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I bought an Epson 2540 and it Failed After a Year. What was my mistake?

  • Epson 2540

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Epson Printer

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Cheap Printer

    Votes: 4 100.0%
  • Cheap Epson Printer

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    4

jblagden

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 16, 2013
1,162
641
I bought an Epson WF-2540 at staples for $80 (normally sold for ~100). I bought it because it was the least expensive printer I could find that had AirPrint.

It stopped working after about a year. Until it failed, it would quit on me every couple months, but I was usually able to revive it by doing all of the maintenance procedures (i.e. print head alignment). But after a year it quit and I was unable to revive it.

Where did I go wrong?

Is the Epson WF-2540 known for breaking down after a year? Or was my mistake buying an Epson printer? Or was it buying a cheap printer? Or was it buying a cheap Epson printer?
 
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Epson printers are generally reliable. Nowadays, many printer manufacturers have inexpensive models that they sell which either don't last very long or the consumables (ink cartridges) will send you to the poor house. Seems like you just had a bit of bad luck with that printer.
 
Epson printers are generally reliable. Nowadays, many printer manufacturers have inexpensive models that they sell which either don't last very long or the consumables (ink cartridges) will send you to the poor house. Seems like you just had a bit of bad luck with that printer.
So, it was just the WF-2540?
 
Inkjet printers are dirt cheap and seen by many manufacturers as nearly disposable. It's unfortunate that yours only lasted a year, but I can't say it's surprising.
 
I work in computer support, so I see a *lot* of printers used and a lot of printer issues.

My opinion is that honestly, all of the "cheap printers" are built shoddily. Gears are thin plastic, where only metal would really last for years of use. Paper sensor levers are thin plastic, attached with small metal springs (where the end of the spring is fed through a tiny hole in the thin plastic lever). Over time, they snap off or the spring comes loose because the plastic cracks right by the hole. Rubber rollers tend to dry out and harden, or get covered with a fine layer of paper dust, reducing their "stickiness" so they stop grabbing the top sheet of a stack of paper in the tray. These are just a few of the common points of failure with most inkjets sold today. In some cases (such as a couple of the Canon "all in ones" I've set up), the firmware and/or driver software is even shoddy, leading to problems where you have to power the printer off and turn it back on occasionally, or it just stops accepting print jobs.

Printers are complex machines, especially when you want to print in full color. Printer manufacturers are primarily in the business of selling you ink and toner (and sometimes even photo paper). As an HP rep once told me, "We view printers as expensive ink-delivery mechanisms." When you combine the general public's buying habits (EG. Not going to spend more than $150 or $200 tops for a new printer!) with the fact that the printer manufacturer wins no matter WHAT you purchase -- you can see why there's no motivation to sell you a better constructed printer.

Truthfully, I bet companies like HP, Epson and Canon make *more* money in the long-haul from all the people who have to discard unused or partially used ink cartridges or toners because a printer breaks down out of warranty. It causes the user to buy a new printer that usually takes a different type of cartridge/toner, so they buy them all over again. For everyone who gets mad and changes brands after one printer breaks, someone else changes back TO that brand when the other manufacturer's printer fails on them. So eventually, they ALL benefit from increased supply sales.

If you actually want a good printer that will last for years, you need to look at what's sold to enterprise business and government customers. These will be priced about 4x higher than what you're probably used to spending, based on what's on display in retail stores. Otherwise? If I have to go with "cheap", I recommend Brother printers. Their supplies usually cost less than the others, and especially for black and white lasers, they tend to work surprisingly well for the money.
 
Personally, I gave up on inkjet printers long ago. They are unreliable and ink is expensive. I switched to a color laser and it lasted me about 5 years before it failed. During its time, it was reasonably fast and was very good with toner (the original toner just started run low when it died). I replaced it with a more current model and it has been running reliably for a year.
 
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