- World''s fastest automatic two-sided printer, ideal for busy workgroups
- 50% lower printing cost than color lasers, professional prints at a lower cost than laser prints
- 30-page two-sided Auto Document Feeder to quickly copy, scan or fax stacks of one or two-sided originals, saves 50% of your paper supply
- Extra-large ink cartridges available, print up to four reams of paper without changing ink
- Remarkable durability, 20,000-page duty cycle for added peace of mind
The maintenance box is now available for this printer, however it took months before even tier 2 tech support from epson knew what to tell me. I ordered two from a random website online, now epson finally is stocking them. Overall happy with this printer, chews through ink on normal mode, economy mode is very very light print. My old hp economy mode printed very fast, but a little sloppy, this seems to print no faster, just uses less ink to do it. This printer also can''t multi task. My old officejet pro, could print pages while scanning at the same time. This printer is always throwing up "print busy" messages.
Buy Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4530 Wireless All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer (C11CB33201) Now
UPDATE Nov 2012: I upgraded to Windows 8 a couple of weeks ago the day after it first came out, and I wanted to say that this printer has no problems in Windows 8. Works perfectly.Old Review: This printer arrived a few days ago, and it was like Christmas Morning. What tech guy doesn''t like playing with new tech stuff? There was so much to play with on this device, that setting it up was just FUN. That''s not really an issue with the printer itself, more my perceptions and experiences with it, but I wanted to say it anyway. NOTE: I am using Windows 7 64bit Home Premium.
First off, the thing is BIG. Now I wasn''t expecting a tiny little compact thing, mind you. You don''t get a full function device like this and expect it to be small. But it was way bigger than I anticipated. It''s roughly 18 inches wide by 17 inches deep and 14 inches tall. It didn''t fit where my old printer was the table the old one sat on is JUST too small for this, which made for some shuffling of furniture and whatnot. Additionally, anything other than your default paper gets loaded via a backside paper loader. Your primary paper (for me, 8.5x11) is loaded in a tray that disappears completely inside the printer. But anything else (manual feed, envelopes) go in via the back paper loader, and it extends out the already large footprint of the thing. It''s not much, just an inch or two, but you will need some sort of extra space in the back, you can''t just push it against a wall, and expect to be able to use the back paper loader. Additionally, anything the device outputs comes out the front. Which also has an extender to cradle the printed papers. Which extends the front of the thing out about another eight inches when fully extended. If you don''t do that, the paper will NOT stay in the printer and falls on the floor. Additionally, the box it shipped in is itself even larger. It''s all protective foam and whatnot inside there, but the box the UPS guy delivered was quite large.
Once you take it out of the box, you''ll find a ton of little bits of blue tape all over the outside (and inside). This is pretty much to keep all the sensitive bits from sliding around and getting damaged. You need to pull all the blue tape off first, and once you get the ones off that let you access the inside of the printer, there''s some on the inside two, and two bits to remove from in there that were protecting the scanner guts. There''s a piece of paper taped to the outside of the printer showing you what to remove from the inside. There is an instruction sheet showing the order of getting stuff set up. I followed it, as since this is a brand new printer (as of the time of my writing), I assumed Windows wouldn''t have proper drivers for it, and let the ESPON install disk do it''s thing. Normally I just hook up a device and let Windows find the drivers, to bypass all the crapware that most install discs put on there, but this one wasn''t bad. Installed the printer, got it setup on my network and all that. The four ink cartridges come in vacuum packed seals, and you''re recommended not to open them until you''re putting them in the printer. You''re supposed to shake them before putting them in the printer, but I missed that instruction. It didn''t seem to affect anything though. During setup, you''re asked if you want to set up the printer wirelessly or via a "temporary USB connection", that is labeled as "recommended". Yet they don''t include a USB cable for you to use. Odd, that.
There are two parts where the initial set up really slows down. One is the priming of the ink cartridges. You follow the instructions on the little screen on the printer, and once you get the cartridges in there, it has to initialize them (whatever that means). This does mean a 12 minute delay (felt longer, but I didn''t time it) while it gets itself ready. They tell you not to interrupt it, or open any doors while it''s going on or it will "waste ink". While I did as I was told, it did bog down. Additionally, I updated the firmware during the install as well, and that was another 10 minute or so "twiddle my thumbs watching not much of anything" moment. Necessary I suppose, but don''t expect to be printing five minutes after you get the thing out of the box. I set up wirelessly. I do wonder if the speed of setup was slowed down because I did it via wireless.
The printer works either via a hardwired connection or wireless. There''s a hardwired network jack on the back, or it works over your local network via 802.11/b/g/n connections. The printer didn''t see my "N" connection, so it connected to my "G" one. Not a huge deal really, just odd that it didn''t see the "N". The wireless is nice because the printer can more easily work over your network as opposed to the older fashioned "shared printer" concept.
I''m also an iPad owner, and earlier this year when Apple introduced the concept of AirPrint, I thought it was gonna be cool to print from my iPad. Then I discovered the number of printers that worked with that was limited to a handful of HP units, and nothing else worked (easily, anyway). There was a small paper inside the box here saying this printer worked with iOS AirPrint, but only after a firmware update (which is the aforementioned one I talked about earlier). Once I got everything set up, I was quite surprised to see that feature work. It will stop quite a few things my wife would forward me and say "Please print this". :)
There''s also another cool feature which I doubt I''ll use much, but it''s nice that it''s there. Print via email. During setup, you get a page printed telling you about the printer''s capability to print stuff you email to a specific address. That address is printed on the paper. I tried it out, and it does work. It''s kind of cool that you can do this, I suppose it''s a way if you''re away from the printer and need to get something to someone where your printer is that you can do that. The email address is quite long and complicated, but I do wonder about the spam capabilities there.
The auto feed scanner will do double side scanning, which is nice. I don''t have many print and scan jobs that require double sided stuff, but it''s nice to know it''s there just the same.
Here''s some remarks about the various sections of the device''s functionality:
Scanner: The EPSON Scan software that gets installed during installation does the job. It''s certainly better than the stuff that I was using before on my old scanner, which was the stuff built directly into Windows. This has a lot more detail including dust removal & back light correction, which is a big deal to me, as I have a boatload of old pictures that need to be scanned, and that definitely helps. The speed of the scanner was quite good. Sure, you can jack up the DPI and really slow things down, but for standard scanning, it does the job quite well. The resultant quality of the scans is good as well. Don''t know how to compare that to other scanners, just that what it scans looks good, so I guess that''s OK, eh? :) There is OCR software on the install CD, but I opted not to install that, so I can''t remark on how well it works. A nice upgrade on what I was using before, which was well, not good. You can also scan to email, scan to PC, or scan straight to a PDF. It''s a nice selection of options depending on what your needs are for that particular scan. The resultant scans of photographs came out quite nice. Obviously if the picture is too old and too beat up, that''s not the scanner''s fault, but it does seem to do a good job at auto removing some damage to old photographs.
Printing: I tried printing several different kinds of things during my setup and initial testing. The standard "test page", and a few photos and various documents and whatnot. Despite not having "custom" paper to print photos on, I printed ''em on plain old printer paper, and they still looked pretty decent, so I imagine proper printing paper for photos would look quite good. The printer is quite fast, even when printing photos. Granted, printing a photo isn''t as fast as printing just a page of black and white text obviously, it was still snappier than I thought it would be. Word documents are quite crisp and easy to read. Pages with color accents on mostly black and white printed pretty much as fast as an all black text page did. Given printing is the majority of what I''ll use this device for, I was impressed at all my attempts to throw print jobs at it. EPSON claims the printer ink will look good printing pictures on any kind of paper. It does seem better on standard paper than special paper, so I''ll buy that. Again, plain text and document printing looks quite crisp. Their tech claims that the documents printed will last 118 years. I seriously doubt I''ll still be around to check that claim out for myself.
Fax: Initially the print to fax didn''t work right out of the box. The setup disc added two printers to my "Devices" tab. One for the printer, and one for the fax. The fax one was greyed out and didn''t work when I tried to use it for the first time. I looked into the settings, and Windows (or the EPSON Setup) had assigned the port to LPT1:, the old style of printer port. The "printing" area of the new printer was working fine, and it was on some new EPSON port. So I manually changed the port for the Fax to the same as the printer, and it worked fine. I was able to test it by faxing a dummy fax to 1-888-877-1655 (a toll free number for a site called faxtoy daht net). You can look on that site and see your test, as they post everything they receive there. An inbound test worked too via the site faxzero daht cahm. So the fax worked quite well. I really liked being able to "print" to the fax machine. A fax machine is generally an antiquated concept, but for the times you HAVE to do it, I prefer being able to just print my document via fax as opposed to the old way of printing it out, and faxing it via physical paper. This gets a thumbs up for sure. EPSON claims it can send a page as fast as three seconds. My test faxes were pretty short, and were "Print to Fax", I''m unclear if that speed claim is for physical paper faxes, or the way I did it. Still, given how infrequently I fax anyway, I doubt the speed of the faxing will be an issue, much less how fast it goes.
Ink: The printer came with four individually colored toner cartridges. Black, Yellow, Red, & Blue (although they call them Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, & Black). The ones in the box have a smaller capacity than the ones you would buy as refills. The marketing says that the thing can get a couple of thousand pages out of a set of toner, but the ones in the box say 1000 for Black, and 900 for color, so they''re not the same shipping with the printer, I believe they''re referred to somewhere along the line as "starter" packs. A check of the Epson site shows refills aren''t exactly cheap. The three color cartridges are $24.99 each, and the black one is $38.99. Gah! To replace all four of them would cost $113.96 (plus whatever tax and shipping you''d tack on). Granted, a manufacturer toner cartridge for my old black and white laser-jets isn''t cheap, either. I''ll be doing MOSTLY black and white printing, so the colors won''t go down as fast, but still. Given this printer sells for $300, spending over 1/3 of that price on a single complete ink refill is a LOT. I''m sure there''s replacements a lot cheaper, but it''s always a gamble with cheap/no name toner/ink.
Paper: For me, the overwhelming lion''s share of printing jobs will be on standard 8.5x11 inch printer paper. This printer has the capability of printing on a lot of different types of paper, but I doubt I''ll be using a ton of them. So I don''t have a lot of say about that kind of stuff here, except.. I can stick a lot of paper in this printer at once. The big sticker on the printer that was there before I took it off said you can stick 330 pieces of paper in there at once. Now I didn''t break down and count it obviously, but it did feel like a substantial amount of paper in there. That''s a non tangible thing, getting up and refilling. And that''s the front loading cartridge. Other kinds of paper are loaded via a back loading tray, including envelopes. I would have preferred the envelopes be in the front and not the back, but oh well. The printer is marketed as having 50% lower printing costs. There''s a massive sticker ON TOP of the printer when you take it out of the box that says this. Problem with this is I''m not sure how to quantify that claim it''s probably down to ink anyway, and not paper. I''ve never owned a printer like this before (my home office printers have always been smaller type things like this or this). Still, even if it doesn''t come near 50%, the fact that it probably will be more conservative with ink and whatnot is good.
Problems: As I''ve only had this a couple of days as I write this, I''ve yet to run into the dreaded paper jam, so I have no idea how hard it is to fix problems like that. Every printer gets them, so I know I''ll run into it some day. But it''s too early in the life of this printer for me to judge how hard it is to fix paper jams.
So to summarize, the printer is more than sufficient for me in what it does. It''s quite large, so don''t expect it to substitute in cleanly for a smaller type Laserjet printer if you''re upgrading from that. But it appears to be a workhorse from my initial testing. As I use this going down the line, I''ll update with any relevant issues I might run into. If you''re in need of a good small business printer to handle all kinds of duties (scan, fax, print, etc), this is a good option for you.
P.S. Yes, I realize the ink for this printer is more "ink" than "toner", but I''ve been saying toner for the stuff you put in a printer that lets it print so long I have a hard time forcing myself to say something other than the word "toner". :)
UPDATE: I saw where the four ink cartridges are available from Amazon.com as well. They are:
Black: Epson DuraBrite Ultra Ink, Black (T676XL120)
Yellow: Epson DuraBrite Ultra T676XL420 Epson DuraBrite Ultra Ink, Yellow Ink
Magenta: Epson DuraBrite Ultra Ink, Magenta (T676XL320)
Cyan: Epson DuraBrite Ultra Ink, Cyan (T676XL220)
UPDATE Oct 20: Today I noticed an update to the firmware and software for the printer. This new update brought with it the ability to hook up to Google Cloud Print. Got that up and running was pretty easy. So the printer now has the ability to print with Epson''s own "Epson Connect" as well as Google Cloud Print, and iOS'' AirPrint. It''s a very well connected printer. :)This printer was purchased for our business back in December 2011, and now, 7 months later, we''re on the third printer. First, a roller popped out of the back and it would no longer print on paper fed from the back. That was within the first month, so it was replaced immediately.
Now, six months later, the yellow nozzle is blocked. After doing a little research, it was revealed that this is an inevitable problem with all Epson printers; it''s not a matter of if this will happen, but when. Perhaps Epson hopes you''ll buy another one of these insatiable ink gluttons before your first one breaks. Perhaps you''ll print a hundred or so sheets of beautiful color images, and then neglect to purchase the exorbitantly colored cartridges for a while. Then a year later when it doesn''t work, you''ll say, "This is my fault" and just buy a new one. It was indeed suggested that extended disuse of the printer would cause ink to dry on the nozzles. This is not the case with this particular printer. It''s used nearly every day, at the very least several times a week. Again we returned it, again it was replaced.
Upon set-up, the newly replaced printer drained ALL of the unused print cartridges and refused to go any farther before a single print was run on the printer. This is absurd. This, as they say in the coffee shops, is an outrage.
I will give this praise: when it works, it works great. That much is said in many of the negative reviews. I would love this printer if it could go for half a year without self-destructing. Colors are bright, and the scanner is especially nice. Paper jams are common, but not frequent enough to be too annoying. There is another shining star in this pit: I love the scanner. My last Epson scanner was exceptional, and this one is as well. However, the printer connected to the scanner has a disgustingly high rate of failure. We''re going on 3 out of 3. Are you feeling like your luck has been way too high lately? Do you feel like your life has way too little stress and you just want something that will make you tear your hair out? WELL HAVE I GOT A PRODUCT FOR YOU! That''s right, the Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4530 will cost you your most productive days, may cause heartburn, ulcers, and high blood pressure, and might even make you cry!
For your own health and well-being, and for the sake of all of us who want quality products, PLEASE do not buy this printer, and do not buy a printer from Epson. It is an abyss of negative value. If you MUST buy an Epson printer, then you WILL need a warranty extension. Aside from the scanner, this is a terrible product.
EDIT JUL 10th: The yellow nozzle is clogged on the printer replaced LAST WEEK after roughly 100 prints. Three printers in 7 months. How does this get through quality control? Don''t buy this product. You''re going to be upset.
Want Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4530 Wireless All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer (C11CB33201) Discount?
Boy, what an easy print copy, scan and fax installation right out of the box for our family of Apple iMac, Mac mini, iPad and 2 pc work laptops! Allows others on network to share functionality. The print speed also is fast so a large print job won''t frustrate the network. The Epson WP-4530 WorkForce Pro is a basic wireless print/copy/scan/fax color inkjet model for small businesses and for workgroups and EnergyStar rated. The footprint is comparable to other all-in-one''s (we''ve owned several from HP) but it weighs a lot less. The plastic casing seems thinner and a piece of the back plastic dust cover flap was broken off out of the box. The break doesn''t hurt functionality but it does speak to durability and cheaper material/design quality. There are a couple of flimsy plastic dust covers toward the rear of the machine that may get lost or broken with inattentive care. The more expensive model in the Pro-series holds a full ream of paper but at a 60% ream capacity and a slightly smaller 3.5" touch screen this less expensive model suits our needs fine.There is a small yellow sheet of paper included in the box which is easy to miss. Let me include it here:
Attention AirPrint Users
This printer can be AirPrint-enabled by installing the latest firmware update, allowing you to wirelessly print directly from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 4.2 or later.
First, set up your printer using the installation instructions that came with it.
After you finish setting up your printer, visit the manufacturer''s website for instructions on updating the firmware to activate AirPrint under Support.
Now, my bugaboos and basic requirements: Functionality, Dependability and Operations Cost
* Capacities and Specifications:
o 30-page 2-sided auto document feeder for copy, scan, fax functions (I use double sided everyday so the quick response is important to me)
o Fax memory of 180 pages so no missing faxes or slow tie ups, important for a business.
o Max paper size of 8.5" x 44" -NICE but I''ve yet to need a banner.
o Prints 1-sided 16 ppm: black, 11 ppm: color. 2-Sided 9 ppm: black, 7 ppm: color (all fast enough to not tie up the printer even with larger jobs)
o Scans to 2400 dpi resolution with correctable features (nice for pictures and business quality scans to .pdf files) with OCR capability at software download
o PrintJinniTM for Epson, Google Cloud Print and future release of the compatible AirPrint utilities app promise wireless printing from my Apple iOS devices. I love my iPad. NB: There is a special Mac OS Lion Support page and instructions to download from the net support page and NOT the provided disk for Lion 10.7. However, update from an install on Lion 10.6.x to 10.7 appears uncomplicated and straightforward.
o Or, download documents from iPhone or iPad to specified email which allows me to set aside jobs for future printing
* Warrantee:
o It comes with a standard warrantee. The Epson website offers a 1 year repair/exchange for $40 and a 2 year for $60. I am a big believer in extended warrantees for most products over $200. I''ve used them too frequently not to insure and encourage you to consider.
* 4-Color Ink 676XL and retail estimate costs
o Black T676XL 120 $40 Epson DuraBrite Ultra Ink, Black (T676XL120)
o Cyan T676XL 220 $25 Epson DuraBrite Ultra Ink, Cyan (T676XL220)
o Magenta T676XL 320 $25 Epson DuraBrite Ultra Ink, Magenta (T676XL320)
o Yellow T676XL 420 $25 Epson DuraBrite Ultra T676XL420 Epson DuraBrite Ultra Ink, Yellow Ink
Amazon will continue to be my ink supplier, as Costco at this time, does not stock. I''ve been a dedicated HP printer user for over 20 years and have become increasingly dissatisfied with complicated features that too easily get tangled with changes on the network and with ever increasing printing costs. HP remains a preferred provider for workgroups, a niche that Epson hopes to break into. I''ll watch with interest but have doubts if only 3 models remain available in the WorkForce Pro series. This Epson printer''s duty cycle is rated for up to 20,000 pages which suggests a nice lifetime. Print quality is good. This Epson WF4530 Pro may be a better fit for small offices and that''s my use. If you are buying for a workgroup, be sure to verify that Epson is on your approved list!
I will conduct my own unofficial print cost comparison and reliability tests of the 3 printers on our network: HP OfficeJet Pro 8500 WirelessHP Officejet Pro 8500A Plus Wireless e-All-in-One (CM756A#B1H), HP OfficeJet 7300HP OfficeJet 7310 All-in-One Printer and this reviewed Epson and report back in several months. The 4 print cartridges from Epson came vacuum sealed; this may suggest that I should not be surprised to see the same seeming evaporation that I swear I''m experiencing on the HP OfficeJet''s new designed ink cartridges. Both companys'' ink product weight seem to suggest a much smaller bladder than one might expect seeing the large cartridge packaging. ...So, the time and quantity test is important to me given the price. Yes, I am sure that the print cost is less for each dot matrix than for a laser print which is what their advertising pins to. However, I compare against my old workhorse, the HP OfficeJet 7300 that had an efficient print pattern, low print cost and was refillable by the consumer. The new HP cartridges are designed to be not refillable; these Epson cartridges are too new to find out about yet. BTW, it appears that you cannot preset the printer to default print in black or greyscale. You must select greyscale at each print, bother and so much for conserving ink. For now, wifi works well, scanning is correctable and detailed, and I''m happy. Loses a star for build quality and another for default to color printing.
Footnote: I''ve run out of black ink after 62 days. I''ve used this Epson printer more than the HP8500 and less than the HP 7310. The HP 7310 continues to be the champion ink miser from the days when HP made ink last. All 3 machines were refilled at the beginning of my informal test.
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I received this Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4530 All-in-One Printer from the Amazon Vine program for review. First I must say it was very simple to set up straight from the box. The instructions were clear and easy to follow. Our 12 year old son was able to complete most of this with assistance from my husband.The initial test prints were quick and clear, with vibrant and bold colors. It scans quick & clear.
I must admit this printer takes up more space than I expected. I understand ans expect a high performance printer will be larger than an average everyday home printer; however with technological advances rendering electronics smaller each year, I did expect a more compact unit. Be sure to check the dimensions for your work-space. Product Dimensions: 18.2 x 16.5 x 13.4 inches.
This includes 4 separate cartridges / replacements are listed below:
XL Black Ink Cartridge T676XL120
XL Cyan Ink Cartridge T676XL220
XL Magenta Ink Cartridge T676XL320
XL Yellow Ink Cartridge T676XL420
Considering these are extra large cartridges hopefully they will last a long time before needing replacements or refilling. I will update later when they start running out.
So far I am very pleased with this Epson printer. Next on my list of task to try on this printer is connecting to my iPhone. I will update with the results.
**Also no card reader on this printer.
Update 11/19/2011 :
I have just placed an order for a black replacement cartridge. I''m hoping the replacement lasts much longer than the initial cartridge did. I''m starting to have a few issues with this printer. Most noticeable is frequent paper jams, and extra pages being fed. For the past week, I have had numerous jammed paper, which is easy enough to clear, just remove the back and pull out the paper. But I am wondering why this is happening.
The other issue I am starting to see is with clarity of images. This printer has never liked working with any photo papers, but it did ok, at first. Now the photos are coming out and they look as though the printer was shaking as it printed, with some minor blurring on random parts of the image.
Not sure yet if this can be corrected, but I''m trying. I''m downgrading this to 3 stars, its OK, just not the greatest printer I''ve owned.
Update 12/15/2011 : Paper jams happen nearly every time I print. Photo print quality is not good at all, very blurry results. I tried a few different photo papers with no luck. My best results was normal print settings on photo paper. If I set high quality I had puddles of ink that literally ran over the page.
Occasionally I find that normal print jobs appear blurry in places, almost as if you shook the printer while printing.
Downgrading the stars again to 2, its a real disappointment.
