Epson EcoTank ET-8550 A3+ Wi-Fi Ink Tank Photo Printer

I do photography and wanted an A3 photo printer, but also for it to be able to copy (A4), scan (A4), and print normal text paper (eg letters, office papers, etc). This printer does it all, with the advantage of cheap inks. I had a designated photo printer but it was not good for normal text paper, as it uses far too much ink. So I needed a second printer to print letters etc. When both printers died, I did a huge amount of research, then tested a friends ET-8550 and was hugely impressed. This printer really does it all. Photos are excellent, with good colour rendition especially if printed via Photoshop so that you can use the various colour profiles. Just turn off 'printer manages colour' to do this. A3 and A4 photo paper can be fed via the rear tray to save bending the paper. I haven't yet used the straight feed for Fine Art papers yet, but should be easy enough. Just remove the back panel and it will glide straight through. Text, letters, and what I call 'office' paperwork can be printed easily and at reasonable speed. Perhaps not so good if printing a lot of papers as the paper tray only holds up to 30 sheets, but is good for normal home use. As others have mentioned, the ink tanks are easy to fill (ink bottles each have a different shape surrounding the nozzle so can only be fitted to the correct hole). Just put the bottle in the the right hole and it will fill. No need to squeeze or anything. Once filled just remove and keep the lid on if any left in the bottle. I only use Epson genuine Claria inks. I have tried 'compatibles' in the past and they wrecked the printer head resulting in having to buy a new printer. Whilst the genuine Epson inks are more expensive, the photos last a long time with no fading or colour bleeding. Photos are excellent, and are good enough quality for competitions. The one thing I'm not impressed with is the 'advertising' from Epson regarding the number of photos being able to be printed on one set of inks. It states 2300 photos, although elsewhere it states 1800 photos. Well yes it does, but if you hunt and research you will find that number is for 15cm x 10cm prints. That is 1/4 sheet of A4. If you print a full A4 photo, you can print 450 - 575, depending on the colours of the photos. This is still 10x more than most photo printers, and makes for very economical printing, but saying 2300 could be a bit misleading for some people. Obviously A3 will use twice the amount of ink, so 225 - 288 A3 photos. My old photo printer could only manage 20-40! Scanning is easy using the Epson ScanSmart programme, which is downloaded when you set up the printer. Talking of which, I removed 24-30 blue tapes from inside and around the printer when setting it up. They hold everything in place for transport, but you must remove them all before use. Do look inside, around the back, everywhere! They could stop the printer from setting up correctly. I set up manually from my tower computer, but have also used the automatic and wi-fi from my laptop. Both are easy to do if you follow the instructions. I have connected to my computer via USB, and also set up wi-fi so I can print from my laptop, both of which work well. There is also an ethernet port if you wish to connect via that. One thing which took me a while to find was the receiving tray closure. It opens automatically when printing to receive the paper, but to close it you can gently push it back in, but it is very very stiff. Or... go to the touchscreen and touch the close button, and hey presto it closes! I wish Epson would tell us! All in all a really good printer, and yes I would recommend it.

Bought to replace an aging Epson Inkjet printer for home use. We home educate so our printers get fairly heavy use for both colour A4 and photo printing. First - the obvious downside. It’s expensive whichever way you look at it. You could get several standard cartridge inkjet printers for the price of this. Any savings you will make from having an ink tank will be realised over the course of several years after the initial outlay. Secondly, it’s not entirely straightforward to set up. The app you have to download for it walks you through the process but it still takes at least an hour to fully put the thing together, and then you need to get it talking to your computers. We live in a Mac/PC/iPhone household and it did take a while to set it up on each system. I’m fairly confident with technology but it still felt like a bit of a chore. Now, the positives. The print quality blows any home printer I’ve had before out of the water. Photo printing is indistinguishable (to my eye) from what you’d get commercially. Standard printing on paper is quick and clear. Using the manual feed paper tray at the rear of the printer we have managed to print directly onto thick card stock which has come out perfectly. Once set up, the connection is stable and consistent. Not a single “unable to locate printer” error and due to its AirPrint capabilities iOS devices on the same network recognise it without needing to download the app. Having spent years with the choice of either paying through the nose for genuine printer cartridges or getting cheap generic ones that only work half the time, having the ink tank system seems to be the way forwards. Despite fairly heavy use we’ve barely got through any of the ink that it comes with, and replacements ink, both genuine and generic, is reasonably priced. As there is no security system like the chips you get in cartridges you won’t be penalised for using generic ink. The printer’s other features all seem to work well. The LED touchscreen is brightly lit and functional. There’s a button on it which can give you tutorials on pretty much all of the printer’s functions. You can load several types of media at once (we have A4 paper, glossy photos and use the rear feed for card stock or A4 photos). The scanner works well with various devices. All in all, I’m very happy with it despite the initial outlay

This printer is amazing. It has no touch screen which takes a bit of getting used to. It’s big when you open it up for printing at 990mm deep. You need 160mm at the back for the paper feed. Filling the ink tanks is easy. Slot the bottle in the port and it self fills. There is no spillage at all. Priming the printer with ink isn’t explained very well. This is what you do. Turn on printer. Wait till you see the orange ink light come on. Then press the button for 5 seconds. The priming cycle should start. If nothing happens. Turn off printer and unplug power cable and usb lead. Then press the start button for 30 seconds. Connect everything again. Turn it on and do the priming cycle again. This is what Epson told me to do and it worked. It took about 5 minutes and then I had to turn printer off and then press start button and the right hand button at same time to print the nozzle check. It’s then you install the software and you will get a firmware update as well. The Epson printer connection checker has the printer utilities but I’ve not used them as yet. Software support isn’t as comprehensive as I would have liked. Nowhere near as good as my XP-960. There also a phone app which may give you more functions. I did 2 print test images on Epson A4 glossy photo paper 183gm using the Epson photo+ on standard quality setting. This is a brilliant piece of software. My phone camera doesn’t do the quality of the prints justice. Once you get your head around not having a touch screen this is for my usage the perfect printer. Replacement 70ml ink bottles are £9.99 direct from Epson so printing even at A3+ is very affordable. If you want high class prints on Glossy metallic. Lustre and Baryta papers this is for you. Update 2 Been using this printer a lot. My print output has gone through the roof. I've printed a further 47 Astronomy images on A4 with 19 on A3 along with close to 60 A5 test prints. My ink levels have hardly moved, I'm now about 1/3 of the way into the 2nd mark. I'm wondering if my extra 2 sets of ink bottle purchases were a bit premature. If i was still running my Epson XP 960 i would have used 2 or 3 sets of XL Elephant cartridge sets by now which is approximately £192-£288 of ink and be into the 3rd or 4th set which is another £96. Which makes this printer a very cheap investment even though the initial cost felt high. The out tray is still a little stiff and so is the rear paper feed platen. The printer still makes clunking noises when printing but i have become used to the sound now and doesn't detract from using it. Using the High quality print setting isn't much use to me as all it does is lay down extra ink which can in some situations remove some of the finer details in my images. On big bold colour prints it's ideal, for my type of prints it detracts so i will stick to Standard quality and let the ICC profiles do their magic. As for print quality.. I can't tell the difference between Claria photo inks in the XP 960 and the 107 Eco tank ink sets in a side by side comparison. The Astro images are 800dpi scans of my printouts on Lustre 300gsm with ICC profile. I hope they give a good idea of the print quality of this printer. I've now expanded my range of paper types to 5 with Smooth pearl 310gsm and Velvet Fine Art 275gsm in A4 which give me a better look for LRGB images ( Luminance Red Green Blue ) bare in mind paper weight does not equate to paper thickness the 275gsm Velvet is slightly thicker than the 310gsm Pearl. The only downside.. if this is a thing, I had to buy a cabinet to hold the paper boxes and sit the printer on.

I run a small business that relies heavily on printing—cards, keepsakes, custom art prints, and more—using a wide variety of paper types, textures, and weights. I purchased the Epson ET-8550 in the hope that I was investing in a professional-grade, versatile photo printer that could support my growing creative work. After two months of daily use, I can say this with full confidence: This is one of the worst printers I’ve used in my 35 years on this planet. Let me give credit where it’s due: out of the box, the Epson 8550 prints beautifully. The first 20 or so sheets come out looking crisp and professional, especially on plain paper. Colours appear rich (though not entirely accurate), and the detail is sharp enough to feel like I’d made the right decision. That brief honeymoon period is where the positives end. One of the main reasons I bought this printer was the rear paper feed, which Epson claims can handle a variety of cardstocks and paper weights. This is flat-out misleading. After a short while, the rear feed becomes completely unusable, throwing up constant paper jam errors—even when there's no jam. The only workaround? You physically have to press the card or paper down with your hand while it attempts to feed through. That's not just impractical—it’s absurd on a £629 machine. Anything over 230gsm causes problems. 300gsm? Forget it. You’ll be manually feeding one sheet at a time, praying the printer doesn't reject it, misfeed, or jam mid-print. And even if it miraculously accepts the paper, chances are you’ll be greeted with smudges, smears, roller marks, or grainy, inaccurate colours. After just a few weeks, the print quality deteriorated rapidly. I started getting: Smears at the end of every page Banding and lines across coloured areas Inconsistent ink coverage Dull, lifeless colours, no matter how much I tweaked the settings Want to print a solid block of colour? It will come out grainy and uneven. Need accurate colour matching? Good luck. What you see on your screen is not what this printer delivers—no matter how many settings you fiddle with. And for a printer sold on its photo-printing capabilities, that’s not just disappointing, it’s laughable. Every single day I use this printer, I have to perform: * Nozzle checks * Head cleanings * Alignment corrections It's like owning a vintage car that needs tuning every morning just to get to the end of the driveway. The maintenance required to get one decent print is exhausting, and sometimes even that’s not guaranteed. Not only is the rear feeder a nightmare, but even the paper guides don’t hold firm. They shift on their own, meaning every single time I print, I have to readjust and triple-check alignment—or risk a wonky or failed print. This shouldn’t be happening at this price point. This printer cost me over £629, and I honestly feel conned. I wanted a reliable, professional printer that could support my business, but what I got was a machine that makes my working day harder, not easier. It's unreliable, high-maintenance, and not fit for the purpose it's marketed for. The only silver lining? The ink lasts a long time—possibly because you’ll be wasting half your prints and constantly reprinting due to quality issues. You might not run out of ink quickly, but you’ll run out of patience, time, and trust in Epson faster than you can say "EcoTank." If you are a small business owner, artist, crafter, or creative professional looking for a versatile, reliable printer to handle varied paper stocks and deliver consistent quality—this is not it. The Epson ET-8550 is a masterclass in disappointment, and each passing day deepens my regret. Epson, if you're listening: this printer is not fit for purpose. Please stop marketing it as such. I didn’t spend this much money to become a part-time printer technician. I spent it to run my business—and this machine has actively made that harder.

In most respects, the ET-8550 was a bit of a revelation. I'd previously owned several HP photo printers, including some semi-professional A3 and A3+ models. I had a bunch of reasons for going with HP at the time, including the physical robustness [they really were built like tanks], the print quality and software support - including the fact that until recently HP have had much better support for the Linux operating system than Epson. Then my last big HP developed a major hardware fault; I didn't see anything in their range I liked, so I purchased an Epson XP-950. Only A4 and not really a purpose-built photo printer, but it did exceptionally well except for the ludicrously small amount of ink supplied in each cartridge... A chance conversation with a friend resulted in my getting a personal recommendation for the Ecotank approach by Epson, which resulted in my purchase of the ET-8550. It's a power-house of a printer and no mistake, with superb media handling, outstanding print quality on any medium [but most especially on Epson paper, for which ICC profiles are available] and a much more sensible and economical approach to ink. I've now owned mine since March, so it feels like this has been enough time to allow for an experience-based review. As I often do, here are some positive and negative points to consider:- + Positive + + Superb - really outstanding - print quality, especially with Epson paper ... Can't emphasize this enough + Trivially easy to set up and calibrate - standing start to working perfectly in just a few minutes + Excellent, safe and easy-to-use ink loading courtesy of "keyed" ink bottles. Excellent design + Generally quiet in operation, especially when printing photo quality + Superb paper handling, even thick cards and really heavy photo paper - jam and snag-free + Really excellent integrated scanner - fantastic resolution and colour accuracy, right out of the box + Solid, comprehensive software and drivers, including for Linux [which are simple to install] - Negative - - A touch on the pricey side - The resolution of the touch screen can be a bit off from time to time [a minor niggle] - Integrated, flat-sheet paper handling leaves quite a bit to be desired. I want to call out the last of the negatives, because it is a bit surprising to me. With the generous built-in ink tanks, this printer produces fabulous quality output very economically... but the two integrated flat-sheet media trays handle something like 20-30 sheets of paper each, which just isn't enough. Yes, I understand that this printer is clearly intended to be a "photographer's work horse" - and for most of that use the back roll feed or rear/top paper feed will be in use. But this is a fast, excellent quality printer that can print duplex. So if you want, for example, to produce "glossies" - such as A4 sheets of marketing materials that combine text, graphics and photographs - and you want to use a photo-friendly cut-sheet [but double-sided] china clay paper, you're going to be continuously returning to the printer to keep it fed. Such a shame as this printer is super-compact... and another 2-2.5cm in height and a corresponding increase in internal paper capacity would have made it perfect. But if you want to print to A3+ and produce mainly photo-quality output, I don't think you'll beat this printer at this price point, not as an all-rounder.

This printer is excellent. Set up is very easy. The on machine led window is an illuminated touch screen which hinges out to almost horizontal for easier use and has all controls I need. Colour reproduction is accurate and the images are really sharp. The tank ink lasts for a very long time I have printed a large number of A3 and A4 prints and the lowest tank ink level is only half full. I have used Affinity and Epson software and both are really good and Epson's is free. Tank filling is easy with the refill bottles keyed so that you can't fill the wrong tank. The scanner is just like any other on-board printer scanner. If you want to print A3+ prints there is a rear of the printer slot for paper infeed which means you have to have a lot of space behind the printer. Up to A3 size paper is fed in at the rear of the top paper feeder which is pulled out. It has A4 paper tray and a CD printing tray in the front. When starting printing the outfeed tray is automatically driven out to the correct distance for the print size. When the printer is switched off this tray automatically retracts in. I highly recommend this printer as it's the best I have ever owned and I've been buying printers for many years from the dot matrix times. I'll never go back to cartridge printers as they're too expensive to run.

This is hands down the best printer I've ever seen. I can't imagine how the quality could be improved with another printer. It's as good as it gets. Forget ever needing to order photos or prints online, you can print your own photos at home with this. The paper you use is important however, as testing shows cheap low quality paper gives (surprise) low quality prints. But with a good photo paper, the colours are stunning. Stunning! It's easy to set up, although does take a bit of time initially. It requires a lot of space to have on your desk always ready to go, so make sure you have the space. The size of the printer itself isn't the only consideration (and it is large), the paper tray and rear feeder tray needs to be taken into account too. I love the ink tanks over cartridges. Love how you can fill them up individually and see the levels at all times physically. I'm not sure on the accuracy of the claimed amount of pages you can print on a full tank though, as it seems to be draining much faster than the stated 1000s of pages. Although I am printing a lot of full page coloured A3 art (I'm an artist). TL;DR: You will get professional level prints with this. And the ink does last a long time, but probably not as long as Epson says. At least if you plan on doing a lot of full colour A4/A3 pages. Tech Support gets 1 star cause the only time I contacted them they never replied. Luckily I was able to figure it out myself in the end. But yeah, strange and maybe an anomaly but has to be mentioned.

I got frustrated with the quality of prints from my lab so I decided to start printing by myself. After a lot of research I opted for the ET-8550. What a revelation! I did not know that a home printer could produce such outstanding output. The ET-8550 is ideal, you can print at a much lower cost (85%?) than other Epson models (e.g. P700) thanks to the Ecotank technology. When printing matte make sure you use the Velvet Fine Art media setting for best output (it uses both blacks). This printer is a must have, and it is very compact compared to other brands.