Epson EcoTank ET-2850 Review: The Supertank That Skips the Setup Gamble

Updated June 18, 2026

Print Speed Up to 10.5 ppm black / 5 ppm color

Functions Print, Scan, Copy

Connectivity Wi-Fi, AirPrint, Smart Panel app

Ink System Cartridge-free refillable tanks

Our Verdict

The ET-2800 with the friction sanded off: it adds auto-duplex and a wireless setup owners say connects first try, on the same refill-bottle economics — the EcoTank to buy if the cheaper 2800/2803 is sold out or you need two-sided printing.

Best for: Home and small-office buyers who want EcoTank refill economics plus auto-duplex and a wireless setup that connects on the first try

Color Name

WhiteBlack

Configuration

Print/Copy/Scan

Style Name

ET-2850 (White - New)ET-2850 (White - Renewed)ET-2850 (Black - New)ET-2850 (Black - Renewed)

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Overview

The EcoTank that fixes the setup gamble

Every printer brand loses the same fight at the same place. Across HP, Canon, Brother and Epson, the angriest one-star reviews cluster on one moment — the wireless setup that never finishes — and print quality complaints sit a distant third. The ET-2850's whole pitch is that it wins that moment. It is a cartridge-free EcoTank ET-2850 All-in-One Supertank printer, and owners single out the part that breaks rivals: it just connects.

That is the lens this site puts on every machine — not the sticker, but the cartridge-versus-tank math of what it actually costs to own over months, plus the odds of getting a first page out of it at all. The ET-2850 is the mid-rung of Epson's 28-series: a step up from the base ET-2800 and its twin the ET-2803, and a step below the ET-3850. The step it adds over those entry models is the one busy homes ask for first — Auto 2-sided printing helps save paper without flipping sheets by hand. We put the two side by side in our ET-2803 vs ET-2850 comparison. The cartridge-free ET-2400 sits in that same entry tier, and our ET-2400 vs ET-2850 comparison spells out what the step up to auto-duplex and a faster engine actually buys.

Across the 13 owner reviews and the r/printers thread we read, satisfaction skews heavily positive — enthusiasts outnumber critics, and where they split it is on speed, not output. The hinge is a moment owners are surprised to praise:

The dread with any wireless printer is the app that won't talk to it. On the ET-2850 it is the part people single out — one owner, surprised, reports: The epson app for my android is the first one that actually works with one click to print. The category's signature one-star complaint simply doesn't happen here — and that, more than the spec sheet, is what sells this machine.

What the spec sheet buys over the ET-2800

It is a true color all-in-one that prints, scans and copies, built on Epson's cartridge-free tank system. On paper it runs Prints up to 10.5 pages per minute in black and 5 ppm in color, at Prints at a 4800 x 1200 resolution — fine output for documents, slow next to a laser. Those speed numbers matter, because color is where this machine drags, and the rated 5 ppm is the optimistic ceiling, not the duplex reality.

The real upgrade over the base 2800 is workflow. Auto two-sided printing is built in, and connectivity is broad: the listing Offers mobile printing options, including the Epson Smart Panel app, AirPrint, Android Printing and Mopria. A color LCD on the front replaces the 2800's monochrome panel. We grade the spec lines that actually separate machines in our comparison criteria for inkjet printers.

One office feature is weaker than the spec line reads. The auto document feeder sounds like a small-office win, but an owner found it wasn't that great because it doesn't scan doublesided and choked on non-standard receipts. For stacks of one-sided letter pages it is fine; for two-sided documents or odd-sized stock it is not the workhorse the listing implies, and that gap is the kind of trade we track across the catalog in our guide to all-in-one wireless printers.

Performance & Real-World Testing

When it prints, owners are happy

Print quality is the calm part of the record, and it is the most-cited praise theme across the review set, appearing in four reviews. One owner gets straight to it — The setup was easy, and the output that followed earned a recommendation. It handles real color work without complaint: a parent printing color work and activity books (A4-sized pages) for an eight-year-old came away satisfied, and the double-sided result holds up — one owner confirms It does double sided just changing the settings on a computer or phone, and prints nicely in color.

Where it drags: color speed

Now the cost of all that color: time. This is the loudest gripe in the community thread, and it is not subtle. One owner times double-sided printing if you want a 6 page job to complete within 20 minutes — and twenty minutes is the floor, not the ceiling. Another is harsher still, calling it is beyond any doubt the WORST printer they have owned, citing constant feed errors. That is the minority view, but the slowness behind it is real and recurring.

The dissent goes further on output, too. A Costco buyer returned theirs because The colors are muted, the text wasn't sharp and it was too slow, switching to a laser. Most owners disagree on quality — the 4.2 average says so — but if speed is your priority, this is not the machine, and the honest record keeps that complaint in view.

Value Analysis

Dear to buy, cheap to feed — if you feed it

Here's the thing about a supertank: the sticker is the expensive part, and the ink is where it pays you back. A budget cartridge printer wins at checkout and loses at the ink shelf; the ET-2850 does the reverse. Owners confirm the upside in plain terms, compared with the cartridge machines they left behind — The ink lasts a long time and saves a lot of money. One long-term tank owner, switching from a cartridge printer, says the As for ink usage, the cartridges on the Epson seemingly last forever.

The other half of the value is what it doesn't charge you for. There is no subscription wall — No subscription is required, you can just use the ink bottles — and one buyer sums the pitch up: Per dollar value is great and there's no subscription, with mess-free tanks that are easy to fill. After HP's Instant Ink lock-in, that freedom is half the reason owners switch.

Independent testing backs the cost gap. RTINGS' independent cost-per-print and page-yield testing puts cartridge cost-per-page many times higher than bottle ink, and Consumer Reports' inkjet running-cost and reliability testing reaches the same verdict. A cartridge model is cheaper to buy and dearer to feed; a supertank is the reverse. The month the two lines cross is the month this machine starts winning — we run that fork across the whole catalog in our type-versus-type tradeoffs analysis.

The volume test, with a twist

So the value verdict splits on how much you print — and the ET-2850 adds a second axis the base 2800 doesn't: setup confidence. Print regularly and you get refill economics plus auto-duplex and a wireless setup that actually connects, which is worth a small premium over the bare 2800 to a household burned by a printer that wouldn't talk to a phone. Print rarely and you've paid a supertank premium for a machine that clogs while it waits. We grade every machine against that running-cost case in our inkjet printers evidence hub.

What to Expect Over Time

Living with it: fifteen easy minutes, then idle clogs

The first fifteen minutes are the easy part. Setting one up — tape off, ink filled, connected — takes It takes about 15 minutes or so total, and the friction owners fear on rivals never arrives. The trouble, when it comes, comes later.

Idle clogging is the one that bites, and it surfaces over several weeks of a printer sitting unused rather than on day one. Liquid ink dries in the nozzles when an inkjet sits, and the heads gum up. The practical fix owners adopt is a standing reminder to run the printer often enough to exercise the nozzles and keep them from clogging — a weekly habit, not a one-off. Print something in color about once a week and it rarely bites; leave it dark for weeks and you meet a clog the evening you need a boarding pass. We track that idle-clog risk in our safety and known-risks guidance.

The build-quality dissent

The record isn't all praise, and the honest case names the low end of it. One Redditor calls this is an extremely cheap and flimsy little printer that is slow in color and has no paper cassette. That dissent runs against the 4.2 average, but it points at something true: this is a budget-tier supertank in feel, not a heavy office machine, and the open paper feed is part of why. Weigh that against the ink savings, not in isolation.