Who’s Using A Kodak Printer? Opinions Needed

I dont own one but I service them and they seem to have a high fail rate, and poor image quality compared to other leading brands. I also noted that if you compare the HP XL cartridges to the print volume of the kodaks’ the HP printers come out on top. HP has been in the game a long time, cheaper ink is not a reason to trust this new manufacturer yet.

I have bought a Kodak ESP 3 AIO printer two weeks ago. The PROS are that the ink is cheap. $9.95 for Black and $14.94 for color. Or you can purchase a combo pack for $24.95. THe retail price of the printer was $89.95 and it came with one Black and one Color cartridge. NO cable though. What I like best is that the Print Head is replaceable. I got burned by EPSON a few years ago. Their Print Head only lasted 2 years. After that time I could not print and received a message on screen to send my printer back to Epson for “part replacement”? CON is that ink is so cheap because they push the Easy Share Gallery, that menas that every time you power up the printer the Kodak Easy Share software starts up. I have NOT been able to find anything in preferences or startup to get around this??? Bottom line is, I am glad I bought Kodak and I love the cheap, EXCELLENT ink they provide me with.

Hi Jeff,
Thanks for the info.

Hello Billy,
Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

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1st generation Kodak inkjet printers (white/cream colored printers) have had tech problems. The new black ESP models appear to have fewer moving parts, so they’ll likely do better. I’ve been very happy with print quality and ink costs. Less happy with the failure of print-heads that were supposed to be “perminent.” As for the software: must be a preferrences issue, because starting my Kodak printer doesn’t automatically launch EasyShare software (I’ve removed ES from my startup folder, I don’t find it as useful as Picasa).

I have a Kodak ESP 9 AiO. First impression was that this thing is BIG. Has a rather large footprint on my desk compared to the HP 6210 it replaced.

Installation was fairly easy and trouble free.

Printer would not recognize Avery 8160 address label paper. Failed to print and displayed “incorrect paper size” message.

After an hour on the phone with Kodak support (not based in North America) it was determined this was a hardware issue with the printer. I actually had to wait while the tech support guy called another tech support person. His excuse was that “this is a new product so I am not very familiar with it”. I find that rather unacceptable.

When the printer performs an optical scan of the paper prior to printing it does not like the Avery paper for some reason. No solution was offered by Kodak but I was able to figure out a work-around to “fool” the printer into accepting the paper. Just put in a sheet of regular paper for the first page and all is good.

Wireless connectivity was problematic. The ESP 9 connected to my network just fine but I could not print via wireless using my laptop. Every attempt to print via wireless caused my laptop to immediately loose connection with the printer. NOT with the wireless network…just with the printer.

Kodak issued a firmware update to address wireless connectivity issues but this did not fix this issue. I eventually configured a static IP for the printer and problem solved.

I also experienced issues with the quality of red colors. The reds just seem off. Mostly when printing color documents (not photos).

It has been a good printer overall. I have not experienced any other paper related issues. Wireless connectivity has been great since switching to a static IP for the printer.

Scanning and copying are fast. I like the Kodak AiO Home Center software that comes with the printer.

In my experience claims made by Kodak about number of documents/photos per cartridge seem to be accurate.

Of course, I LOVE the price of the cartridges. $25 for both, SWEEET!!!

I bought a Kodak ESP3 printer a week aga at Walmart. I installed the software on a Sony Vista 32 computer and he worked fine. I also have a network installed with 3 computers , the host with the Kodak printer is sharing the printer with an Windows XP computer and also worked as i expected. Now my problem with the third computer on my network, a Dell computer with Windows Vista 64 installed. It is impossible to get the printer working, at first i got a error saying there was the wrong driver installed on the host computer (The Sony). Thre is no separate driver available for this printer, only a programm named AIO_install,exe.. The other error i got was “Printer is not connected to the nettwor”or the is failt spelled”. I uninstalled and reinstalled the software advised by a Kodak employee but notting will work. So if you have a network with a Vista 64 system installed, stay away of this printer. Kodak has to develop a new working driver even for a Windows 64 system.

Thanks Nick for the information.

I Bought a Kodak ESP-3 printer from staples like a lot of
people to take advantage of the cheap ink. I also own an Hp
all in one and so I can get some sort of comparison between the two. I find the pictures you print usually look better on the HP
printer as the Kodak produces very dark pictures that even in
high quality mode on photo paper look somewhat grainy. The Kodak also seems limited in its color pallet no mate how colorful the picture is . The scanner seems to work fine and does a good job overall of scanning text & pictures. One thing I like about the scanning software is that you can scan a batch of
stuff in and it will save it in a lower box on the screen and then once you are done you can select all of the scans and send them to a particular folder of your choosing. This can not be done on my HP as it requires you to select a folder for each individual scan which can be quite a pain when you have a lot of work you are trying to scan. One of the problems I have found with the Kodak software is that you have to run your screen resolution at a certain setting in order for you to see it’s full interface without having to use
the scroll bars on the side and bottom of the program. I find this to be quite a pain as I like to have my icons display fairly large on my screen because I don’t have the best vision and
have some light sensitivity issues. On my 22inch monitor
the Kodak start interface is only a box about 4by4 inches which I find to be quite small and a poor use of my monitor.
I have had no technical trouble yet with this printer but have only owned it for a few months. I personally don’t find the ink
lasts much longer than the HP and seems to print at about the same speed. Overall not to bad a printer for quick jobs
that don’t have to be perfect. If you need really good photo
quality on a regular basis though, I would go with another printer, perhaps a Cannon or HP photo printer.
That’s just my opinion so far . Hopefully they will get better in the future, only time will tell . I hope this will help someone in their shopping expeditions for a new printer.
Thanks for reading my blurp and every one take care.
Mike.

Thanks Mike for the concise evaluation. Sharing your experience with us is appreciated.

Best Regards, Ron

I have recently purchased the ESP 3 printer and find that the scanning of photos and documents is EXCELLENT if you either know how to manually adjust the settings, OR simply tell the Kodak software to use its improvement mode. The printing of photos and documents is definitely better than any of the other brands that I have seen or tried. I used to use Brother, HP and Lexmark. Of those Lexmark did the best scanning, I was disappointed with the photo printing on the Brother and HP, but the Kodak seems AWESOME on anything that I have printed. My sister has either the 5500 or 5700 and the only issue they have had is with getting the faxing work on a phone line with an answering machine. The actual scanning, copying and printing seems to be above anything else we have tried in the same price range for the actual printer. The cheaper ink is just a very welcome added bonus.

I BOUGHT AN ESP 3 FOR MY NIECE FOR CHRISTMAS BECAUSE THE HP SHE HAD WE WERE BUYING INK EVERY 2 MONTHS, SHE LOVES TO PRINT. I SEEN THE KODAK AND DECIDED TO GIVE IT A SHOT. BOUGHT THE PRINTER IN LATE DECEMBER AND IT IS NOW APRIL AND HAVEN’T HAD TO BUY INK YET. THIS THING IS AMAZING AND THE PRINT QUALITY IS BETTER THAN ANY HP FOR $89 SO ALL YOU HP FAN BOYS CAN FIND ANOTHER BLOG. I HAVE A $300 CANNON THAT I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THAT I AM THINKING OF REPLACING WITH THIS KODAK. NO PROBS AT ALL WITH INSTALL, AND TO THE PERSON THAT COULDN’T GET THE EASY SHARE FROM COMING ON AT STARTUP, GO TO WINDOWS START, THEN RUN, THEN MSCONFIG, THEN STARTUP TAB, UNCHECK EASY SHARE, THEN APPLY.

I purchased a Koday ESP-7 printer in January 2009 as a Christmas gift for my wife but with the Kodak advertising, there just weren’t any available.

Setup was easy and the noise the machine makes was surprising but print was good. An 8X10 on kodak premium paper looked great. Then the machine started to spit out blank pages. Tech support assisted with getting the machine going again. BUT….if you leave the printer alone for at least 2 days, it will not print, just gives you pretty white blank sheets.

Tech support sent me a new print head and that resolved the problem for about 5 days. Then the blank page disease reappeared again. This time tech support sent me a new print head and a replacement printer. Great. Worked almost a week before the disease struck. Kodak knows they have a problem with these ESP printers but have done nothing about it so far. At present I am demanding a refund on monies spent on the purchase of the printer less money wasted in buying ink. Overall, buying an HP and paying out the nose for ink would have actually cheaper and less nerve racking.

So I work with HP and by our calculations they only really save you a dollar a month. Are you willing to give up HP proven reliability and performance to save a buck per month on ink? Check out http://www.hp.com/go/thetruthaboutprinting for more info.

I own a Kodak ESP 3. It hasn’t failed on me as of yet. I’ve owned it for a few months now. The only cons to the printer are that it’s kind of loud, and sometimes it grabs more than one sheet of paper. This only happens when using heavier weight papers and you have to feed them in one at a time. I don’t do much printing, but other than that it’s been pretty reliable.

I am a voulenteer at a literacy oganization in Montreal and we have Kodak ESP 7 it works fine on the admin computer but after installing the Software on other computers on the network I get, the “Not able to find printer ” error message.
Everthing is OK on my network it is not wireless and all my computers SEE the printer until I install the Kodak SW.

Kodak Help desk repeatedly hung up on me after trying to get their help,

If anyone is aware of a driver I need to install or a Fix I would appreciate the Help

Thanks

Chris

Hi Chris,
Have you tried the standalone driver?
http://www.kodak.com/global/mul/service/downloads/DownloadLookup.jhtml?pq-path=9103/13657/13660&product=EKN035329

I have had nothing but problems. When I print black text say from MS Word or any other text program my printer uses the color cartridge more than the black cartridge to print black. I have called and called but talking to India is not the answer. I got a arrogant answer from Kodak tech support and they said the printer uses color and black because the text is really gray. What a load of crap. No other printer that I have used never uses the color cartridge to print black not HP, not Epson and not Lexmark. So far I have used 3 color cartridges to 1..4 black cartridges to print only black text. So much for their ads about saving money on ink. Never would I advise anyone to buy a Kodak printer.

I bought an ESP 9..To put it bluntly it is a nighmare! Out of the box the printer found my Wifi network and once the wep was in it was happy.or so I thought..Printed a test page only got pink and washed out black…. printing screen shots on plain paper.Did all the maintenance user can changed inks still the same thing.left it at that and installed the software..on both laptop and desktop.Adjusted the firewall settings to allow what I should.Still nothing… so I added the rpinter manually made the added on printer the default could print from desk but not laptop.opened up the software and tried to scan..got error code that could not be resolved on line support or with phone support…also would not print form software because the software still could not find the printer.Kodak is well aware that there are huge problems with some hookups and when finally after 3 whole days of loading unloading claenaing restarting whil on the phone with support they passed me on tothe senior assistance team who told me that to completley uninstall and clean again and download the new software when it came out on May 15.. I did that.. had to find and install printer and scanner drivers which were in the software this time but did not install( the original software did not have a scanner driver in it???)On Tuesday I will try yet aqgain with phone support to get this thing going. What a crock! I am no neophyte at this I have been in both software and hardware for over 30 years.My desktop is a Sony P4 3.2 with 4G Ram and XP pro
laptop is a panasonic 1.6 centrino with 1.5 G Ram and XP Pro
Wifi Network is Siemens Router D-link adapter on desktop and Intel wireless in Panasonic…Also tried a D-Link router same results. Would I buy Kodak again? not a chance in He!! would I recommend it ? ditto

I bought the Kodak Esp 3 and the software would not install. It kept saying that it was getting interrupted and I needed to restart the installation process, buy nothing was interrupting it. I have windows vista with a 64 bit processor and I am wondering if that is why it won’t work. If so what similiar printer will work.
Thanks

Hello Corinne,
I know that the HP 915 series has 64 bit drivers for Vista & XP. I am sure there are others that also support 64 bit. Have you called Kodak for support and have they confirmed that the software won’t work, or a bad disk, or is there another driver available? Just some thoughts.

I have a Kodak ESP3, rather this is my 4th ESP3 since purchasing one last August. I purchased it to replace my HP5550 in order to save on the cost of ink.
I have had no problems setting it up either with XP or Vista. The color is excellent using Kodak or Office Depot Photo paper.
After the first month, the printer started to print a four inch band of black on every print out. Contacting Kodak Service, they snet me a new print head and new print cartridges. This worked for another month. Then the printer started printing the black band again. This time kodak sent me a replacement printer. I had to give them a credit card number to assure that I would return the old one within thirty days.
The new one worked for two months, at which time the scanner would only scan have a page. Thus, my second replacement. This printer worked until december, at which time it would print one page and hang up. I had to turn the power off and restart it to print another sheet. They sent me a third printer. In February, this printer started printing the black band, and I got my fourth replacement. So far, this one is still working. . If it starts having problems, I will just chuck it and go back to an HP printer.

I worked as a Kodak Technician for almost two years until they (KODAK) decided to turn the outsourcing over to the Philippines or where ever. The bottom line is: do not fall for their bull!!!! They are ripping the entire country(ies) off. I wanted to tell all that were calling in to take the printer back immediately but we were being randomly recorded so I couldn’t. Now, I am not affiliated with them because they pulled the contract from Sykes (stateside) and gave it to Sykes in the Philippines or somewhere else. After that they closed down the branch office I was working in and shorted us our pay on hours for cleaning up the facility; thus, here I am to inform the people of America/Canada that they are in fact ripping you all off! Low cost ink is infact cheaper, but it is also becoming of lower quality damaging the printheads. We will talk more about the printheads later… The ink is lower costing but the you will end up paying the same amount (if not more) attempting to get the printer to work via troubleshooting (Printhead Cleaning) etc,…

Now the printheads… If anyone but the Engineer noticed that when a new(refirbished) printhead is sent to you, the part number is exactly the same???!!! Thus the lie that they feed you about a newly designed printhead will solve your problem is just another lie. If you noticed…. you can take the printhead out of an 5300 AIO Printer and put the same printhead in the ESP Series; why? It is the same defective (refirbished) printhead from the old line of printers!!!! Try it! If you know someone that bought a new model of Kodak ESP AIO Printer; take your 5000 series printhead and see if it fits in the ESP Printer…..guess what….it will! Now, the printhead is also covered under the warranty;….however the warranty will only last for one calendar year. When the year is up you will have to purchase a printhead to make your printer continue to function “To save you on ink cartridge costs” correct? Guess what the price is on the new printhead…..as of 02/2008 it was listed at arround $80.00! Of course the sales pitch is that it comes with a complimentary (you guessed it) set of ink cartridges!!!! More consumer tips to come!

Viper

So far, I not impressed. Bad print head, out of the box. Kodak sent a new one. Three months later, print head has gone bad again. This time as my high school chidren can’t print out their final projects. Kodak is promising a new printer if the print head doesn’t fix the problem. As for ink; yes it’s cheap but I seem to be using it a lot quicker than my HP ink. The printer also sounds like it wants to self destruct as it moves paper and the ink head. Not impressed. However, I changed from HP due to high ink cost and lousy quality on the printers.

Problem printing with networked Kodak ESP3 on vista 64 solution here:

http://www.fixya.com/support/t1583059-wireless_laptop_cannot_connect_network

I have bought numerous computers, printers, software and scanners for 19 years now. Hewlett Packard, Packard Bell, Logitech, Canon, e-machine etc… My first experience with a ESP-3 was alright for about 10 months. And then the problems started with the printhead (Kodak sent me another)which through diagnostic testing on line (with Kodak support) turns out to be the printer itself. They wanted to send me a “refurbished” one with the agreement I furnish them with my credit card info. This was done on May 6th. I call up now on May 31st to find out they didn’t send it yet. I’ve not yet experienced this type of confusion in customer service with any company of this size and prestige. This printer with it’s problems and ink usage is actually not worth the “hassle” for the few dollars you think you are saving. The HP and Canon products are much more reliable.

I bought an ESP3 in Oct of 2008 at Walmart and had to go through 3 printers before I got one to work properly. The software wouldn’t download completely and that should have been my warning to steer clear.

After 2 months the printer would only print one page at a time and have to be shut down. I called Kodak Support and spent an hour trying to get the bugs worked out and they came to the conclusion the printer was defective and sent me a refurbished one.

During the hour long session I also had to remove microsoft framework .net 3.0 and 3.5 and go back to microsoft and get 2.0 re-installed on my computer as a repair for the printer. There was an incompatibility between Kodak software and MS upgrades for framework .net.

I got the replacement printer working and in Apr 2009, the same thing happened again. Kodak support said that I would have to remove .net 3.0 and 3.5 again. I had already removed the Kodak printer and bought a canon printer which is working great so far.

I called Tech Support and wanted a refund on the Kodak printer and they said I would just have to use it, because they wouldn’t give a refund on the unit as it was out of the warranty window.

I told them that it isn’t my fault that Kodak software isn’t compatible with MS software and that MS sends out patches and upgrades to combat viruses and exploitation of their systems to keep my computer safer, just as Kodak sends out upgrades of their systems to make them run better. They told me they were sorry and that they could do nothing for me.

I sent a letter to Kodak Corporate in April 2009 seeking a refund and have not heard from them as of yet. Kodak doesn’t seem to care about the customer and their product doesn’t work well with other software that is necessary for computer safety.

I will not purchase another Kodak printer. The product is defective and they will not stand behind it.

I owned two Kodak 5300 and I am VERY diqusted with both. I have now replaced 8 print heads. The picture quality even with the new print heads are bad. I am out now to purchase another brand as my print heads both blew at once today and on the phone for over an hour so good bye KODAk and I am from Rochester NY where Kodak is famous. A bunch of junk is being made here. Save money.. I hardly think so. I waste paper like mad trying to get a good image.

Thanks for all of the comments. It is appreciated. I believe I’ll stick with HP products.

I bought an ESP 3 in March. It was entirely satisfactory- for just 3 months.Then it quit printing.I have spent hours on line with at least 4 different “Kodak ” techs & am now awaiting delivery of my 2nd. replacement printer & 3rd. replacement printer head.

All so far have been non-functional & all have exhibited the same symptoms.

I have lost all faith.Kodak refuses a cash refund, despite the one year warranty.Tech help says they will keep replacing until one works! But for how long? The techs are not Kodak employees, they work for a foreign co. under contract with Kodak.That co. has a vested interest in avoiding cash refunds,That would show they can’t do the job, resulting, ultimately, in loss of the contract.Or,they may not have authorization to refund.Nor will they connect you with someone who does.

Does anyone know how to contact someone at Kodak corporate level, perhaps in a dept. called something like Customer Relations? I have been unsuccessful.That’s the only way to get a refund.

The real problem is the printer design is flawed & unreliable & the quality control stinks.

I just bought and tried to install a Kodak ESP 3 pribter, can’t get past the startup disc, and won’t connect to the website for a driver. And my system had=s just been completely upgraded, so no problems there.Problem is, I’m a designer on a deadline, and my last printer just died, so I’ll have to take this back I guess, and spend a little more money on something that will at least install!

I purchased an ESP5 All-In-One…which I hadn’t. I’ve had it since Sept 07, worked fine at first, ink was cheap enough…if you can find it. Here in Florida, only get it on line from Kodak.

About 2 months ago, I have problems printing, prints a document, discharges it and hangs up on print progress 97% and won’t let me cancel the printing.

Have deleted the printer and downloaded the software from Kodak’s web site. Also tried downloading the firm ware, said it could not find a Kodak Printer on my computer.

I too have experienced the overseas tech support…they suck!!!

I will be replacing this printer soon.

So many printers don’t support XP 64bit. I bought a HP all in one
1410v because it had a sticker on the side that said it supported XP 64 bit. Only to find no such driver on the disk and only a beta on the HP site. Now HP has removed that driver, and say my printer never supported XP 64bit. I checked another newer HP printer that said it supported XP 64bit. But on the download site, all it offers is a (work around). So HP offers terrible driver support, just like it seems Kodak does. I’ll never buy HP again. They all rip u off for ink. Which is very cheap. Printers could easily have refillable reservoirs. Still looking for the right all in one printer.

I have a HP all-in-one printer. Cost of printer $179. Cost of black and color ink $88. Ink replacement about once a month.
I have a Kodak esp-3 printer. Cost of printer $89. Cost of black and color ink $24.
Have not replaced ink yet, about 4 months now.
The Kodak prints text and pictures as well if not better than the HP.
If the Kodak goes bad, so what. For what I’m saving in ink cost, I’ll buy another Kodak. You do the math.

I bought a Kodal All-In-One Injet printer and in less than one year , Kodak replaced two printheads, free but after the first year was over and less than two years old the printer needs to be replaced according to Kodak, I think they should have sent me a new printer free of charge with all the problems I”ve had, I find it hard to recommend a Kodak product since mine didn’t last two years and I really only used it to make pictures and occasionally I had to print . Yes the cost of ink is cheaper than all the others and it uses less which is a good thing. I’m retired and really can’t afford to purchase a new printer every two years and if the quality was good I shouldn’t have too.

I purchased the Kodak ESP 3 two days ago. I had a real problem iinstalling the software with Vista 64 bit. I had to go to Kodak web site downloaded the same version of software, then it did install. Now it will not Print, keeps telling me to press copy to align paper. This printer is just giving me too much headache. So I am going to get me a Canon Pixma MX 700 Office. Staples has it on sale $99.98.
Kodak needs to get back to Cameras, leave Printers.

I got a Kodak ESP 3 for Christmas; I’m 73 years old & have been using PCs since the CPM days, but I’m not too sharp in the brain anymore. This thing sure uses up a whole bunch more ink than my old HP; thank goodness its cheap - I just wish I could do home-office Refills like I did before I got this gadget. Right now my biggest problem is I can’t figure out how to scan stuff into MS WORD. I dread calling Kodak since I don’t hear well enough to understand the Rag-Heads on the other end of the line. Anyone out there know how its done ???

It’s great on ink if you print a lot of documents, saves lots of money and trips to the store. Ink is not as cheap as they say, unless I order it online in packs of 5 or more.
Issues connecting it to home or office networks but can be overcome, however a call to Kodak support will get you the response that they don’t support networking. I bought it mostly for the networking ability that used to be standard with ink jets.
The photo color and quality sucks compared to the Cannon, Lexmark and HP I have owned.
It’s sad what the manufactures have done to the cost of home printing. And it should be a crime, but our lawmakers are more concerned on how to raise our taxes than regulate fair trade.

I owned a Kodak printer for 14 hours and that was 14 hours too long. Took it back for full refund. It would only print in pink and black. The paper pick up was faulty. With only 6 prints the ink volune indicated a drop of around 20%. With the colour head if one colour runs our the machine will not word. If you black cartridge runs out it disables the machine unlike my HP which will still do scans with both cartriges empty. I think if you set out to design a bad printer it would not be as bad as a Kodak.

First, let me say that I have always been a fan and consumer of Kodak products, and as such I was more than ready to buy a Kodak printer when they first came out. I purchased a 5100 and was very pleased with the purchase and photo quality prints that it produced. That was for the first 3 months. After the ink dried and clogged in the nozzles I called Kodak support and after several attempts at cleaning using the maintenance software, as per their support, it was determined that the head was beyond repair. They immediately sent me a new head and ink cartridges. After installing everything the prints were once again of exceptional quality… for about 4 months. The first thing to go was the photo quality. I just stopped printing pics and used it for documents. After another 3 months the documents began to suffer. Again, calling Kodak support we went through the same set of tests, and again found that the head was the problem. I was again given another head, but told that my printer was “just old and needed to be replaced” I have gone on forums to see if there is a way to prevent this and have found that this is a very common problem with the Kodak printer. There is no way to manually clean the print head, and once the ink has dried in the nozzles the maintenance software just doesn’t do a thing to improve the problem. As much as I enjoyed the low cost of ink, it just isn’t enough for me to buy another Kodak printer until they find a way to correct this problem.

Thanks Steve - I’ll be sticking with HP.

I purchased a second Kodak printer this morning, a ESP-3, at Walmart for the same reasons listed in earlier posts. I had my 5100 series printer connected to my HP with no problems. When I placed the SW disc in to install the SW well……4 hours later still not loaded. My Hp running Vista 32 bit. As suggested earlier, I went to the Kodak web site to get the SW and 30 min later all was well. Funny thing is, I also have an iMac G3 crt ( am new to mac’s, but find I like them much better than a pc) it only took 10 min to install the SW. From the disc. All is working fine. As for the print head problem others are having…. maybe cheaper isn’t always the way to go, when you have a large print demand a Xerox printer would be my first choice.
My wish is that these large US corporations bring their call centers and tech support back to the USA. We need the jobs here and it would most certainly make customer service a much more pleasant experience for us all. LOL Collections, haha, from overseas call centers…..yea they could send those jobs over there. Just a thought.

I have had four kodak ESP7 printers fail in six months.
with no luck from kodak on reason or help fixing problem.
so back to my old HP’sand Epsons.
I personaly could not tell a reduction in ink usage although it was a little cheaper to buy.
i did not print many pictures(did not like the ones i did print).
actualy i did not think kodak printer was very good printing anything!

Thank you all for these comments. I’m in the market for a new printer for my new Dell PC. My 9-year-old HP deskjet still works perfectly (and never a problem with the print head) and I can refill the cartridges, however I need a compatible cable for the new PC and thought I’d just put the money to a new printer. Think I’ll go for another HP printer after reading these comments. Thanks.
.

Sorry to keep flogging this dead horse, but if I can help steer 1 person away from a Kodak printer, it’s worth it.

I’ve had pretty much nothing but problems with my Kodak 5500 AiO. They are sending me my 3rd print head as of today. I used it for almost a year with the original printhead that stopped printing yellow after about 4 months. Second printhead will not recognize new color ink cartriges. We’ll see about the 3rd. I wish I could afford a new printer, and I would recommend not buying ANY Kodak printer.

Thanks for all of the comments everyone.

PolyTek - no problem. I appreciate you taking the time to comment.

TO ALL:
I was thinking of buying a Kodak printer but after reading the comments quickly changed my mind.

I purchased kodak esp3 at walmart.Have had for about 6 months.Already replaced ink cartridges three times.And have not printed out alot of pictures or documents.Quality of pictures is terrible.They come out red.Even on documents it’s not right.It pulls in more than 1 sheet of paper to print.Wireless doesnt work right,says it wasn’t instaleld correctly.Have reinstalled,same story.I am going to put my old hp back up.At least my pictures were right,just used alot of ink.But not as much as this one,just trying to get it to work.Commercial for Kodak is crap,one big lie.HP or any of them for that matter is better than Kodak.Will never own another one.Very dissatisfied with product.

Purchased the 5100.

Best printed picture I have ever seen. Own or have owned HP, Canon, etc. This printer produced the best picture I have ever seen.

But with in a few weeks, printer head failure. Kodak sent a free replacement, lasted a few weeks and failed.

Didn’t use the printer for a couple of weeks, now the prints are washed out, faded. Maint. did not help.

To keep it short, 4 print head failures in a year just won’t work. The time spent on maint., tech support, etc is not worth the savings in ink. It is so very sad, the printer when working produces a very good print.

Why build a printer to fail? Makes no sense. Sorry Kodak, you lost my business.

I saw all the commercials and had to try it.
Got the ESP-7

Quality of print = poor
Noise = VERY loud!
Gear jams when power fails.
Goes thru some ink!
You have to clean print heads almost every day.
NEVER again would I buy a Kodak printer…

This review is dated 9/15/09. I purchased an ESP – 9 last Jun 10. I have used this machine extensively to print photos and documents. I am a general contractor and a semipro photographer. The document print quality is excellent and the photo print quality is excellent. I purchased this product to replace my HP fax machine and my HP printer that clamed to have Kodak technology built in interesting. Both old HP devices have provided very reliable service my only problem was with the decay of photo print quality and the tremendous cost of ink about $70.00 to replace the black and color tanks. With the amount of printing I do I would have to replace both tanks about every 45 days that equal about $567.00 dollars annual cost. I have used my ESP – 9 printer for approximately 97 Days my cost of ink replacement has been $50.00 with my old Hp the cost of ink would have cost approximately $150.00 to date. So in about 194 more days this new printer would have paid for it self just in the savings of ink alone. I have had only one paper jam so far also it is true that on printed documents the red colored lettering is not as vibrant as my old Hp printer but the overall quality of the print quality more than makes up for this I have no complaints and I would highly recommend this printer to my friends and colleges.

I wish I would have read these reviews before buying this stupid printer. I keep getting all kinds of problems with it. I do have a waranty but I wonder if they will honor it?

Hello Shelley,
I believe they will honor the warranty. But if you read some of the responses, Kodak printer technical support may be spotty at best. All the best.

We bought our Kodak 5300 AOI in June 2008. We do not print heavily, but I enjoy printing pictures when I want to and we use the copy feature often. In a little over a year, I’ve had to replace the print head 2 times. It seems like every time I want to print pictures, there’s something wrong with the print head. We were sold on the price of the ink also, but it seems to use a lot of ink. And just yesterday, I called tech support again about my printing problems and they told me I need yet another print head and a new printer. And to TOP this off, they say my printer is no longer under warranty. So I’m SOL. They will sell me a new Kodak printer at 30% off! WHY WOULD I WANT ANOTHER KODAK after my issues and after reading about all of these???

I have been using the Canon printers for years with the OEM cartridges. The new Canon printer doesn’t work with the OEM cartridges any more and the Canon cartridges cost a lot. The HP, Canon, Epson cartridges are all very expensive.

I bought the ESP3 from Walmart t three months. The ink cartridges cost a lot less than all others, $25 for two. I have been very happy with this printer so far.

I have owned both the Kodak 5300 and the ESP 9 over the last three years. I have not had any print head problems or any issues a firmware update or printer driver did not fix. I see that Best Buy has a promotion this week if you turn-in your old printer you get $50.00 off a new printer. I told my brother about the new ESP 5250 printer, it has wireless now for a lower cost.

With the sale at Best Buy and the $50.00 printer trade-in it bring the wireless printer down to $84.88, so with the cheap ink, it will be payed for in 9 months of operation.

I love my Kodak printers, my dad is still using the old white kodak that I gave him when i got my ESP 9, and it is still humming along without any problems.

I have a kodak esp3 printer and regardless of the computer i hook it up to, it is not recognized. i do not even think i’ve had it for a year. been looking to see if i am still under warranty. i want my money back!!

Thanks everyone, I will not be able sleep tonight after reading these stories. Have had ESP 3 for two months. I keep power on to avoid hearing the Kodak calliope. Sounds like its going to self destruct. Out of curiosity I emailed Kodak last week and asked how much and where I could buy a new print head just in case I ever needed one. They said “printer heads are not for sale, this hardware component is given free of cost for our customers printers.” Hope I do not need one!

The ink is cheap, THE QUALITY SUCKS!!
I bought an ESP-9 because my HP printer’s scanner quit working in Vista after SP1. The Kodak’s scanner works well but everything else is CRAP. Poor print quality and will not even print a web page. Vista SUCKS too.

I bought a Kodak ESP9; right off the bat there is no manual. I put it together, and tried to print out a picture. I had to check its quality, since ink is so cheap. I couldn’t print it and got an error 1000. Okay I called tech support, and honest to God I spoke with two regular tech’s and finally wound up with one of the Supervisors. Only one of the three I could understand well enough. I was told to download a newer software off their site and did all that was required, and tried to print a picture, and it still gave me the same error. We did the ole unplug everything and kick it back on. We rebooted I don’t know how many times? Even the Supervisor came in and took over my computer trying to fix the problem. Some six plus (6+) hours later he signs off telling me he is going to give the files he copied to the Engineer. That was on Friday 10/01 because it was the weekend I had to wait for Monday to come around, and I receive an E-mail asking if I would be available on Monday the 5th and I responded that they could. Here it is Tuesday the 6th and haven’t heard from anyone yet. Over the weekend I discovered that I got some other errors. Such as “Printer doesn’t recognize ink cartridges” Papers edge not found, wouldn’t accept card stock, nor could I print business cards. It took numerous tries’ and on pure white card stock before would it accept to print business cards. I can’t figure out how to lighten the light or darkness of a document being copied or scanned. If it is printed front & back. The light on the scanner is such that it will bleed through and I get a revered copy of what is on the side that is not being copied, and it prints crooked and really slow. I haven’t had near the problems that I have read other people having with tech support, but I am only a newbie to this. NOPE if you ask me DON’T ANYONE BUY A KODAK ESP9~~ Dirty Words~~ NUFF SAID!

They’re crap! I bought one less than a month ago, and it’s total crap. Poor color quality on plain paper, better on photo paper, but still CRAP. Not enough options or settings to adjust things. Used up the ink in three weeks as opposed to 3 to 4 months with my HP printer I have had for YEARS with no problems. I’ll learn to stay away from anything that is NOT HP. Don’t buy Kodak printers at all.

I have had a Kodak 5500 All-in-one for two years now. I have a replacement machine because the first one went through 4 printheads with no end is sight. Kodak replaced it with no hassle.

My replacement machine just went through it’s first printhead replacement. Kodak Overnighted a replacement to me.

I don’t think it uses any more ink than HP. In fact, I had two HP’s before this and I got sick and tired of paying $50 to replace the ink cartridges. Having 3 different HP printers and all 3 taking “different” cartridges, to me, was an example of corporate greed.

My replacement Kodak printer gives me good image quality and seems to work well. Although, scanning is a bit dicey and can be a real pain in the you-know-what.

Kodak support is OK as long as the person speaks English. And, not all do (or do it well enough to understand).

However, if I have to go though another printhead replacement, I will most likely look for another brand of printer.

This printer makes me miss my HP 1210v — too bad HP doesn’t make it anymore, i hate the 1410v, which is why I got a kodak a couple of weeks ago. but I’m really unhappy with it. I called customer service due to issues of print quality (the reds are always messed up, except when printing photos), all of the colors seem kind of washed out, but especially the red. when printing color documents, even the black seems more like grey.

If I could find my receipt from Walmart, i’d send it back to the company. looks like i’ll probably sell it on craigslist or something.
I’m a college student and liked the idea of cheaper ink for when i have projects to print, but I would feel horrible turning in anything with this horrible quality of prints. The HP ink was pretty expensive and my 1410 seemed to use it up in a month, but so far i haven’t been able to use anything i’ve printed with the kodak except for black and white documents. what a waste.

I called customer service about it, which is of course NOT based in america, so the guy could barely understand me, and they blamed the quality issue on my printer being low on ink. so, like a dork, i replaced the cartridges and — wouldn’t you know it, SAME CRAPPY COLORS!

i was really prepared to love this printer, because i loved my kodak easy share camera that finally gave out after 4 years of constant use, travelling, dropping, etc. it only gave out because i unknowingly smashed it in a bag while camping. i thought the printer would be on par with the quality of the cameras, but it doesn’t seem to be so. really unhappy.

when i came here and read the reviews, i saw other posts with the same complaints as me — bad reds, weird issues with it, print head issues (i already replaced the print head once and i’ve had this thing for 2, maybe 3 weeks!) so atleast i know it’s not JUST ME. it’s not just how im doing things, it’s not JUST my printer, it seems to be a big problem, and hopefully kodak will fix it in the future.

Hi Pam,
If you paid by credit card I would see if Walmart can track down the purchase so you can take the printer back.

Pam -what type of paper are you printing on when you get the poor color quality? It makes a difference. Have you tried Kodak paper or anything with the Color-Lok logo?

The ink is cheap, but you have to buy it often, and even if you rarely print in color, you have to install color cartridges often as well. That’s because it uses color at every start up. When the color ink runs low, it simply shuts down and does not let you print. Even if you are only printing black text. Looking elsewhere now.

I bought my printer back in Feb. The printing quality is good, Their advertisement is that the cartliages are cheap and that is true, but there isn not much in in them and they run out fast. I use my printer for my college assignemnts and use mainly black ink, it still uses the colored ink even when it is not to supposed to be used. I’m going to pull my HP back out, I’m glad I kept it.

I hate my Kodak ESP3 printer. Nothing but trouble. I can’t even figure out how to scan on it. The directions are horrible, and I can’t find anyone at the call center who I can even understand.

I have a Kodak ESP 5, it’s junk, what can I say. Nothing but trouble with it. The printhead was bad right out of the box. It uses ink more than any printer I ever seen. It doesn’t print in black & white at all right now, even after cleaning the printhead.
Please don’t buy this printer. Read the reviews & believe. Don’t b like me & buy this piece of junk. I’m out of over a 100 bucks!

I bought an ESP 7 at the beginning of the year!! I hate this printer, it has been nothing but trouble from day one!! Just had a replacement sent to me and now it is not working, Kodak had done a very poor job with their ESP printers. Ink may be inexpensive, but I would rather pay for the ink and a great printer and not have the headaches I have had with this printer. Can anyone give me tell me a good printer to get. I want to be able to print out my pictures 1st time around and not want to throw the printer out the window when I hit print and a blank photo comes out.

I bought and ESP 3, guys that is a piece of crap. It is noisy, slow and the worst thing is that the paper jams and it is very difficult to take it out. The color is not good at all, do yourself a favor and buy something else. Believe me, I am gonna throw it away.

I’ved owned a Kodak ESP7 for just under a year, with no issues. I print extensively without any difficulty. I have compared my prints to higher end laser printers( hp. etc) to which my printer seems to surpass in color. The only disappointment I have thusfar is the inability to make larger size prints.

Easyshare 5500, should be called Easyshite5500, Peice of crap, takes ages to do anything, noisy noisy noisy, printing is absolutaley shit in black and white, colour is a joke, prints half a photo then goes all liney, tried new cartridges and deep clean whatever, still shit, gonna throw it away and go back to HP

Oh yea forgot to mention the paper jams and total inability to pickup a bloody envelope.

I have owned the Kodak ESP-3 AiO for one year now and have been extremely disappointed in the reliability. I guess I was expecting it to last longer than one year. I am going to get a new printer and pay MORE money just for a better quality product. I have never printed photos that were clear. They appear grainy and the color quality is terrible. Colors are never true. I cannot get a good color photo now at all. I would NEVER recommend this printer to anyone. I think they compare to the Lexmark brand. I will go back to Cannon or the HP anyday! The ink might cost less but you do NOT get very much print life from them at all. Very disappointed in this printer.

I have experienced most of the problems dealing with connectivity of the Kodak ESP-3 in the last two weeks.
I have owned the printer for 7 months.

You ask “What Do You Think?”…….I think it is time for a class action lawsuit.
RWG

I have the 5300. Can’t recommend this Kodak printer. The Internet is littered with complaints about Kodak printers. Mine can’t print large areas of solid color without banding. The print head clogs easily and either has to be replaced or soaked in rubbing alcohol frequently. Yes, the ink is moderately priced, but this thing goes through ink like a bandit. Save your money and buy something else. Kodak should be ashamed, but I assume that they are fighting for their lives since film died.

Well, I sure am glad I read this.

I just finished fixing up an older Mac G4 tower for my 80 YO Mother In law. new GD and memory. Still a good machine.

Her PC computer has been dead for a while so I am betting her canon printer has ink kicked in the heads as well.

I was thinking a Kodak. Oh Heck No…. Not after reading this……… She is 6 hours from me. No way am I getting into that!

HP for her. At least that way the head comes with the cartridge.

Bought the Kodak all in one last year after the big TV blitz. Not too bad for awhile despite various problems installing the software and maintaining contact with it on the wireless network in the house. That didn’t last long. Ink and paper consumption is extremely high due to using ink primarily to clean the print heads and paper to ascertain that the head cleaning was unsuccessful but only after a 14 page job that in which 12 pages were unsuccessful. The only thing that saves the consumables is the fact that if we have to print anything important; we use a different printer.