Kodak ESP 5250 All-in-One Printer

In my home network I have 3 pc's (wired) and 2 laptops (wireless) all connected by a Linksys router. Two of the pc's are for my kids who print out stuff for school and work. Before I bought this printer I had an older HP inkjet connected to my primary desktop (mine). Whenever someone needed to print anything my computer had to be turned on first. Rather annoying.
Not anymore! This Kodak printer so far has been fantastic. The full size instruction manual (no cheap photocopied sheet of paper) explained the whole process from opening the box to connecting it to your network wirelessly. With step by step illustrations that were easy to follow. Within minutes it was up and running perfectly having automatically detected my network SSID and connecting when I typed in my security passphrase on its built in keypad.

What I like:
Easy installation. Nice print results. I haven't printed any photos yet so I don't know how they look. Included in the box are 3 sample sheets...Read more

I will be fair and post positives too....prints nice photos, wireless setup worked no problem, easy to figure out.

Negatives. I printed one photo and nothing but black and white thereafter, black ink ran out and printer refused to print ANYTHING at that point. No problem, whatever, I bought more. A day later color empty notice pops up. What??? No problem, I'm only printing black anyway. Set for black only, no go. The printer will NOT print at all unless you refill the color cartridge as well. Don't tell me, Kodak, that you do not possess the technology to print black ink out of a solo black ink cartridge. THe first one I purchased had pieces falling out of it and had to take back.

1. First issue is the color cart is being used to print black at all
2. Second issue is color cart is being used WAY too much to print black/white docs.
3. Third issue is I cannot print black/white docs without a filled color cartridge, once color runs out, time to buy...Read more

The more experience a person has, the better he or she knows there are trade offs in most everything. You want it less expensive you give up some features or service. You want it faster you pay a little more. You want it cutting edge you deal with the problems and cost premium of being the 1st to have it. With this printer (Kodak 5250) I have been thoroughly impressed. It is a tremendous value and has made printing much less stressful. Stressful sounds a little funny when speaking of something that should be simple- like printing a document or photo. I mean here we are in 2010. Surely something as simple as printing should be mastered by now. Unfortunately for those who print frequently- you know we're far from that euphoric day. Between printer set up, connecting for network users, ink cost, paper cost, consistent results, handling different paper types and sizes, etc. printing can be a horrible experience to get right. My experience with the 5250 was easy set up, easy...Read more