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June 14, 2021

Vibrant Grace, Awesome Power With The Epson EcoTank ET-8500 Printer

 Hi Folks,

   One of the most stressful events in our every-day “technology lives” is anything to do with printer ink cartridges, whether it is making sure you get replacements before your current ones run out, making sure you get the right number cartridges or ones that are compatible with your printer, and of course, the massive expenses that come with buying new cartridges. With that being said, I might have just tested out a printer that rids that stress from your life. I am quite serious! 

   Let me step back here first, and let you know that I have had the pleasure of testing out and reviewing the new Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8500 Wireless Color All-in-One Supertank Printer, and the key words to focus on here are "EcoTank" and "Supertank". I will explain why first, and then we will get into what I found during my stress-testing and review of this new All-in-One Printer from Epson, and at the end, I will include all the detailed technical specifications (the "specs"). 


What Is A "Supertank"? 

   What is an EcoTank or a Supertank? Basically, it is a large basin, or "tank" that is built into the printer that you fill up with ink before printing. In the case of the Epson EcoTank ET-8500 (or "ET-8500", as I will refer to it), there are multiple smaller tanks to accommodate the different colors of ink. I look at the word "Eco" in EcoTank and I can attribute that to just how "Eco"nomical a Supertank printer is by saving you a substantial amount of money and aggravation, from never having to deal with the hassles of ink cartridges ever again, but also, to how environmentally friendly (Eco-friendly) this is by reducing the amount of waste (zero cartridge waste)! 

   With that said, I now introduce you to the Epson EcoTank ET-8500, a sleek, cutting edge, All-in-One Printer. From the moment you unbox the ET-8500, everything about it screams "power". This is not a lightweight, flimsy unit. This is a big, bold printer that can help you simplify so much in your life, whether it is for business, personal, or both. 


Setting Up The Epson ET-8500: 

   The first step after unboxing the well-packaged and well-secured ET-8500 is to remove all the protective tape and materials from the unit, and there is a lot of it (do not forget to lift the scanner lid up, as well, since there are materials to remove there, too). Once I removed everything that I needed to, I plugged in the unit to an electrical outlet, pressed the power button, and on the nice big, colorful LCD screen, I selected "English", and followed the directions. I think it is important here to state just how sharp this LCD screen is on the unit, with a size of 4.3", with vibrant colors and crisp letters and numbers! It is intuitive, in other words, the steps make sense and are easy to follow, even if you do not have a technical background. 

   Since I was already on the Control Panel/LCD Screen, I figured it would be best to get the unit set up on my Wireless network (my Wi-Fi), and it was honestly quite easy. From the home screen, I tapped the little network symbol, then I selected Wi-Fi (Recommended), and then selected the Set-up wizard, which located my Wi-Fi network. From there, it was as easy as entering my Wi-Fi password, and tapping the screen one last time and like magic, the Epson ET-8500 was now configured and on my Wi-Fi network! The unit comes with a USB cable, as well, which you can use to connect and configure it via your laptop, and additionally, the Epson SmartPanel App allows you to connect to the printer remotely using your iPhone, Android, etc. I will get into my experience doing this during my review a little later. For now, we still need to add the ink and load the paper!

   OK, now it was time to really get hands on with the "tank", which entailed filling up the tanks with ink! The first step here is to remove the cap very gently on the black ink. I found this out the hard way and squeezed the bottle a little tight and realized you must do it with a little bit of finesse. Fill each of the tanks one-by-one, then close the cover for the ink tank, and make sure that you secure the cap on the ink bottles to save what is left in each bottle (as in my case, there definitely was some ink left after the tanks were filled up). Epson claims that there is enough ink for over 6,000 printed color pages, and although that might be hard to believe, this is such a cutting-edge technology that it most probably will hit or exceed that target!

   What I found interesting was a "Gray" ink, when I am normally used to Black ink cartridges and Color cartridges. I will elaborate on the impact of this ink a little later. 

   After the ink has "charged up", which, from what I can gather by watching the unit, is that ink flows from the tank to the actual apparatus that will do the printing (which logically seems like a time-saver when it comes time to print), I loaded up the paper. There are a few things to remember here, such as the type of paper matters; In other words, when you open the front cover, you can load up standard paper (A4/Letter Size, for example) in Cassette 2, but for Cassette 1, you can load up, for example, smaller paper (i.e., Photo Size). There is also a very convenient rear paper slot and feeder, which are great for other types of paper, for example, thicker stock (i.e., poster board) or other types of paper that may not feed via the front cassettes. 

   At this point, I had followed all the steps, and had in front of me the Epson ET-8500 locked and loaded, and ready for the next step, which was getting the software installed so I can start testing this baby! 

   There are a couple of ways that you can load up the Epson software to connect to and use the ET-8500; you can use the included CD if your laptop or desktop has a CD drive, or even easier, you can just point your browser to the provided Epson website link to download the required Epson drivers and Utilities. I selected this second option, as I found it much easier, but that is just a matter of preference. 

   The steps for installing the software with the Epson Drivers and Utilities is just as intuitive as the steps that I performed on the printer control panel/LCD Screen. Every step makes complete sense, and it is a breeze to install. The software is called Epson ScanSmart, which goes through the installation, and at the end, it will connect to your printer. If you recall earlier, I had already set up the printer on my wireless network, so I selected "Wireless Connection" at this step, but I could also have selected a Direct USB connection had I been configuring the printer to connect directly (physically) to my printer. So, you have a few options on how to get this set up.

   With the Epson ET-8500 loaded with ink, filled with paper, connected to the network, and with the software installed on my laptop, the fun time of testing and reviewing the ET-8500 was about to begin! 


Let's Get Testing!: 

   Since there would be virtually endless combinations and permutations of both paper size, paper stock (thickness), all multiplied by Black-ink Printing and multiplied by Color Printing, I decided to select the most common uses that I have from both a business use and from a personal perspective. For both business and personal, I do a lot of black ink printing (text & images) on letter size paper, as well as color printing on letter size paper, thick-stock paper, and I also print some of my photos on 4" x 6" photo stock. With that being said, I tested each of these types of printing, and will summarize my results, which I hope will prove helpful for you in my review of the Epson ET-8500!

   I collated a few things for my tests; an all-black ink text contract file with very few images, a color document file that we recently designed for a seminar, a few photo images that I took outdoors, as well as a hard copy of both the aforementioned contract and the color document advertisement (hard copies for testing the physical scanning feature shortly).

   My first test was printing out my black-ink contract file to Letter Size paper, which printed out at a decent speed (Epson states the speed at about 16 ISO ppm, or 16 pages per minute of black ink print speed). This was a 22-page contract, and it took about 95 seconds, so that seems just about right. The print was clear, crisp, and there was no smudging or smearing, and I was extremely satisfied with the print job. 

   The next test I ran was printing out a color advertisement, which I did on a thick stock paper, and for this test, I valued a sharp output more so than the speed itself, in other words, I valued the quality of the printed output more than the speed. This two-page output took a total of 14 seconds from the exact second that the paper started to physically enter the printer, which was fantastic, but, as mentioned, what was even more important to me was that this was a bold, vibrant, and gorgeous printed advertisement, and I firmly believe that it came out better than the folks we contracted with to print these out in bulk for an upcoming seminar! Crisp characters, sharp images, strong colors, with great transition between colors. Amazing!

   For the next test, I loaded up photo paper in the front cassette, and then printed out 2 photos that I recently took by the water, so there were a lot of blues and greens and some reds/oranges from the sunrise. These colors were all represented just as perfectly as on my previous color print job, and once again, at or above professional print quality. Each photo took about 17-19 seconds, which was perfectly fine, but as before, the end quality was more important to me, and it was really off-the-charts! 

   Earlier, I had mentioned the gray ink and the impact it had, and in the photos that I printed there were some trees off to the left side which were shaded before the sun hit them, and the shaded area in the photos was so full of life, with the shadows that were present that day perfectly represented using the gray ink. Stunning!


Multiple Great Features: 

   One of the other features in the "All-in-One" Epson ET-8500 is the Scanning feature, as well as the Copy feature. The unit has an ultra-convenient flatbed scanner on top, and to test how it scans/copies, I used two hard copies that I prepared, which was a page from my black-ink contract, as well as one of our colorful ads that I had printed recently. When you place the document on the flatbed, and select the option to start the scan, it is quite fast from that moment until you have a scanned image as your output. In both cases, the scanned image was impeccable. There was nothing that looked off from the original, and I felt that magnifying the image or using a magnifying glass to check for imperfections would be overkill. It all looked fantastic, whether it was the black ink scanned image or the color scanned image (In both cases, I wanted to mention, that I scanned these hard copies as images, and then printed the images, to compare the scanned output, and to take a closer look at the hard copy output).

   Everything that I tested to this point has been from my laptop, but I also wanted to talk about being able to do the same thing from my phone (My phone is an Android, but you can also do this from an Apple device). Installing the "Epson Smart Panel" app was as simple as downloading and installing it from the Google Play Store, and then following the steps to make sure that you can connect to the Printer (on the same wireless network as you). The App lets you do virtually everything you can do from your laptop right from your phone. Just to verify, I sent a print job through, and it was a seamless process!


The Wrap-Up: 

   In summary, the Epson ET-8500 is a fully featured, powerful, robust All-in-One Printer that allows you to accomplish the printing, scanning, and copying that you need to do for the purpose of both business and personal necessity. I found the features on the ET-8500 very well integrated, and I believe that it is the perfect addition to any home or office! 

   As mentioned earlier, the Technical Specifications ("specs") for the Epson ET-8500 are listed below. 

Thank you!



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 #EcoTank #ET-8500 #Wireless #AllInOne #Color #Printer #SuperTank


TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

Print:

Printing Technology 6-color (BK, PB, C, M, Y, Gy)

Printer Language(s) ESC/P-R

Maximum Print Resolution 5760 x 1440 dpi

Print Speed Black 16.0 ISO ppm / Color 12.0 ISO ppm

2-sided Print Speed Black 6.0 ISO ppm / Color 5.0 ISO ppm

Borderless 4" x 6" Photo Print Speed 15 seconds (Draft

Mode, Premium Glossy Photo Paper)


Mobile and Voice-activated Printing:

Epson Connect™ Solutions Email Print, Remote Print,

Scan to Cloud

Applications Epson Smart Panel app, Epson Print Layout

app (iOS), Epson Creative Print app

Other Apple® AirPrint®, Android printing, Mopria® Print Service

Voice Activation Siri®, Google Assistant™, Epson Connect,

Amazon™ Alexa


Copy:

Copy Speed Flatbed Black 15.0 ipm / Color 8.0 ipm

Copy Quality (Number of Colors)

256 gradations/16.7 mil colors

Maximum Copies 99 pages

Copy Resolution 300 x 600, 600 x 600 dpi (flatbed input)

Maximum Copy Size Letter (A4)

Copy Features Copy Resolution (Print): 360 x 360 dpi,

720 x 720 dpi, Automatic 1-sided to 2-sided copy

Reduction/Enlargement: 25 to 400%


Scan:

Photoelectric Device CIS

Scanner Type Flatbed color image scanner

Maximum Hardware Resolution 1200 x 4800 dpi

Scan Size, Maximum (flatbed) 8.5" x 11.7" (216 x 297mm)

Maximum Resolution 9600 dpi interpolated

Scanner Bit Depth (color) 48-bit color input / 24-bit color output

Scan Compatibility TWAIN, WIA, ICA, TWAIN Reading

Resolution: 75~9600 dpi (1 dpi step), TWAIN Output Format: PDF,

JPEG, PNG, TIFF, Multi-TIFF, BMP (Windows), PICT (Mac®), Scan to

Computer Epson ScanSmart, Scan to Memory Device


Standard Connectivity:

Hi-Speed USB

Wireless Wi-Fi® 512, 802.11 b/g/n/a/ac

Wired Ethernet Ethernet (10/100)

Wi-Fi Direct® Yes

Memory Card Slots SD Card, USB

Operating Systems Windows 10 (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows 8.1

(32-bit, 64-bit), Windows 8 (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows 7 (32-bit,

64-bit), Windows Vista® (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows XP SP3 or

later (32-bit), Windows XP Professional x64 Edition SP2 or later,

Windows Server 2003 SP2 or later, 2003 R2, 2008, 2008 R2,

2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019, Mac OS® X 10.6.8 thru 10.15.x


Paper Handling:

Paper Sizes Legal, Letter, A4, Executive, 8" x 10", 5" x 7",

4" x 6", 3.5" x 5", A6, Half Letter, #10 Envelope, User Defined

(2.2" x 3.4" to 8.5" x 78.7")

Max. Paper Size 8.5" x 14" (Legal)

Max. Paper Weight Plain: 64-90 g/m, PPPG: 102-300 g/m

Max. Paper Thickness 1.3mm (Rear Straight Pass)

Borderless Printing Legal, Letter, A4, 8” x 10”, 5” x 7”, 4” x

6”, 3.5” x 5”

Paper Types Plain Paper, Bright White Paper, Photo Paper Glossy,

Premium Photo Paper Glossy, Ultra Premium Photo Paper Glossy,

Premium Semigloss Photo Paper, Ultra Premium Photo Paper

Luster, Presentation Paper Matte, Premium Presentation Paper

Matte, Velvet Fine Art Paper, Thin Paper, Card Stock

Envelope Types No. 10

Input Paper Capacity Front Tray 1: 20 sheets 5" x 7",

Front Tray 2: 100 sheets Letter/A4, Rear: 50 sheets Letter/A4,

Rear Straight Pass: 1 sheet

Output Tray Paper Capacity 50 sheets (plain paper, Letter),

20 sheets (PPPG)

Direct CD Printing Yes

2-sided (Duplex) Printing Automatic


Weight and Dimensions:

Printing (W x D x H) 15.9" x 24.1" x 13.7" (403 x 612 x 347mm)

Storage (W x D x H) 15.9" x 14.5" x 6.4" (403 x 369 x 162mm)

Weight 18.5 lb (8.4kg) printer only

Packaging Weight and Dimensions (W x D x H)

Dimensions: 20.7" x 17.3" x 10.1" (527 x 440 x 256 mm)

Weight: 25.1 lb (11.38 kg) box


What's in the Box:

EcoTank Photo ET-8500 all-in-one, Quick Setup Guide, Power

Cable, CD-ROM (User Guide, software), 1 bottle of 552 Photo

Black (70 mL), 1 bottle of 552 Black (70 mL) and 1 bottle each

of 552 Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Gray (70 mL)

Software Included Epson printer drivers, Epson Scan 2,

Epson ScanSmart, Epson Photo+


General:

Display 4.3" touch LCD

Temperature Operating 50 ° to 95 °F (10 ° to 35 °C)

Temperature Storage -4° to 104 °F (-20° to 40 °C)

Relative Humidity

Operating: 20% - 80% RH

Storage: 5% - 85% RH

Sound Level (ISO7779) Sound Pressure/PC Printing (Plain

Paper default) Color: 47dB(A) or less

Rated Voltage AC 100 to 120 V

Rated Frequency 50 to 60 Hz

Rated Current 0.6A

Power Consumption

Standalone Copying (ISO/IEC 24712 Pattern): 17W

Ready Mode: 7.4W

Sleep Mode: 0.8W

Power Off Mode: 0.2W

Typical Electricity Consumption (TEC) 0.15kWh

Safety Approvals Safety Standards UL60950-1, CAN/

CSA-C22.2 No.60950-1, FCC Part15 Subpart B, ICES-003 Class B

Country of Origin Indonesia


Ink:

Replacement Ink Bottles 552 Black ink bottle (70 mL) yield:

6700 pages; 552 Photo Black ink bottle (70 mL) yield: 7300

pages; 552 Gray ink bottle (70mL) yield: 46,600; 552 color (Cyan,

Magenta, Yellow) ink bottles (70 mL) yield: 6200 pages

Epson strongly recommends the use of genuine ink to ensure

optimal print quality and performance.


Eco Features:

ENERGY STAR® qualified

RoHS Complaint

Recyclable product

Epson America. Inc. is a SmartWay® Transport Partner