Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsEasy to use printer
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2020
This Epson printer was bought after my Canon decided to quit working just outside of its warranty. Which isn’t the first time I’ve had a Canon product do that. So I switched to Epson with an extended warranty, making sure I get at least four covered years out of this one.
It’s a standard 3 in 1, just print, copy and scan (no fax, but if you want that, shop for an office printer, not home). It feeds paper from the back and the front tray must be pulled out manually. This one also doesn’t do duplex printing (two sided) but you can still manually flip it for a two sided job.
What made this most appealing is the Ecotank, which gets you a lot more ink and was so easy to line up the bottles. You hear a light chugging sound as it fills, which stops when it’s full, no mess or drips when removing either. I don’t have the steadiest hands but that didn’t make it more difficult.
It’s very easy to set up to the WiFi, just make sure that both the device you’re using and the printer are on the same 2.4 bandwidth channel. If you’re not tech savvy, modern routers/modems are usually equipped with two bandwidths: whatever you named the router and usually a 2G or 5G added after it. 2G is usually slower but has better reach, while the faster one (5G) tends to have a shorter reach. Whether or not your signal reaches everywhere, this printer will only look for the 2G.
For smartphones and tablets, it’s best to download the free Epson Print app to send your printer jobs from a device. If you’re using this printer in conjunction with a desktop, purchasing a printer to USB cable between them makes sure that computer can print, regardless of whether WiFi is working. Very helpful if you work with offline manuscripts and your internet service is down. Always good to have a wired solution, just in case.
The start up guides make it easy to setup but if you need more options, Amazon does have the PDF manual in the product description page to help. Even easy set-ups can be intimidating for those who aren’t tech-savvy but Epson does a good job with thorough explanations that aren’t difficult for beginners to understand.
While I did sacrifice some options (like printing on discs) with this Epson printer, I actually didn’t use the many features of an office printer so this pared down version actually suits my usage better.
In summary, if you don’t need a huge loading tray, duplex printing or fax, this is a great choice. Ecotank printers save you tons on ink and if you’ve got the money, you can still get those options on different models. If saving money on ink is a priority, this is a definitely a must have.
I’m not sure why anyone would buy generic ink for an Ecotank; Epson’s refill bottles are actually very cheap. I was paying that much for Canon’s one-time-use cartridges, if not more. They do warn you against using generics, but at the Epson prices, it’s not even a consideration.