I have been closely following & researching the Ecotank printers right from their initial launch in 2015,. They are now in their third generation with the latest lineup of Expression home inkjets (ET2700, ET2750 & ET3000) which means that they are more widely in circulation and gives a good idea of the good and issues of the previous generations , but it also gives Epson the chance to fix them . For this review of the ET-2750 I wanted to cover all important aspects thoroughly hence it is going to be lengthy , So please bear with me and you can skip to the relevant section if you'd like:
WHATS NEW IN THE 3rd Gen ECOTANK PRINTERS
- The new printers are much more compact and smaller in size as the ink supertanks are now moved from the side as in the previous models to the front. The new ink tank design looks much better integrated on the printer instead of a weird looking bolt-on on the sides
- Much more improved Wifi stability : They've addressed one of the most common complaints of the previous generation and greatly improved wifi connectivity. I left my printer turned on for an entire week and every time I wanted to use the printer/scanner from my computer it woke from sleep and responded reliably . In my other tests It always managed to connected to WiFi from the powered off state
- Refilling the ink tanks is now foolproof with keyed auto-stop ink bottles so you cannot accidently fill a tank with the wrong colored ink . Refilling the ink tanks is easier with auto stop bottles and mess-free . I did not have to use gloves or paper towels (which Epson recommends btw)
- Printhead reliability : While the issue to faulty or clogged printheads was not widespread but I am hoping improvements have been made in this area too. I will update this section over time , also check out my maintenance section below to keep your printer healthy and prevent the ink from drying
ECOTANK & ITS COST EFFECTIVENESS
- Inkjet printers have long been sold on the razor-blade model - Sell printers for cheap/at-loss and make money off the refills. The Ecotank printers turn that model on its head and sell the printers at profit at higher prices upfront and offer cheap environment-friendly ink. This surely beats out the hassle out having to replace ink cartridges frequently as they run out or dry up. But it also kind of makes sense for the manufacturer as well because (thanks to ink refills & remanufactured cartridges) the use of their original replacements isn't always guaranteed (which they count on to make profit)
- Without getting into too much specifics, but considering the high upfront cost of this printer you can expect to break even in terms of costs after you've gone through the first ink bottle set and printed thousands of pages. Only after this you start saving money
- A four bottle replacement ink set (Black, Cyan, Yellow, Magenta) sets you back by $62 and even then it is cheaper and gives you more than double the pages when compared to an HP Instant Ink plan
INITIAL SETUP & SOFTWARE
- The initial setup requires you to download the driver software from the internet (there is a note in the box saying "Stop! Download software from the internet ) even though there is a drivers CD included in the box
- The setup process was simple and probably the most irritating part of it was having to input your WiFi password using up and down arrow keys to scroll letters on the tiny 1.44" display. Thankfully it is only a one time process
- After the WiFi/driver setup process completes and the ink tanks filled, the printer then goes through a lengthy one-time priming process called 'Ink Charging' to pull ink from the tanks into the tubes/printheads and remove bubbles. This takes about 15 mins to complete
- Once the ink charging process completes it takes you through the printhead alignment process which requires you to evaluate two printed pages for vertical and horizontal print head alignment. This involves a very fine eye to evaluate the tiny differences between the samples and I got it wrong the first time. So if you see gaps or overlaps in your prints .then try running the alignment again. Overall it will take about 30-40 mins from the time you plug in and the first time you are able to use the printer
- I was not very impressed with the software of the printer, it is functional but looks very dated (like Windows 95 UI) and it is also quite pervasive . It has two processes that are always running under Windows task manager and an icon in the Windows system tray. And even then certain functions (like print head alignment) can only be done on the printer only . It comes with a simple scan app called Epson Scan 2 as well.
PRINT QUALITY
- The overall print quality of the printer is very good , comparable to other standard inkjet printers with sharp inky-black text without banding and bright colors. It prints photos well (paper quality makes a huge difference here) although i would recommend cranking up the saturation of your photos a bit before printing . I've included several pictures of text and color printouts at various quality settings and paper types
- One thing I would like to stress on is that while the print quality is good, it is not as good as speciality photo printer and is comparable to other standard inkjet printers. Nothing earth shattering here, Its Raison D'Etre is its ink tank...
- The default print 'Standard' setting is oriented more towards speed and produces washed out colors which is ok for basic document printing . The 'Standard-Vivid' profile is better for graphic intensive prints
- Considering that its an inkjet (where speed is inverse to quality) , the printer still prints at a good speed even at the 'Best' print quality. No complaints here
- This printer supports duplex (two-sided) printing and it works very well. It sucks back up the page after it prints the first side and flips it internally to print the other side without any issues
- It also supports borderless prints
- Works with Google Cloud print, Apple AirPrint and has its own cloud printing service/mobile app called Epson Connect
- I did not find the printer too noisy
SCANNER QUALITY
- The scanner on this printer is actually very good and does not seem like an afterthought . It scans documents with crisp text and pictures with sharp colors
- See my sample scanned image of a brochure
REPLACEMENT INK & YIELDS
- This printer uses a new replacement ink model : T502
- The black ink bottle currently costs $19.99 and the tri-color (C,Y,M) combo pack costs $41.99 or $13.99 for individual colors on Epson.com
- Based on the price history of the replacement inks for the previous generation printers , they tend to be very stable and only go down a dollar or two occasionally
- The claim of 'prints upto 7000 pages or 2 years' is only for a very specific test pattern called "ISO/IEC 24712" you can google it for its images. If you print photos, greeting cards etc then the yields are going to be much lower. Nonetheless you still get a lot of ink .For eg. the HP high yield XL cartridges can hold upto 8-20 ml of ink . With this printer you get over 580+ml of combined ink!
PAPER
- The type of paper you use does make a large impact on print quality, especially if you're going to use two-sided printing often.
- I highly recommend you to try Georgia Pacific Spectrum Premium 96 Inkjet paper which costs about $5 Ream / $15 Case on Amazon . It is one of the best high quality premium paper I've used and yet costs as less as plain copy paper
DISLIKES
- I dont like that fact that the it does not have a covered paper feed . It still has an old-school back of the printer 100 paper feed where the paper sits and collects dust which is bad for the printheads. For this reason alone I am decking one star
- The output paper tray does not rest against the table and dangles precariously at an edge from the printer which means it could break easily. My solution is that I do not pull the output tray at all and let the output prints gently fall on the table itself. This does not affect two sided printing either
- The scanner makes a squeaky sound while scanning , no biggie though
MAINTENANCE & PREVENTING INK DRYING
- One of the biggest enemy for inkjet printers is the issue of ink drying and clogs if they are not used frequently enough ...
- This is an even more important factor for this printer - because Epson printers use what is known as a 'Piezoelectric Printhead' which is a type of a permanent mechanical printhead which allows more finer control of ink droplet size than HP/Canon. Whereas on the other side HP/Canon printers use what is known as a 'Thermal Printhead' which is built directly on the ink cartridge itself . So as you see if you ever have a problem of a bad/clogged printhead with HP/Canon you can simply replace the old cartridge and be done with it - But you can't do that with this printer : The printhead is permanent hence keeping it from drying is paramount
- I reached out to Epson support specifically on this if they have any guidelines on the max length of time in-between prints any recommendations. They wrote to me that "EPSON does not information on how long an Eco-tank printer can remain dormant before ink dries. They are built to be used regularly." and that "Turn printer off if not in use for long periods of time and print a few pages at least once a month to maintain good print quality"
- So I decided I am not taking any chances with it and created a small Windows task to print a test page once every week & and a reminder on my phone to turn on the printer that day . I'm including the steps to create that Windows automated task and test print image (which uses minimal ink) if you want to try something similar :
(1) In Windows 7/10 : Use the search window to search for "Task Scheduler"
(2) Click on 'Create Task' on the right panel , give it a name for Eg. 'Weekly Test Print' and select the button 'Run whether user is logged or not'
(3) Under the Triggers tab, define the schedule , frequency and time you want the job to run
(4) Under the Action tab, create a new action for 'Start a program' and under Program/Script put "mspaint" and under the 'Add Arguments' section put "/p C:\Users\username\Desktop\InkjetTestPage.jpg" without the quotes. Replace the actual path where you put the file
(5) Pls note that the above steps are helpful of you do not print that frequently. If you have any questions on the above steps I'll be happy to answer them
FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall I really like the ET-2750 it is has very good print quality which is good enough for Business use , has tons of ink that really does work out cheaper in the long run than conventional printers or ink plans. The included display makes short work of most print tasks without having to use a computer and the wireless printing works flawlessly. I can definitely recommend it to you have you print a lot and it could also work out if dont print that much provided you run a maintenance job like the one mentioned .
It is about 15 inches wide by 14 inches deep WITHOUT the paper tray extended. With the paper tray extended its 20 inches deep. You also need some space in the back for the paper feed so about a depth of 23 inches. About 7 inches tall (without the lid opened for the scanner). It weighs just over 13 pounds.
Pros:
This is the first time in my life I have put ink in a printer and not gotten it on anything. The bottles are amazing, they do not leak at all and are also cut so that you cannot accidentally put the wrong color in the wrong spot. So SO much better than the stupid ink cartridges.
Software is downloadable from Epson. Search for 2750 to find it.
The control panel flips up so you can easily see and push the correct buttons as it is then nearly parallel to the ground.
Print quality is excellent, especially for color. I think I will be printing more photos now, especially since I can now print from my other devices. I installed the Google cloud printing option and it works flawlessly. The printer will complain if you change the settings in google cloud, so you do need to then tell the printer it is OK to print with say, photo paper.
When printing on photo paper, with the highest settings the images are excellent. Not quite as good as a commercial printed photo, but indistinguishable when viewed from about 6 inches way. I will say that it did not do well with printing astrophotography, the black ink is not as black as that from commercially printed photos. However, for most people this will not be an issue.
It is nice to have a scanner built into the printer. Saves footprint space.
Two sided printing is nice.
Cons:
The ink does not appear as bright in the printer as it does in the photo here. In fact you need a flashlight to see the ink levels.
It is a little loud.
I have not figured out how to scan from the software on the computer (with the printer connecting wirelessly). It will work if I connect it with a USB cord.
Punching in your WIFI password is a bit of a pain.
Right now it appears that a set of OEM replacement ink will run you about 120 bucks. I am hoping that price will come down. Because of the way the bottles are designed (and the ports where the ink goes in) I do not think it will be simple to use other ink. I am sure it is designed this way, and in all fairness, it does have quite a bit of ink to start (enough to completely fill it). However, the ink cost is more than a third of the printer cost, so keep that in mind.
Other:
It prints black and white pages about 10 a minute and color pages (not full color) at about 5 a minute.
You can copy straight from the printer/scanner by pushing the button with the circle/triangle and then choosing BW or Color. It defaults to BW.
When you are aligning the printer, it will print a page numbered from top to bottom along the left and with squares from right to left. It is asking you to find on each horizontal line the best looking square. It took me a few minutes to figure that out.
Photo on the left was printed by the printer using "copy" with normal resolution setting on photo paper, photo on right is original.
I'm glad I waited for this third-generation Ecotank printer. Setup was ridiculously fast and easy, the features are great, and the print quality is more than adequate for my needs. My wife and I especially like the automatic duplex printing and the ability to print from virtually anywhere in the world using Epson Connect.
Yes, it's a tad noisy and it doesn't have a document feeder, but if those things were dealbreakers I would have purchased a more expensive model.
This printer is replacing a $92 wireless printer that sucked up $80 worth of ink every 5-6 weeks. Yes, it's more expensive upfront, but if you consider that this will use $60 worth of ink every two years, it's well worth the cost.
EDIT: The price of this item dropped by $50 immediately after it was ordered, but Amazon refused my request to adjust the price. Beware.
My husband bought this printer for work. He works from home, so I've been able to use it frequently as well and so far I'm loving it. I will say that setting it up was a nightmare. I'm far from technical guru, but do have moderate experience with computers and have set up several printers over the years. The main issue was getting the software on his work computer that does not have a CD drive. You can download the software from the Epson website, but for some reason it was extremely difficult to do. After downloading I would get an error message saying it was unsuccessful. After fighting with it for 3 days I finally got it setup, and I honestly have no idea how I did it so I cannot give any tips for others in a similar situation. After the initial headache though, it's been smooth sailing. I love the borderless printing option, it really does print all the way to the edge of the paper with excellent quality. The ink is super easy to load, and will save us a bundle of money over the life of the printer. You get a LOT of ink! The scanner on our last printer was awful. The picture quality was pathetic. This scanner is crazy good! We were both impressed with how well and clear the scanned images are. Same with the copier. I have no complaints whatsoever about this product and would absolutely recommend it without hesitation, although it'll be a lot easier to install if you have a CD drive to install the software. Once you have it set up, everything is very easy to use. The printer basically walks you through everything. If you can read, you can use this printer. The only thing my husband doesn't like is that you can only scan one page at a time and you have to place each page individually on the scanner/copier. He has to scan dozens of pages at a time, and he is used to putting a stack of pages in the printer all at once (the way you put blank paper in for printing). That's our fault though for not completely reading the product description before purchasing, so I certainly can't take away any stars for our own error. Overall, you really can't go wrong with this printer. I've been at my parents house over 100 miles away and can print things as if I were at home where the printer is. My only regret is not buying it 3 years ago.
First of all, the Epson ET-2750 eliminates one thing that EVERYONE hates about inkjet printers: having to go buy cartridges. HP solved this problem for me by monitoring my ink levels and letting me sign up for ink delivery from them - for a lot less than the ink cartridges themselves were costing me. Epson has taken care of this by eliminating the cartridges altogether, and shipping this printer with about two years worth of ink, all still in the bottles.
Setup for this printer was a breeze. Adding ink was pretty easy, and mess free. Within minutes of unboxing it, I was printing my test page and had everything set up and running. Could not have been easier -- unless Epson had sent someone to my house to do the work for me!
Print quality is great, rivaling any other printer I have. Print speed is also quite good. My only real problem with this little printer is that it's kinda loud. I don't have a separate office anymore, so everything is out in the living space of my house, and I really prefer quieter printers. But I can deal with that, for the performance of this printer.
I will say that the ink level indicators on the front of the printer do NOT look like they do in the picture, but it's still easy to tell when you need to add in to the tank. No more guessing whether the cartridge is almost empty, no more running out of ink in the middle of a big print job. You can see exactly how much ink is left.
This is one of the few Epson printers I've been this happy with. Easy set up, good print quality, and it ships with a TON of ink. I can deal with a little noise for everything else this brings to the table. Highly recommended.
Feature Product
- Cartridge-free printing - comes with up to 2 years of ink in the box (1)
- Includes enough ink to print up to 6,500 pages black/5,200 color (2) - equivalent to about 30 ink cartridge sets (3)
- Save up to 80 percent on ink with low-cost replacement bottles (4) - plus easy-to-fill, supersized ink tanks
- Easy wireless - easily print from iPad, iPhone, Android tablets and smartphones (5); includes Wi-Fi Direct (6)
- Auto 2-sided printing - save up to 50 percent of your paper supply.Maximum Print Resolution: 5760 x 1440 optimized dpi
- RoHS compliant
Description
The Expression ET-2750 EcoTank wireless all-in-one offers revolutionary cartridge-free printing with easy-to-fill, supersized ink tanks. It includes up to 2 years of ink in the box (1). That’s an incredible amount of ink — enough to print up to 5,200 pages (2), and equivalent to about 30 ink cartridge sets (3). Plus, it features auto-stop ink bottles with each color uniquely keyed for easy filling of each tank. And, you save up to 80 percent on ink with low-cost replacement bottles (4). The ET-2750 also offers convenient wireless printing from tablets and smartphones (5), plus Wi-Fi Direct (6) and auto 2-sided printing. Operating Systems: Windows 10, Windows 8, 8.1 (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), Mac OS X 10.6 – macOS 10.12.x10
1. Based on average monthly print volumes of about 150 pages.
2. Included ink bottle yields based on the ISO/IEC 24712 pattern with Epson’s methodology. Actual ink yields will vary considerably for reasons including images printed, print settings, temperature and humidity. Yields may be lower when printing infrequently or predominantly with one ink color. All ink colors are used for printing and printer maintenance, and all colors must be available for printing. For more information, visit our official site.
3. Equivalent cartridge sets estimate based on print yields of the included Black and color ink bottles as compared to Epson standard-capacity ink cartridge sets for similarly featured cartridge printers as of March 2017.
4. Savings comparison based on the purchase cost of replacement ink bottles and the cost of enough cartridges to achieve the total page yields of the bottles using the manufacturers’ online prices and yields for the highest-capacity cartridges for the best-selling, similarly featured consumer inkjet printers priced at $499 or less per NPD, July 2016. Actual savings will vary based on print tasks, print volumes and usage conditions.
5. Most features require an Internet connection to the printer, as well as an Internet- and/or email-enabled device. For a list of Epson Connect enabled printers and compatible devices and apps, visit our official site.
6. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED; level of performance subject to the range of the router being used. Wi-Fi Direct may require printer software.
7. Adapter may be required.
8. 12 months of standard limited warranty or 50,000 plain paper sheets (whichever happens first). For an additional 12 months (total of 24 months or 50,000 plain paper sheets, whichever happens first), register your product and use Epson genuine ink bottles. See Limited Warranty for details.
9. ET-2500/2550/2600/2650/2700/2750/3600/3700/3750/4500/4550/4750/16500 included ink bottle yields based on the ISO/IEC 24712 pattern with Epson’s methodology. ET-7700/7750 included ink bottle photo yields are significantly lower and are based on the ISO/IEC 29103 pattern with Epson’s methodology. WF-R4640 included ink pack yields are estimated based on ISO/IEC 24711 test in Default Mode printing continuously. Actual ink yields will vary considerably for reasons including images printed, print settings, temperature and humidity. Yields may be lower when printing infrequently or predominantly with one ink color. All ink colors are used for printing and printer maintenance, and all colors must be available for printing. For more information, visit our official site.
10. Based on average monthly document print volumes of about 150 pages (ET-2500, ET-2550, ET-2600, ET-2650, ET-2700, ET-2750, ET-4500), 300 pages (ET-3600, ET-3700, ET-3750, ET-4550, ET-4750, ET-7700, ET-7750, ET-16500), and 800 pages (WF-R4640).
11. For convenient and reasonable recycling options, visit our official site.
12. SmartWay is an innovative partnership of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that reduces greenhouse gases and other air pollutants and improves fuel efficiency. Power Consumption: Approx. 13 W ISO 24712 (Standalone copy printing)|Approx. 0.3 W (Power Off Mode)
Had an ancient Epson R280 that was showing its age. In last couple years I started buying generic cartridges which, although relatively inexpensive, seemed to be poorer quality ink and ran out more quickly. With so many printer choices out there, decided to give this one a try. Have been watching the Ecotank models since they were released and the notion of paying a little more upfront for hardware and rarely buying ink was super appealing. Setup was easy enough on my wireless network, print quality is great, and speed is plenty fast. Based on our normal relatively low household usage, I predict it came with enough ink for 3 years of printing. Refill of all colors seems to run about $60 which feels totally reasonable for covering 2-3 years of printing. At this point we've been using for the past three months and overall are extremely pleased.
I bought the ET-2750 before last Christmas and found it to be an impressive, reliable wireless printer. The main reason for my purchase was that a supply of ink is included on board the printer. Epson claims the inks will last a year and save the user a lot of money. For me, that remains to be seen.
The ET-2750 has two weaknesses. Adjusting the color for pictures/photos can be a nuisance. Syncing the printer to your network requires entering necessary info using the buttons on the front panel and checking the entries using the small screen nearby. To be fair, these flaws could be partly due to “user error” rather than Epson's “design error.”
I'd recommend Epson include a complete printed manual in the box with the ET-2750 rather than requiring the new user to go on-line to access and download it.
Works as expected. Not the fastest printer and lacks some features, such as automatic document feed and fax, but that was clear when I ordered it, so I am not deducting any stars. What it does, printing and scanning, it does well. I printed out holiday cards and normally need to replace cartridges at least once. With this printer, the ink is still almost full using just the ink that came with the printer. I expect this to be a huge savings.
The paper feeder is not the best, but I knew that when I bought the printer, so again, no deductions. It did jam and sometimes is a bit sensitive to getting everything lined up perfectly with card stock and envelopes, so I am deducting one star for that. The price is much higher than other printers with similar features, but you save the difference easily with just the ink provided. After that, it should be a huge savings over the old printer. Overall a very good buy so far and I have recommended it to friends.
I'm sure it's a common story. Small business person buys an inexpensive printer to help reduce start-up costs. Small business person buys ink cartridge, but gets tired of spending over $50 for a cartridge set. Small business person starts buying remanufactured ink and realizes after a couple of purchases that he/she is probably better off buying the new cartridges. Small business person realizes that he/she is probably spending $250-$300 per year on ink. Small business person decides to get a printer that isn't designed to rip you off.
So far I'm very happy with my purchase. I print a lot every day, so this is a great business tool for a small business person.
Printer was easy to unbox and didn't require any assembly to set up. Loading the ink tanks from the big ink bottles was easy, even though the scanner bed couldn't be lifted completely out of the way. I was delighted that I didn't spill any ink at all. Installing the network drivers on my computers was a no-brainer. I have fought for years with error-prone and flaky software installations on HP printers. By comparison the epson 2750 was a joy.
The plastic of which the 2750 is constructed is not particularly rigid, and conducts noise when the printer is printing to a greater extent than other printers in the same price range. That said, the printer is not noisy. But it could have been quieter. The paper input is just a stand on back of the printer, not a proper input tray. I was a little disappointed that the 2750 has a USB port, but does not have an ethernet port. It's wireless networking only. This is really a $99 printer plus $120 to buy down the cost of ink, which other makers get by gouging you for cartridges.
The epson et-2759 is quite compact compared to my other all-in-one printers. It can sit pretty much right against the wall if you're loading letter sized paper. The print path is about 9 inches wide, so paper formats up to that width, and any length will work. The paper path only bends through about 30 degrees, so you should be able to print on card stock and labels with minimal difficulty. Two-sided printing is another matter, as the paper must go around a spindle. The scanning bed is only 11 inches long. Sorry law offices.
I've only had this printer a week. I may return to this review when I've had more experience.
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