Need advice

[Nator]

My Epson R280 printer died (insert Funeral March music here).. What's happening is that when I turn it on, the inkhead (or whatever it's called, it holds all the ink), it will move to the far right and then when it starts to move towards the left, it stops and the ink and paper lights start to flash. Already checked and there's nothing blocked/jammed up in the printer. Even used compressed air to blow at it and tried putting WD40 on the metal bar that the ink slides on. Considering that I used it yesterday and didn't insert anything else into it since then, I'm sure that there's nothing clogging it. Basically, I've tried what I can.

Anyways, called Epson and they recommended the Artisan 50 since it can print on CDs/DVDs just like the R280. They're offering it to me for $134 and I see I can get it from Amazon for $130, a non rated site for $106 (Google listing it but not sure I want to trust a company with no ratings yet) and Epson has a refurbished one for $99 (not sure what s/h would be). So would probably go for the Amazon route if I buy the printer.

Before doing that though, I wanted to know if anyone knew of any other printers that print on CD's/DVD's/BR's for a low price. Would prefer that it use the same ink as the R280 (T078x20) but that's only because I have a multi-pack of replacement ink carts for it. However, if there's a different printer that is roughly the same price or cheaper with the replacement inks being the same price or cheaper, etc etc, then that's an option to consider. The Artisan 50 does use the same ink so I'm leaning towards it but don't want to just buy it without asking for alternatives first.

So any suggestions would be most welcome.

[jman98]

Be careful with ANY Epson printer and be sure you can send it back quickly wherever you buy it. A few years ago I bought an Epson printer (don't remember the model number) and the piece of crap refused to recognize the Epson ink cartridges that came with the printer. I looked into it. It's a known problem. To be fair, most Epson printers don't do this. Know what the solution is? You have to get a new printer. I gave up and got a Canon which I modded to print to CDs/DVDs and I love it, but it was not cheaper than buying the Epson. Canon printers in the USA/Canada have to be modded to print to discs because Epson owns a bogus patent on the idea and Canon refuses to pay their cost to license the patent.

[Nator]

Be careful with ANY Epson printer and be sure you can send it back quickly wherever you buy it.

I've had this printer for a number of years. To give you an idea on how long, I bought it from Circuit City roughly a year before they went out of business (I think it was a year, may have been two). So for me, my track record with Epson is acceptable. I don't remember how many times I've printed on something, although admittedly it's probably not as much as I probably could have. I didn't use it a lot but I'm willing to accept that after a few years, something may have gone bad in it from time even without usage. To phrase that a different way, I'm confident that if I had been using it religiously since I got it, I probably would have gotten more out of it. So I'm not faulting the printer for that.

You have to get a new printer. I gave up and got a Canon which I modded to print to CDs/DVDs and I love it, but it was not cheaper than buying the Epson. Canon printers in the USA/Canada have to be modded to print to discs because Epson owns a bogus patent on the idea and Canon refuses to pay their cost to license the patent.

I actually came across a Canon that can print to CD's/DVD's, for roughly $100. However as I said, I already have some ink (which isn't cheap) so in a way, to toss that aside would in essence be adding to the cost of whatever printer I get if the printer can't use that same ink.

As for modding a printer to work on CDs/etc, how hard was it for you to do? Do you have a resource that you used for knowing what to do and that includes how to modify other printers? Because to be honest, I've had Lexmark printers before and those things are cheap (same with the ink) and if I could mod one of those then that would be a good deal. Unless Lexmark has shot up in prices that is. I just remember being able to get one for near dirt cheap, ink wasn't that bad and it worked, which is what I wanted.