Epson AcuLaser C1100 Review

Overall Rating

We run an Epson AcuLaser C1100 in addition to two Epson CX11s (same printer but with a scanner on top). So far, the c1100 has done just over 34,000pages and 2 years.

I run a speadsheet on all the running costs of these printers. Consumables are expensive, but genuine ones can be found at more reasonable prices on the net (such as amazon), even though prices have recently gone up (UK recession, I guess), black and white prints average at 1.2p per page and 5.5p colour (this includes costs of photoconductors as well as cartridges)originally this was 0.95p B&W and 4.5p colour before the consumable prices increased. Still, this is miles cheaper to run than our previous HP inkjets which averaged 3p black and white and in excess of 15p colour! Black toner lasts about 10,500 pages of mainly draft A4 prints and photo conductors last about 20,000pages (compared to barely 1000pages b&W and 400pages per cartridge for the inkjets). For 34,000 black and white pages, this equates to a cost saving of over £600!! In other words, this printer has paid for itself two times over in cost savings over our old inkjets.

We have however encountered print quality issues - Vertical lines down the page is from a damaged photoconductor. This usually occurs towards the end of the PC's life (A scratched drum surface; due to built up waste toner, this can be prevented by regularly emptying the waste toner from the PC unit, but its a very messy affair, which is why Epson prefers you to just to replace the PC unit instead).

The other issue is colour printing using Magenta appeared to not print uniformly, which varied across the page diagonally. It was found that the toner cartridge had run out or clogged (no errors or indications were given on the printer display). Replacing with a new cartridge didn't give immediate colour improvement until after 20 or so colour pages, and several recalibration cycles (which is automatic, this printer could do with a manual option just incase this happens again).

Other than that its been perfect for a small office, which needs high volume printing at low cost and occasional colour.

It is a large heavy printer, so be aware of this. And consumables are expensive, but their longevity pays in the long run as shown by the low running costs. Its also fairly noisy, and has developed the odd squeak whilst printing. Colour printing is also quite slow. Also the time to first print from power saving mode is quite long, as the printer needs to warm up, and the printer recalibrates itself every 40 odd pages, which can lengthen the time it takes to complete print jobs (especially if its 41 pages and it recalibrates on the 40th page - annoying!).

Biggest let down is the print driver is very basic. In Vista, we have had issues with the printer treating black and white pages as colour (taking longer to print, and reducing PC life), meaning for black and white pages we have to manually select black and white mode in the driver settings. Also draft mode is not very apparent, hidden away in a sub menu under the heading "toner save". The driver found on the CX11 is far superior and more user friendly, why this is not implemented on the c1100 is a mystery.

Given this printer's flaws, it has still served as a very economical workhorse. As such if this printer failed tomorrow, I'd happily buy another identical unit to replace it with. Although the recent increases in consumable costs may change this opinion if they continue to rise in price (costs of a genuine PC unit is currently £165inc VAT, a £40 price hike from last year, genuine black toner is now £58inc VAT a £10 increase over last year).