EcoTank ET-4850 Wireless All-in-One Cartridge-Free Supertank with Scanner Copier, Fax, ADF and Ethernet, The Perfect Office Printer - Black

This is my first Epson. And I want to share the full story of how we semi-accidentally ended up with this awesome brand of printer. It's pricey but so worth it. I waited about a month to write this review. Backstory: Originally, we had an HP 2540 inkjet printer that was supposed to be compatible with airplay but was plagued with connection issues for most of its usable life. It was probably about 10 years old by the time we replaced it, but the issues began about a year or two after owning it. And the issues got worse when 5g was rolled out. It seemed like it was only compatible with 2g. Why HP Sucks: I work from home and normally directly connect to ethernet to ensure that my speeds are as high as possible. However, to use the old HP Inkjet, I had to turn on wifi from my Macbook (on top of ethernet) and use stupid HP apps as a go-between to bridge the connection. I'm no computer scientist, but even I can recognize poor design and a technological bandaid when I see it. And don't even get me started on how fast it blew through expensive ink cartridges. $50-60 for black $50-60 for tri-color. You print 20 pages of normal printing and it starts saying you are low on ink. That's way too much, mkay? Eventually, it got to the point where I had to do factory resets nearly every time I wanted to use it. Also, the paper feed tray hinge hooks had broken, and the tray was literally being held together with duct tape. It was stored in one place, rarely moved, and when it was moved, it was done so gently. I think the hinge broke because the plastic just got old, cracked, and dried out. Why Bought another HP and Then Returned it, Before Buying this Epson: I am a longtime Apple person. Tend to default to buying items that are vetted/sold by Apple when they are connecting to other Apple products. And, unfortunately, the Apple store recommended the HP Envy. Literally the day I unboxed the HP Envy, it was giving me the same connection issues as the old HP inkjet. That's when I realized it wasn't the wifi compatibility. Nope. HP is just poorly-designed, ink-guzzling garbage. Research Methods // Pros and Cons: I discovered it with internet research (ranking criteria: NOT HP, compatible with PC and Mac, customer ratings, and price per print). It came down to a few different Epsons and a Cannon, but the reason this Epson won was that it has affordable ink and the ink lasts a long time. Why this Printer Rocks: 1) Ink is relatively cheap by competitor comparison 2) Ink lasts a really long time 3) it automatically prints double-sided. This blew my mind, because I didn't need or pay attention to this feature, but now I can't imagine not having it. It's saving so much paper!!! 4) Print quality is effective for basic print needs. Prints text without white lines. 5) Installation was easy and it worked as expected from day one. 6) It receives print jobs without me needing wifi on my macbook 7) it prints easily from my iphone 8) Print speeds are much faster than Inkjet 2540 9) Paper tray location is under the printer, which means you are not leaning a paper tray against a wall. And it probably won't crack apart like the plastic hinges did on my old printer. 10) Replacement Ink is easy to install in the reservoirs. Because you get a reservoir for each tri-color, your color printing will implicitly last longer. And there are aftermarket options for ink. 11) You will save so much paper. Good for the environment and your budget. Possible Negatives: 1) The initial setup was long (plan on at least 30 minutes to install firmware and test print quality). You are warned not interrupt the setup process, because it could mess things up. Follow directions and you will be fine. 2) The print quality test print will test your patience, especially if you have a hard time seeing. This is because it will generate a list of shapes and ask you which ones printed correctly. You then punch in the number on the printer to confirm alignment. The messed up shapes are only messed up by a millimeter of difference. So it can be hard to see the differences. 3) Photo-quality printing does not appear to be its strong suit. However, printing at pharmacies or online is so cheap. Just do it there. 3) It's a little bulky height-wise, but fits on top of a standard bookshelf. 4) Price is high/prohibitive. But you get what you pay for. I truly believe this is a quality product and you will save money over time because of the efficiency of ink use, low cost of replacement ink and efficient use of paper through automatic duplex printing.

I purchased the Epson EcoTank ET-4850 to replace my old cartridge printer, hoping to save on ink costs and get reliable all-in-one functionality. After several months of use, here’s what I’ve found: Pros: • The EcoTank system really delivers: I’ve printed a lot of pages, and I haven’t had to refill the ink yet—this is saving me a ton compared to cartridges. • Good print quality for documents: text is sharp and clean even at small font sizes. • Versatile machine: it can print, scan, copy, and fax, and includes an ADF (automatic document feeder) which is very handy. • Strong connectivity: WiFi, Ethernet, and USB — and the Epson Smart Panel app works well for printing from my phone. • User interface and ink tank visibility are convenient: I can see the ink levels easily and the touchscreen is responsive. Cons: • Photo printing is decent but not as exceptional as a dedicated photo printer — some color hues look slightly off or saturated. • No automatic duplex scanning (i.e. scanning both sides of a sheet in one pass) — you have to manually flip pages for two-sided docs. • It’s a bit on the heavy side, and initial setup requires care to ensure ink lines and alignment are correct. • The startup from sleep mode can be slow before the first page prints. This printer is a fantastic choice if you want to cut down on ink costs, and need reliable all-in-one functionality. It’s not perfect for high-end photo tasks, but for general office and home use, it more than delivers.

Set up: The biggest problem I had was expecting it to be much harder than it was—"This seems to simple and easy. What is the documentation not telling me?" The documentation was also written by someone who knows English. It's only shortcoming is that it's a PDF file. However, it's well enough put together that cross-referencing is easy. Unit has a nice, small footprint considering everything it does. ONE (YAY!) paper tray with plenty of capacity. The touch screen can swing out and up if the printer is below eye level, but it also works perfectly if left flush with the front of the printer. For us, this is great, as the printer sits on a rack at about eye level. The touch screen is small, but easy to read and very well designed. Ink filling is very different if you are accustomed to ink cartridge printers—and frankly, easier with less mess! The only problem we foresee is buying more Epson branded ink. The Epson web site may just not like our browser. We have plenty of time to resolve the issue—the ink reservoirs are ENORMOUS compared to cartridges. It will be quite a while before we need more. We haven't tried printing on high quality paper or glossy photo paper, but the print quality is still quite good, more than adequate for our needs. Extrapolating to better paper from the print quality so far, it might well be adequate for most DTP. Online reviews we've seen indicate that photo print quality is quite good. The only thing we don't like about it is that it won't automatically turn on when a network computer sends it a document.

Pricey but effective, this Epson printer gets the job done without having to resort to expensive ink cartridges. My previous printer was an HP and the ink was close to $200 CDN (for both colour and black and white). Of course this is outrageous, and despite my efforts to use cheaper ink, the HP printer rejected those cartridges and I was no longer willing to pay the piper. The Epson is a bit slower to print, and is much smaller than I expected but it is certainly bigger than a bread box. Colours are a bit lighter than another HP printer in the house (not the same one i mentioned earlier here), but the photo quality with good paper is excellent as far as I'm concerned. I print on a regular basis so have not noticed the ink clogging issue others have noted in their comments. If it happens I will update this review. Highly recommend this product for domestic purposes.

I’ve had a colour laser printer for years, however the unit I had was nearing the end of its life ( drum cycles, etc), and the cost of OEM colour and black laser cartridges were astronomical ( cheaper generic cartridges have always produced substandard output for me). I decided on this Epson due to the very low cost for ink, the ease of refill, and auto features. I’ve had it now over a month and am very impressed. I’ve printed hundreds of pages, ink levels have hardly dropped, and the unit just works well. When using photo paper, it produces really accurate and sharp images superior to a laser printer. When printing documents, the output is sharp as well, however for sheer black contrast, the laser printer I had had a slight edge on pure black contrast. Speed of printing on this Epson is acceptable, fairly fast, and adequate for my home office, but a bit slower than a laser. My model has a touch display, but the display is fairly small in about a 2” window, so it can be hard to see options. Epson should consider making the display larger and having it swivel up, because a small window fixed on the flat front of the printer means you have to place the printer at near eye height, or bend down every time you use it. So far, I’m pretty happy.

I cannot recommend this printer for several reasons: 1. Setup is difficult and I have still not managed to get the scanner working. The fax requires a land line which I do not have. 2. Greyscale photos print with a purplish cast. Seems no way to get around this. 3. Printer automatically rescales images to fit the paper size. Handy if you happen to want it. If you want to print your photo at the size you have it in your photo editor, good luck. (Managed to get it to print the desired size directly from photoshop rather than the Epson software, but it printed with what looked like guide lines). I finally contacted the Epson help bot, and it offered to connect me to a tech support person -- for a fee. Bottom line? Wish I'd purchased something else. ADDENDUM: For anyone facing the scaling problem, I thought of a Mickey Mouse solution. Size the image as required, then add a new layer underneath it and size that to 8.5 by 11 inches. Then collapse it so you have an image with very wide borders. The printer treats the image plus borders as an 8.5 by 11 image. Once the printer has been tricked into doing what you want, you can trim the print borders.

I would have given this a -1 star if it was an option. I have worked from a home office for the past 25 years, always had HP printers and had pretty good luck with them. I got tired of paying for the cartridges and decided to go with one that had a refillable tank. My mistake was looking at reviews that talked about the quality of the printing, I should have been researching the quality of the machine itself. This thing doesn't go a day without having to reset or re-print, it is incredibly glitchy. The quality of the printing also isn't up to what I had previously. If I hadn't thrown the packaging away, I would have returned this brick. I have wasted about $100 in Avert labels because of the inability of this machine to handle some paper products. I will be going back to HP as soon as possible.

First impression from this printer is "wow that thing is small!" This must be the smallest office printer in existence. It is smaller even than my current printer, a Canon MX870 which is a home-use printer. Here's the summary: this is not an office printer. It is way too small, it is way too slow, way too difficult to use via the tiny touch-screen display, and it doesn't do double-side scanning/copying. Also, there is no manual-feed paper tray. And it is way too expensive for what it is. It does, however, work well as home-use printer and maybe a home office printer for light duty, provided you can afford it. My current printer is a Canon MX870: I bought that thing almost 15 years ago for about $200 and it has been printing all this time. It is still printing, and well, but all drivers for it are either long-since defunct or about to become so, and it is increasingly difficult to find cartridges for it at a reasonable price: the Canon ones are long since discontinued, and the third-party ones are twice the price they should be when they can even be found. The Epson ET-4850 is meant to be a direct replacement for the Canon. Imagine my surprise when this printer costs almost 3x as much while providing roughly the same features. Also, I was quite surprised to see that a supposedly "office use printer" can't print from or scan to a thumb drive. This one had me scratching my head: why? With this printer it's The Cloud or nothing. Also, its ADF cannot do duplex scanning, which the Canon was perfectly able to do as a home-use printer. That's a bummer, but any other current generation printer in this category and price range, including from Canon, is equally unable to do double-side ADF scanning. And don't get me even started on the lack of manual-feed paper tray: I am guessing offices nowadays don't print envelopes anymore? So while the printer is really nice and is faster than my Canon, especially in duplex printing, it is part of a trend I've been observing with a lot of electronics: things are getting more expensive for the features they deliver. I enjoy printing and scanning from the cloud, mostly because I hated running around with a thumb drive to do so with the Canon (since its scanner driver is dead), but I am surprised I now need a second device to do that. I am hoping against hope of a similar longevity from the Epson, but something tells me the Canon would outlive it too. This one is way too dependent on cloud-based services which Epson Connect integrates for you. In other words, this printer becomes a brick when Epson decides to drop it. EDIT: Double-side scanning and copying is possible from the glass, but not the ADF. Printing envelopes is possible from the paper tray once you remove all the paper. The printer only has a radio for the 2.4Ghz band, which doesn't like sharing it with 802.11G devices, such as my Canon. Also, it doesn't like the beamforming feature on the current crop of Wifi access points/routers: it thinks it is getting a poor Wifi signal when no one is talking to it. Like many people, I justified the high price for this printer with the ability to take ink from bottles, which puts original Epson ink on par with the off-brand cartridges I was getting for the Canon, but that's not quite correct: the Epson printer has something called "a maintenance box", which is a consumable item apparently and has to be replaced periodically. Not sure what that is, or why it is a consumable item. Bottom line is even after all this money we are not quite doing away with the expensive proprietary consumables here, begging the question why buy this printer to begin with. There are significantly cheaper printers out there with almost identical specs that work with traditional cartridges. You may want to look at those first, then look into adding an aftermarket CISS if you really insist on having one for some reason. Don't get me wrong, printer works, printer is awesome, but you can get more bang for buck with something else. EDIT 2: I am giving up on this printer's Wifi capabilities. It just won't stay connected. Every few weeks it would silently drop off from the Wifi and would not even attempt to reconnect. All I can do to get it working again is restart it, until the next time this happens. I just hardwired it so hoping this would make a difference.