Epson EcoTank Printers

[Dave Fritz]

I'm wondering if anyone has experience with Epson's EcoTank printers? I see them advertised a lot and considering the cost of Canon color ink they look interesting.

[Doug Garson]

We've had one for a couple years now, moderate use (I think we are on our third batch of ink), and no problems. Our previous printers were HP and our last one often went "offline" for no reason and it was a struggle to get it back on line.

[Jerry Bruette]

I got fed up with the ink cartridges plugging and wasting ink. Bought a color laser printer and love it.

[Warren Lake]

understand the cartridge grief. have an old epson 1270 that was used by a pro to make a living for years before he stepped up and up. Thing made great quality prints.

So no more cartridges and read some people run hoses to the head and then to bottles. Not put time into it but likely will get another Epson if it can do the same quality. Not there yet. Ill check on the bottles people use as well what is involved and how well it works. Think more colours in the new models and that one maybe only four and black. still it did excellent work. Its old school heavy and solid as well. consider the friend that made a living off it for years and had no issues.

[Terence McGee]

Hey there, I switched to an EcoTank model a couple years ago and so far, so good. The ink reservoirs are massive compared to standard cartridges so it lasts a rally long time before it needs a refill. Even printing quite a bit for my side business, I go months without having to top it off.


The print quality is what I'd expect from a solid color printer too. Nice crispness on graphics and photos with minimal fading over time from what I can tell.


However, the printer itself was a bit pricier upfront than comparable laser/inkjet models. But that initial cost has more than paid for itself by now with how little I spend on ink.

[Jerome Stanek]

I got fed up with the ink cartridges plugging and wasting ink. Bought a color laser printer and love it.

Same here I do have 2 laser printers on is color the other is just monotone that I use for printing stuff for grandson. He loves to color and asks for weird stuff io be printed. that one is in his play room

[jack duren]

I’ve been thinking about the Epson, but I’m still putting ink in the HP printer. $20 buys me a lot of ink…

[Bill Howatt]

Same here I do have 2 laser printers on is color the other is just monotone that I use for printing stuff for grandson. He loves to color and asks for weird stuff io be printed. that one is in his play room

Me too, I do virtually all of my printing in monochrome (B&W) so my color laser gets rarely used. When I was doing this with a color inkjet (both Epson and HP) it was usually partially clogged when I went to use it and had to run through the head cleaning a couple of times to get it to work and sometimes had to replace the cartridge. I think this is a requirement for inkjets, don't let them sit unused.
Being fed up with inkjets, I bought a color laser and I've had it for 3 or 4 years now and it is still using the colored toner that came with it which is an indication of how infrequently it is used. It always works without fiddling around. I was concerned about photos since you can't put coated photo paper in the laser due to the heat. I printed some test photos on 32lb paper and the results were very good - not as much a wow factor as gloss photopaper with a good inkjet but certainly much more than satisfactory.

[Jim Becker]

I own and have been using one for about four years now. (a photo printer version with the extra photo-black) Recently put in the "second year" ink. I love the concept, especially for folks who do higher volume of printing. For me, I do spend more time with head cleaning (which consumes ink) because I'm an infrequent printer. At this point, since I'm not really printing photos any more, I could do very well with an inexpensive monochrome laser printer like I recently bought for Professor Dr. SWMBO. We returned the HP ink jet she had been using for two years to Costco when it stopped working because it couldn't "connect to her HP account" and we had enough of that. She gets easily confused because of a medical situation, so we pushed "the easy button" for a Brother monochrome laser.

[Doug Garson]

I’ve been thinking about the Epson, but I’m still putting ink in the HP printer. $20 buys me a lot of ink…

Assume you meant $200 as most HP cartridges are more than $20.

[Brian Tymchak]

Me too, I do virtually all of my printing in monochrome (B&W) so my color laser gets rarely used. When I was doing this with a color inkjet (both Epson and HP) it was usually partially clogged when I went to use it and had to run through the head cleaning a couple of times to get it to work and sometimes had to replace the cartridge. I think this is a requirement for inkjets, don't let them sit unused.
Being fed up with inkjets, I bought a color laser and I've had it for 3 or 4 years now and it is still using the colored toner that came with it which is an indication of how infrequently it is used. It always works without fiddling around. I was concerned about photos since you can't put coated photo paper in the laser due to the heat. I printed some test photos on 32lb paper and the results were very good - not as much a wow factor as gloss photopaper with a good inkjet but certainly much more than satisfactory.

Add me to the laser convert list. Along with all the reasons cited, lasers also print faster. And although I haven't confirmed it with a calculator, my in-head calcs say that our laser is a little bit cheaper per page than our ink printer was.

[mike stenson]

Add me to the laser convert list. Along with all the reasons cited, lasers also print faster. And although I haven't confirmed it with a calculator, my in-head calcs say that our laser is a little bit cheaper per page than our ink printer was.

We swapped about 15 years ago, it's turned out to be much cheaper over that period of time.

[Jim Koepke]

My HP printer became a real pain in the backside.

Switched to the Epson ECO Tank and have been happy. I have had to run the clean cartridge routine once or twice since the printer sits unused for a month or more. I don't do as much printing as I used to do.

One thing I really like over the HP is the ink doesn't run if it gets wet. The HP would smear or just run if a drop of water fell on the print. The ECO Tank doesn't.

jtk

[Bill Howatt]

... I don't do as much printing as I used to do.

jtk

I don't think I do either.
I believe there is a trend with the younger crowd that is more in the phone and tablet user group - they don't seem to be interested in printing much of anything, they just keep it on the device and leave it at that. When you think of it, the reason a lot of things got printed was so they could be taken away from the computer and this isn't necessary with the portable devices.

[Warren Lake]

I printed when i was doing shows and onto the walls. Some to most used binders but felt on the walls was better. People see different types of work but many then went to TV screens so its done that way more now.

I still want to print. People have asked me to shoot at weddings and other. Its not what I do but ive done some past decent stuff. They hire a pro and they pose people. I stay away zoom in and do candid. Smiles are more real as they are not on demand. Digital ils great you can send the photos to people and they can print if set up., One friend lost his sister not long ago. sent me a scan of an old washed out photo of her. I fixed it and brought the colour back and sent it back. A friend had prints done for him but they were not as good as I could do with the old Epson. It was pro quality if you used pro paper and I did maybe 1.00 a sheet approx at the time. Cartridges last I remember were 85.00 approx till you could not get them but that in the new world odour would be 150.00 at least.