Anyone using Epson WorkForce Enterprise printers?
Posted by Mvalpreda@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 14 comments
We have about \~30 Ricoh devices under contract across our 3x sites through Ricoh direct. Finance was contacted by either Epson direct or a reseller/leasing company and I'm sure told them how much money they would save them. I was shocked they have units that do up to 100ppm that are inkjet.
Have a demo at an Epson show room later this week and we're going to bring some files with what our designers print, paper we use, etc.
Curious if anyone has Epson WorkForce Enterprise printers in their environment and what they think of them.
Thanks!
Nexzus_@reddit
As an aside, it's 2026. What the fuck are we still printing for? Whatever happened to that "paperless office"?
/Rhetorical.
RedShift9@reddit
That and PDF editors. However I'm at the point in my career where I just don't care anymore about these things. Some people want to work that way, they just don't care about things like the degredation of quality when you print something, sign it and then scan it again. Or manually having to copy things over (one of our receptionists is now literally keeping busy copying data from a PDF file to a spreadsheet by typing it over). If that's how people want to spend their professional lives, who am I to judge.
Affectionate-Cat-975@reddit
If the cost per click for BW/Color isn't in alignment you will get HOSED regardless of speed. And how often are people printing so much paper that you need 100 ppm? Really? Last time I had to manage that was in the 90s at a casino when we would run the monthly financials, and then we had special printers to handle the volume
Mvalpreda@reddit (OP)
Not saying we need 100ppm, just that I was shocked that inkjet can output that fast now. I have not looked at an inkjet printer for ages....and certainly not enterprise inkjet!
byteMeAdmin@reddit
Inject printers are never a good idea in an enterprise settings. The cost per page is always higher and nozzle clogs will plague your users who don't print often.
Mvalpreda@reddit (OP)
As someone who abandoned inkjet printers at home years ago....I agree 100%. Every time I would go to print I would have to clean/unclog/whatever and waste time/ink/etc. for something simple.
These would be department printers, so they will be used all the time and I would like to think that something this size would have a way to prevent clogs!
iPlayKeys@reddit
Commercial inkjet printers are a different beast entirely. If you want to see something really fun, check out Riso inkjets. The Riso machines are production machines (as opposed to the Epson being office machines). The Riso’s can print in full color up to 160 ppm!
RedShift9@reddit
We have an Epson EM-C8100 under lease and it works fine. Fast prints, no toner smell, fraction of the energy cost. Device has been trouble free for over a year, never had to clean the nozzles. Before that we had an WF-C878 (also under lease), had it for 5 years and only had to clean the nozzles once.
The printer in question does about 500 prints a month, half b/w half full color.
Overall happy with it, our 3 Canon lasers have needed more attention than the one Epson inkjet we have. Though I wouldn't use an inkjet in places where it will only be used sporadically.
Mvalpreda@reddit (OP)
Thanks for the sharing your experience. I think we're looking at something a bit larger, but good to know. Our Ricohs can be touchy sometimes, especially those with finishers.
iPlayKeys@reddit
I had one of the Epson Enterprise printers installed at my last work place. It was the 100 ppm color model and printed about 20K pages per month. My experience was similar to /r/redshift9. Two years without any trouble. I changed one set of drawer rollers.
By the time I left there, we only had two laser machines left and while they were some of our lowest volume printers, they required far more service…as in they required service, whereas the inkjet machines didn’t.
RedShift9@reddit
You have an entire fleet, you don't need to replace all of them. Put up a couple and see what it's like. Haven't regretted my choice.
Stonewalled9999@reddit
HP tried the same crap with us. Those 100PPM inkjets when you read the fine print were like 3500 pages monthly duty cycle (11 cents a page). My 350,000 duty cycle Toshiba 1.8 cent a page) farts in their general direction
ender-_@reddit
Client bought two HP PageWide Color 556 a few years ago. These are "only" 50 PPM A4, and one died about a year ago, but the other one's still being used, currently at 316327 pages printed. Per-page cost is a bit higher than Kyocera lasers, but they bought these printers specifically to print some forms that are then folded and glued together (the glue was melting in laser printers and causing problems, despite being supposedly safe for that).
Mvalpreda@reddit (OP)
Didn't think of the duty cycle. They are saying 'Recommended MPV of 4,000 to 30,000 pages' for one of the 'bigger' (AM-C6000) 11x17/A3 devices. The biggest one (WF-C21000) does say 'up to 100,000-page recommended monthly print volume'