Epson Stylus Photo 820 Printer

Here’s the second item I’ve owned during my 57 years of living that I hate! The Epson Stylus Photo 820 Printer is truly the worst printer I have ever owned or used. Keep in mind my first printer was an ASR33! I would have placed a picture of the 820 here, but I had tolerated this piece of junk all too long, and it went directly into the trash this A.M. This printer is so bad I am ashamed to have bought it. The Epson 820 was designed with one mission, and that is to use as much ink as possible, and to make it as unpleasant as possible for the user to configure the printer for a more economical print. An example is when you wish to print black only, the software warns you that you are messing with advanced settings, and you may be screwing up! Printing out a color picture leaves the paper so wet, you can’t believe you just shot that much ink onto one piece of paper. You’ll be looking for a clothes pin to hang up the print to dry and you’ll be recalling the high price you paid for the cartridge. What a waste!

The creators of the 820 software thought they were clever, you get warned if you put a so-called compatible print cartridge in this printer. Yes, they’ll tell you that you may have troubles and I did. Let’s say you are in a hurry to print a document and the cartridge runs out of ink. This printer knows you have broken the design team’s rules, and you are going to be punished! You will get messages as to how one orders a proper ink cartridge, and they’ll even take you the online store. Pull the plug, reset your printer, and it still knows that you filled that cartridge, and you’ll be stuck till you comply. Could you figure out what they did to detect this? I’m sure, but who has the time? Best to just toss it in the garbage and head for the nearest store.

Being an average male shopper, I figured the odds were in my favor that no one could have made a printer as bad as the Epson 820, so I excluded any Epson option and grabbed a cheaper printer with a name I recognized. I couldn’t but help end up with a better printing solution, right?

When I walked into Target’s electronics section, I looked at Lexmark, and then sawHP printers. I thought about that old HP500 I once had, which printed about a ton of paper during it’s lifetime with zero troubles. I spied an HP3745 for $49.00 – that’s less than the new cartridges for the piece of crap Epson 820. I checked out the recommended print cartridges for the HP3745 and noted they were far less than the Epson820?s. I then looked at the cheater ink packages and saw claims that it worked in this HP cartridge. Could be, maybe not, but at least there is a claim, and I took the time to note it.

I grabbed the printer, the ink, and looked for the quickest way to check out. I figured I could maneuver my way past the fat gal looking at undergarments and be there in about 90 seconds, it worked just that way, but I couldn’t get the image of that ‘isle wide’ lady in those red panties out of my head all the way home.

When home, I took the HP3745 out of the box, and found everything to be as logical and usable as other HP printers I’ve owned. I recovered some desk top space, as this printer has a far smaller foot print. I noted just how quiet the HP is. You will have to experience an 820 to believe the high frequency noises it can make, and it seems to go on for 30 seconds or more after printing. When I first got the 820, my wife came into the room wanting to know the source of that new annoying sound, and it happened all the time I had it.

I loaded the new cartridges into the HP, far easier and more logical than the 820. When I printed the first color picture, I was plenty pleased, and this was plain ole ink jet paper, I noted how dry it was, and I felt instantly relieved.

If there’s an especially bad person on your shopping list, see if you can find an Epson 820 Printer and make a gift of it to them. You’ll be giving them a slice of hell!