Epson Workforce Pro WF-7820 Wireless Printer

First off, Amazon delivery person did not follow my specified delivery instructions. Next, it was not covered, and it was raining today. The paper tray is not working at all. I’m convinced the unit is defective. I’m having a very hard time resolving the issue. It keeps saying insert cassette correctly. There are only so many ways to do this. I’ve done them all. It’s defective. Now I need to go to more trouble than the product is worth to get it fixed!!!
I must edit and add to my initial complaint; the paper tray still doesn’t work properly. I decided to keep the printer even though Amazon is sending me another one. It is a very nice all-in-one machine. Everything else works and I got done what I needed to do on 11 x 17 sheets using the rear feed mechanism. It prints an exact duplicate! I almost can’t tell the difference. I think the problem with the paper cassette is not the printer but my paper stock instead. I was using HP 11 x 17 copy paper which may be heavier than others in which case my paper settings are set wrong. I don’t think it’s this machine.

This WF-7820 is a good quality All-in-One wide-format printer and it definitely worth to buy. Wireless setup method is a bit out dated by using the factory downloaded installation software. It doesn’t provide you with any option to choose, you end-up required to keep installing a few times but the printer was still not being recognized within your wireless network. Finally I have to disable all the anti-virus defender within my system, then the WF-7820 shown up in the network. Otherwise it really worth the money.

Lets start with the good. I needed an 11×17 scanner, that scans both sides, and has a decent size automatic feeder. I bought it, ran 3000 pages through the scanner. It jammed 3 times. All seemed to be false jams,, I could hit reset and the software recovered. This took around 2-3 hours. At one point I got side tracked reading one of the manuals, If you wait too long(or use a lot of memory opening PDFs), the scanning App will fail to save the scans, it will say something about being out of memory on the windows 11 epson smart scan app. This means that it is best to divide the scanning up into sections/chapters. Just use a PDF merger software afterward. I would not Scan in 3000 pages using the + scan more feature. You get an hour in and the software can crash.

This is all good, because I bought a Cheap HP printer, and it literally did not have the software capability to scan a stack of papers, flip it over and scan the other side. It literally wanted me to scan 10 pages, scan another 10 pages, and then have me manually drag and drop the second half of scans into the proper orientation… manually… I got around 100 pages in before I decided to buy this printer. As far as a proper automatic feeder, and the software required to drop pages into a feeder, scan, and save without hours of manual BS…. Even with the above issues I had, The workforce was a good buy.

Now for the bad. Do you see all the reviews complaining about Ink and it only runs 20 pages lol. So I set this printer up today, I run through the setup, and everything is fine. I go and hit the firmware update button, The firmware update, threw an error on the printer. The error explains that the ink cartridges are the original ones with the machine, that they are for limited testing only, and you have to buy ink. The firmware update also greyed out the previously working ink levels on the display after the update.

This means on a 300 dollar purchase, it comes shipped with an error that you are out of ink. I’m pretty sure this is the response to the poor reviews on the device. Their fix, was to add a firmware update, to tell you, you need to spend 60 dollars on vendor locked ink. This makes the True cost of the printer 360 dollars. I’ve been purchasing printers since the 90s. Ink comes with it, these are not “batteries not included” devices. Quit your BS please.

Now On the second note, You should NEVER EVER EVER update the firmware on this device unless windows 12 comes out or something, and the driver will make it work with a new PC or something. You are ALLOWING them to vendor lock the ink cartridges by updating this printer. The Ink cartridge competition will figure out how to bypass the vendor lock. When you type in the Ink name, vendors will say “new updated cartridges guaranteed to work yada yada” Then Epson will figure them out, and update your firmware to lock the machine YOU OWN, with an update that costs you money.

Lastly, If you got this far. People are complaining in the comments that “the ink is expensive but I have to run my business” For the love of god, if you are using black and white prints, you should be buying a laser printer and toner cartridges! Inkjets are mainly for color prints. If you are printing stuff in monochrome, 30 bucks prints 1200 pages on a laser printer’s toner cartridge.

I never planned on using the printer on this device, its a backup for my laser printer, and I needed a good scanner. I’m really irritated this thing comes shipped with a giant orange fault light, that I can’t clear, and a nag screen telling me to buy ink. Don’t be cheap. I didn’t buy cheap. I got cheap. Send the stupid printer with ink.

Multi use printer does a great job printing, scanning and copying. Haven’t used fax. Easy setup as wireless so assume corded would be the same. Prints photos and documents very well. Two sided a breeze even up to 11×17. So far ink use better than expected and cartridges aren’t too expensive.

I had a WF 4530 that I bought over 10 years ago – that printer was a tank and the ability to scan was HUGE. That printer recently died on me – over a decade with inkjet – with no issues despite long stretches of no use – I can’t complain one bit.

I bought the 7820 WF – it’s an upgrade in every aspect. Quiet. Fast. Great print quality. Edge to edge printing. Wide format (if/when I need it). I’ve added a photo to the review of a printout I did using HP photo paper (4×6) to give you an idea of the quality – for home printed inkjet it’s (IMO) top of the scale.

One note: Don’t use windows 10 or windows 11 drivers – download and install the drivers from Epson – they give you scan to pdf, scan to your computer, and the printout resolution from the windows drivers is horrible – the epson drivers are really needed.