Review: Epson Eco Tank ET-4550


It isn’t the cost of the printer, is it? It’s always the ink. Whether you run a business from home, want a printer for a small office, or have children who love to print their online art, this review is about a new development in printers that might just help you.

Over the last year I’ve been completing my MA in Critical and Creative Writing, which included a 15,000 word dissertation.  I wanted to print it out myself because it included creative elements, using a variety of types of paper, different fonts and colours, interleaved with images – I wanted the control of doing at and assembling it at home, but I used a lot of ink! I was interested to be asked to review a new type of printer from Epson, the Epson Eco Tank ET-4550 Multifunction Printer with Refillable Ink Tanks.

Epson say, “Perfect for any small office, this 4-in-1 inkjet printer comes with enough ink to print up to 11,000 pages1 without the need for cartridges.” In other places it indicates that the ink supplied will last you two years. That’s a pretty good claim, and of course in the short time I’ve had the printer I can’t tell you if it is really going to print 11,000 pages, but I can fill you in on my experience so far.

The way the printer works is that it has a tank, well, four tanks in fact, that you fill up with ink. It is supplied empty and as one of your first actions in setting it up, you open the four supplied ink bottles and pour them into the right part of the tank. I was a little nervous about this, but it was totally straightforward. The bottles are well designed so I didn’t spill a drop – make sure that you have a bin ready for the small pieces of foil that come off the bottle tops, as they are the only really inky bits. After that, it was just like setting up a regular printer.

It works effectively, and I have another set of ink bottles all ready in a box for when I run out. Ask me in a year and I’ll let you know how well it is working out with the ink!

The printer I reviewed, the Epson Eco Tank ET-4550 , costs around £350 at time of writing.

 

Disclosure: I was sent this printer to review

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