The Epson EcoTank ET-2850 is an all-in-one printer designed for small or home offices. It replaces the now-discontinued Epson EcoTank ET-2760 and is similar in design and performance, with one notable difference: it lacks an SD card slot, unlike its predecessor. It has USB and Wi-Fi connectivity, an 8.5x11 flatbed scanner, and a 100-sheet input tray. It supports duplex printing but not duplex scanning since it lacks an automatic feeder.
Our Verdict
The Epson EcoTank ET-2850 is very good for home use. It can print thousands of pages before needing to refill its tanks, and replacement ink is inexpensive. There's a flatbed scanner to scan old pictures, drawings, or pages from a recipe book. However, while it prints very sharp and detailed photos, color accuracy is poor, so most images won't necessarily come out looking like the originals.
- Incredibly high page yields.
- Very low cost-per-print.
- Great photo printing quality.
- Supports wireless printing.
- Bad color accuracy.
- Slow printing speed.
The Epson ET-2850 is decent for small offices. Its supertank system ensures that you can print hundreds of pages a week without buying new ink bottles, which are pretty cheap given the number of pages you can print from a refill. Unfortunately, it doesn't have an automatic document feeder, so it's not ideal for high-volume scanning. Additionally, it prints slowly, which is undesirable if you're under a time constraint.
- Incredibly high page yields.
- Very low cost-per-print.
- Supports wireless printing.
- Good document printing quality.
- Slow printing speed.
- No automatic document feeder.
If you plan to use a printer only occasionally, the Epson ET-2850 is a passable option. It's an inkjet printer that performs best with regular use, not sporadic printing. When you leave it idle, the printheads can clog, which means you'll need to print occasionally to keep the ink from drying out. The printheads aren't replaceable, but the printer does support high-capacity flushing, so you can run several deep-cleaning cycles without refilling the ink. Still, if flushing can't clear a serious clog, you won't have many options to solve the issue. On the plus side, the ink tanks deliver fantastic page yields, so you won't need to refill them often.
- Incredibly high page yields.
- Supports wireless printing.
- Slow printing speed.
- No automatic document feeder.
Can clog if it's left unused.
Printheads aren't user-replaceable.
The Epson EcoTank ET-2850 is good for photos. While it has a wide color gamut and prints detailed photos nicely, its color accuracy is poor, with some images having a distinctly bluish tone and many shades being reproduced inaccurately. On the bright side, its cost-per-print is very low because the ink tank yields a large number of prints, and replacement ink is cheap.
- Great photo printing quality.
- Bad color accuracy.
- Can't print 2x3 photos.
The Epson EcoTank ET-2850 delivers exceptional page yields. Its supertank cartridges can print thousands of pages before needing a refill.
- Incredibly high page yields.
The Epson EcoTank 2850's scanner is unremarkable. It lacks an ADF, which is not ideal if you need to scan longer documents, and its scan quality is only decent. While text is legible, the scanner's processing is aggressive, and finer details and thinner lines are hard to see.
- No automatic document feeder.
Performance Usages
Changelog
- Updated Jul 02, 2026: We've updated this review to Test Bench 1.4, which adds new usages and performance usages, as well as reorganizes several other tests throughout the review. You can read more about the changes in detail in the Changelog.
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Updated Jan 09, 2026:
We've updated text throughout the review after converting to Test Bench 1.3.
- Updated Jan 05, 2026: We've updated the review to Test Bench 1.3, which adds a number of test boxes including Risk of Clogging and Ease of Unclogging. We also updated the Usage and Performance boxes at the top of the review to better integrate the new aspects covered. See the changelog.
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Updated Dec 12, 2024:
We've added mention of the Epson Expression Photo XP-8800 as an alternative with much faster photo printing in the Printing Speed section.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
There are two color variants of the Epson EcoTank ET-2850: 'Black' and 'White.' We tested the 'White' variant. There's also an Epson EcoTank ET-2850 Special Edition variant, which is a Costco exclusive that comes with an additional bottle of black ink.
See our unit's label.
Popular Printer Comparisons
The Epson EcoTank ET-2850 is a good inkjet printer compared to other models in its class. It stands out for its wide color range, high page yields, and low cost per print. However, its slow print speeds might be a dealbreaker for some. Also, although it produces good-quality documents, you can find lower-end models that perform better.
See our recommendations for the best home printers, the best cheap ink printers, and the best all-in-one printers.
The Canon PIXMA G6020 and the Epson EcoTank ET-2850 are both supertank printers. If you print monochrome documents most often, the Epson is a better choice. It prints thousands more black pages than the Canon, so you won't have to refill the tank as often. On the other hand, the Canon can print more color pages. This, paired with its lower ink bottle cost, gives it a lower cost-per-print for color printing and photos. It's also much faster at printing photos.
While the HP Smart Tank 7301 [6001, 7001] and Epson EcoTank ET-2850 are supertank printers with refillable tanks, the HP is more versatile and better suited for most users. The HP is more feature-rich with an ADF and Ethernet connectivity; it performs better overall with much faster print speeds, almost twice the color print yield, and produces nicer color and black documents. By contrast, the scan quality is better on the Epson, but you have to scan one page at a time since it only has a flatbed.
The Epson Expression ET-2750 and the Epson EcoTank ET-2850 are very similar printers. Both are supertanks, but the ET-2850 yields slightly more pages, so you can print another thousand black pages and a hundred color pages before you need to refill the tanks. Otherwise, they perform very similarly, but the ET-2750 is discontinued, so it's much harder to find in stock.
The Epson EcoTank ET-3850 is the step-up model of the Epson EcoTank ET-2850. They're very similar, but the ET-3850 has more helpful features for a small office, like a larger display, an automatic document feeder, and an Ethernet port. It also has higher page yields and faster printing speed.
Test Results
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