Stylus CX6000

Epson Stylus CX6000 – Not bad…

Continuous inking system (CIS) for the CX6000.

CIS in action:

Not horrible – still a decent photo printer. 4 color printer.  Has a 2 inch LCD screen can easily be used as a  stand-alone, nice set of memory card readers, solid build, and built-in scanner.  Not a bad little printer, but the ink cartridges are going to drive you nuts.  This printer ships with the smaller capacity T069 series ink cartridges.  Can use either the T069, or T68 series of cartridges.

Cartridges:

The Epson Stylus CX6000 is a victim of Epson’s dual cartridge marketing strategy.  They sell two of the same exact cartridge, but one is full of ink, and the other is only half full.  So you pay $18.00 for the full cartridges and this printer can get expensive fast.  More about the cartridges here.

T069 series “standard capacity” 7ml – 250 pages:

• T069120 – Black
• T069220 – Cyan
• T069320 – Magenta
• T069420 – Yellow

T068 “high capacity” series 11ml – 400 pages:

• T068120 – Black
• T068220 – Cyan
• T068320 – Magenta
• T068420 – Yellow

You can mix and match the T069/T068 cartridges. If you print more than 100 pages per month, check out a CI system for this printer. Cartridges will run you on average $15.00 each for about 200-250 pages.  That is an expensive page count.  CI systems print upwards of 3,000 pages on first use, and make printing costs less than a penny per page (less paper).  Reset the system when ink “runs out” seamlessly. 5k page refills available.

Standard print head – there are many Epson printers that use the T69/T68 series inkjet cartridges.

Overall, not a bad choice – but it will print slower (per page average)  than the newer offerings like the Artisan, and Workforce series.

Highlights:

• 4-color printing
• Decent speed, not great:
  • 1 minute 4 x6 inch prints, 6 page per minute color document printer.
• Scanner is only 1200dpi optical 48-bit color
• 2 inch LCD display nice for stand alone operation
• Handles all types of paper, nice aesthetics.
• Memory card readers
• Nice software bundle, not a lot of trial stuff.

Important to note that this was one of the last compatible cartridge series that could be shipped into the USA from China.  All Epson cartridges have to be re-manufactured in US now.  Could be why it’s hard to get cartridges all of the sudden.