Epson LabelWorks LW-400 Label Maker

• Backlit display - type and print labels in challenging lighting conditions
• Amazing variety - 14 fonts, 10 styles, 300+ built-in symbols, over 75 frames, bar codes and more
• Less waste - smaller margins compared to other brands for up to 62% less waste
• Large built-in memory - store up to 50 files
• Specialty print models and labels

Ok, I am going to focus on one area here that has been under-referenced by the other reviews. Those reviews, by the way, are excellent, and provide a thorough review of the product and its capabilities.

The label cartridges for this unit are way too pricey. At $17-21 per cartridge, they are roughly double the cost of refills for other label makers, and represent 50% of the cost of the unit itself! It appears to be a continuation of the HP/Epson scam of selling you an inkjet printer at a loss, and making it back on the printer cartridges over time.

The unit itself is nice, easy, and pleasant to use; as I said, other "most helpful" reviews will cover the unit's abilities in ways I need not echo. But as an ongoing cost, the price of the label cartridges is a sore spot. Also note that the unit ships with a "sample" label cartridge that contains a 4 meter tape less than half of what the normal cartridge carries. C'mon Epson, if you're going to rip me off on cartridges for the life of my machine, how about a full measure to get me started!

If the price per cartridge drops below $12 each, my review goes up to 5 stars.

Also, note that RetailMeNot has promo codes for discounts on Epson cartridges from the Epson website that makes them cheaper than Amazon.

Buy Epson LabelWorks LW-400 Label Maker Now

Since I bought my first Brother label maker many years ago, I have been a big fan of label makers. They make organizing paper at home and at the office quick and convenient. I also used a label maker to label the drawers on my toolbox. You may use a label maker to label light switches and other miscellaneous controls and devices. I have even used a label maker to label boxes. Yes, I still have a Brother label maker and I still use it. I was glad to have the opportunity to review a different brand for comparison and to see how much label makers have evolved since I bought my last one, half a decade ago.

The Good Stuff:

This label maker has many interesting features. It has an array of symbols and frames (boxes and borders) that is beyond stunning. If there are labels you use often, you can save up to fifty of them. You may change the space between letters, go vertical, and even print them with a mirror image.

This label maker also prints bar codes. While you may think bar codes are only for work, inexpensive bar code readers can help you with a home inventory, or categorizing collections. This device will print index label tabs for files, which I plan to use, cable labels or flags, as some people call them, and wrapped labels. The array of features seems to be phenomenal and well beyond the features I have had available in the past.

Epson provided samples of some of the many tapes they plan to offer. Be advised that the label maker only comes with one sample tape, 12 mm black on white. Epson will also be offering colored tape, tape in different widths, glow-in-the-dark tape, and even iron-on tape that you might use for uniform nametags.

One of the big selling points with this label maker is that it uses relatively small margins on either end, meaning waste is relatively minimal. I consider this feature a big plus because the tape is expensive.

The display is cool. It has a backlight that a user may switch on or off. The backlight contrast is adjustable as well.

The label maker has options for multiple languages, including English, Spanish, French, European Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, and German.

The back of the label maker has a location for a loop you may use to attach the label maker to your belt or place it around your neck. Epson is supposed to be offering an AC adapter if you want to avoid the expense of the six AA batteries it takes to power the label maker.

The Down Sides:

This label maker has all sorts of cool features that give it advantages over the three Brother label makers I have used. Unfortunately, there are a couple of few downsides as well.

The biggest downside is choosing the font size. On the Brother label makers, choosing the font is as easy as pushing a couple of buttons on the front panel and selecting until you have the size you want. The Epson requires you to hit a button and choose number of lines. Once you choose number of lines, then you need to choose a font size. I experimented a little to figure out how to do a couple of things. For example, you can print a small or large font on the top or bottom of a label, but you need to make the other line blank. I kept printing labels while trying various combinations to figure out how to accomplish that format. Therefore, if you want a small label near the top of a label, select two lines, hit enter, then select that you want a small font as the first line and hit enter again. When you enter the label, hit enter to create the second line and print. If you forget the second line, you get large font in the middle of the label.

I was surprised that this label maker does not seem to have a feature to let you position lines left, right or middle. The fancier Brother label makers let you do all three, and I tend to use the centering feature with multiple lines. While unnecessary, I think it looks better.

I tried looking for tape cartridge refills on Epson's web site and on Amazon, without success. Epson needs to make the refills widely available. The tape does seem to be available in Europe. The current price seems somewhat comparable to Brother label maker tape. With the smaller borders, that should mean less waste, making the Epson tape effectively cheaper.

What do you buy?

This label maker offers many features over comparable Brother label makers. While getting the font size correct required a bit of playing around, I think I have that down. I like less waste, and the smaller margin does that. If I need wider margins, either I can set label length through the tools button or I can add spaces. The only problem I have right now is getting my hands on more tape cartridges.

I think the Epson LW-400 is a winner and offers enough features over comparable Brother label makers that this label maker is going to be my new default label maker from now on.

Enjoy!

Read Best Reviews of Epson LabelWorks LW-400 Label Maker Here

Labelmakers remind me of the episode of Seinfeld in which George labels everything and it all peels off. Labelmakers have come a long way since then.

I've used a few in the past. Generally they are limited and clumsy. The LW-400 was extremely portable and comfortable to use with one hand. With my other labelmakers I often had to consult a cheat guide to figure out exactly how to get the results I wanted. The Epson was very intuitive and some of the key features were printed on the back. I had no problems quickly getting up to speed.

The symbol library was extensive (and needed a manual). When space is limited, a picture as they say, speaks 1000 characters and while it didn't have 1000 characters it did have several hundreds.

In particular, this was designed for the mobile technician. While it had standard labeling it had MULTIPLE options for labeling cables allow vertical and horizontal place and mirroring so that way the tag could be seen by both sides. Now you have no excuse not to mark everything (which port is workstation 7?)

Typical of most portable labelmakers, this one uses lots of batteries (6 AAA), but I found that my rechargables worked just fine. The labels came in a variety of sizes and colors and were easy to peel and place. No problems with them falling off (unlike George's labelmaker). There is an AC adapter option, but that obviously impacts its portability.

Some others reviews pointed out a lack of fonts. This wasn't a problem with me as I was more concerned with the placement of the text and the variety of print options. Instead of printing two copies of a label and sticking them together to mark a cable I now had an options to print one long cable and mirror the text.

Overall a great label printer for mobile technicians.

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The label maker is cute and works and does what I wanted it to do. However, I would have been much happier if I had known it did NOT come with an AC adapter. If you want one of those, instead of using 8 AA batteries, you have to buy it for $25 from Epson directly because no one sells it including Amazon. That is a joke. It's the same price as the machine itself just to get the adapter. Retarded. I wouldn't have been so upset if it was clearly labeled that the adapter was missing. Finding out after the fact was just plain annoying.

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I have to echo what so many have said about this unit. It works beautifully and is fun to use. But I cannot in good conscience spend such a ridiculous amount of money for replacement tapes! Printer ink is crazy expensive, too, but I grit my teeth and pay for it because I cannot get by without printing. But I can get by without making labels, and so I have just put this product away and not bought any replacement tapes/labels.