I really like my Epson R200. It has been rock solid, and has the nifty feature of being able to print directly on printable CDs. I can also get cheap ink that has worked quite well in it.

It's now the R220. Information: [link]

Retail Link (for price info): [link]

I've got a Canon that's been nice and reliable. I like the Epson's apart from the way they fuck with you in regards to ink. When the machine reports that any of the 4 ink cartriges is low the entire printer gets shut down until you replace it. There's actually a class action suit against Epson about it. Quite a bit of the time it reports ink cartridges as empty when they are not, and yet it still shuts down your printer.

I have't seen that with the R200, it gives a warning light when a cartridge gets low, but I can keep printing even after it goes entirely dry. It's not a four cartridge printer though, so the others might be different.

The Epson CX line has a known issue where after about 3-4 ink changes, the discharge tube becomes clogged and the printer will only "print" blank pages. There are many many forums with instructions on how to fix this -- basically you have to dismantle the printer and manually clean or replace the discharge tube. Some people report being able to get Epson to replace printers where this has happened, but it's not 100% guarantee, since they don't like to actually admit that it's a problem.

I have a Canon, also, and it's great. Each color gets its own cartridge, so you don't have to throw out everything when you're only out of cyan.

The Epson is like that too, it has six individual cartridges. I've been getting my ink from TechBudget.com and it seems to work just fine.

[link] (The price is like $28 with shipping, but still quite good for seven cartridges)

Actually, I should order some. My yellow is almost out.

Whoops, wrong thread.

I've gone thru 3 Epson printers that drove me crazy with the clogged jets. I'm happier with the cheapo Canon I have now.

Huh, I've had three Epsons and one Canon and have never had a problem that has caused me to retire them. Two of the Epsons are still in use and one of them does print jobs of hundreds of pages all the time. Maybe I've just got less problematic models. I've had an Epson laser printer I wasn't fond of however.

I've heard that the Epsons have fewer problems if you use them regularly. Ther last one I had, I wouldn't use sometimes for months at a time, and it developed chronic clogging and paper path problems. I just bought a new one, and I'm making a point of printing something every few days. No idea if it will help -- ask me in a couple of years -- but I figure it's worth a try.