This is my long-term review of Epson's ET-4700 EcoTank all-in-one piezoelectric printer. It is identical to the L5190, ET-4800, and L5290.

Links:
Epson EcoTank [ Ссылка ]
Canon TS8320 [ Ссылка ]
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Below the script (kind of):

Hi, this is my long-term review of the Epson ET-4700 EcoTank printer. It was also sold as L-5190 in many countries. I purchased it in the beginning of 2020, so I have quite a lot of experience with it and its technology. While this particular model has been discontinued, its successor, the ET-4800, which is the exact same thing with a different front finish on the front tilt panel, is still on the market, and many EcoTanks are using the same technologies.

On the outside, this Epson and its siblings are very compact for the functionalities that they promise. They pack a lot of “compelling” features into an attractive package. The ET-4700, for example, takes up the space of just over an A4 paper but can scan, copy, and FAX. It has USB, Ethernet, and WiFi connectivity. There is even a small color display.

These features, however, don’t all work so well. I have 5 complaints:

1. The scanner is not great. It is very slow, especially if you want to scan at more than 300DPI. From there, it uses stepper motors to move the scanning element in an offset to try to reach a higher resolution. I find that this results in no better, if not worse, results.

I believe that the scanner on models equipped with Epson’s PrecisionCore printheads are better. Still, I think the ones from Brother’s comparable models beat all EcoTanks.

The flatbed also leaks light and its cover feels flimsy.

2. The ADF further lowers the scan quality. This is because there is a plastic film there to make the paper route to the output. This is clearly an inferior design.

3. It can only use a single connection method at once. If the model is set up for WiFi, it cannot be used with WiFi direct, Ethernet, or USB, and vice versa.

4. The printhead loves to get blocked by air bubbles. Even if you print a colorful page everyday, every now and then some nozzles get blocked. Even if you run a printhead cleaning regime, it may or may not work. Sometimes, after each cleaning new nozzles get blocked.

If the paper is not perfectly smooth, or if there is some dust on it, some nozzle will get blocked.

As a result, you use much more ink in the cleaning programs than on prints. I have printed just over 1000 pages, and the black ink is already low after a refill. That is, the real yield is probably just 600 pages per ink bottle, not the thousands that Epson advertises.

Many online speculate that air gets in so easily because of the continuous ink supply system. That is to say, EcoTank is designed to waste ink.

Some say that printers with PrecisionCore printheads are better in this regard. I don’t know.

5. The ET-4700 doesn’t come with a paper cassette, and its output tray is very flimsy. Again, models with PrecisionCore printheads are better in this regard.

Now that we have the negatives out of the way, what are the positives?

1. The printing results are quite good. Nothing to complain there.
2. The printer is very compact and looks very smart.
3. It gets the job done, mostly.

For those who live in developing countries, I believe the Brother DCP-T725DW to be a superior printer. That one has more than double the number of nozzles, is much faster, comes with duplexer for both print and ADF, has a much better scanner, and is about a quarter cheaper.

For those who live elsewhere, I think one of the Canon 6-ink amateur photo printers to be much better. Those Canons have separate ink cartridges that can be refilled easily. Since the cartridges are quite large, they can print a few hundred pages between refills. You can also purchase refillable cartridges. Their print quality is much higher, and there is no problem with air bubbles, because there is no CISS.

Overall, I just don’t find Epson EcoTank without PrecisionCore to be good at all. I can’t say for PrecisionCore, though that one is supposed to have slightly worse print quality, so there’s that.

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