Long gone are the days when you had to walk to a print shop to get your printing done. These days most, if not all of us, have printers at home and use them to our hearts desire. Getting a cheap printer is easy… what isn’t easy though, is how to find a solution which will allow you to keep printing costs down… and just when you thought there wasn’t an answer along comes the Epson EcoTank ET-4500…

The Epson EcoTank ET-4500 Multifunction Printer which can print, copy, scan and fax is one of Epson’s new EcoTanks printers designed to keep printing cost at bay. It uses an integrated ultra-high-capacity ink tank system, which means much more printing before it requires a refill and best of all no need for cartridges. Full tanks will allow you to print up to 4,000 pages in black and 6,500 pages in colour – that is one heck of a lot of printing!

For the last 6 weeks I have had the pleasure of testing an ET-4500 and I am finally ready to share my verdict with you.

Pluses:

Easy to set up and use. Not everyone is a techno wizard but with the EcoTank ET-4500 you really don’t have to be. The enclosed disk goes through the process on your computer screen step by step with clear pictures and even the LCD screen on the printer chips in from time to time to give helpful prompts. Both set up and usability is very user friendly and straight forward… almost fool-proof.

Nice compact size and a pleasing finish. Sometimes useful things aren’t as pretty as we might hope for but the EcoTank ET-4500 is actually really nice looking. It’s not too big and it comes in a nice matt finish which as a whole looks rather good 🙂

Good print quality. After using a laser printer for the last 4 or 5 years I was a little uneasy with going “back” to an inkjet again but I was very positively surprised. The print quality is excellent both in black & white and colour.

Wifi enable. This is a huge plus. No more moving documents between devices or mess cables… now I can print hassle free from any phone, tablet, laptop or PC in the house… this must be my favourite function to be honest! It allows me to save so much time and messing about and I just love it!

Huge amount of ink. The Eco tanks hold a huge amount of ink allowing you to significantly reduce printing costs whilst at the same time giving you piece of mind. So many times before I find I get caught out with a cartridge running dry or my toner becoming empty just when I needed to print something time sensitive. I really like the fact that I no longer have to constantly worry about my printer. I’ve put a reminder in my calendar to check ink levels monthly… just to be on the safe side and when I do eventually have to top up the ink reservoirs I am only buying the ink which makes for sizable savings over other inkjet systems.

Copy/scan function. Until we plugged in the EcoTank ET-4500 we also had a scanner but now it is no longer needed. I like the multifunctional capabilities of this printer and the fact that I can have more space on and around my desk. When it comes to the fax… well to be honest I have had no need or opportunity for testing this feature so far but I am sure it works as intended, after all who still sends faxes outside of a corporate office environment.

Minuses:

Too much packaging! I know this isn’t a big deal for most but I really dislike over packaging. I know they wanted the printer to be safe in transit and it is a high tech high spec electronic device but it took a while to unwrap it and find all the hidden little protection.

Long set up. The set up although simple and well guided did take over an hour as the jets needed some 20 minutes to initialize themselves and just when you think you’re ready to do some test printing it spent another 20 minutes downloading patches and firmware updates. It is only a once off thing and now it springs to life very quickly, but for the initial set up I strongly suggest you make a large coffee and make sure you have some spare time.

Lack of duplex, which means that if you require double sided printing you need to turn pages around manually. However, this feature is available on ET-4550 model.

Verdict:

In general I am very happy with my EcoTank ET-4500. I have a fab looking fully functional printer / copier / scanner / fax with super low maintenance costs. I can enjoy hassle free printing from any device or place in the house and I don’t have to worry about levels of my ink as I know it will last much, much longer than a standard ink cartridge would.

I think the EcoTank ET-4500 is a great choice for anyone who prints a lot and is looking for a super economical printing option with no compromise on quality or speed of the print.

Thank you Epson!