Products |
Kodak ESP 5250 Printer
By
Published: Feb 24, 2010
Category:
Gifts and Gadgets
Within hours of publishing this review, I received e-mail from two readers I know and trust. They are withering. My bad for recommending a product I don’t own, but have only tried at the homes of several friends. They swear by their Kodak printers, but these harsh assessments make me think twice about this product. If you own a Kodak printer, please write and share your experiences. Meanwhile:
1) Oh Lord, I wish you hadn’t recommended the Kodak ESP 5250. I threw mine away after six months. As a printer, it is junk, prone to mysterious mal- and non-functions that Kodak’s own techs are at a loss to understand. As for saving ink, that is wrong, wrong. The color cartridge runs out faster than anything I’ve ever had — and I’ve had plenty. And the only colors I print are those on downloads (for example, the blue on your homepage). When the color gets low, it won’t print in black either. So you’re either buying a new color cartridge or a new black one and sometimes both. Economy? You’ll wish you stayed with your HP and no-name ink. Of course Kodak may have fixed everything in the past year. I doubt it. The dealer I bought mine from handed back his franchise.
2) Think before you buy a Kodak printer. I bought one several years ago precisely because I was tired of paying horrible prices for the ink cartridges. However, the Kodak printer produced terrible colors even on high quality paper, the help desk was abysmal, and the print head had to be replaced after a year of moderate use. The Kodak people informed me I would have to wait a month to get my replacement print head. I went out to buy a Canon MX850, which is the best printer I have ever had. I now get the ink cartridges through Amazon. While they cost more than the Kodak cartridges, their quality is considerably higher.
3) June, 2011: One of the worst pieces of junk ever! I have had it only a few weeks. I can't get it to go wireless; I can't get it to print unless I turn off the computer and reboot; it sucks up ink cartridges in record time; I can't understand why only copy and scan --- no print --- are in the control panel. I wish I could afford to get a new printer and use the Kodak 5250 as a boat anchor.
——————————————————-
We keep reading that American consumers — that’s you, that’s me — have changed our ways.
Even if the economy recovers and we all have jobs again, we won’t slap our credit cards down as wantonly as we did in days of yore.
There’s one business that’s extremely vulnerable to this new way of thinking.
The manufacturers of ink for computer printers — that is, manufacturers of the printers themselves.
You have surely observed how they screw us. The printer? $80. Each print cartridge? $25-$30.
And they don’t last long, do they?
That’s why, in the trade, ink cartridges are sometimes called “black cocaine.”
Which makes Hewlett Packard, Epson and their ilk the Medellín Cartel.
I have done my small part to support revisionist consumption by showcasing recycled ink cartridges for my aging HP printer. Two cartridges for $9.95 — I don’t care what HP says in its TV commercials that these are a false economy. I know I won’t do better with an HP cartridge that costs seven times more than one of these. The HP cartridge really holds seven times more ink? I’d bet not.
So why am I moving on to the $120 Kodak ESP 5250 Printer?
Several reasons.
One is the cost of ink cartridges — Kodak’s are as cheap as recycled HP cartridges. That makes then the cheapest of all corporate inks.
Two is that it’s wireless. And engages with your computer easily — the setup takes less than 10 minutes. (You do need to load the software into every computer you plan to print from. Not a dreadful inconvenience.)
Three is its all-in-one capability — that is, its ability to print pictures as well as documents. This is huge for us, because ever since we bought a digital camera, physical pictures of our child are rare as winning lottery tickets. Every printer we’ve had along the way has been a total pain; we’ve had to take the chip to a photo store, burn a DVD and then print. It’s an expensive and annoying process. But with the Kodak, that expense — and that excuse — vanishes.
Finally is the quality of the Kodak, which is said to have fixed the flaws of earlier models. The ESP 5250 prints as many as 30 pages a minute in black, 29 pages in color. A 4” x 6” photo? Also 29 seconds. That’s entirely respectable. The only knock on this printer, according to friends who own it? It’s a little noisier than other brands. For me, that’s not a deal-breaker — when I hit PRINT on my HP, I never know if I’m going to get my wish.
My new wish? The Kodak EP 5250. And a bigger checking balance. Race you to the BUY button….
To buy a Kodak ESP 5250 Printer from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy a Kodak 10 Ink Cartridge from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy a Kodak 1935766 Color Ink Cartridge from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy a Kodak Ink Combo Pack from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy Kodak Premium Photo Paper, 4 x 6 Inches, Gloss, 100 sheets from Amazon.com, click here.
