Consumer Reports' 4 favorite Epson tank printers

A tank printer trades pricey ink cartridges for refillable reservoirs that can bring yearly printing costs down to just a few dollars. The right model still needs to print sharp text and clean graphics, not just save money on ink.

Consumer Reports tested Epson's tank printer lineup for text quality, speed, graphics and photo output, so shoppers can find a model that fits how they print.

Credit: Epson

The compact Epson EcoTank ET-2980 costs $230 and carries an estimated ink cost of just $4 a year, savings Consumer Reports says can add up to hundreds of dollars over the life of a conventional inkjet. CR rated its text quality impressive, though print speed came back on the slow side, and found it handled color graphics and photos nicely. The printer includes a built-in flatbed scanner that produced reliably good scans in testing, plus a copy function and the ability to print on both sides of a page automatically, though it lacks two-sided scanning and an automatic document feeder. Epson's tank printers earned strong marks for owner satisfaction in CR member surveys, alongside middling scores for predicted reliability.

Credit: Epson

The Epson EcoTank ET-4950 costs $500 and carries an estimated ink cost of just $4 a year, all in a compact frame Consumer Reports found easy to fit into a home office. CR rated the text quality quite good for an inkjet, though print speed came back just so-so, and praised its photo, scan and graphics quality as high across the board. The printer offers auto-duplexing for two-sided printing along with an automatic document feeder, and CR found it particularly easy to use overall. Epson's tank printers earned high marks for owner satisfaction in CR member surveys.

Credit: Epson

The Epson EcoTank ET-15000 costs $500 and stands out as a wide-format model, printing on paper up to 13 inches across from a rear feed tray. Consumer Reports found it prints on both sides of the page automatically for both copying and scanning, feeds documents in on its own, holds paper in two separate trays, and can send and receive faxes, all while keeping estimated ink costs at a mere $4 a year. CR rated its graphics and text quality just so-so compared with the other Epson tank printers tested, but gave it near-top marks for photo and scan quality. The wide-format printing sets it apart from the other models in this lineup, which top out at standard letter-size paper.

Credit: Epson

The Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8500 costs $550 and positions itself as a high-end photo printer, using six distinct ink reservoirs instead of the four found in many tank models. Consumer Reports gave it a photo-printing score above the category average and rated its text and graphics output strong as well, backed by CR's own ink cost estimate of just $7 a year despite the added ink colors. CR suggested the printer suits households that print a lot of photos particularly well, since its strong performance paired with low running costs delivers real value under heavy use. Anyone mainly looking for sharp text documents could find a less expensive model that covers those basics just as well.