trying to back out of that mistake, so no worse for wear. Now that its all up and working, I love it. The photo quality seems very good, and i enjoy having the ability to print pictures without using the computer. I am a little dismayed that if one of the four ink cartridges runs out, that NOTHING will function on the machine, because it is a bit ridiculous, but that seems to be the norm with products of this type on the market right now. Another major selling point with me was the fact that in addition to having a slot for my camera's memory card, there was also a USB port that I was hoping to be able to plug my jump drive into for extra convenience in printing; however, this port is set so far back in the plastic casing that my jump drive can't plug into it. (And Im using a Toshiba brand stick, which is one of the narrower ones available.) I am hoping that I can find some sort of extension piece to still make use of the USB port, but so far I've tried a USB hub, and a regular USB cable, and neither have made the USB drive recognizable to the printer.

Several of the reviews here have covered this printer in depth, so I'll just hit a few of the items that have really meant something to me. This multi-function printer (or all-in-one) is an excellent value; the fact that it has an automatic document feeder is just icing on the cake. Setup could NOT be simpler; HP could learn a huge lesson on software included with printers, as Epson's software doesn't take over your computer, is fairly unobtrusive and is so easy to install.

As to print, documents print crisply, not like some Lexmarks that do a great job with photos but their document print leaves much to be desired. This Epson prints documents and photos excellently. If you'll spring for Epson's 'Ultra Premium' photo paper you'll be pleasantly surprised. Compared to my older HP 3310, photos are almost twice as good in every respect. One niceity is the color saturation; I don't think anyone approaches the deep colors of Epson, when combined with their quality paper.

I really only have two items that prevent me from giving a solid 5 star rating. First, the lack of wireless; that would just make this printer so much more convenient. Second, the printer is quite an ink hog; I was amazed at how quickly it will drain the color tanks; quite the opposite on my older HP...it lasted far longer between tank changes and the black ran down equally with the colors. On the Epson, the black lasts forever but the colors run out quickly.

Solid value for the money, stellar photo printer, great document printer with included ADF. 4 stars and 5 if they had included wireless.

DO NOT BUY THIS PRINTER! I may not know much about all the other new printers, multi-purpose or otherwise, that are out on the market but I know when I, as a consumer, am being huckstered and taken advantage of, and that is what the Epson company is doing.
I have been using computers and printers in my business since 1981 so I know a little about what to expect and how I should be treated by a vendor. I used to swear by Epson printers when they were dot matrix, ribbon affairs and even after. But today they have a new corporate culture. I will never, never, buy another Epson product because of this CX9400 which I made the mistake of buying. Here is why:
I am not your average "pie in the sky" reviewer. The question is NOT whether this printer works when its working, it is about the disrespect and contempt which the Epson company has for you and me as their customers.
I don't know about you, but I do not need a printer company or computer company to use my computer as an advertising mechanism to hawk their overpriced wares. In this case, their outrageously expensive ink.
I read that others are having the same problem with this ink guzzling monster and most of the reviews pan the printer. Go to [...] and see for yourself. Out of 145 reviews 48% panned the printer while only 39% liked it. Well, I'm panning both the printer and the company.
The trouble is, the computer TELLS you that it is out of ink even when you KNOW that it is not. They have built it into the electronics of their ink cartridges (as if ink cartridges need electronics to communicate with the computer). They are not satisfied with the customer finding out that they have run out of ink and need to replace the ink cartridge, no, they MUST tell you and then stop, I said STOP, the printer from functioning until you obey. This is insulting. It would not be so bad if you didn't absolutely KNOW that the cartridge wasn't empty and if they sold their ink at a reasonable price.
First, you should know that printer ink, especially Epson printer ink, is argueably the most expensive consumer liquid in the world. You can buy a barrel of oil for less than it costs to buy the 3 cartridges the CX9400 needs. LITERALLY, a barrel of oil. There is nothing short of rare chemicals more expensive for the faction of an ounce that you are buying. But to extort you into buying their ink by shutting down the machine which you bought and paid for and they now are using as their agent in your office to force you to buy ink, it is an abuse and disrespect for the customer. It shows a corporate contempt for their customers.
There are programs out there intended to defeat this overbearing feature but, as yet, Epson has been able to prevent them from being useful on the CX9400. Thus the CX9400 is still one of Epson's cash cows in your office ready to hawk their overpriced product using your printer and your computer. Remember, whenever the cartridge says so, you MUST buy new cartridges because the printer simply will no longer work until you do and their is nothing you can do about it.
Furthermore, since buying the printer 6 months ago I have already had to have it replaced once because the scanner failed.
So if you are one of those "Have a nice day" types who have been reviewing here and who don't mind being abused walked on by a vendor to whom you have paid your good money, then buy their products. Knock yourselves out. Otherwise avoid Epson, avoid its products, the CX9400, and their corporate mentality like the plague.

Can I give it zero? My HP printer had all but died, and since I preferred an All-in-One, I waited for this one to come out. It's awful! I've had nothing but frustration since the very first! I have a part time job from home that requires faxing and scanning. And there-in is the problem. Unless your pages are absolutely pristine, not so much as a warp, they aren't going to feed through the automatic feeder without baby-sitting, hand-feeding and coaxing the whole thing. It jams, pulls through crooked & pulls up to 4 at a time. I can't load it and leave it. Just this morning-again-I have 2 8-page reports to fax and then scan. 32 pages total, the first 8 took 25 minutes and 11 retries to complete. So if the remaining 24 are at that level, I'll be standing there refeeding, what?-264 times? For another 1 1/2 hours? Hmm sounds like fun.
Not to mention scanning pictures gives a blurry image. We have been making copies of old family pictures and since the quality is so poor I've been having another family member just send me hers.
I've had it since October, and I'm ready to invest in a different machine. Don't waste your money!

Epson Stylus CX9400 All In one Printer

I've been using this AIO for just under a week and have been pretty happy with it with one notable exception -- the "fast draft" or "economy" mode of printing produces grey print, not black. And it prints at the slow end of the speed scale.

I can't for the life of me figure out how they come up with "up to 32 ppm" for print speed.

The HP AIO that this unit replaces (as well as just about every other ink jet printer I've had) had "fast draft" capacity that was good enough to print just about everything. So I saved ink and got good speed.

This CX9400fax doesn't offer that option, so it looks like ink usage will be higher and speed lower.

Too bad. Other than that it seems like a pretty good machine.

Yes, the print quality is good, most ink jets are these days. So let me break this down for you.

The printer ink is expensive! If you run out of any one colour, your expensive device is rendered useless. You cannot print grey scale and you cannot use the scanner. That's right, the scanner! Your device is put into a "busy" mode until you replace the offending ink cartridge. Oh and the printer runs out of ink very quickly, like at a very annoying pace if you do moderate printing of full colour images.

I am considering a class action because Epson is basically holding my machine hostage until I pay them money for ink. Now you may not run into this issue, but "what if" you really need to scan or copy something and don't have the cash for the ink. This is where I am at the moment...

Buy a Brother...