Epson

Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8500

Photo printerBottles

Six inks instead of four is what you are paying for. Alongside cyan, magenta, yellow and a pigment black for documents, the ET-8500 carries a photo black and a grey, and the grey is the one that matters: it is what keeps a black-and-white print from going green or magenta in the shadows. Epson put that six-ink set into a refillable tank body, so photographs that cost a dollar apiece from a cartridge photo printer come out for pennies. It also happens to be a competent document printer — 16 ISO pages a minute black, automatic duplex, a 100-sheet tray plus a dedicated photo tray and a card slot — which is unusual for a photo machine. What it will not do is take a 13 × 19 sheet; that is the ET-8550 above it, and it is the only meaningful difference between them.

Approx. price: ~$599
Cost per mono page: 0.30¢
Cost per colour page: 1.1¢
Cost to own, 5,000 pages: ~$622
Print speed, mono: 16 ISO ppm

Best for

Someone printing their own photographs regularly — especially black-and-white — who does not need bigger than letter.

marks an estimate. Computed from the consumable's ISO page yield and its list price. An estimate. Purchase price plus ink or toner over the pages shown, assuming four mono pages for every colour page. Price is an approximate snapshot from our last catalogue update.

What it costs to own

Black consumable: Epson 552 pigment black bottle · 6,700 ISO pages · ~$19.99
Colour consumable: Epson 552 cyan / magenta / yellow bottles · 6,200 ISO pages · ~$17.49 each
Cost per mono page: 0.30¢
Cost per colour page: 1.1¢
Cost to own, 5,000 pages: ~$622
Cost to own, 200 pages/month for 3 years: ~$633 (7,200 pages)

Computed from the consumable's ISO page yield and its list price. An estimate. How this is worked out

Cost to own · 5,000 pages

Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8500~$622
~$599 printer + ~$23 supplies
Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550~$822
~$799 printer + ~$23 supplies

purchase priceink or toner. An estimate: purchase price plus 5,000 pages at each printer’s computed cost per page, assuming 4 mono pages for every colour page. Printers whose consumable price we could not source are left out.

Specifications

Manufacturer-published figures. Cost lines are computed from the consumable figures above and are estimates.

Approx. price: ~$599
Cost per mono page: 0.30¢
Cost per colour page: 1.1¢
Cost to own, 5,000 pages: ~$622
Cost to own, 3 years: ~$633
Technology: Piezo inkjet
Ink system: Bottles
Inks: 6
Black consumable: Epson 552 pigment black bottle · 6,700 pages
Colour consumable: Epson 552 cyan / magenta / yellow bottles · 6,200 pages
Ink in the box: 6,700 pages
Third-party ink lock: No
Ink subscription: None offered
Print speed, mono: 16 ISO ppm
Print speed, colour: 12 ISO ppm
Functions: Print · Copy · Scan
Two-sided printing: Auto
Document feeder: None
Paper capacity: 100 sheets
Max paper size: Letter
Borderless photo: Yes
Resolution: 5760 × 1440 dpi
Connectivity: Wi-Fi · Ethernet
Mobile printing: AirPrint · Mopria
Display: 4.3" colour touchscreen
Dimensions: 20.4 × 13.7 × 6.1 in
Weight: 19.8 lb
Released: 2021

Features

Six-ink Claria ET Premium set including grey and photo black
Refillable tanks rather than photo cartridges
Dedicated photo tray plus a 100-sheet main tray
Borderless printing up to 8.5 × 11
Automatic two-sided document printing
4.3-inch touchscreen, SD card slot, Ethernet

Auto duplex No ink lock Borderless photo Ethernet

In its favour

The grey ink makes monochrome prints neutral, which four-ink printers cannot manage
Refillable tanks turn photo printing from a dollar-a-print habit into a pennies-a-print one
Doubles as a genuinely fast document printer with auto duplex
Large 4.3-inch touchscreen and a card slot for printing straight from a camera card
No firmware lock on third-party ink

Against it

Letter is the ceiling — the ET-8550 is the one that takes 13 × 19
Six tanks means six bottles to buy when a refill round comes due
No document feeder, so it is a poor copier for stacks
Dye inks on the colour channels are less fade-resistant than a pigment photo printer's
Expensive for a household that only prints documents

What owners say

Distilled from owner discussions and long-term published reviews

The ET-8500 exists for people who want photographs at home without a cartridge photo printer's economics, and owners who use it that way are generally delighted. The pigment black keeps documents crisp, and the grey ink is the one that earns the money — black-and-white prints come out neutral rather than tinted, which four-ink printers cannot do.

The complaints cluster around drying and media. Prints with heavy ink coverage stay tacky longer than people expect, and owners who stack them straight out of the tray report them sticking. Anyone printing on glossy or coated card is advised to let sheets sit. Stationery and craft businesses who bought it for thick invitation stock report mixed results — it handles card better than the document models but is not a specialist.

The upgrade decision is simple: this and the ET-8550 are the same printer except for the paper size, so the only question is whether you want 13 × 19.

What owners like

Owners printing photographs describe the six-ink set as the difference between a snapshot and something worth framing, particularly in black and white
Per-print cost is low enough that people report printing freely instead of rationing paper
Handles thicker card stock better than the document EcoTanks, which matters to the stationery and craft crowd who buy it
Doubles as a competent everyday document printer, which a dedicated photo printer does not
The card slot and large touchscreen let people print straight from a camera card

Common complaints

Owners printing heavy ink coverage report prints staying tacky and sticking to each other if stacked before they are fully dry
The grey tank empties faster than the others, which surprises people who assumed all six would last equally
The in-box bottles do not empty fully into the tanks, leaving partial bottles that owners are unsure whether to keep
Letter is the ceiling; owners wanting bigger end up wishing they had bought the ET-8550
Not the machine for volume document printing — it is a photo printer that tolerates documents

Questions that keep coming up

What does the sixth ink actually do?

It carries a grey alongside the photo black, and the grey is what makes a monochrome print neutral. A four-ink printer has to build grey tones out of cyan, magenta and yellow, which is why black-and-white photos from an office printer come out slightly green or purple. Owners printing black-and-white work describe this as the reason to buy it.

Why are my prints still tacky?

Heavy ink coverage on glossy or coated paper takes longer to dry than owners expect, and stacking sheets straight out of the tray is how they end up stuck together. Letting prints sit face-up for a while is the advice that recurs. Reducing saturation or choosing a paper setting that lays down less ink also helps.

ET-8500 or ET-8550?

The same six-ink engine, the same running cost, the same features. The ET-8550 prints borderless up to 13 × 19 and the ET-8500 stops at 8.5 × 11. If you will ever frame a print bigger than letter, owners are consistent that the larger one is the one to buy, because the difference cannot be added later.

Can it handle thick card stock?

Better than the document EcoTanks, and owners printing invitations and stationery do use it for that — but with caveats about feeding and drying on heavy coated stock. It is not a specialist card printer. People running a stationery business at volume report mixed results and often end up outsourcing the heaviest stock.

Computed from the consumable's ISO page yield and its list price. An estimate. Owner notes are a summary of what people who own the machine report, not a test result — there is no lab behind this site.