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Epson Wants you To Print Again, Makes Printers That Last 2 Years Per Ink

by 21 Comments

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If you are one of the few who are still printing pictures, you know that one of the most annoying things about actually printing is dealing with ink. I don’t just mean the outrageous ink prices, it also has to do with how you can’t print when one of the color cartridges ends. If you did not stock up with a spare cartridge of that specific color, it’s a trip to inkland.

Epson wants to change all that and to help you print more, by removing the biggest obstacle home printers have: INK. Their new EcoTank series is promised to go for 2 years on a single dose of ink. And when that runs out, a new set of ink bottles will set you back a mere $59.

 

The secret to this is stopping the use or ink cartridges all together and using ink tank instead. Now heavy Epson users may remember that they had to hack a printer to make this happen, but now you would get this ability off the shelf.

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Epson’s EcoTank printers have these 4 small compartments – each per color + black – specifically designed to hold plenty of ink. Compared to similar Epson all-in-ones, each of the new EcoTank models are capable of storing the equivalent of up to 20 previous-generation ink cartridges.

And considering the slightly elevated price of an Expression ET-2500 ($379) or an Expression ET-2550 ($399), if you are a heavy photo printer, the ink costs will make it a break even pretty fast.

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It seems that Epson are doing a test on their office and low end markets and I would love to see this technology arriving at the more high-end product line like the 8-heads Epson Stylus line or 6-headed Artisan line.

P.S. Let’s hope they solved that little head-clogging thing.

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About Udi Tirosh

Udi Tirosh is the Founder and Editor in Chief of DIYPhotography, he is also a photographer, a relentless entrepreneur, a prolific inventor and a dad, not necessarily in that order

  • too late, they should’ve thought about that before times when it was cheaper to buy new printer than replace ink…

    • Paganator

      When you buy a printer, it comes with tiny ink cartridges. Buying ink separately (in full-size cartridges) is still a better deal than buying a new printer even though the ink price is extortionate.

      • Paul Menard

        honestly epson or someone else would need to make a nice printer, thats easily user serviceable, a cast iron commitment to have affordable spares, really damn resistant to clogging, and have cheap affordable inks

        the last epson i bought was a s20, and that was just cheap and pure evil and utter, utter junk.

        • Jason Wright

          Yes, if they charge the real cost for the printer and don’t make a loss on it there is less incentive to shave the cost down to pennies. This should mean that while they are more expensive these printers should actually work.

      • cnnspy

        I do not want to nor will I pay $2000 or so per gallon of ink. That’s CRIMINAL! And they say Lawyers are crooks with their $300/hr price!

    • This is actually not true, because new printers come with special ink carbides that only have half or a third of the ink in a regular cartridge.

      • Jason Wright

        And the cost of buying a whole set of new ink when it clogs can be higher than the cost of a printer with that tiny amount of ink. The fact you didn’t run out but instead came up against a clog mean the logical choice, the EASY choice is bin the printer and get a newer better one rather than mess around.

    • there was of course some exaggeration on my part. but for consumer printers, price for ink was through the roof and heads would clog. printers wasted it… you know it. it would be hard to persuade consumers to print more, especially these days.

  • It’s about time. The extortionate cost of ink is one of the main reasons why so few people print their images.

    • Jason Wright

      Considering how good and cheap online photo printing is that isn’t the reason. With online photo uploaders and book creators it’s easy too. People just don’t want to print them these days. Why print 600 photos of your lunch anyway?

  • Jeremy

    Another big reason home/studio printing is declining is how the nozzles clog on any printer that sits idol for a week…

  • Ink lasts 2 years, heads dry out in 2 weeks.

    • Jason Wright

      Which is exactly why the old model sucked. If you didn’t print constantly you had to waste about a thousands pounds worth of ink trying to clear the head blockage to do the one page you wanted that month/year. It was often cheaper to buy a printer per print job than try to get the old one working again.
      Instead I bought a colour laser for most things and get photos printed profesionally.

  • I don’t get this. Who cares how LONG the ink lasts? How many PRINTS does it last? That figure is suspiciously absent. Also, a “mere” $59 for new ink? This is the same old crap, with a new PR spin on it.

    • Jason Wright

      I think the suggestion is 2 years worth of printing, NOT that it expires in 2 years.
      It’s very much NOT the same old crap, it’s the opposite. Charging what the items cost rather than giving away the printer to sell overpriced ink. This is how printing should always have been. Actually, saying that, I can see how the two models can co-exist. There are use cases for the razor/blade model.

  • Mike McIntire

    4-color photo printing? I’ll pass. Still worth it to just pint a few here and there with a real process for the biggy size print on the wall.

  • I too, am looking for the l higher-end product lines like the 8-heads Epson Stylus line or 6-headed Artisan line.

  • jason bourne

    What’s a “spear cartridge”? ;)

  • qpease

    It’s just a continuous inking system (CISS). Here’s my solution, get a low-cost, highly-rated printer like a Brother multi-function printer and go to Amazon or Ebay and get a CISS that fits it. You’ll save money upfront as well as later over this deal.

  • Seggaf Almudhary

    At first Epson make this system for asian market about 4 years ago. The system is very good, the head print won’t dry even after you don’t print for a long time. Custom CISS is not very good system for your printer. And this is not only for printer with 4 ink, if you search Epson L850, They make this system for photo printer too. Epson make printer for A3 paper with this system too (Epson L1300 and L1800)

    • Johan Whalley

      If what you say about the heads not clogging or dryinging-up extremely frequently, why don’t ANY of the reviews of this “new” Ep-Ah-Sore-Sonny-Jimbobby range [not even one out of the many reviews read online] mentions this? eh? You so likee this you wanna buy up all the Ep-Ah-Sore-Sonnys, perhaps.

      In fact, why don’t Epson mentions this very common problem in their advertising? Absolute cheats-liars according to me. Especially not when inks cost $2k per gallon, of course. Ah-Velly-Sore indeed.

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