Looking back over the past few reviews I've done, I picked up on a common thread amongst a segment of the population of my readership. That thread is simply the need to go beyond the standard 8.5" x 11" printing format. You have blueprints, plans, layouts, contracts, but printing out and jigsaw-puzzling them together has not been right for you. I do take the time to read my mails and your personal private comments. It just took a little time to zone in on what I could review for you that would make you super-happy. I think we're there now.
I have had the pleasure of testing out and reviewing the latest offering from Epson: The EPSON WorkForce ET-16500 EcoTank Wide-Format All-in-One SuperTank Printer. There are a few buzz-words here that are relevant to many readers, but for those I singled out as a group needing to print larger documents, please note the words, "Wide-Format". This printer can print up to 13"-by-19" ("supertabloid"), and can scan/copy multiple pages of 11"-by-17" paper, as well as 2-sided documents. Rejoice, my good friends in the "Wide Format" world.
Without further delay, let's go through this in an orderly process, starting with Filling the Ink Tanks, then Connecting to WiFi, Enabling Wi-Fi Direct Mode, Mobile Printing, Printing via Mac/OS X, Wide Format Printing, Scanning, Use of the Automatic Document Feeder, and I'll leave you with the Technical Specs at the end.
A quick word of caution: This printer is one big fella, so a word to the wise: Bend your knees when un-boxing this...use your legs and not your back. Once you have the box open, it's easy to locate the ink as well as the gloves. I totally suggest using the gloves, as you can avoid staining. The gloves are a nice "ergonomic nicety" that Epson provides, showing that they have a grip on the human side of technology. Filling the tanks was a snap, and there is no mess left behind. Once filled to their capacity with the provided ink, these tanks can generate about 10,500 black and 11,000 color pages, and you have about 2 years of ink with the unit. WOW. Think of all of the hassles of buying, stocking, and inserting new cartridges, then performing nozzle checks and cleaning the print head. Then the extra waste from all of the used ink cartridges. Oh, yes, and the astronomical cost per cartridge. Let's not forget that. SuperTank and EcoTank are very appropriate names, you realize, as you run down the cost savings, savings on labor/waiting, and the lessened footprint on the environment by generating less waste!
After a short period (10 minutes) of the printer internally adjusting itself for the first time to it's topped off 4 bays of ink (red, cyan, yellow and black), we were off to testing. First order of business was connecting to the Wi-Fi, which was intuitive and quite instant. The screen on the printer is a very comfortable 4.3" Color Touchscreen that is sleek-looking and is visible with sharp characters and good contrast for folks who use contact lenses and glasses, like I do.
The ET-16500 has two trays that take 8.5" x 11" paper as well as 11" x 14" paper. After loading up some paper into one of these main bays, I enabled the Wifi-direct mode and created a new password, which was a snap. I set my Android phone (Android Print to connect to the printer, and within moments, I was printing from my phone. Super-convenient process! Easy stuff, folks. It seems with each release, Epson seems to be reading our minds and getting the jump on speeding up the process and m
A quick disclaimer that I am not Mac or OS X Savvy, however, in following the directions, I was able to pull down the driver software I needed on my MacBook and within minutes, I was able to connect and print with relative ease and quite seamlessly. Good news for the Apple folks out there!
Now, the moment you have been waiting for!. Testing the process, speed, and quality of Wide-Format Printing. In preparation for this, I stopped by the office of one of my clients to pick up the exact Wide Format paper they use for their corporate documents, which turned out to be 13" x 19". This size paper is referred to as "super tabloid paper", which is quite critical in the architectural field (as my client is an architect), and also in many other fields such as graphic design, builders, etc. The rear specialty-paper feed is easily used here for the large-format paper we are using. Did I mention that during this phase of testing my wide-format printing client, James, came back here to look over my shoulder (as he reads my review, I sincerely hope he is still smiling!). With him loading up the file to be printed and to be the judge for quality and speed, we sent the job to print. It's not a decibel shattering noise, but you certainly know when the printing starts and finishes.
What were the results? Well, as James states it, the results were "outstanding" and exceeded his "stark expectations" based on what is available in the market today. With an office back in his native London, England, as well as in California and New York, each office has had to contract out to have their Wide-Format printing needs met. The only part of the process they maintain control over is providing the paper to the printing house that runs the Wide-Format print jobs for them to at least reduce some of the costs. Thus the reason for my journey to his office for that specific paper size. Anyway, James tells me that he bears costs in each city with 3 different Mom and Pop printing shops, and it's a disaster. He has not been able to find a Wide-Format printer meeting his needs, therefore, he has had to maintain the clunky process in place and the extreme costs, as well.
Basically, James told me to trust him on this evaluation of the printer, as has tested many other top name units that produced "utterly deplorable" results, as he calls them. He said I could walk through endless streets and I will not be able to find a wide-format printer like this that showed him such "lucid colors" and "sharp text" that exceeds output of even a laser-printer. Printing was refreshingly quick to him, and taking into account waiting for the delivery of printed output to his doorstep will be a thing of the past with this unit. I was impressed, and seeing the light bulb of "WOW" go on in my client made me thankful to Epson for allowing me to test this and lighten the path of an important client.
My client does not have a flair for the dramatic, mind you, but he said this changes his entire lifestyle with the impact this will have on him and his 250 employees. When James took the printed output with him to discuss scrapping the print shops with his junior business partner, I decided to open the stop-watch app on my phone and test the regular black and also color speeds of 8.5" x 11" output, and I actually exceeded the ppm figure provided by Epson, which were 18 ISO ppm (Black) and 10 ISO ppm (Color). That is quite fast!
Now, let's discuss the Scanner side of the ET-16500. In testing out the Scanner, I was able to produce some high quality output, with the potential to get up to 2400dpi. If you know your photo resolution numbers, that is a huge amount of dots per inch. I successfully tested the Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), a seamless feature that makes life so much easier for everyone! I tested 2-Sided Copying and 2-Sided Scanning, and both work like a charm. I was able to produce nothing less than high-quality output on paper sizes up to 11" x 17", which I tested, along with 8.5" x 11". The output on Glossy Photo Paper will bowl you over, but seriously, not far behind is the output on Plain Paper, which is equally as vibrant and precise.
Overall, this printer was a joy to test, evaluate, and review. After your initial outlay for the printer, if you do the math, it is not long until this printer starts paying you back in ink savings, time/hassle savings, and perhaps even in other areas of your business that I didn't even realize, as with James and his breakthrough moment with the ET-16500. I have at least 20 other clients in similar businesses and situations as James, and this will be a huge Home Run for them, as well. Do you want to say goodbye to the ink cartridge process, the hassles, the costs, etc? Whether you sell homes or baseball cards or have a lemonade stand, there will always be a need for Wide-Format output at some point. This printer puts you in an exclusive club, with fellow professionals that have had it with the contemporary "closed box of thought" about what to expect from their Network Printers, and are seizing the opportunity to raise the bar for themselves and their business. Where do you see the ET-16500 taking you and your business in 2017?
As Promised, your Full Technical Specs below:
Eco Features
ENERGY STAR® qualified
RoHS compliant
Recyclable product
What's In The Box:
WorkForce ET-16500 Wide-format EcoTank all-in-one
Manual
CD-ROM for product setup
Power cord
Included ink in the box:
Initial bottles: 1 bottle 774 Black (140 mL) and 1 bottle each 664 Cyan, Magenta, Yellow (70 mL)
Extra bottles: 1 bottle 774 Black (140 mL) and 1 bottle each 664 Cyan, Magenta, Yellow (70 mL)
Print:
Printing Technology:
Powered by PrecisionCore™ 4-color (CMYK) drop-on-demand inkjet technology
Minimum Ink Droplet Size:
3 droplet sizes, as small as 2.8 picoliters
Maximum Print Resolution:
4800 x 1200 optimized dpi
ISO Print Speed:
Black: 18 ISO ppm
Color: 10 ISO ppm
2-Sided ISO Print Speed:
Black: 8.7 ISO ppm
Color: 6.0 ISO ppm
Ink:
Ink Type:
EcoTank Ink Bottles
Ink Palette:
Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black
Ink Cartridge Configuration:
4 individual ink bottles
Replacement Ink Cartridges:
774 Black Ink Bottle
664 Color: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow
Ink Yield Information:
ISO Yield, Epson Methodology - Black: 6,000, Color: 6,500
Copy:
ISO Copy Speed:
Black: 16 ISO cpm
Color: 8.8 ISO cpm
Copy Quality:
Color/Black-and-White: Standard/Best
Copy Quantity:
1 – 99 (PC-free)
Maximum Copy Size:
8.5" x 14"
Copy Features:
Automatic 1-sided to 2-sided
2-sided to 1-sided
2-sided to 2-sided
Fit to Page
Automatic Reduction and Enlargement (25 – 400%)
ID Copy
Adjustable Copy Density
Collate
Preview
Resize
Remove Punched Holes
Remove Shadows
Specifications Scanner:
Scanner Type:
Color flatbed / ADF
Photoelectric Device:
11.7" x 17" max
Optical Resolution:
2400 dpi
Hardware Resolution:
1200 x 2400 dpi
Maximum Resolution:
9600 dpi interpolated
Color Bit Depth:
48-bit color input / 24-bit color output
Scan Features:
Other:
Scan to PC, Cloud, Corporate Email or Email (via Epson Connect), Memory device, Network Folder
Fax:
Fax Settings:
Black & White and Color
Fax Speed:
Up to 33.6 Kbps – as fast as 3 sec per page
Memory:
Up to 550 pages
Speed Dials:
200 (max.)
PC Fax:
Supported Connectivity:
Standard Connectivity:
Hi-Speed USB
Wireless (802.11 b/g/n)
Wi-Fi Direct
Ethernet (10/100 Mbps)
Mobile Printing:
Epson Connect:
Epson® Email Print, Epson Remote Print, Epson Scan to Cloud8, Epson iPrint™ App (iOS®, Android), Epson Print and Scan App (Windows®)
Other:
Google Cloud Print™, Android printing, Fire™ OS printing, Mopria® Print Service
Paper Handling:
PC-Free Paper Support:
Plain (letter, 8.5" x 14", A4)
Photo (4" x 6", 5" x 7", 8" x 10", letter, A4)
Paper Sizes:
3.5" x 5", 4" x 6", 5" x 7", 8" x 10", 8.5" x 11", 8.5" x 14", 11" x 17", 13" x 19", A4, A6, A3, A3+, half letter, executive, user definable (3.5" x 5" – 13" x 47")
Maximum Paper Size:
13" x 47"
Paper Types:
Plain paper
Epson Bright White Paper
Epson Presentation Paper Matte
Epson Premium Presentation Paper Matte
Epson Premium Presentation Paper Matte Double-sided
Epson Premium Photo Paper Glossy
Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Glossy
Envelope Types:
No. 10
Input Paper Capacity:
500 sheets plain paper
Cassette 1: 250 sheets plain paper
Cassette 2: 250 sheets plain paper
Rear feed: 1 sheet
General:
Operating Systems:
Windows 10
Windows 8, 8.1 (32-bit, 64-bit)
Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit)
Windows Vista® (32-bit, 64-bit)
Windows XP SP3 (32-bit)
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
Mac OS® X 10.6.8 – 10.11.x10
Server Systems:
Windows Server® 2012 R29
Windows Server 20129
Windows Server 2008 R29
Windows Server 20089
Windows Server 2003 R29
Windows Server 20039
Temperature:
Operating: 50° to 95° F (10° to 35° C)
Storage: -4° to 104° F (-20° to 40° C)
Humidity:
Operating: 20 – 80% RH
Storage: 5 – 85% RH (no condensation)
Sound Level:
Power: 6.4 B(A)
Pressure: 48 dB(A)
Dimensions:
Printing: 26.2" x 32.2" x 16.5" (W x D x H)
Storage: 26.2" x 19.1" x 16.5" (W x D x H)
Weight:
50.7 lb
Safety Approvals:
Safety standards UL60950, CSA C22.2 No. 60950, EMI FCC Part 15 subpart B class B, CAN/CSA-CEI/IEC CISPR 22 class B
Country of Origin:
Indonesia
Printer Details:
Display:
4.3" color touchscreen
Printer Language:
Epson ESC/P®-R
Software Included:
Epson printer driver, Epson Scan
Monthly Duty Cycle:
Up to 20,000 pages (Recommended monthly page volume up to 1,300 pages)
Telecom Regulations:
FCC Part 68 (USA), IC/CS03 (Canada)
Power:
Rated Voltage:
AC 100 – 240V Universal (Automatic)
Rated Frequency:
50 – 60 Hz
Power Consumption:
Approx. 20 W ISO 24712 (Standalone copy printing)
Approx. 8.9 W (Standby)
Approx. 1.9 W (Sleep)
Approx. 0.4 W (Power off) ENERGY STAR® qualified
Rated Current:
0.5A – 0.3A
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Have a Great Week, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !
Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
HomeRun Homes - Rent to Own Homes, since 2002
"Located at the Corner of Technology and Real Estate"
Rent to Own Homes and Real Estate Blog for HomeRun Homes: http://blogging.lease2buy.com
HomeRun Homes Websites: http://www.lease2buy.com and http://www.homerunhomes.com
TAGS: #epson #printer #Scanner #Copier #wideformat #et16500
