Epson EcoTank ET-8550 A3+ Wi-Fi Ink Tank Photo Printer

I do photography and wanted an A3 photo printer, but also for it to be able to copy (A4), scan (A4), and print normal text paper (eg letters, office papers, etc).This printer does it all, with the advantage of cheap inks.I had a designated photo printer but it was not good for normal text paper, as it uses far too much ink. So I needed a second printer to print letters etc.When both printers died, I did a huge amount of research, then tested a friends ET-8550 and was hugely impressed. This printer really does it all.Photos are excellent, with good colour rendition especially if printed via Photoshop so that you can use the various colour profiles. Just turn off 'printer manages colour' to do this.A3 and A4 photo paper can be fed via the rear tray to save bending the paper. I haven't yet used the straight feed for Fine Art papers yet, but should be easy enough. Just remove the back panel and it will glide straight through.Text, letters, and what I call 'office' paperwork can be printed easily and at reasonable speed. Perhaps not so good if printing a lot of papers as the paper tray only holds up to 30 sheets, but is good for normal home use.As others have mentioned, the ink tanks are easy to fill (ink bottles each have a different shape surrounding the nozzle so can only be fitted to the correct hole). Just put the bottle in the the right hole and it will fill. No need to squeeze or anything. Once filled just remove and keep the lid on if any left in the bottle.I only use Epson genuine Claria inks. I have tried 'compatibles' in the past and they wrecked the printer head resulting in having to buy a new printer. Whilst the genuine Epson inks are more expensive, the photos last a long time with no fading or colour bleeding. Photos are excellent, and are good enough quality for competitions.The one thing I'm not impressed with is the 'advertising' from Epson regarding the number of photos being able to be printed on one set of inks. It states 2300 photos, although elsewhere it states 1800 photos. Well yes it does, but if you hunt and research you will find that number is for 15cm x 10cm prints. That is 1/4 sheet of A4. If you print a full A4 photo, you can print 450 - 575, depending on the colours of the photos. This is still 10x more than most photo printers, and makes for very economical printing, but saying 2300 could be a bit misleading for some people. Obviously A3 will use twice the amount of ink, so 225 - 288 A3 photos. My old photo printer could only manage 20-40!Scanning is easy using the Epson ScanSmart programme, which is downloaded when you set up the printer.Talking of which, I removed 24-30 blue tapes from inside and around the printer when setting it up. They hold everything in place for transport, but you must remove them all before use. Do look inside, around the back, everywhere! They could stop the printer from setting up correctly.I set up manually from my tower computer, but have also used the automatic and wi-fi from my laptop. Both are easy to do if you follow the instructions. I have connected to my computer via USB, and also set up wi-fi so I can print from my laptop, both of which work well. There is also an ethernet port if you wish to connect via that.One thing which took me a while to find was the receiving tray closure. It opens automatically when printing to receive the paper, but to close it you can gently push it back in, but it is very very stiff. Or... go to the touchscreen and touch the close button, and hey presto it closes! I wish Epson would tell us!All in all a really good printer, and yes I would recommend it.

Bought to replace an aging Epson Inkjet printer for home use. We home educate so our printers get fairly heavy use for both colour A4 and photo printing.First - the obvious downside. It’s expensive whichever way you look at it. You could get several standard cartridge inkjet printers for the price of this. Any savings you will make from having an ink tank will be realised over the course of several years after the initial outlay.Secondly, it’s not entirely straightforward to set up. The app you have to download for it walks you through the process but it still takes at least an hour to fully put the thing together, and then you need to get it talking to your computers. We live in a Mac/PC/iPhone household and it did take a while to set it up on each system. I’m fairly confident with technology but it still felt like a bit of a chore.Now, the positives.The print quality blows any home printer I’ve had before out of the water. Photo printing is indistinguishable (to my eye) from what you’d get commercially. Standard printing on paper is quick and clear. Using the manual feed paper tray at the rear of the printer we have managed to print directly onto thick card stock which has come out perfectly.Once set up, the connection is stable and consistent. Not a single “unable to locate printer” error and due to its AirPrint capabilities iOS devices on the same network recognise it without needing to download the app.Having spent years with the choice of either paying through the nose for genuine printer cartridges or getting cheap generic ones that only work half the time, having the ink tank system seems to be the way forwards. Despite fairly heavy use we’ve barely got through any of the ink that it comes with, and replacements ink, both genuine and generic, is reasonably priced. As there is no security system like the chips you get in cartridges you won’t be penalised for using generic ink.The printer’s other features all seem to work well. The LED touchscreen is brightly lit and functional. There’s a button on it which can give you tutorials on pretty much all of the printer’s functions. You can load several types of media at once (we have A4 paper, glossy photos and use the rear feed for card stock or A4 photos). The scanner works well with various devices.All in all, I’m very happy with it despite the initial outlay