You Pinspire Me
Hi friends! About a month ago, I started hearing ads on the radio and seeing posts on Twitter about this new ‘game changing’ inkjet printer for homes. It’s been a while – 10 years, maybe?? – since I’ve heard ad spots for a printer, so I looked it up. The Epson EcoTank is an inkjet printer that has ink wells instead of printer cartridges, so they say it lasts for 1.5-2 years of normal use – none of this ink drying up nonsense.
Huh. My husband, for those of you who don’t know, is a computer tech, and has been for over a decade. He’s got pretty strong opinions about tech products for home use and has been telling everyone he knows for ages that inkjet printers are a complete waste of money, unless you’ll be using them every single day (because the ink cartridges dry up and are EXPENSIVE to replace!). Based on my reading, it seemed like this printer – the Epson Expression ET-2550 EcoTank – might finally be the exception to his hard and fast inkjet ban.
I desperately wanted to do an EcoTank review, and fortunately, Epson heard and responded to my pleas. A few weeks back, my new colour printer-scanner-photocopier arrived at my door and my children watched eagerly as I unboxed the pretty thing. It’s a bit wider than I expected, but when you take into account the fact that it needs space for the super large capacity ink wells, it makes some sense.
Even though my husband – the super tech guru – was home, I did the set-up completely on my own (and instructed him to not, under any circumstance, help me out) because what’s the point of having a fantastic home printer if I told you you’d need a tech guy to come set it up for you? Turns out it was pretty easy to do, if you follow the directions in order [yes, funny enough, the order of steps DOES matter, as I learned].
I set it up in our dining room because that’s where our iMac will eventually live (ok, it already lives there, but one day it might be fully functional as a family computer) and that’s where I do most of my computer work. Funny enough, since this printer connects to our wireless network, it could be in the attic and I could still print to it from my dining chair on the first floor.
So. Set up was a breeze. Connecting it to our wireless internet was no hassle. Next step: printing wirelessly from my computer: check! Finally, I did what I had been most excited about trying out: printing straight from my phone, the iPad, and the Galaxy Tab. It worked!! I can even email the printer when I’m away from home and my document will be waiting for me upon return. Whaat!
Ok, so we’ve covered the set up and the wireless printing. So far this is a winning printer for me. How’s the quality?
Well, for one thing, I’ve never had a colour printer in the house before, so I’ve been a little giddy with excitement about the different things I can now do. Forgot to pick up birthday party invitations that need to be sent to school with the kid in 30 minutes? NO PROBLEM, and it printed beautifully on glossy photo paper!
Need to print out some eye-catching signs for my church job, but too lazy to go to Staples to get them printed? EcoTank to the rescue!
We used a black and white laser printer for a while that my husband rescued from the floor of some server room so I’m used to crisp, clean lines – and the inkjet printers do tend to bleed just a touch when the ink is wet. However, the colours are bright and the black is black, so I’m quite pleased with the finished product.
I’ve got several projects lined up for my printer this spring, including a photo checklist of chores for each of the kids since they’re not readers yet. I’m planning on them looking something like this:
So let’s review for a quick minute:
We’ve avoided all inkjet printers in our house for the past 10 years because:
While they’re usually cheap to buy, they end up being a waste of money because the expensive printer cartridges dry out and need to replaced several times a year. In the end, it’s usually cheaper to get a new inkjet printer that comes along with the ink cartridges.
Obviously, I can’t review Epson’s claim that EcoTank inkwells will print for up to 2 years – although I promise to come back and update this post when the ink dries up, whenever that will be! However, even my NO INKJET PRINTER WILL EVER LIVE IN MY HOUSE tech husband has fallen for this printer and the innovative design that suggests it may be unlike all inkjets to come before it.
I’m loving the quality of the print and the extreme ease of use (can we just marvel at the fact that you can send a document to print from your phone?!) of the EcoTank.
Obviously, other people are loving this printer, too, because I just found this press release saying that the Epson EcoTank 2550 has won the 2016 BIG Innovation Award for its transformation of the printer market.
Disclaimer: I wasn’t paid for this review, but I was given an Epson EcoTank printer for the purpose of reviewing. As always, my views and opinions are my own – my husband’s are definitely his own, and he’s kind of a stubborn old man when it comes to changing his mind about things that he dislikes, so I’d pay attention to that, if I was you.
Jenn vanOosten
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I wish I had known about this printer before we bought new one. Hopefully more companies follow suit and make a similar product.
I enjoyed reading your post