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

I use the Epson ET-8550 6 color printer. It produces excellent prints up to 13x19” and borderless too. It isn’t hard on ink so not expensive to use either. Highly recommend it. Check YouTube (Kieth Cooper / North Light Images) for reviews on printers. He really goes in deep on the nut and bolts to give complete accurate assessment on capabilities and good/bad on printers. Lots of info.

I print a test page on my ET8550 a couple time a month just to keep any issues at bay and do a head cleaning periodically if I see any problems. Using a tank based ink delivery system does away with much of the headaches of cartridges. I know I’ll NEVER go back to using cartridges again. Even my day to day inkjet is an Epson EcoTank printer, ET2800.

Back in the day, some cartridges had integrated heads. Bad design all around. I had an Epson Workforce series cartridge style printer. What a dog! Didn’t have int’g heads but I could not keep cartridges from messing up in that thing. Almost swore off Epson because of that printer, then I started looking at the ECOTANK technology. Bought the ET2800 as a test bed. Used it for nearly a year and never once had any issue short of an occasional head cleaning (seemed to be YELLOW that gave me the most problems). When the ET8550 was marked down for BF a couple of years ago, I took the gamble based on what I saw using the ET#800. Best gamble I ever made.

Second the choice of the Epson ET8550. I bought one a couple of years ago and do my own prints, everything from 8x10 to 13x19 (max size). Even did a trial run of a landscape panorama I created on 13” wide roll paper (cut to 48” long) and it was fantastic looking. As to longevity of the prints, under glass and not left in strong direct sunlight, estimated to last several decades. Kieth Cooper (on YouTube) will give you more detailed information about the ET8550 and printers in general than you can imagine. The man’s a printer guru! You can watch his review of the information about the processes used to make this longevity claim here https://youtu.be/AzESi8ecgiQ?si=2byKfnmJo4RhDJ0L The ET8550 is very economical to use. I’ve done lots of prints and just recently needed to refill the tanks. Luckily I bought a couple complete sets of bottled Epson ink at the same time as the printer as ink prices have gone up so a full set of 6 inks needed is now around $130 but unless you going into printing commercially, should last for over a year. The supplied ink that comes with the printer will last quite a while. eBay has some good deals but be careful you’re getting ACTUAL Epson ink. Even at these prices, Epson ink is one of the least expensive sets of ink on the market. I highly recommend you do not use 3rd party inks with the ET8550, not because they don’t work (probably will but I’ve spent to much time perfecting my color calibration to chance it) but because you don’t know the standardization of the ink itself and in doing so, you could throw all your good efforts for color calibration out the window. I recommend you read up on color calibration, as you may want to use color profiles with this printer to achieve near perfect color rendering. I use DataColor’s full suite of tools (software and hardware sensors) to calibrate my monitors and printers to standardized samples. All of my papers I use are calibrated to Epson inks and unless they are actual Epson OEM papers, I create an ICC color profile that is loaded in the printer. My prints come out looking exactly how they look on any of my stack of four color calibrated 27” UHD monitors. Hope this little missive helps anyone who’s looking for a good photo printer.

Mainly price. The ET8550 was on sale at Amazon for a bit over $500 during BF a couple years ago. Haven’t been sorry at all. Even got the additional extended warranty for 5 years (IIRC). So far it’s been an exemplary performer for my printing needs.

I have had issues getting things to come out as I want but only have had to ‘take what I could get’ a few times. I don’t shoot what you might call ‘fine art’ images, more a general purpose of landscapes and street style. The ET8550 does a fabulous job in that respect for my own wall hangings and photo albums plus I give them as gifts to family and friends.

I have the Epson ET-8550 6 color photo printer (13” x 19” max prints) and print my own work. I also use Datacolor’s suite of calibration tools to ensure all devices in my workflow are calibrated to the same standard so what I see on my display is what I see on my final prints. Unless you plan on making 100’s to 1000’s of prints, this is the way to go since you have ultimate control. If you plan to hang the prints I’d recommend using UV resistant glass/plexiglass coverings if hanging in areas of direct sunlight unless you opt for using pigmented inks. Myself I use the standard dye inks.

I’ve got the EPSON ET-8550 6-color photo printer and I really like the results. It runs around $600 and a full reload of all 6 bottles of bulk ink runs around $130 unless you happen to find it on sale like I did last year and bought up a large stock. It lasts for an extremely long time unless you’re constantly printing large prints. I refill about every 8-10 months and tend to print on a periodic basis in sizes up to 11x14”. The max paper that it can handle is 13 x 19” unless you hand feed longer sheets 13” wide and up to 79” long, like for panoramas. It’s a nice setup but you’re definitely not going to get it for $200 unless you happen to find a used one on eBay or such. There is the ET-8500, a smaller version (LTR size paper I believe) but not sure how much or the specs. Go to EPSON.COM where you can get specs and docs to review.

I have the Epson ET-8550 13” x 19” 6 color printer. It uses ink very economically and you can get ICC color profiles from various sources on the web. I create my own color profiles using DATACOLOR SPYDER PRINT calibration software. I don’t go to outside printers unless I need something I can’t print here. There was a commercial study done (can be found on the YouTube channel below) on the longevity of ink types used for printing on non-archival methods and results indicated that expectations were 50 years and higher from the inks used on the Epson ET-8550. This, of course, is when exhibited in a proper location without constant harsh sunlight without strong UV. I figure given my use cases and since I don’t sell my prints (do give as gifts, etc) they’ll outlast me by a long time. Take a look at this YouTube channel. https://youtu.be/VEab3AhuIV4?si=DuHR_mPGz_aeb76u Kieth Cooper of Northlight Images. He’s really in tune with all aspects of home printing and has a lot of interest videos and data. Might be worth a look if you’re interested in printing your own stuff.

It uses ink tank's father than cartridges. Has a photo black and grey as well. I regularly print 11x14 with great quality. Qimage ultimate software on a pc let's you print multiple sizes or copies on one sheet of paper. So an 8 1/2 by 11 can do several 2 x 3 and a 4x6 for example.

I'm currently using an Epson ET8550 all in one printer. Does great photos and uses ink tanks, so no cartridges to dry up. I do lots of 4x6 and some 8x10. Occasional 11x14 as well. Theres a program Qimage Ultimate that lets you print multiple copies or mixed sizes on one sheet of paper. So 2 wallets and 2 4x6 on one sheet.

Print lots of photos on my Epson ET-8550. Six ink colors.

My Epson ET-8550 does a fine job on photos. I commonly do 11x14.

I have an ET-8550 and print lots of photos from 4x5 to 11x14. Not sure how it compares. How do you plan to digitize is negatives?

OK, so you have digital files on your PC, or Mac and want to print them. Now we're on the same page. 😊 The 4800 uses 4 ink colors. Black, yellow, cyan, and magenta. Depending on your standards, it's OK. The 8550 uses Black, photo black, Grey, yellow, agents, and cyan. So it can do a better job with color rendition. Six colors vs. 4. Depending on subject matter, you may not notice a big difference. I did not see what size paper it can use. But it should have no issues with up to 8x10.

I've also noticed my canon g7020 prints better pictures then Epson ECOTANK I also noticed the canon G7020 sits better not printing for 1 week at a time vs the Epson I also noticed my canon has no expiration on the ink. But the Epson is like 2-3 years.

Yes your right it's not an art priner and the 8xxx series is better quality. But Epson is literally disposable Well, to give a bit of an update I guess if I haven’t already, my second Epson ET 8550 that I got after my first one also died at 13,200 pages. The same way, the same issue, and I took way better care of this one in the sense of making sure that the print heads never got a chance to dry out at all. I’ve been using HP 32lb premium for the vast majority of my prints. Other than that, for stickers, online labels weatherproof matte sticker paper. Seldomly 110lb staples card stock, and then I’ll also print on a6 white envelopes. I made a post in the /commercialprinting group about trying to find a printer that can handle what I’m doing, several people say to outsource which I don’t want to do, and a couple people think maybe the wf-5890 will work well but I can’t seem to find too much feedback on it for what I plan to use it for. Which is lots of color heavy printing. I’ve never really had an issue with the colors not being good enough, I think at most I’ve had to just slightly edit my files to have heavier saturation via photoshop. I have to use the 32lb paper because when I was using 24 and 28lb, the paper was warping from the amount of ink. https://www.reddit.com/r/magicproxies/s/lbjZoIO0W8 They are pizzo electric and expensive as all hell.

Yeah thermal heads fail but the sure as hell don't clog as easy I would print full color rain sheets 2x a week and it would still clog I just came back from Europe after 1 months trip no print zero clog. Also the print head for canon is the part numbers for black and color are qy6-8026-010 and qy6-8035-010, respectively. And are 100x easier to replace But sure let me just ya know drop 2-15k on a xerox or rioch or Kyocera and a consumables/maintenance plan for a 500 page print volume a month.oh wait I don't even have room for that I've Experienced artist here: My ET-8550 has been nothing but pure hell since the day I bought it, a year ago. I regret it immensely. I'm not a beginner with this stuff - previously I was using an HP Photosmart, making handmade vinyl stickers, iron on transfers, art prints, the works. When I decided to upgrade after my Photosmart finally died....god do I regret dropping $600 on the ET-8550. I read so many reviews praising it, but I have actually cried real tears, and lost hours of my valuable time trying to get this printer to do even the most basic of tasks. It will not use the entire scanner glass for photo quality scans. Color handling is abysmal, and requires hours of careful calibration to get anything right. Did I mention the print heads clog regularly? I feel ashamed that I spent a lot of money on a tool that, in the end, has not allowed me to advance my art goals. It was a massive mistake, and now I have what is essentially a $600 paperweight. seen more issues and complaints with Epson then Canon. Thermal heads fail but they don't clog as easy Experienced artist here: My ET-8550 has been nothing but pure hell since the day I bought it, a year ago. I regret it immensely. I'm not a beginner with this stuff - previously I was using an HP Photosmart, making handmade vinyl stickers, iron on transfers, art prints, the works. When I decided to upgrade after my Photosmart finally died....god do I regret dropping $600 on the ET-8550. I read so many reviews praising it, but I have actually cried real tears, and lost hours of my valuable time trying to get this printer to do even the most basic of tasks. It will not use the entire scanner glass for photo quality scans. Color handling is abysmal, and requires hours of careful calibration to get anything right. Did I mention the print heads clog regularly? I feel ashamed that I spent a lot of money on a tool that, in the end, has not allowed me to advance my art goals. It was a massive mistake, and now I have what is essentially a $600 paperweight.

Ecotank is garbage for photo prints

I have an ecotank for printing documents. They are not well suited for making photographic prints

I am on my second ET-8550. The first one ran for 4 years perfectly until it gave me a paper jan error message which I eventually found was caused by a roller jamming the feeder bar. I was unable to find a fix so I purchased a second printer. Now I am finding that the new printer produces poorer quality prints particularly with contrast tones. I have tried all kinds of adjustments to the image without much luck. When you compare prints side by side you can see a significant difference. Anyone has a solution for this, of a source for replacement parts particularly the paper feed roller bar for my previous printer?

I have Epson eco tank, but it doesn’t print in “high quality “ as you describe. I’d suggest printing your things somewhere like FedEx, they have great prices for their quality

I love my epson ecotank printer. There’s lots of sticker makers that use it and you can find reviews on YouTube. Ink is cheaper too than buying cartridges. Comes in bottles.

The et-8550 is incredible, I can’t recommend it enough.

I have an ecotank. Its slow and not the best quality print but you can print a lot on one bottle of ink and thats what i care about

Epson EcoTank (ET) printers are the way to go. The teacher will really, really, really appreciate the very inexpensive cost per page because the ink is so inexpensive.