Bleg.

I’m asking for your assistance. No, not monetary or donative. I need information.

So far I’ve owned an Epson CX5200, an Epson CX5400 and now an Epson CX4600. All are 3-in-1 units that scan, copy and color print. The quality of the color prints has been uniformly excellent (more on that in a second). The scanners have worked very well, and the ability to copy documents at home has been occasionally very useful.

However.

The CX5200 stopped printing in magenta about 10 months after I got it. After wrangling with Epson tech support, they ponied up a replacement unit, the CX5400. Eight months later, guess what? The printer stopped printing again. Cyan this time. Out of warranty. So off to the store I go to get something to replace it. Money’s a bit tight, and there on the shelf is the CX4600 for well under $100. How could I go wrong?

Easily. The print heads plug up all the time. Head cleaning drains the cartridges rapidly. And a full set of cartridges costs as much as the original purchase price of the unit. Now the only color the damned thing will print in is YELLOW.

I’ve had enough. I need something that will WORK. I don’t need FAX capability, and I don’t need a document feeder on the input. I just need to scan, copy single sheets, and print photo-quality images.

So, what do you suggest?