Cartridge-free all-in-one wireless printers that won't break the bank

If you’ve been putting off getting a new printer for yourself or family because the dreaded cost of the ink cartridges just might break the bank, then one of Epson’s two latest EcoTank Wireless Colour All-in-One Cartridge-Free Supertank Printers may just be that right gift for this holiday season.

While the name may seem a mouthful, these two from this Epson series feature easily refillable super-sized ink tanks that print incredible high-quality colour text and images. The EcoTank moniker is quite relevant. One set of four ink bottles, one each of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black used to replenish the printer’s reservoirs, can replace an equivalent of up to 90 ink cartridges, saving you more than $1,000 for every ink replacement set. This means that you and your family can print thousands of pages – including gift cards and other crafts, photos, school reports, term papers or business proposals before you need to refill. Of course, actual print results will depend on your usage.

Impressive print quality

The diminutive ink bottles in no way impact print quality. In fact, these EcoTank printers use a unique and impressive Micro Piezo Heat-Free Technology which does not require the printer to warm up – saving valuable time and energy. They also use their Claria ET pigment black ink. Pigment inks offers a better resolution as it prints the colour atop the paper’s surface, whereas typical dye-base dyes through paper. The result is extremely sharp text in any size font – plus impressive colour graphics and photos regardless of the paper type used.

They can print via USB and Wi-Fi, (Ethernet on some models) plus hands-free voice-activated printing using Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant from your iOS or Android smart device by using the Epson Smart Panel App.

Epson has a number of different models to suit your family needs. Two of the newer models include the ET-2850 and the ET-4850.

The perfect family printer

The EcoTank ET-2850 Wireless Colour All-in-One Cartridge-Free Supertank Printer is the ideal budget-conscious choice for many families. It has a 100-sheet paper tray and can print up 10.5 pages per minute (PPM) in black or five PPM in colour. It will also print automatically on both sides at six PPM and four PPM, respectively, saving you a lot of wasted paper. It also has a high-resolution 8.5-by-11-in. flat-bed scanner and a built-in 20-page PC-free copier for standard letter-sized paper.

The ET-2850 comes in either black or white and retails for $399.99.

Perfect for home or office

For university students, small businesses or families with added printing needs, the EcoTank ET-4850 Wireless Colour All-in-One Cartridge-Free Supertank Printer adds a number of premium productivity features not found on the ET-2850.

It prints faster than the ET-2850 at 15.5 PPM in black and 8.5 PPM in colour. It also features faster automatic two-sided printing along with faster PC-free copying up to 99 pages of legal or letter-sized paper.

Its built-in automatic document feeder (ADF) can be extremely handy when handling large numbers of documents rather than feeding pages in one at a time. The high-resolution flat-bed scanner can scan 8.5-by-11-in. documents, but also up to 8.5-by-14-in. legal sized pages when using the ADF. There’s also faxing capabilities for the odd time you might need it.

The ET-4850 also adds a wired Ethernet connection for a solid and faster connectivity and for less reliance on Wi-Fi. It also has a 2.4-in. colour touch-screen display (compared to the non-touch 1.4-in.,) and larger 250-sheet paper tray, so you don’t need to replenish your paper as often.

The ET-4850 comes in black or white and retails for $649.99.

These are just two of the many EcoTank printer models Epson offers. Regardless which best suits you or your family’s needs, both make for great versatile family gifts. Think of all you can do and how much you’ll save, not to mention the plethora of empty cartridges being kept out of the landfill.

The EcoTank printers come with up to two years of ink right out of the box and when you need more, replacement ink bottles will yield about 7,500 pages for black and up to 6,000 pages for each of the cyan, magenta and yellow, and cost only about $26 and $17, respectively.

These models come with a one-year warranty plus an extra bonus second year if you register your product. You can find them in-store and online at all your favourite retailers or directly via epson.ca.