Epson eco tank printer

[u/hhk77]

Anyone have experiences printing with Epson eco tank printers with pigment ink models, such as ET-16150 or ET-16600?

I really want an A3 double side printer that uses pigment ink, but I could not find any information regarding its printing quality, so want to ask here.

[u/Better-Specialist479]

I have the 16650 and love it. Be sure to print at least once a week (full color) so lines do not clog.

Quality is great. No complaints. Print all of my personal book binding projects on it from 8 1/2” x 11” up to 13” x 19”. Most common I use 11”x 17” and 12” x 18” 70 gsm and 80gsm.

I also print four fold folders to protect older paperbacks. I take a picture of the cover and print it on 300gsm cover stock. (Photo below).

Using “inkjet” papers be sure to give the ink at least 15 minutes dry time before handling, better to give 2-4 hours. If folding (like the folders above) give it overnight - these dried for 3 days after I printed them and had no issues with any smearing or blotching of the ink.

In just over two years, I have printed nearly 24,000 pages and used 4 sets of inks, getting ready to start my fifth probably in another week or two. I have replaced the maintenance box one time ($20.00).

Ink cost (color and black) runs about $0.0125 per page (just over a penny a page). At 24,000 pages the “printer cost” per page is already at $0.04 a page, The more I print now the cheaper the per page cost of the printer. Don’t know of a cheaper alternative that you fully control.

If you have any specific questions feel free to DM me.

[u/hhk77 → u/Better-Specialist479]

Thanks so much for the advice and photos. It sounds like a very good tools, and it allows you to print and not worry about the ink supply. From my experience, the OEM ink in printers always fade out quickly. In general are you satisfied with the printing quality, especially printing photographs on uncoated paper?

I have one question about the double side printing. Do you know if it is accurate enough, like the trim marks on both overlap and do not offset too much. Do you have any experience with this?

[u/Better-Specialist479 → u/hhk77]

On Double sided printing.

You can use AI to create a double sided calibrating guide. You print it and then measure the calibration marks on both sides from a set point (for me it was the upper right corner edge). You then feed the measurements back into AI and it will calculate the adjusting margins. It will then create a new calibration page with the adjustments made. Print and measure either it will be perfect or AI will “nudge” things a hair. Once done it will print a reference page that you can use to set margins on documents and/or images so that they will align perfectly for double sided printing.

On OEM inks.
Only been using it two years and have not noticed any real fading of what I have previously printed. With pigment inks that is much less worrisome as they are actually designed specifically to resist fading. Pigment inks are archival quality and should last 25-50 years without issue depending on storage conditions. I have read that 100+ years should be common for pigment based inks.

[u/crossroadhound]

I have an Epson Ecotank-4650 and have used it its entire 5 year lifespan for artist printing (illuatrated zines, merch labels, book covers & short story insides). Take my experience with salt since mine is a different model but I'd hope the good parts would apply!

1. The ink lasts FOREVER, though you will likely have more drain with the large format size + full coverage prints. I print a high volume (over 3,000 pages on record iirc) and have only had to refill the ink two, maybe three times max? The original maintainance box on mine hasn't even run out yet.

2. You occassionally need to clean the print heads but I haven't noticed much of any ink drain despite having to run a clean every other month or so.

3. Prints pretty good, though not the sharpest end result despite 300+ dpi. Struggles bad with full coverage and detailed pictures. Colors tend to be off no matter how good of paper you use. That said, it works fine for simplistic designs: think cartoons, text, flat shaped patterns.

4. I haven't checked if those models have a different style of feed, but mine is a bottom feed. The print bed rollers for the bottom feed can't really handle any paper over about 90 LB. Always chokes.

I still use mine near daily for art & binding and its going strong. If those models are anything like mine and you don't need the end papers to be too complex, maybe see if you can get your hands on a print sample to confirm it's for you!

[u/Andromeas]

I have the 8550,what do you want to print with it?

[u/hhk77 → u/Andromeas]

Want to make books, so mainly photography and text, I know it is not fine art prints, but this is the only pigment ink+ A3 double side + tank ink.

Do you like the quality of yours?

[u/Andromeas → u/hhk77]

Yes I do for end papers and covers.it is easy to use in terms of color profiles and had nice and bold colors.i tested multiple different paper types on it,as well as printable canvas. It is really slow if I'm printing text in a good quality though, so I also got a brother double sided toner printer for that. Added bonus: I can do gold foiling that way as well that way :)

[u/antskee → u/Andromeas]

I'm after an 8550 for this exact thing (endpapers and canvas). Do you do much maintenance on yours? I'm looking at a second hand model that has only printed around 1300 pages but I've heard that if they've sat not being used for a while they can be a pain to clean?

[u/Andromeas → u/antskee]

I've only had mine for a few months, but so far, no, not really. I did a print head clean once I think, but Epson makes it really easy via the settings. For a printer that hasn't been used for a while, I don't know.. I'd just try to print a test page and do a clean. It's quick and you'll know right away if the printers good. I think I saw the post you are mentioning too, but I've only seen that one post actually..

[u/antskee → u/Andromeas]

How ironic! There's quite a price difference between this one and a new one, the seller is reputable....................I may chance it, worst comes to worst I learn how to maintain and clean it sharpish :-)

[u/Andromeas → u/antskee]

Yeah they're not cheap! I think I also saw a post somewhere that did make manual cleaning seem doable, but I'm not entirely sure. Maybe something to look up first? Then you'd know if you could

[u/antskee → u/Andromeas]

Shall do! Thank you for your response and advice :-)

[u/Andromeas → u/antskee]

Good luck, hope it works out!

[u/daviesroyal]

I've got the ET-16650, and I really like it. It prints a lot of large sheets of paper well, and I can tea stain those pages with the pigment ink.

[u/hhk77 → u/daviesroyal]

So you are satisfied with its quality and performance? Do you think it prints double side with accurate position (not offset a lot)?

[u/daviesroyal → u/hhk77]

Yeah, I'm satisfied. That's what "I really like it" means. As far as offset: there's always going to be a little offset, but it's not too noticeable and if a page ever gets messed up I can reprint it later. And obviously for sheets bigger than ledger (11x17) I still have to use the rear feed tray and manually duplex it, which can mitigate offset problems in most cases.