EpsonEcoTank Photo ET-8500 Wireless Color All-in-One Supertank Printer with Scanner, Copier, Ethernet and 4.3-inch Color Touchscreen, White, Large

This review is for an Epson ET-8500 printer/scanner/copier. ET stands for Eco Tank as the printer uses tanks of ink filled by the user from bottles. The tanks last far longer than the ink cartridges we've all been using and the price per page is far less. The 8500 prints 8.5x11 and 8.5x14 as well as smaller sizes like 8x10, 5x7, 4x6 and printable CDs, DVDs and BDs. The scanner has a maximum resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi.I bought this printer to replace an Epson RX 580 we bought in late 2006 and for which we must have spent several printer's worth of money on ink. Our primary use has been and remains printing photographs. We feel we require a six-ink printer for this task which limited our printer choices. We have never had any brand other than Epson dating back to the dot matrix printers we used with our homemade PC XT so I will be unable to compare the performance of this printer to other brands.We were sorely tempted to buy the ET-8550 vice the 8500 for the occasional need to print 11x14s and larger as it was only an additional $50 but we simply didn't have the table space for it. The price of this printer has come down significantly from when it was first introduced, so if you're thinking you can't afford it, look again. The unpacking and setup on the 8500 were simpler and more trouble-free than other printers I've used in the recent past. The printer can be connected to your computer via a shared wireless or wired network or a primary tier USB link. You can also print from a thumb drive (USB memory stick), your camera's SD chip, wirelessly from a smart phone or tablet. Epson provides the printer with a unique email address and any images sent to that address (from anywhere on the planet) will automatically be printed by your printer. If you have a voice assistant on your home network, you can control your printer with voice commands. All in all, a very capable and well thought out device.We were nervous about filling our ink tanks the first time. The thought of a bottle of printer ink spilling seemed an absolute nightmare. But, as might have been expected, the process was utterly fool-proof (and you're reading a top notch fool here). The tops of the ink bottles and ink tanks are keyed so you cannot put ink in the wrong tank. Ink does not come out of the bottle till it is inverted on the proper tank and flow stops when the tank becomes full. The first filling will also have to fill all the tubing and what not between the tanks and the print nozzles and so will fill the tanks slightly less full than all further bottles.Loading paper is also painless. The printer has two cassettes: one for 8.5 x 11 and one for 5x7 or smaller. The printer can take thicker paper by two routes in the back: the rear paper feeder at the back on top, and the rear paper feed slot, in the rear. Here is my one unpleasantness concerning this printer but fortunately for you and Epson, the unpleasantness was almost entirely my fault. Either route may be used for thicker paper, such a heavyweight photo paper or thick cardstock. The Rear Paper Feeder at the top rear will still take your paper through almost 90 degrees of bend but not the hard 180 that it experiences coming from the cassettes. Paper loaded into the Rear Paper Feed Slot at the printer's rear, will traverse a completely flat path. Theoretically, you could put a sheet of thin glass through there... but please don't. I have used both with 80 lb (thick) photo paper with no problem whatsoever. The unpleasantness I mentioned was caused when I became confused as to which route was which, deciding that the feeder was the slot and the slot was the feeder. This led me to two lengthy calls to Epson tech support where two different techs spent an inordinate amount of time and effort trying to convince me I had made a mistake without insulting a sacred Epson customer by telling me I had made a mistake. When I finally came to my senses, I wrote a long and heartfelt apology to Epson Tech Support for what I had put them through. Very embarrassing.The printers output on plain paper, card stock and three different grades of photo paper has been absolutely perfect. There will always be some difference between your screen and your printer, particularly with the printer straight out of the box and no attempt having been made to match up the two, but the prints have been more than satisfactory to this point. And I have yet to see any of my ink levels - now visible directly through graduated translucent windows on the printer's front - so much as budge. A good portent. I have looked at refill ink bottles and the cost for a full set is slightly more than a set of cartridges for my RX 580 cost but provides several times the quantity of ink. Interestingly, the colors of inks used has changed. My RX 580 used to use Cyan, Light Cyan, Magenta, Light Magenta, Yellow and Black. The ET 8500 uses Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Photo Grey, Photo Black and Black. That last one is used for text and is not used for photographs. The Photo Grey and Photo Black are not used on text. I only have my eyes, but in my judgement, the prints from the ET 8500 are superior to those from the old RX 580 in accuracy, detail and color. Text documents are crisp and clear. Image quality on plain paper is more than acceptable though I understand there are other brands that do it slightly better.If I had to do it all over, I would again buy the ET 8500. Ease-of-use, economy and beautiful output make it the ideal choice. And I will never again buy a printer that uses cartridges. Never.

This is an 'initial impressions' review after setup and a few weeks use.- Best Use Case: If, like us, your printing needs are 80% creative (artwork, photographs, etc.), 20% light document printing and occasional scanning, then this printer will meet your needs. Even though you won't be buying a new cartridge with a thimbleful of ink every 100 pages, I would not recommend this printer for high-volume workplace printing. It's not built for speed and you'll be filling the paper tray too often to be productive. Likewise, unlike a more office-oriented printer, the ET-8500 does not have a feeder for the scanner.- Unboxing / Setup: While it did take about an hour to set up, the process went much easier than I anticipated based on the reviews I read. We have it connected to our home network via Ethernet and I was able to do all necessary configuration via the printer's touch screen. Aligning the print heads is a rather lengthy process, so be prepared to spend some time on this. Our old printer would semi-self align by scanning the alignment samples once they were printed. With the ED-8500, I had to manually select which alignment settings looked best, which slowed the process considerably.- Hardware Quality: Overall, the printer feels well-built and worth the money. That being said, I do agree with other reviewers who state the paper trays feel a little chintzy and possibly easy to damage if you don't handle them with kid gloves. No problems thus far, however, so I'm simply crossing my fingers with the hoping for the best. On the flip side, I love that the output tray fully retracts into the printer when not in use. Touch screen operation is a veritable godsend compared to the wonky, practically useless LCD on our old printer. In fact, with a thumb drive or (full sized) SD card, you can perform many operations straight from the touchscreen.- Software: While it did install applications I'm not likely to use, Epson's software is much less intrusive, in my opinion, than you-know-who's naggy, resource consuming bloatware. I can't speak to the smartphone application as I have no need for it thus far. I'm also pleased to report that the printer will work without Alexia, which I will never have a need for. No problems with the software and we're able to print from any computer on the network without issue.- Scanning: As I stated above, there's no feed for the scanner, so you'll have to manually change pages if you have a multi-page document to scan. Not a problem for us, though, and my wife loves that she can scan a document straight to her thumb drive without having to bother me while I'm working. Overall quality is more than adequate for all but the most demanding scanning jobs.- Ink: With its foolproof design, filling the six ink tanks couldn't be easier, and after six weeks of use, including approximately 200 pages of image laden documents using the highest quality print level (which would have eaten up two 'XL' cartridges in my old printer), the ink levels in the ET-8500 have barely moved. Furthermore, refilling all six tanks cost only a little more than those two 'XL' cartridges would have. Very happy in this regard.- Print Quality: Even on regular paper at regular print quality, the ET-8500 hands-down smokes anything in its price range. Amp up the print quality and print to photographic paper and the results are absolutely jaw-dropping. Seriously, my brother is a professional large-format printer / sign maker, and the print quality from the ET-8500 rivals his $75,000 4' x 8' flatbed. Rich, vibrant colors pop from the page and are sure to impress even the toughest critic. This, in my opinion, more than makes up for the ET-8500 not being the fastest horse in the race.I will update my review should anything go south, but for now I give the ET-8500 a big thumbs up. For the quality you get, it is well worth the price in my opinion.