Customer Reviews

Kodak ESP 7 All-in-One Printer

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(154)

 

 

In order to keep my sanity, I disconnected this machine that was built by Kodak as an experiment on how much it takes to drive the poor purchaser insane. I'd donate it, but wouldn't sleep at night. Bought new 3/09, failed 5/09, replacement sent by Kodak 6/09.....received and disconnected 6/09. Want it?

Be careful in purchasing this. Setup was a breeze.

I thought it was a little strange when the black print would suddenly disappear. Problem solved by "cleaning printhead". Ok, must have done this several times a week.

Now, on the last cartridge install, the printer will not recognize the new cartrige. Will not print. OK, must be a bad cartridge, nope.

Chat with Kodak. After a lengthy time, it was determined that my printhead was bad. This printer is only two months old. Granted they are sending me a new one.

So, I ask whatever his name is, what the lifespan on the printheads is. His reply is 6 months. Oh goody. Printer is now going to die every couple of months needing a printhead.

Also - don't be fooled by ink savings. This sucker sucks them down.

All in all - I'm going back to my HP. A ton less aggrevating.

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Update - received new print head from Kodak, and printer still will not recognize the cartridges. Kodak is now sending another printer (I hope).

Please, please think carefully before you buy this. Read the reviews. Hesitate on those 5 star ones that are written quickly. Like previously said, worked great for a while, then realized what a piece of junk it truly is.

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Update to update....Well here we are in June 09. I still don't have the replacement printer from Kodak. After spending over an hour on chat and phone, they finally agree they received my piece of junk back and are sending a "new" one. Well, got the order via email and they are attempting to send a "certified refurbished". I didn't buy a refurbished printer, I bought a new piece of junk. If I'm going to get a piece of junk back at least it should be new and not a refurbished.

Customer Service also has a 1 star (or zero if I could). This is now going on two months and I still do not have a printer, as mine was received back to Kodak over 2 weeks ago without them sending the replacement until I called and spent MORE time dealing with this garbage.

I have really enjoyed this printer. I had wanted a printer that had wireless capability for a few years. I opened the box and had it installed on my wireless network in about 30 minutes using the wireless network installation wizard that comes with the printer. I'm not a wireless whiz; just an average guy who can follow instructions. I think you will be very hard to impossible to find another printer with the same features for the price. I particularly like the ability to print from my laptop anywhere I am using it-whether I am in the house or enjoying the back patio. The Home Center software that you install with it puts a status monitor in the system tray. When you click to open it, it will tell you the ink levels AND the paper levels in the printer. It also displays the same ink and paper level screen when you submit a print job. By doing this, you can always keep tabs on how much paper is in the printer remotely. You can tell before you start to print if you have enough paper so you don't have to constantly check on the paper level at the printer. I don't know of any other wireless printer that gives you this information.
I do recommend using Kodak Premium and Ultra-Premium photo paper if you are printing photographs. These papers have a code on them that is read by the printer for optimal printing performance. The output using these papers is of lab quality. I compared the colors of the printout to my computer screen and they are the same. I have tested this printer against my previous HP printer for printing photographs and the printed results from the ESP 7 beat my HP prints. If you use another brand of photo paper, the results are disappointing.
For everyday printing on standard paper, it prints very sharp and cript with good color rendition also. It even comes with a built in duplexor so you can print on both the front and back of the same sheet of paper (like when you read a book) to save paper when printing if you desire to do so.
So is it the perfect printer? No. Some things that I have noticed is the paper output tray is also the same lid that covers both the regular paper and photo trays. While the lid is great to keep dust and dirt from the paper tray, you will have to remove any printed pages and lift the lid to put in more paper. Secondly, if you want to print on an envelope, you will have to remove any existing 8.5 X 11 paper from the standard paper tray and put the envelope in the tray and then slide the paper guides to hold the envelop in place. If you print a lot of envelopes, you may get tired of having to remove the paper first. If the printer is just powered on or is awakened from sleep mode, the printer can be loud at times making lots of noises prior to printing.
I switched from HP printers to save ink and I have to say it as advertised. I was paying close to $70 to refill my HP printer with ink and that was just for b&w and color. For printing photographs, it took a 3rd cartridge which ran the cost even higher. Now I can purchase a b&w and color cartridge for about $25 total and do not need a separate cartridge for photographic printing. For the money one would think that it would not print as many pages as the HP. I have not found this to be true. So with this printer I save money on ink, save money on paper by printing on both sides, and I get great printouts. It's been a dream come true.

We have five computers on our home network (two Windows XP and three Windows Vista) and this printer was easily installed on all. The wireless network connection was simple to configure. The software works well with some preference adjustments. Print quality is very good and, this was a big selling point for me, the Kodak ink cartridges are VERY reasonably priced. I give this product a qualified five star rating as its durability is still an unknown.

January 25, 2009 update: The printer stopped printing black. It's probably a printhead problem and Kodak will ship a replacement head for free (when it's back in stock!). It seems others have had this problem. The print jobs performed prior to this problem have been excellent. Hopefully, the new printhead, when it does arrive, will restore the ESP7's performance.

April 2, 2009 update: We received the replacement printhead back in early February and that solved the printing problem. Now the upper tray occasionally jams and we have to jiggle it a bit to get the printer to cycle on. However, otherwise the printer performs exceptionally well.

Many times I tend to discount poor product reviews, believing them to be isolated occurrences. However, the problems I had with the Kodak ESP7 are described throughout multiple product review sites. I recommend that no one purchase this printer.

1) While the printer did connect to my wireless network at home, it would go into an offline/idle state after about 10 minutes and would not wake up when a print job was submitted to it. I would have to cycle the power on it (best case) or completely unplug it, wait, then plug the power back in every time I wanted to print something. A firmware upgrade was recommended, but I had other problems before I could get to upgrading the firmware, so I don't know if this problem would have been resolved or not.

2) After not printing for about a day, the print job I sent printed without black ink. I had to re-calibrate the print heads in order for it to print. This problem is noted many, many times from other reviewers. Either the print head must be replaced (after 3 days?) or you will burn through ink very, very quickly.

3) Paper Jam. On day 7 after very light use, the printer went into a Paper Jam state. There was no paper in the printer, but the paper jam state would not resolve. Please Google search for "Kodak ESP 7 Paper Jam". After an hour trying in vain to find a scrap of paper causing the problem, I decided to return the printer.

4) Loading the software takes a *very* long time. And, it removed the other printers I had setup on my laptop and mulched the registry so that I could not reconnect to the other printers. It was destructive enough that I could almost classify it as malware.

Above are the problems I had in 7 days with the printer. Only successfully printed maybe 10 pages. In addition to the problems, the paper tray assembly is very flimsy and prone to breakage, and the paper capacity is very low. Print quality on non-Kodak paper was average at best, on the dull side.

On Day 8, I returned the printer and exchanged it for an HP.

In my opinion, this is the worst product I have ever experienced from a company such as Kodak. I have nothing good to say about the printer or the software. The customer service rep was pleasant, but was just following a script which ended in "upgrade your firmware".

Perhaps Kodaks other printers (ESP 5, ESP 9) are better. The ESP 7 is a poor product.

This is my first product review in years. I am writing because I really like this printer for small volume jobs mainly suited to home users. Photo print quality is outstanding and as good as or better than you get from retail digital printing services. I now have this printer installed on my home network using a totally wireless connection. It works great. I also have a HP1320 monochrome laser printer which I prefer for printing regular text documents.

I have 2 Vista machines, a PC and a laptop connected to the network. There were only a few issues on the initial installation which were resolved by setting the wireless connection to "dynamic "using the LCD menu on the printer itself. I bought a Kodak package of a color cartridge and 180 4X6 gloss brilliant photo sheets for the MSRP of $17.99. It's about time we are able to get this pricing. I like the photos so much I printed about 30 sending them to my family this year in photo Christmas cards.

There was a strange issue with Microsoft update for Security Update for Microsoft XML Core Services 4.0 Service Pack 2 (KB954430). This would report a successful install but then reoffer the install after restarting the next session. It does this continuously. There is a simple solution. Close the Kodak Printer icon on the quick launch bar and then allow the install and your done. The solution was found after researching the issue on Microsoft forum relating to software troubleshooting issues.

I would recommend this printer for home use because of its photo print quality, reasonable pricing on the printer and supplies and its true wireless connectivity.

Printer no longer prints. I can get weak prints from copy or scan, but no prints from computer. I have connected the printer all three ways (USB, hard-wire to router, & wifi). I did get about 20 pictures, and 10 pages, but nothing prints now except scanned docs, and poorly). I have installed completely new ink cartridges. I have also removed and reinstalled the printer a total of 7 times, sometimes installing with furnished CD, sometimes with downloaded driver). I am running 64-bit Vista. I have NEVER had this much trouble with a printer in my life. The printer does begin to print (a blank page), so it is connected to the PC. Response from Kodak completely unhelpful. ADDED: Kodak has sent me a new printhead. Apparently, other users have had this same experience, which indicates faulty engineering on this product. It still does not print.....

Bought this printer for $129 on sale, the setup for this printer was flawless it detected my network right away and set itself up practically by itself. It is somewhat noisy though. Ink is cheap but prints wonderful pictures. A nice feature is having both the 8X11 paper and the 4X6 photo paper in their own separate trays, you do not have to pull out the 8X11 paper to load the 4X6 paper. The LCD display shows ink levels, WI-FI signal strength and how much paper in both trays. Also if are using the WI-FI you can also use the USB connection together. I use the WI-FI for our laptops and use the USB to connect to the desktop. Software setup was very good no problems. Would recommend this printer to anyone who wants to save money on ink and could use WI-FI. The unit can also be used with Ethernet cables. I installed this printer on both Vista and Windows XP with no trouble. Can't go wrong with this one!!

Update 2: Here are the facts.
Fact: The ink cost claims are false when you include the cost of replacing printheads and/or print in a "normal" quality mode not a "fast print" mode.
Fact: The Kodak ESP printheads last less than 90 days whether they are used or not.
Fact: If you buy this printer and it turns out to be a lemon Kodak will NOT refund your money.
Kodak sent me a third replacement and that machine had bad gearing and had to be returned for a fourth. I have the original purchase receipt from Best Buy plus a complete record of my troubles with case numbers and emails, but Kodak refuses to refund my money. Today I have a Canon and a Brother printer which have been working flawlessly for 6 months. In addition, I will add that I am a graduate of Dartmouth College with a degree in Electrical Engineering. I say that as a means of proving that I am NOT a technically challenged customer as some readers might think.

Update 1: I have totally reversed my opinion on this printer. When it works it is great, but the printhead is not properly designed and has a VERY high failure rate. In fact it may be as high as a 100% failure rate within 1 yr.

DO NOT BUY THIS PRINTER!!!!!!

I have replaced my printhead 3 times in the first 100 days. I asked Kodak for my money back, but instead they are sending me an entirely new printer. However, I expect the same problems will arise. Look for another update in 90 days. If this second printer develops the same problem, I will expect Kodak to return my money and initiate a recall of their product.

The only positive I can say is that the customer service from Kodak has been excellent in all aspects except the willingness to refund my money.



Original post: I was in the market for a new printer because my 10 year old HP was costing $70 a pop for ink refills, and had limited capabilities when installed on the home network. I saw the infomercial on Saturday and was highly skeptical because I hate anything being sold on infomercials. Then I found lots of bad reviews online. Went to Best Buy and Circuit City yesterday and made them print out samples for me on a Canon MP620 and the ESP-7. When I found the ESP-7 at Best Buy on sale for $[...] I decided to give it a try. At home my 9 year old installed the printer on our Mac wirelessly in less than 10 minutes using the provided CD. Next I installed the printer on my HP Pavilion with VISTA again using the provided CD. No problem there either. Finally we printed two photos of the kids from Halloween that we had previously sent to Shutterfly for printing. Using the supplied sample Kodak paper and iPhoto on the Mac, the prints came out comparable in quality to Shutterfly's professional prints.

I love this machine and am ecstatic to be saving so much on ink from now on. I'm only sorry I waited so long, and I must assume that all the negative reviews are written by the technically challenged or by competitors who don't want the abusive ink pricing of HP, Epson, and Canon to end.

I've had such a hard time with this unit. To start, yes, it was relatively easy to set up, so I appreciated that, but I haven't been able to print a single page! I've had five tech support calls, and it still doesn't work! It still hasn't printed a single color page and it now says that it is out of ink. So, they are telling me that I have to go out and buy a new color cartridge, because in trouble shooting the problem (cleaning the cartridge head several times) has led to it being out of ink! I think I've cleaned it no more than a maximum of 10 times - meaning that each cleaning uses at least 10% of the ink! Well, if that is the case, which seems implausible, then shouldn't they have told me that to start with? (The response I got in asking where the ink may have gone is that it potentially "evaporated" - well, it's not in the cartridge and not on any paper...)

I shall continue to waste my life on the phone with tech support, money on a product that I have absolutely no confidence in, with time that I DON'T HAVE! Spend your money on something more reliable and save your self from any additional headaches!!

I purchased this printer with great anticipation due to commercials and also price of ink. It is a piece of crap and I returned it to the store after calling the Kodak service line because I still couldn't get it to work after trying for two weeks. One of those weeks I wasn't even home so actually one weeks worth of use.
It took 5 different installation attempts to get it set up on my computer.
I hadn't even tried to set it up wireless. It sounded like it was going to explode when warming up and it shook like it was in an earthquake.
I kept getting error message codes and no way to find what the codes meant. Instruction book basically told you how to load ink cartridges.
Then it told me the color ink was gone and that stopped printing completely...I would not recommend this printer to anyone. Also, when I called their tech support I was talking with someone from another country with horrible language skills and he had me taking out the ink cartriges and re installing them and then he said he didn't know what was wrong but would send me a part to try and it would take a week to 10 days to receive. I have a small home business and this was just not going to work. Thank goodness I kept my old Dell printer as a backup. When I requested having the part sent overnight he said that was impossible.
Poor customer service and a lousy printer...I took it back to the store where I purchased it and told them they shouldn't recommend the printer to anyone.
I now have a canon and it is a dream come true. If I could score this printer less than one star I would.