EcoTank Photo ET-8550 All-in-One Wide-format Supertank Printer - White

I've only had this printer for a few days, but I am impressed. Packaging was excellent. The footprint is as small as it can be for a "large format" printer. Setup was smooth, thanks to Epson's step by step instructions and the thought that went into them. (I thoroughly read the manuals and on-line PDF guide -- be sure you do this, and be sure to accept all options, and updates.) The paper tray pops out automatically, and self-adjusts for long length paper. There is a button on the control panel to withdraw the paper tray. I wish they would design it to retract with manual push, because the retraction icon is not always visible. Ink installation was easy. Seems like there is plenty of ink. I was not expecting my personal involvement in selection of the best calibration level, nor was I expecting so many levels, but I assume this will be an infrequent activity. I connected the printer to wired Ethernet. Unlike my previous printer, this printer always seems ready to go. We also were able to connect our phones for mobile printing. There is also an option to e-mail print jobs. I set this up, too. I bought this printer because I wanted the ability to print 11x17 documents on parchment paper. Paper larger than 8 1/2 x 11 gets fed through an easy to use rear feed. It handled card-stock 11x17 without a problem. The paper tray automatically extended to accommodate the long paper. The printer includes two paper trays. I loaded the top tray with 4x6 photo paper, and the bottom with plain letter paper. Windows programs allow selection of paper and parameters. There is an option to allow the printer/program to select settings. I prefer to opt out and define my own settings. Photo printing is five-star, just as I would expect from an Epson Photo printer! This printer was easier to set up than expected, has excellent paper handling, and produces great output. At this point, I highly recommend it.

When I was looking to get a new printer, I was looking for something that could deliver a good, not quite professional level, print quality, large format capabilities and I was very interested in the tank printers because of the quantity of prints they could produce. I have been a fan of another brand of printer for years, but I felt they were lagging behind in the tank printer system. The Epson EcoTank printers seemed to be the best on the market, in my opinion, after doing a bit of research. By chance I found the ET-8550 on sale at Best Buy, and had been watching it for some time. I had all of the features I wanted and more. I use it mainly for a crafting printer, but I have found myself using it for office type printing/scanning as well. The print quality is just the perfect level that I need for some of the design work and prints that I do. It is a multi-tank system, which uses a Photo Black, Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Grey ink tanks. Even though they packed in bottles are less in volume than the additional refills, I have found myself still not needing to refill my tanks with the amount I've printed. The image quality has been very good on simple images to higher level photo images. I've had to adjust at times for better image quality, but that's been easy to take care of. I love that I can make prints up to 13"x19" size as well. I will admit, there is a bit of a labor to get access to the large format slot in the rear. (You have to lift remove the back panel, lift the top paper holder, then remove the printer cassette in the back to just access the larger opening.) However, once I got the mechanics down for using the large format slot, I was very happy with it. While I bought this for mainly printing images and designs, I have found myself using this for office type work as well. The scanner is simple to use, and I have used it from the printer itself, as well as using the app from my phone to print documents. I wasn't planning on these features, but I am very happy with the office capabilities of this printer. It is a large printer, and takes a lot of space. I didn't open the box of for a couple of days until I could find a suitable stand to hold this monstrosity. In the end, it was worth the wait. This was my first time having a wireless connected printer, and I found this to easily setup and connect to my network, cell phone and tablet. With the Espon apps installed, I was able to print with no problems from my phone or tablet. (Android OS.) I highly recommend this printer for those that need a good mid to high level photo printer that is capable of doing office type work as well.

This printer is amazing and we’ll worth the price! I was extremely hesitant since it is expensive and my luck with printers has not been great. Let me just say, this will not disappoint! I am a start up photographer and wanted to be able to print at home for events. I also wanted to be able to print photos as gifts, etc. The photo quality is incredible and the ability to print larger photos at home is amazing! I have now printed over 100 photos in various sizes and still have 1/2 the ink left that came with the printer and I haven’t had to replace it yet. To replace it once it’s needed it’s only $105 for all 6 bottles! I highly recommend!! Photos below of the photos don’t even do them justice!