Epson WorkForce 600 All-in-One Printer Review
Manufacturer: Epson
Product Name: Epson WorkForce 600 All-in-One Printer
Review Date: 09/19/08
Author:
In my time as a reviewer I’ve gotten many products for review and I’ve found that quite bit of them don’t live up to their marketing hype, it’s not that they’re bad products it’s more the expectations are very high with some. The product I’ve got for review today though lives up to and exceeds the hype, it’s an all around great product with virtually no flaws to be found.
On the review block today is the Epson WorkForce 600 All-in-One Printer, and as soon as you open the box you’ll be impressed by this printer. My wife, who normally couldn’t care about the stuff I get for review, was thoroughly impressed by this printer, so that’s saying something right there. Anyway, the WorkForce 600 just looks great, even without powering it on you can just see that this thing means business, but yet look stylish enough to fit in your home. After all, the WorkForce 600 is meant for small and home businesses, so it’s made to be a work horse and that it is. The 600 includes some great features like WiFi capabilities, laser quality printing, fast printing speeds, built-in memory card reader, and even an LCD to preview your pictures and operate the 600 easily.
It’s just an excellent choice if you’re in the market for an all-in-one printer, personally I like these types as then you don’t have to have separate devices for all the things you need to do…
The box is huge and heavy, when the FedEx guy delivered it I heard a big thump on my porch, and I was like ‘what was that?’. Of course there are several pictures along with specs and features listed on the box. The printer itself is packaged very well with styrofoam padding, wrapped in a plastic bag and more plastic covering the surface of the printer to protect it even more during shipping.
There’s a bit of stuff included with the WorkForce 600 including ethernet cable, power cable, driver/software disc, user manuals, sample paper, phone cable and of course the printer cartridges. No USB cable though, but that’s common nowadays for printers not to include one.. I’ve always wondered why they don’t include USB cables, I mean they’re cheap…
The housing of the WorkForce 600 is plastic as is expected, most of it shiny, and overall the look is classy but yet subtle, it should fit in with any decor.
The main interface of the WorkForce 600 in on the front panel, here you’ll find all of your function buttons and even a color LCD panel to make navigation, operation and even editing your photos easy. Off the the far left of the panel is the card reader and USB port as well, I found that the card reader doubles as a storage device for the printer as well. You can scan documents, save them to a memory card or USB drive and then just transfer them to your computer, no need to use any software to scan documents anymore, a very nice feature indeed.
The top is the automatic document feeder that can hold up to 30 pages for faxing or scanning multiple documents. Under that is a flat bed scanner that can be used for scanning or as a standard copier, under the scanner is where the ink cartridges go.
The paper goes into the back of the WorkForce 600, it can be adjusted to fit several sizes of paper and even envelopes.
The finished prints come out the front and land on the collapsible paper tray.
In the back of the untit we find the main power connection, ethernet jack, USB connection and telephone jack.
Specifications:
Epson WorkForce 600 All-in-One Printer Model: C11CA18201 MSRP: $199.99 Overview: * 5-in-1 — Print, Copy, Scan, Fax, Photo, Wi-Fi Show the world what your business is made of with WorkForce, Epson’s new line of printers and all-in-ones, engineered for the small business and home office. Get laser quality output at laser fast speeds for prints that make you look your best. Make your business look its best with brilliant color output from the Epson WorkForce 600 all-in-one. Why waste money on a laser printer when you can get so much more for less, including the ability to wirelessly print and archive critical documents, or fax stacks of originals in seconds. Because time is money, the WorkForce 600 races through every task. In fact, it’s about two times faster printing documents than leading competitive models. And, it uses up to three times less energy than a laser printer. Fast, affordable and built to grow with your business, the WorkForce 600 does it all, so you can focus on the business at hand. Features & Benefits: Above is just the basic specs and features listed, you can stop over HERE and visit the full listing on the Epson site.
* Draft speeds up to 38 ppm (black and color)
* Laser quality documents about 2x faster
* Wi-Fi and Ethernet networking built in
* Extra High-capacity Black ink
* 2-year limited warranty with registration
* Smudge, fade, water resistant, highlighter friendly
* Uses up to 3x less power than a laser printer
* Fax and 30-page ADF
* Built-in memory card slots and 2.5-inch LCD
* Boost your productivity — Fast draft and copy speeds — up to 38 ppm (black and color)
* Get speed without sacrificing quality — Laser quality documents at about 2x the speed of competitive ink jet printers1
* Easily network within your workgroup — Built-in Wi-Fi and Ethernet networking
* Print more, change cartridges less often — High-capacity Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow ink cartridges; Extra High-capacity Black also available
* Protect important documents — Smudge, fade and water resistant, highlighter friendly documents rival those from a laser printer and photos rival those from the lab
* Send faxes fast, even in color — Fax in as fast as 3 sec per page; store up to 60 speed dials and receive up to 180 pages in memory; also faxes legal size
* Print photos without a computer — Built-in memory card slots, PictBridge and 2.5-inch LCD
* Make quick color copies and enlargements — One-touch copying with high quality scanning; reduce and enlarge 25 to 400 percent
* Do more with useful software included — OCR and creativity software to create flyers, brochures, calendars and more
* Save energy — Uses up to 3x less power than a laser printer
* Save paper — Built-in double-sided printing1
* Do more in less time — Copy, scan or fax stacks of documents with built-in, 30-page ADF
* Get product protection you can count on — Epson Preferred program with 2-year limited warranty and 2-year toll- free support, with registration, plus quick product exchange
Included with the printer is also ABBYY Fine Reader OCR, and ArcSoft Print Creations software, along with Epsons own utilities and programs.
The WorkForce 600 is very easy to setup, since I’ve got wireless I opted for the WiFi installation. You need to hook the ethernet cable up to your router, then follow the instructions to install everything, then you just unplug the ethernet cable and your wireless! Setup in total took about 30 minutes, which is about average for most printers. I also connected the printer to my wifes computer as well, when you put in the disk it gives you an option to start the install for a second computer, that setup is even faster and it’s easy as well.
Using the printer is very easy with the LCD screen and navigation buttons, there is a shortcut button on well located the left of the screen to easily access the most commonly used features quickly.
The menu choices are Fax, Copy, Photo, Scan, Backup Data, Print Ruled Papers, Setup and Problem Solver.
and yes you read that correctly there is a Data Backup function in the WorkForce 600, you can backup whatever is on your memory cards to a USB drive. Also you may have noticed the Print Ruled Papers choice, I think that’s rather cool, you can print lined or even graph paper in various sizes..
There’s also a very cool greeting card feature, you pick a picture, print a template, fill out the template and then re-scan it, the WorkForce 600 will understand your choices and print out your cards. Here’s the template, then filled out, then the actual cards, clicking on these picture will take you to hi-res views at 1587×2187 resolution.
Actual printing is just excellent, they were not exaggerating when they say laser quality, the print quality is truly laser quality. It just so happened that my wife had a project for school were she had to print up 15 booklets for the class for a presentation, in total it was about 90 pages. The quality was excellent all around, and they printed fast even with pictures on them.
Regular pictures printed very nice as well using photo paper, they look just like something you would get at a photo lab, my wife was very impressed by them, and it takes a bit to impress her… she still uses a film camera and send her pictures out to be developed because she doesn’t like how the pictures look when they are printed at home with our other ‘photo printers’, but with the Epson she was impressed by the quality of the pictures. One thing she said immediately was ‘no dots!’ which of course she means pixels, but with our HP Photosmart and Brother Photo printers if you look closely you can see the dots, with the Epson you can’t…
Faxing is fast, and it’s nice that you can put up to 30 pages in there, when you’re done you can even print out a report of the things that were faxed if need be.
This thing can do pretty much anything you want it to, it truly is an all-in-on printer.
The only possible gripe I could have is that there is no handset to talk through, my previous all-in-on had the handset and I guess I’m just very accustomed to using it as a phone, but of course you can hook up a phone to the WorkForce 600 and use it that way.
I could just go on and on about this printer, but trust me, it’s an excellent choice if this is the type of product that you need.
Honestly, try as I might I can’t really find any faults with this printer… for the price it’s perfect! I’ve done everything possible with this printer and it has done it all perfectly and flawlessly
For more information about the WorkForce 600 click here.
More Images:
Conclusion:
As I mentioned I tried to find something wrong with the Epson WorkForce 600, but I couldn’t, it does everything exactly the way it’s supposed to and it does it with quality and efficiency.
If you’re in the market for an All-in-one printer then be sure to check out the WorkForce 600, you’ll be very happy you did.
Coming in at around $200 it’s well worth it, I can easily see this thing costing more really, it performs and has the features of products much more expensive than itself.
Pros:
-Fast printing
-Excellent quality printing both text and pictures
-Wireless network capable
-Easy to use
-Easy to setup
-Numerous great features
-Low price
Cons:
-Large and heavy
-No handset
Grades:
Overall: 
Design:
Performance: 
I bought this printer about a year ago…the first time. After about 6 months the paper jam alert came on despite there being no paper jam to be found. After talking with support, I had to pay for a new printer to be shipped, then return ship the purchased printer and wait for a refund. It was inconvenient to say the least. Now about another 6 months later, guess what? That’s right! Paper jam alert! Really! This is ridiculous! If its a bug, they need to get it worked out and allow customers to plug and log in to download the patch if its a hardware issue, these printers ought to be recalled. Obviously it is recurring and obviously they know it is an issue. Allowing or making paying customers to repeatedly go through this process until the warranty is expired is a lesson in bad faith business ethics, even if the printer was under $200.00. I also have not noted this printer to print any better photographs than any non-specialty-photo printer I’ve used in the past. I’d rather pay a little more than have to be without a printer for a week every 6 months and have another -$200.00 on hold from funds for two weeks every 6 months. I don’t care what people say about, well for a printer to work for 6 mos or for a year for $150.00 isn’t bad…that’s ridiculous! I’m tired of this disposable society that’s been trained to be happy to replace everything after a year and be happy about it; accepting this is accepting a waste of our money and resources while creating a unconscionable amount of waste and pollution!
Our company purchased this printer almost a year ago. It started out being a great printer but it started saying that there was a paper jam that was within the first 3 months. Epson sent out another printer free of charge. Within in a week it did the same thing. Again they sent out another printer. It is apparent that this printer has a flaw and needs to be corrected. We have had the same on going problem ever since we bought this printer. We have spent more time playing with this machine then using it. Apparently there is a problem with the jamming. Either companies and or individuals purchasing this piece of equipment should be compensated for all there problems. We have a older model Epson printer and it works better then the new one.
It’s great and inexspensive too
I don’t know what to tell you guys about the paper jamming, I’ve never had any jams yet and I’ve been using it almost everyday for over a year now… as for the ink, well I always have spare cartridges so it’s not an issue to me if one runs out, I just put a new one in..
I,m using a epson workforce600 and i loved it until yesterday when I want to print a picture on photo paper…..the sheet simply does’nt get in to be printed. But, if I use plain white paper it prints.
Do you have a solution
We have had our Epson Workforce 600 for about a year now, and it’s Christmas time and I always do a LARGE printing job for my family – individualized calendars with lots of pictures including face pictures on the date of aperson’s birthday.
I usually do about 20 of these (that’s 13 sheets on two sides or 26 sides) It takes a lot of ink…but this is the first year I’ve used the Workforce – it has been a disaster. The ink at Office Max runs about $60 for all four colors; I went through the four cartridges in less then 4 calendars. I talked with Epson; the tech people were very nice and since my machine was less than a year old, they sent me another . I ran off 6 pages and I’m out of Magenta…and now the machine will not recognize the Epson Magenta I just put in.
I have used Epsons for years – because they are economical – in ink usage. Until this machine. Original cost is great – looks are great – but it’s draining my pocketbook fast.
I am completely disgusted with this product. Un ending paper jams and guess what, no paper is in it. I can not even turn off the stupid maching with the off button, I have to unplug it!!!!!!! I want my money back. I get no help from the people at tech support
and the ink that I order directly from epsom cost more than office max. I pay $75.00 for it. I run a small business out of my home and MUST HAVE a printer that works at least 35% of the time.
Now the machine is making a terrible noise.
My husband recommends printers for his company, which is currently listed in the top 100, Guess what, they will no longer purchase any EPSON products, simply because of the trash they are peddling.
The person that wrote such a glowing review must be on their payroll, because, I’m not finding this bit of trash effective or useful in any way.
If any of you want a GOOD WORKING PRINTER, do what I’m going to do,, GO BACK TO HP, THEY WORK AND GIVE GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE.
epson has cause me to default on two customer and I am certainly upset.
I know everyone complains about printer ink, but I am figuring that I am getting a max of 100 sheets (of non-ink intensive content, no photos) before I have to change out all my cartridges. What is even more frusterating is the unit won’t even let you print once it thinks it is out of ink, even if your in the middle of priniting a 3 page document. Page 1, page 2, then it stops tells you need to change the cartridge. Good times when your in a hurry.
Well i have a work force 600and the only reason i bought it was the review it had . was just what i was looking for.low ink uses. but guess what takes a lot of ink. im on my 2nd one. what happens to me is it just stops printing black. change ink and same thing no black in printing. so there goin to send me the 3rd one..i have a xerox for 10 years and no problem at all.. updated to a newer type printer . looks like im going to have to go back and use my xerox. at least i get 5000 copys befor i have to get ink.. and then it cost me only 26.00 for it .. epson cost me at least 60.00 for one reem of paper in black only that is not good. i will probley just take the new printer they send me this time .and give it away to some one that dont print more than 5 copys a week and may be they will get at least 6 mo.use from it befor they throw it away.. i have used epson for a long time in the last 20 yrs. i have plotters with no problem at all..i will still use some epson. no more all in one ..
I have been through 3 of the workforce 600, first one failed and while waiting for service (which is the worst I have ever experianced) we picked up a 2nd one. Epson replaced the original one with a refurbished one. None of these printers worked more than a few weeks, started not printing, paper jaams every time and everything comes out red, tons of ink usage, and we don’t use them a lot. I would not reccomend this printer.
I almost bought this printer based on good reviews from editor’s and from a price point. But, after reading blog after blog about the experiences from people who actually use the product (for a long period of time), I’m siding with the trenches. I’m going to look for another printer. Sorry for your loss everyone, but you’ve saved this soul
We have two of these printer because we seen the good review. The review are wrong. We have had these printers for 6 weeks and the stopped working. We can printer or copy. When we send it to printer it prints a blank page. We pick in new cartridge it still did not print. Espon is send us new one we will see if they work. If not I am go to ask for my money back and go back HP or Xerox. My Xerox print is great no problem.
I don’t know what to say.. I’ve had the 600 for well over a year a now, I use it almost once per day for something or other and never had one issue with it… Now I also have the 610, for a couple months, and I’ve had no issues with that one either…
It’s horrible printing pictures. Lines across the photo’s. I too bought based on reading reviews. Good for basic printing but NOT FOR PHOTO’S
Well I finally figured out the PHOTO lines. Never before on any printer have I had to circum around for this option. OK. I went to My Computer, opened printer and the Epson Workforce icon. Select PROPERTIES . Select PRINTING OPTIONS. Ypu will see Quality OPTIONS ( Draft-Text-PHOTO). SELECT PHOTO. It instructs you to choose the printing paper you will be using. Did all this and FINALLY , prints without lines.
I bought the printer about 10 mos ago … thought it was great at first, but now, not so much. When I purchased it, I specifically asked if it would take cardstock – very lightweight cardstock, and was told that it would. But, I can’t get it to take any!! Just keeps trying to “pull” paper in but does not go forward. Now, the latest problem, the colors are not printing true. It looks like, judging by the printed piece, that maybe one color is out, either blue, or maybe black. But when I check ink levels, it shows all are good. I can’t figure out how to fix this!
Geez, wish I’d read some of this first. I might have bought an Artisan, but then isn’t it all in the timing. It seems to be challenged with beefy semi-gloss paper (270 GSM – MOAB Lasal Photo Luster) and the head seems to hit the lower right hand corner of the paper as the image identification info is printed and the sheet is about to be ejected, leaving a mess behind. This was not an issue when it was new. It may be simply that I didn’t get the black smudges I now get because the sponges were not saturated.
Using inexpensive glossy photo paper (210 GSM) does not exhibit any issues. Cleaning the printer addressed streaking issues (open the printer and clean the sponges too!). My print quality on this paper is good, and I’m on about my 4th set of cartridges (I figure 2000+ photos), so cartridge life is as expected.
Complaints:
1. the sponges are fairly important and are not readily user serviceable.
2. doesn’t seem to handle heavier 4×6 photo papers well
Comments:
1. it is relatively cheap – The printer came free if you bought the cartridges (sort of)
2. contrary to common belief, they were actually high capacity cartridges and had good life
3. I was after a networked/WiFi printer/multi-page scanner/fax – it works well for that
***
I may replace it with an Artisan (a) when they are on sale, and (b) when my cartridges are low. Questions regarding ths:
1. Does the Artisan 800/810 have a better paper path or is it the same?
2. Do any of these undestand ICC codes, … Is the Artisan the same as a or close to Stylus 1400?
I CAN’T FAX ANYTHING IN COLOR, ANY HELP.
Bought this printer new….It was challenging to set up and never would work wireless, the ink is costly. It prints pretty well, but one year to the month it stopped printing black ink. I cleaned the heads numerous times, replaced the half empty cartridge with a new one, still no black print. Customer service was incredibly hard to understand due to their accent, they asked 20 minutes worth of questions before offering that we send it back in original box. (which I don’t have anymore) to be fixed or a new one sent. We decided to get another HP instead. Much easier to set up and has some more practical functions, like auto saving faxes to a folder on your computer. I would not recommend this Epson machine.
Paper Jam problems as other have had. I have had this printer just over a year. Just after Christmas it had the paper jam error. Some web site suggested that I try to clean it with air. I did that. And it worked. Yea. But then 2 days ago. Paper jam error, again. No paper or even little pieces of paper in the product. Tried to blow it out again. No luck this time. I guess the thing is just dead. Now I’m past my year warranty. If anyone at Epson is listing your getting a black eye on this one.
I bough a new Workforce 600 and is the biggest piece of junk I have ever owned. It was cheep and is cheep except for the need to replace the ink cartridges after 200 copies.
My H P was a good unit but I made the mistake of giving it away, but now I need to buy a new H P and trash this junk. I would say that almost any printer would do a better job.
I’m having problems with my WorkForce600. I did have it set up to print pictures on glossy paper and now i don’t know how to get out of glossy print. I can’t copy letters because it’s still up on glossy print. Can you please give me instructions on how get out of glossy? Thank You
Epson printers suck!!!! Once any single color is out the entire printer (scanner, fax, copier, printer, etc) turns into a brick until you replace it! This printer is going into the trash. Cheaper for me to buy a new printer of another brand then to keep replacing Epson ink.
I too have the Epson Workforce 600. The Paper Jam error is displayed but there is no paper jam. The printer won’t print while that error message is displayed. It seems several people have mentioned the same problem but I haven’t seen a solution. I am not using 3 hole paper and I have checked every crevice of this printer and there is no paper jam. Any suggestions?
I too had the lines in photo’s. What a difference when you figure out what your doing. You need to go into printer PROPERTIES, if you change your printing project. Select PHOTO. Very Important to also select the TYPE OF PAPER ( such as glossy etc). No more lines in my photo prints!!!
Epson… There’s POS in there if you look closely.
My black ink went out. I stuck in another, and it stopped printing black ink for good. In my attempts to use the system provided by having the system flush itself it used up all the colored ink. I couldn’t do anything with the blasted thing until I replaced every single cartridge, then still the black wouldn’t work.
I tried flushing the print heads 3x and finally got some lined black to print off (a fraction of what it should have) and now all of a sudden it won’t recognize my magenta cartridge (no matter what I do) which is far from empty.
I’m about to pull an Office Space on the damned thing.
So here is my debate: Do I continue to sacrifice my sanity and money trying to get this damned thing to work, or do I go blow a bunch of money on an HP printer that I know will work, swearing off Epson till the day I die and tell everyone I know to NEVER EVER BY AN E(POS)N….
Seriously… DON’T EVER BUY EPSON!!!!!
I am having the same problem with the black ink. It went out (or so I thought), I replaced it. No luck, it still does not print black. My color cartridges were low so I replaced them as well, still no black ink will print. I can get color to print but no black. Come on Epson, take care of this!!!
I just bought the printer without reading the reviews.. So far it is working, but it is new.. I have not been able to figure out how to hook it up to the wireless network. I printed out about ten pages, and the black ink is just about empty… scary stuff. I am hoping this is just a cheap cartridge they stuck in that runs out fast. Otherwise, I will not be keeping this long… replacing a cartridge every ten copies for $20 bucks is not something I look forward to.. I was told by the saleperson this was a copier that would cost less than .02 per copy. NOT…
Any printer that stops you from printing black and white when a color is low is no good. Black ink level is full and I cannot print a shipping label? Are you kidding me? I will NEVER buy another Epson printer. I am so pissed that I will replace this piece of crap rather than purchase more ink.
I was very pleased with the WF 600 at first. It’s a nice package, the wireless feature is awesome, though tricky to setup, and it printed and scanned fine. Then it just stopped printing. Epson sent a new unit and we returned the defective unit. Everything was more or less okay for about 9 months and then we started getting the mystery jam and some awful noises. Now the friggin’ piece of junk won’t print. Despite the overwhelming number of people experiencing this problem, Epson refuses to do anything about it because it is now out of warranty.
In addition, I will concur that the printer is very noisy, periodically prints with streaks and other artifacts, struggles with anything but 8 1/2 x 11 paper, won’t print on 3-hole paper, uses LOTS of very EXPENSIVE ink…. Should I continue?
I know some people have not experienced any problems, but trust me, they’re just the lucky few.
This printer has some serious design flaws and should be recalled. DO NOT BUY AN EPSON WORKFORCE 600! PERIOD.
I am another victim of this POS. Basically brand new. Won’t print black. Even tried putting windex on the printer nozzles and waited over night. What a waste of money.
Yes, I concur with the negative reviews. I thought it was a pretty good printer until I realized how quickly it went through the ink, and how it will stop printing when just one cartridge is empty. However, the real issue is that the print heads seem to be very touchy. They clog easily. First the yellow, then the blue….. so now I am left with a printer that prints black or red – and is not even a year old. I’ve tried the usual maintenance – both automatic and manual cleaning – to no avail. I’ve seen on so many web sights other people with the same issue – clogged print heads. Too bad I didn’t do my homework before I bought this one.