Epson EcoTank ET-2800/ET-2803 Printer Review

The Epson ET-2800/Epson ET-2803's plastic body feels relatively sturdy, there aren't any creaks or squeaky noises from moving parts, and the input connections feel sturdy. However, the paper tray cover at the top rear of the printer feels thin and flimsy. Also, the design isn't particularly user-friendly, as it's difficult to access the sheet rollers to remove paper jams, and there aren't any lid dampeners for the scanning flatbed, meaning you have to guide the top cover down slowly, or it'll slam down hard.

Like all inkjets, the printheads can clog if you don't print for a long time. If you experience clogging or other print quality issues, it has many built-in maintenance functions that can help resolve them, including printhead nozzle checks, regular and power printhead cleaning, and printhead alignment. There's a paper guide cleaning to remove dirt or loose ink, helping to prevent prints from getting smeared as they go through the feeders.

As for ink maintenance, you won't have to do it often since the ink tanks yield a large number of prints. Refilling the tank is easy, as it's almost impossible to put the wrong ink into the tanks since the nozzle of each bottle is designed to fit with only its corresponding ink tank. The input tray, on the other hand, will need regular refilling, as it only holds 100 sheets of plain paper or 20 sheets of photo paper. Also, it's difficult to access the sheet rollers to clear paper jams, as you have to first raise the control panel, pull down the front inner cover, then lift the scanning bed until it clicks into place. The access clearance is narrow, and you also have to be careful not to touch the printing tubes.

You can see the user manual here

This printer has a mediocre display. It's very small, so you have to lean in close to see properly. There isn't a numeric keypad, only directional keys, so setting up the printer and connecting it to your network is very cumbersome. The screen doesn't have good viewing angles, meaning you'll have to look at it straight on, but fortunately, you can tilt the entire front panel upwards a full 90 degrees.

This printer doesn't use ink cartridges. It uses an ink tank that you can refill with bottles of ink. A full set of ink yields a large number of prints, so it's a great choice for high-volume printing. While you can technically fill the supertanks with any third-party ink, we didn't try it and don't recommend doing so. Low-quality ink can damage the printheads, and unlike standard inkjet printers, you can't simply remove the ink if there's a problem.

The ET-2800 yields significantly more cyan pages than either magenta or yellow. While it isn't clear exactly why this is the case, it's good news for people who intend to print blues often, like graphic designers working with a specific color palette or casual photographers who specialize in landscape photos with lots of sky or ocean. Additionally, it doesn't have an ink level sensor but instead monitors ink usage internally to estimate when the ink levels run low. To get the most accurate estimate, you need to fill the ink tanks properly and reset the ink levels manually in the printer settings. It's best not to allow the ink tanks to run too low, as this can introduce air bubbles into the tubes and damage the printer.

This printer only has a flatbed scanner, so it isn't ideal for people who frequently digitize multi-page documents. The scanner lid's hinges don't raise like other printers to properly fit thicker items like textbooks for scanning. Instead, you can actually remove the scanner lid entirely. To do this, you first have to open the lid fully, then gently push forward one hinge at a time until each one releases entirely from the hinge mechanism. Keep in mind this means the lid's white background won't cover any exposed spaces that the item you're scanning doesn't cover, so any direct copies will result in those exposed regions coming out completely black. This could potentially use up lots of ink or result in unusable prints.

If you want an EcoTank printer that has an automatic document feeder, check out the Epson EcoTank ET-3850 or the Epson EcoTank ET-4800.

The scan quality is great. The scanner boosts the contrast and saturation, which is good for text documents because it makes the text easier to read, but it might not be ideal if you're digitizing photos and expect the scan to look as close to the original as possible. It also loses some finer details.

• Start Here Guide
• Setup CD
• Power cord
• Epson T522 ink bottles:
• 1x black
• 1x cyan
• 1x magenta
• 1x yellow

The print quality for black and white documents is great. Most text looks sharp, but smaller text on colored backgrounds looks blurry. All of the fine elements come through properly and more clearly than when printing in color. It has trouble converting the color yellow to grayscale, although that's normal for most printers.

The print quality for color documents is good. Again, except for some smaller text on colored backgrounds, most text looks clear. However, the colors look slightly washed out, and not all of the finer details come through properly.

The Epson ET-2800/Epson ET-2803's cost-per-print is superb, thanks to its high-yielding refillable ink tanks and cheap ink. Also, the printer comes with a set of full bottles in the box, rather than limiting you to half-filled starter cartridges that need replacing not long after you get the printer.

The Epson 2800/Epson 2803 prints slowly overall. It takes a while to print out long documents, like reports or colored worksheets. It also takes a while to print a typical photo, much longer than most inkjet printers. On the bright side, it doesn't take too long to initialize and get single-page prints out. When printing double-sided documents, you need to manually flip the first set of printed pages over when prompted and reinsert them into the feeder so the printer can finish printing the other side. If you want an EcoTank that automatically prints double-sided, check out the Epson EcoTank ET-2850.

This printer doesn't have a removable paper cassette, only an input feeder at the top rear of the printer. You can set custom sizes between 2.12" and 8.5" in width, and 3.39" and 47.24" in length. It has a plastic extender to hold sheets and a movable slider to properly align differently sized media types. However, you need to manually extend and retract the front output tray, which could be inconvenient as printed sheets could fall off without manual intervention.

The Epson EcoTank ET-2800/ET-2803 has a good color gamut. It can produce bright, saturated colors, but struggles with darker shades of green and yellow. Color transitions look a tad grainy, but thankfully, there's no banding.

The color accuracy is okay. Casual prints look great, with only a few noticeable differences to the original image, but it might not be accurate enough for enthusiasts or professionals.

This printer is outstanding at producing small details. The main issue is the halftones (dot effect) making edges and distant objects look less defined.

The Epson Smart Panel mobile app is feature-rich. You can use it to print, scan, and copy, as well as perform maintenance tasks, like cleaning the printheads, checking the printhead nozzles, and viewing the estimated ink levels. You can also buy ink refills and update the printer's firmware. The app alerts you if some documents can't be displayed or printed properly; otherwise, it'll automatically convert most files into a printable format without any manual intervention.

This printer is fully compatible with the most commonly used operating systems. On Windows, you only need to install the printer's drivers if you just want to print, but you need to install the Epson Scan 2 software to use its scanning features. On macOS and Chrome OS, you can print and scan without having to manually install any drivers or software.