Epson Ecotank ET-8500 review: ink tank printer for photo enthusiasts

In one look

Expert rating

Benefits

• Very high print quality
• High for grayscale photos
• Processes many types of materials
• Very low cost per page despite 6 colors

The inconvenients

• No real switch
• High purchase price

Our opinion

Printing beautiful photos on a variety of media is an art in itself, which the Epson Ecotank ET-8500 masters admirably – from classic photo sizes to printing on fine art paper. The versatility of this multifunctional tank printer is what sets it apart and makes it fun to try. And, thanks to the ink tanks, the costs of the photo remain low.

Best Prices Today: Epson Ecotank ET-8500

$610.00

$699.99

Amateur photographers often spend a fortune on prints, especially if they use a cartridge device with lots of photo inks for printing. The Epson Ecotank ET-8500 is precisely suited for this target group. Thanks to the tank system, you will save a lot of money per print. Although the initial investment is high, it pays for itself quickly.

What it costs to print

The Epson Ecotank ET-8500 has six tanks that can be filled with the 114 series of bottles. One tank is for pigment black ink. The remaining five reservoirs are reserved for dye-based inks – specifically photo black, cyan (blue), magenta (red), yellow (yellow), and gray. All tanks offer the same filling capacity. There is no larger black tank for text.

Photo prints are produced by the ink tank multifunction printer from up to five colors. The costs are calculated on the basis of a photo of 10 x 15 centimeters. All ink quantities should be sufficient for 2,300 photos when purchased.

The manufacturer charges $17.49 / £15.99 / $17.99 per bottle for 70 millilitres. Based on this, the price of a 10 x 15 photo is 3.4 cents / 3.4p / 3.9 cents – although please bear in mind that UK and US prices are a rough estimate.

Twice as much is charged for an A4 photo – 7.5 cents/ 6.9p/ 7.8 cents. Compared to cartridge printers, these are incredibly low prices. You can print your photos as you wish. The only thing that is expensive is the paper, which you have to add to the ink costs.

But even in standard printing on plain paper, the Epson Ecotank ET-8500 won’t break the bank. Here, the ink refills offer a range of 6,700 pages for black text and 6,200 pages for other colors. With prices of 0.25 cents/ 0.23p/ 0.27 cents for a black-and-white sheet and 1.4 cents/ 1.24p/ 1.45 cents for a color ISO page, the ET-8500 is a bit higher than other tank models, but leaves any cartridge or toner model far behind.

At the same time, it is frugal in its power consumption: in standby mode, the Epson Ecotank ET-8500 drops to 0.7 watts with a USB connection and 0.9 watts via WLAN. But there is a flaw: when switched off, the ink tank multifunction printer does not completely disconnect from the mains. During the test, the meter still showed a consumption of 0.4 watts.

Foundry

Easy start

The Epson Ecotank ET-8500 proves that even a six-color multifunction printer is easy to set up. The driver CD and the clear leaflet – both included in delivery – are helpful. In addition, there is a set of ink bottles that matches the refill bottles in terms of refill quantities.

Since the line system must be filled once, the range is reduced to 18.00 photos (10 x 15 centimeters). Ink tanks are coded. This means that only the correct ink tank combinations are suitable. Incorrect filling is thus excluded. Anti-drips and an automatic stop of the filling process ensure that the ink ends up in the reservoirs without splashing or overflowing.

Pressure adjustment is more extensive on the ET-8500 than on other printer models. This shows that it is a more specialized device whose print head must be aligned a little more precisely.

Characteristics: Aimed at photo enthusiasts

The sheer number of paper feeders alone makes it clear that Epson wants to fulfill as many photo wishes as possible with the Ecotank ET-8500. And it succeeds with a paper cassette for 100 sheets, a second cassette for 20 photo papers up to 13 x 18 centimeters, a rear feeder for up to 50 sheets, a cut sheet feeder for thick media and a model of printing for CD/DVD printing.

Some paper feeders are only ready for use after a few manual operations. For example, for the single sheet feeder, you need to remove the back cover, click into the paper guide inside the case, and align the sheet exactly with the arrows. To print on a DVD, remove the document holder from the bottom of the paper cassette and insert it into the front of the case in the designated location. With a little practice, both procedures are easy to perform.

The foldable touch screen of the Epson Ecotank ET-8500 is remarkable: it has a diagonal of almost 11 centimeters and can therefore be easily operated with the touch of a finger.

Connecting to Wi-Fi networks is also quick and easy. The ET-8500 can also be connected via USB, LAN or Wi-Fi Direct. Mobile printing works via Apple Airprint, Mopria or the manufacturer’s own apps, Epson Smart Panel or Epson Print Layout.

For direct printing from storage media, the tank multifunction printer offers an SD card slot and a USB host port on the front of the device. Both interfaces disappear behind the front cover of the paper cassette when folded. In addition, the Epson Ecotank ET-8500 can automatically print on both sides thanks to the duplex unit.

There are two features that are really design cues rather than functional significance. When a print job arrives at the Epson Ecotank ET-8500, the output tray pops out automatically. It can be retracted again by pressing a button on the device. And when a print job is in progress, the paper output is illuminated by white LEDs.

Quality: great photos, high-quality daily prints

The Epson Ecotank ET-8500 prints, scans and copies. Even though it is suitable for photo printing, it handles everyday tasks to a high standard. Pigmented black ink, for example, ensures highly legible text with balanced coverage. Color PDFs with images, graphics, and text also came out impressive in the test.

There’s not much to complain about in the test scans. However, do not expect miracles, as Epson relies on a CIS (Compact Image Sensor) scanner here – similar to other ink tank models. However, performance is quite satisfactory for scanning common originals. When it comes to copying, the ET-8500 is more in line with normal desktop and home office tank printers. Here, its performance is absolutely decent, but not outstanding.

Foundry

The strength of the Epson ET-8500 clearly lies in photo printing, where it impresses with rich detail, beautiful transitions and natural skin tones. Those who want to print black and white photos will appreciate the gray ink. As for the colors, the rendering on paper is excellent here. You don’t have to worry about annoying color casts, which often occur with four-color printers.

If you print from a mobile device, the Epson Smart Panel app is a good helper. Colors become even more natural when the Epson Print Layout application is used. Color management is even finer here. However, we were unable to achieve borderless printing. But the margins are very low.

Foundry

Working speed: Fast, but not too fast

During our test, we noticed how quietly the Epson Ecotank ET-8500 runs most of the time. It only becomes more audible when printing monochrome text at standard resolution. Here it produced 10 pages in 45 seconds via USB – a decent result, which is also similar over Wi-Fi. Ten color pages of Acrobat were printed in 2min 14sec – again, very quickly.

The ET-8500 also retains this reliable mode of operation when printing photos. We measured almost 3 minutes for an A4 photo, and 1h32 minutes for a 10×15 photo, almost exactly half the time. Also in scanning, the ink tank multifunction printer performed the tasks at a decent pace. We measured 6 seconds for an A4 preview and 10 seconds for a color scan. A copy took 19 seconds in color and 14 seconds in black and white. Many competitors are considerably slower.

Price and availability

There are many buying options for the Epsom Ecotank ET-8500, but it’s a good idea to shop around as prices can vary. If you’re in the US, its MSRP is $699.99 and you can get it for that price from Best Buy, but it’s available for much less on Amazon.

In the UK you can buy directly from Epsom, but you’ll pay the full RRP of £649.99. As of this writing, John Lewis and Amazon have much better deals – by a whopping £100.

Verdict

The Epsom Ecotank ET-8500 is a great choice for people who want to print photos, especially those who want to print them regularly. It’s fast and your prints will be of high quality. Yes, you’ll pay more for the initial purchase, but over time its speed, reliability and cost per print will pay off.

This review originally appeared in PC-Welt and has been translated for inclusion here.

For more options and to see which printers we recommend, check out our roundup of the best printers we’ve tested.

Technical specifications