The Epson EcoTank ET-4800 is an all-in-one printer designed for home offices. It replaces the older Epson EcoTank ET-4700 and is almost identical in design. As a supertank printer, it features large reservoirs that you can refill with Epson T522 ink. It has a flatbed scanner with fax functionality and an automatic document feeder; however, it doesn't support duplex scanning. Connectivity options include USB, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet, and there's support for Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service.
Our Verdict
The Epson ET-4800 is great for home use. Its four large ink tanks yield thousands of pages, so you don't have to buy new ink refills often. Refills are relatively inexpensive, which helps keep the cost-per-print very low. Photos are sharp and detailed, and color accuracy is sufficient for casual use, such as printing stickers, homemade cards, or food photos. Unfortunately, it can't automatically print on both sides of your sheets, so you need to manually flip over the stack. Since it's an inkjet printer, you need to print regularly to prevent the printheads from clogging; it's not a good choice if you only print once or twice a month.
- Incredibly low cost-per-print.
- Can print thousands of pages before needing refills.
- Good photo quality.
- Okay color accuracy.
- Wide color gamut.
- Can't print double-sided automatically.
- ADF can't automatically duplex scan.
The Epson ET-4800 is decent for small offices. You can print thousands of pages before the black and color tanks run empty, so even if you print a hundred pages a week, you won't have to buy refill bottles too often. It features a flatbed scanner, an automatic document feeder, and a built-in fax, ensuring you're well-equipped for most office tasks. Unfortunately, the printer cannot scan or print double-sided sheets automatically, so you'll need to flip the sheets over yourself when prompted by the printer. Additionally, it prints slowly, so you'll have to wait a while for your document to print, especially if your office has multiple users sharing the printer.
- Can print thousands of pages before needing refills.
- Many wireless printing options.
- Can't print double-sided automatically.
- ADF can't automatically duplex scan.
The Epson ET-4800 is an acceptable choice if you want a printer that stays ready to print even after long idle periods. Since it is an inkjet, leaving it unused can still cause the printheads to clog, so printing occasionally helps prevent the ink from drying out. The printheads are not replaceable, but the high-capacity flushing system typically clears minor clogs and allows for multiple deep-cleaning cycles without requiring ink refills. That said, if a clog becomes too severe for flushing to resolve, your options are very limited. Aside from this issue, the large ink tanks offer excellent page yields, making refills rare, and the wide range of connectivity options allows you to print easily from most devices.
- Can print thousands of pages before needing refills.
- Many wireless printing options.
- Prone to printhead clogging and misalignment.
Printheads aren't user-replaceable.
Slow printing speeds.
The Epson ET-4800 is great for photos. Pictures look sharp and detailed, but the color accuracy is slightly off. It's fine for casual photo prints for art projects or home decor, but it's far from the best choice if you use photo prints for semi-professional or professional purposes. Unfortunately, the printhead has clogging and misalignment issues, which can cause banding.
- Good photo quality.
- Okay color accuracy.
- Wide color gamut.
- Borderless printing is only supported for some sizes.
The Epson EcoTank ET-4800 delivers outstanding page yields. Its supertank cartridges can produce thousands of pages before needing a refill.
- Can print thousands of pages before needing refills.
The Epson ET-4800 delivers disappointing printing speeds. It produces about eight black-and-white pages and four color pages per minute, which falls slightly short of the advertised ten black and five color pages per minute. It also lacks automatic duplex printing, so you need to manually flip the pages when prompted.
Slow printing speeds.
The Epson ET-4800's print quality is very good, showing sharp text and clearly visible fine details. However, white text on gray backgrounds, especially with thinner fonts, can appear blurry and may be difficult to read.
Very good document print quality.
The Epson ET-4800 offers adequate scanning performance. Text scans clearly, but the image processing removes many fine details, such as graph lines and watermarks. This is in part due to it boosting contrast and color saturation, which may not suit photo scans. The scanner features an automatic document feeder, but it operates at a slow speed of approximately 1 page per minute and doesn't support automatic duplex scanning.
Decent scan quality despite a tendency to boost contrast and saturation.
- ADF can't automatically duplex scan.
Performance Usages
Changelog
-
Updated Jan 08, 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.
-
Updated Apr 02, 2025:
We've removed mention of the Epson EcoTank ET-4810 from this review as it isn't a variant of the Epson EcoTank ET-4800 as we had previously claimed.
- Updated May 09, 2024: Added mention of the Canon MegaTank MAXIFY GX2020/GX1020 as a supertank alternative with automatic double-sided printing in the Printing Speed section.
Check Price
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the Epson EcoTank ET-4800 in white. It's also available in black.
See our unit's label.
Popular Printer Comparisons
The Epson EcoTank ET-4800 is an all-in-one supertank printer that replaces the Epson EcoTank ET-4700. Like other Epson supertank printers, it has a very high page yield and low cost-per-print. It can also process large amounts of single-sided documents without intervention, thanks to its automatic document feeder. However, it might not be the best option for office work due to the lack of automatic double-sided printing and scanning capability.
If you're looking for alternatives, see our recommendations for the best all-in-one printers, the best home printers, and the best printers with cheap ink.
The Epson EcoTank ET-4850 is better than the Epson EcoTank ET-4800 for most uses. The ET-4850's build feels sturdier, and its design is more user-friendly, as it allows for easier access to the sheet rollers. It also produces higher-quality black-and-white documents, prints faster, and yields significantly more pages. The ET-4850 has a slightly wider color range; however, the ET-4800 reproduces colors more accurately, and it brings out more details in photos.
The Epson EcoTank ET-2800/ET-2803 and the Epson EcoTank ET-4800 are very similar printers. If you scan many documents for work, the ET-4800 has an automatic document feeder, so it's more convenient since you don't need to scan each page individually. Also, it has an Ethernet port if you want to plug it directly into your router for a faster connection. Otherwise, both perform very similarly.
The Epson EcoTank ET-3850 and the Epson EcoTank ET-4800 are very similar supertank printers, with a few differences. The ET-3850 has a larger display, much higher page yields, and faster printing speeds. Also, the ET-3850 can print double-sided automatically, whereas you need to flip over the sheets manually with the ET-4800. On the other hand, the ET-4800 has built-in fax and prints photos with better detail and color accuracy.
The Epson EcoTank ET-4800 is the updated version of the Epson EcoTank ET-4700. They look and perform nearly identical, but the ET-4800 has higher page yields and prints nicer-looking photos. Neither can print double-sided sheets automatically.
Test Results
The build quality is mediocre. The plastic used in its construction feels a bit cheap but is still reasonably sturdy, especially the input and output trays. Unlike other models, you can't fully lift the entire scanner to access the sheet rollers. While the top does rise a little, it isn't by much, and you can only access the sheet rollers by pulling down the front panel. When removing paper jams, be careful not to touch the tubes inside the printer, which can be challenging due to the limited space available for movement. On the bright side, the ink cartridges are easily accessible by pulling up the cover on the right side, but you need to lift the scanner first.
The weight includes the ink, as we took the measurements after filling the ink tanks.
The display is tiny, making it hard to read any text on the screen. It's easy to navigate with the buttons, although it doesn't always register some inputs. It has good viewing angles, and you can also tilt the display panel vertically to help you see the screen better.
This is a supertank printer, meaning that it has four refillable ink tanks instead of traditional cartridges. It has a very high page yield, so you don't need to refill the tanks too often. However, if you're looking for a supertank printer with an even higher page yield, the HP Smart Tank 7301 is worth considering. There are no built-in ink-level sensors. Instead, the printer monitors ink usage internally (via a page counter) to estimate when the ink levels run low. You'll need to monitor the ink levels and manually reset the printer settings when refilling them. Ensure that you don't let the ink levels run too low, as this can introduce air bubbles into the print tubes and damage the printheads.
Unfortunately, the printer is prone to printhead clogging and misalignment, which happened every so often during our page yield test. Running a printhead cleaning and alignment helps solve the issue, but you might use considerable ink during these tasks. Let us know in the discussions if you have this printer and have experienced the same issue.
Like all inkjet printers, the Epson EcoTank ET-4800's printheads can clog and become misaligned if not used regularly. There are some built-in maintenance routines, like nozzle check, printhead cleaning, power cleaning, printhead alignment, and paper guide cleaning. Refilling the tanks is an easy process. You simply need to lift the scanner, then pull up the ink tank cover. Each bottle's nozzle is slightly different and corresponds with its ink tank; this means you don't need to worry about accidentally filling up the wrong tank. The refilling process can be messy if you're not careful, but at least you don't need to do it very often since the printer can print thousands of pages before the tanks run low. Since the printer lacks an ink sensor, it cannot accurately measure the remaining ink, so you must reset the ink level counter each time you refill the tanks.
Unfortunately, the paper tray can only hold 100 pages, meaning you will need to add paper frequently if you regularly print long, multi-page documents. To access the sheet rollers, you need to lift the display panel, lift the scanner, and pull down the black cover. From there, you can reach the rollers to pull out paper jams, but the space is very narrow, and you need to be careful not to touch any of the tubes.
See the user guide here.
This is an inkjet printer, which means it can clog if left unused for an extended period. Inkjet printers use liquid ink that flows through extremely fine printhead nozzles. During extended periods of inactivity, this ink can evaporate, thicken, or dry out, potentially blocking the ink flow. Environmental factors such as dry air, dust, temperature fluctuations, or direct sunlight can accelerate clog formation. Clogs may cause missing lines, faded colors, or complete print failures. To reduce the risk, we recommend printing periodically and storing the printer in a cool, stable environment. If clogs occur, most inkjet printers include built-in maintenance routines to help clear the printheads, which are detailed in the Expected Maintenance test box of this review.
If you don't want to deal with unclogging, laser printers use a different system with dry toner and a drum instead of ink and printheads, which avoids this issue.
This printer has non-replaceable printheads paired with a high ink volume, which helps resolve most clogging issues without needing a refill or a new cartridge. The large flushing volume partially compensates for the lack of replacement options for the printheads. However, if a clog exceeds what printhead cleaning tasks can handle, you will most likely need professional help to resolve the issue, which can be quite costly.
- Start here guide
- Power cable
- Setup CD-ROM
- Epson T522 bottles
- 1x cyan
- 1x magenta
- 1x yellow
- 1x black
Like most supertank printers, the cost per print is incredibly low due to its high page yields and inexpensive ink bottle costs.
This printer has slow printing speeds, falling slightly short of its advertised ten black and five color pages per minute. It can't automatically print double-sided sheets, so you'll have to flip the pages when prompted. A message pops up when it has finished printing the even pages and shows you how to reinsert the stack in the input tray. If you want a supertank printer that automatically prints double-sided sheets, consider the Canon MegaTank MAXIFY GX2020/GX1020.
The print quality of black-and-white documents is great. Printed text looks sharp, and fine details are present and easily visible. However, white text, especially thinner fonts, within a gray background looks blurry and can be hard to see properly.
The print quality of color documents is good. The text looks clear, and the colors are vibrant. However, fine details, thin lines, and white text within a colored background can be a little hard to see.
This printer supports most standard paper sizes. You can set custom sizes between 2.13" (5.4 cm) and 8.5" (21.6 cm) in width and between 3.39" (8.6 cm) and 47.24" (120 cm) in length.
The optical character recognition (OCR) feature is software-based, meaning you need to install the Epson Scan 2 application to use it. The app allows you to scan documents as either a searchable PDF or a TIFF file.
The scan quality is decent. The text is clear, but the image processing removes many of the finer details, such as the lines in the graph and watermarks. The image processing also boosts the contrast and color saturation, which you may or may not like.
The Epson EcoTank ET-4800 has a good color gamut. There's not a lot of distinction between highly saturated yellow, orange, and red, and it struggles with darker shades of green. There's some noticeable graining when transitioning from lighter shades of blue to green.
This printer's color accuracy is okay. Some colors appear visibly off, but the pictures still look relatively natural, albeit slightly too warm.
This printer reproduces small details remarkably well. While there's a slight loss of fine details due to halftones, it isn't noticeable overall, even when looking at faraway objects.
The Epson ET-4800 supports various glossy paper sizes up to 8.5" x 11". It supports borderless printing, but there might be a slight loss in print quality. Also, you can only print borderless photos on 3.5" x 5" or 4" x 6" photo paper.
The Epson Smart Panel app enables you to print, scan, and copy documents, as well as check ink levels and initiate a printhead cleaning. It also has some additional features, such as Access to Class, which allows you to print assignments and documents from Google Classroom. Also, there's the Creative Print and Epson Gallery website for artistic prints or printing on different media formats. Guest Connection creates a QR code that lets your friends easily connect to your printer. Some file types don't work properly on the iOS version, as the app alters the formatting, so you'll have to print these files from whichever app you use to view them.
To print with the Epson ET-4800 on Windows devices, you need to manually install the drivers. Get the drivers here. While there's no printing software, there's a Maintenance tab in the Printing Preferences that lets you access printhead cleanings, alignments, and other maintenance tasks. There's no need to manually install drivers on macOS and Chrome OS devices.
