Running a B&B, along with being self-employed means that I need a good printer, one which doesn't cost us too much in ink, is reliable and prints excellent quality pictures and text. When I was asked to review the Epson Eco-Tank ET-3600, my husband said "it's going to cost you money"! What he didn't realise was that it comes with enough ink to print 11,000 pages, that's approximately two years in a home office. In fact, on average it saves you 74% on the cost of printing.
One of my concerns was that it would be a bulky printer and take up too much space in the office, but it fits really nicely next to the computer. You can use it to print, copy and scan and it is also possible to print double-sided. We keep a food hygiene diary in the B&B and need to be able to print out double-sided as it saves paper too, well and truly keeping our costs down.
The printer comes with four ink bottles which you need to fill the tanks with. This sounds quite daunting and I was concerned that I was going to get ink everywhere, but it was really easy to do and aside from the fact that I got a tiny bit on my fingers, it was completely mess-free. There are no cartridges with the printer at all. When the ink eventually runs out, you can buy more and refill the tank. It's so much less faff than trying to find specific cartridges for your printer.
Once you have filled the ink into the tanks, the printer needs to initialise. This takes around twenty minutes and is slightly noisy. I was initially a bit concerned about the noises it made, but I decided to leave it and it was fine. Clearly it was just the noises of the ink going into the printer. After this I configured the WiFi, which again was very simple and the computer soon found the printer. I also set it up on my phone by downloading the Epson iPrint app (this is available on Android and iPhone). You don't have to be in the house to print, in fact, you can be on the other side of the world, which is pretty incredible! In total, it took around 30 minutes to set up the printer, and 20 of those minutes were when it was initialising.
I have tried printing out pictures and found the quality to be incredibly crisp and clear. I've yet to try printing on to photographic paper, but I'll definitely be giving that a go. You can adjust the paper tray to different sizes of paper so it shouldn't be a problem.
If you're looking for a family or a home office printer then I can highly recommend the Epson Eco-Tank ET-3600. It's not too bulky, saves money, is efficient and the print quality is fantastic. It's easy to install and uses WiFi, so you can print from anywhere in your home. It is priced at £399, which might seem rather pricey, but when you add up the cost of ink cartridges with printers, it is a very good price for the printer. For more information, check out Epson's website.
Disclosure: I was sent this product for the purpose of review. All opinions are my own and are honest and fair.
