Ask HN: Anyone Using the Epson EcoTank or HP Smart Tank Printers?

In a fit of rage after seeing the prices of replacement ink (at Costco, no less) for my Canon printer I grabbed an Epson EcoTank and plunked down over $300 for it. That was almost three years ago and I'm still on the ink that came in the box. Currently the black is at 50% and the colors are at about 60%. I'll never go back to the criminal enterprises that are the likes of HP and Canon.

For comparison; we don't print a whole lot on average but we are a four-person household with two kids in school.

I've been using an Epson Expression ET-2550 EcoTank since 2017. I've printed thousands of color pages in those 6 years and bought refills (four EcoTank ink bottles) twice, the first time in 2020 and the second time just a few weeks ago.

As far as quality, I'm pretty satisfied; in my non-professional opinion it's just as good as any other ink jet printer I've used, and I've used a bunch. However, if you don't use the printer for a few weeks you'll have to run the print-head cleaning utility, sometimes two or three or four times in a row. I've always managed to unclog the print head after periods of non-use up to now.

I only print color photos and color artwork on the EcoTank. I also have a laser printer for text. If you don't need color, it's far more economical and less hassle to use a laser printer. For black & white text, I even prefer the look and feel of a printout from a laser printer over an ink jet. But if you really do need color, I would say that an Epson EcoTank is way more economical than traditional ink jets.

Happy EcoTank user here. The colors are good (make sure to set to high quality in the print job settings). And the ink is indeed very good value, and you can refill each color separately.

Giving up some speed, it can also print pretty quietly, which was nice when we had a big batch during night time.

But I still order family photos from an online store. YMMV.

If you use them daily or every few days, most inkjet printers will perform well.

Only used occasionally, all inkjet printers are nightmares.

Get an inkjet if you print all the time.

Don't get one if you don't.

Basically, inkjet is a good technology for color production work and poor for occasional use.

A commitment to printing is the key to inkjet happiness.

Good luck.

I had HP Smart Tank for about two years until it broke (the mechanical part that was feeding pages). It still had most of the ink unused. And while you don't need to change ink, it was printing at a very very slow pace. I was joking that the reason the ink can last for a life is since you will die before it will finish printing.

Also, it's very sensitive to an accurate horizontal positioning.

I replaced it with a black-and-white Xerox laser printer which costs more or less the same, but prints very fast, and has other functions like scanning from the feeder, copy, fax, etc. After 6 months still had no need to charge a printing head, which is only 2x-3x more expensive than HP InkJet ones.

Until recently I loved my Epson Eco Tank. I discovered that the Epson printers all have an internal page counter that bricks the printer once it reaches a limit, requiring service by Epson. There's a "waste ink pad" that is supposed to be replaced, which is simple. But the manufacturer is required to input a special code to reset the printer once the pad is replaced. It's a forced obsolescence scam, essentially. There are some ways around it - questionable software by third parties that charge around 10 bucks for a code to reset the printer. I haven't decided what to do yet but I damn well am not paying anyone to unbrick my otherwise completely functional printer.

We’ve been using an Epson eco tank at work, daily, for a few years now and it works great. The ink seems to last forever.

Only nuisance is that the nozzles sometimes get a bit clogged up but that’s pretty easily fixed.

Even so I’ll never go back to a normal inkjet ever.

I went with a Brother color laser because I was tired of the cartridges being dried-up the few times I needed to print something. The Brother runs flawlessly.

If you need to print high resolution images, it may not be your best bet though.

I think it is, just spec the one you can use, mine can't do card stock paper and so im a little bummed after finding that out. but have had it for years and the ink doesnt empty, its great.