EcoTank ET-2860 A4 Multifunction Wi-Fi Ink Tank Printer

Came in it’s secure box, had to give the delivery person a password which was emailed to me in advance of delivery, which is a nice secure feature, first time having to do that.

It was easy to set up. Everything was in the box. The screen is small but it’s surprisingly easy to use anyway, that was my initial concern. You can set up via your smartphone by scanning the QR code. However, halfway through my setup, while waiting for it to do its thing, my phone went into screensaver mode and I think that halted the entire process, it didn’t progress and I couldn’t move on via the phone app. BUT, just finish it via the screen, it’s so easy. I mentioned that in case anyone else had the same thing and didn’t know what to do. The phone app is just another method of setup, it’s just as easy to use the actual printer screen.

Filling the ink was easy, no mess. Each ink bottle has its only nogging shape that slots into its respective tank, and you can sit it there without holding it.

Once it was set up it has to print a test page which was perfectly fine. And then it’s good to go. People have mentioned the cheap feel of the loading tray at the back, but tbh this isn’t any different from past printers. It’s the same plastic as my old Brother printer which I’m replacing. It does it’s job and that’s good enough for me.

I bought this as an artist wanting to print my own art and Etsy products and stickers etc. I did a lot of research before deciding on this model, and I’m not disappointed. However it has had some issues I had to get help for from Epson, but they have been very helpful.

Such as, the scanner itself. This scanner relies on your network, but it mine seems really iffy with being visible on my home network. My computer can find my old Brother printer with an entire floor between them. This one is sat right next to my computer and more often than not so far it can’t pick up the machine when I want to use the scanner (via the scan program). It finds it if I want to print, (I print mainly from Photoshop), but for some reason it’s not there when I want to activate the scanner. I’ve even used my Cricut cable to plug it into the computer but still not very good. Of the 5 times I’ve tried to scan from the Epson scan program, only 2 did it find the scanner. Now, my ISP is having issues, our network has been weak many days in the past fortnight, but it can still PRINT from my computer/network.

I have since contacted Epson to find out why, I will update this when I have a solution. It might just be user error (however even scanning from the printer screen itself doesn’t work). And I have only tried this several times. I wanted to mention this in any case.

The print quality, though, is well worth it. I went through a lot of Youtube videos to find out the best colour profile in Photoshop for my work, and the results are stunning. I compared my prints next to ones I had ordered from print companies, and my colour and quality looked even better.

It prints beautifully on matt, satin and glossy paper (my tests so far), though if you do print on glossy do some research on Youtube because you can get different qualities depending on the settings you use in your programs (i.e. set Photoshop paper settings for matt paper but putting glossy paper through gives a different quality than assigning glossy settings).

Also I have experienced the odd roller imprint of some prints. Not all of them, weirdly, just some. And the odd spot of ink where it shouldn’t be, always on the edges. I did read about this in other reviews though so it’s not a surprise. Seems to be just on the thicker papers.

Despite the scanner issues I personally have experienced, I’m very glad I bought this printer. For the price it’s exceptionally good and if you use it for your small business like mine I’m sure it will pay for itself.

We bought this to replace our Ecotank 2550 which we had bought when this type of printer first came out. It provided us with 7 years of good service, never breaking down and providing and an incredible quantity of low cost printing. This included a vast amount of home education material, numerous GCSE and now A level papers for my teens and multiple copies of an MSc Dissertation for myself. It helpfully informed us with a message that components were at the end of their life.

I knew immediately that I would replace it with the same type, the Ecotank having outperformed any inkjet or laser printer I had bought in the past in terms of reliability and running costs. I researched the different models and really I wanted the same as before with automatic duplex printing, so we bought the 2850. It is perfect for our needs.

There are even noticeable improvements over the 2550. The ink is much easier to fill in the new model and the tanks are visible from the front, the scanner is much better, but most importantly, the automatic duplex is fantastic and can even make booklets at half size, reducing our paper use further. I wasn’t sure when ordering this model exactly how the auto duplex would work, but it is really easy to set up, it prints on one side, pulls the paper back in and then prints the other side.

All in all very impressed and I definitely recommend these Ecotanks.