Epson EcoTank ET-2980 Printer Review: Added

Laser printers are still the best choice for mainly text and straight lines. It has a cleaner, sharper look to documents without many blemishes and small details. I suspect this wouldn’t matter for most home printers, where versatility and image quality are more important than perfect thinness.

Where the color laser printers I tested ran about three or four seconds per black-and-white page, the EcoTank was more like six seconds per page, which is right in line with full-color toner cartridge printers. In the small numbers that the Epson tray can handle, it probably won’t feel bad, but it may start to wear out if you’re regularly printing 50-100 pages at a time.

When printing wirelessly, there is sometimes a significant 30 to 45 second delay between pressing the print button and the printer actually starting up. This is my biggest complaint about the EcoTank, and even printing multiple times a day, I often wonder if I’ve sent the command to the wrong printer, or if it needs my attention about something before it starts, only to start beeping soon after.

Typography is about trust

Photo: Brad Burke

Printer makers are increasingly interested in requiring you to use first-party toner with microchips and QR codes, which only drives up the price even further. Sometimes the cartridges that come with printers also contain less ink than replacement cartridges, so you may find yourself refilling sooner rather than later. This has eroded the confidence of people who print a lot, enough to send you into the arms of off-brand ink makers with inconsistent quality.

With an ink tank printer, it’s as if there’s a handshake agreement between you and the manufacturer that nothing untoward will happen. You can watch the tanks fill up as you set them up, and see them slowly drain over time as you print. Although you should probably use the manufacturer’s ink to get the best results, there’s no way here for the company to force you to do so. It’s just ink, and you and the company know you can easily buy liquid gold elsewhere.

While the Epson EcoTank ET-2980 may be more expensive than similar cartridge printers up front, the savings are significant and it won’t take long to be felt. Especially if you don’t trust printer makers because you’ve been burned by inferior cartridges and shady practices, you’ll feel comfortable knowing you’re getting your money’s worth. Everything else didn’t give me a headache, which can’t be said for every printer in my house right now.