Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550

Ugh, I've had my Epson ET8550 for just over two months, and I still can't print a single photo without it messing up! It either jams and chews up the paper, or gives me an error message saying there's a paper jam! Epson said I needed to send it in for service, Cartridge World the service agent. Two weeks later, after they ordered and installed new parts, I picked it up. I got home, set it up, and was excited to print some photos, but guess what? The exact same problem! It chewed up the paper and gave me the same error messages!

I'm so over this! Part of me wants to return it to Harvey Norman and tell them to keep it, and just buy a different brand, and lose my $1,000 investment. But that'll only hurt me, and Epson won't care. I definitely don't recommend this printer, and after researching it, I know it has a known issue that lots of other people have had. I'm going to contact Fair Trading, and I suggest you do the same.

I could not get good results out of this printer – I was so excited to get this printer, so many good reviews.. but you need to be very careful about your intended use-case! This is not well documented despite thousands posts/pages I've read.. but dye based ink is wonderful for photo reproduction, gradients etc.. IF its on coated paper.. now that coated part is critical because you basically cant buy it for inkjet printers (if you the laser coated paper its a huge mess).

You can use photo paper, this is generally thick 1-sided paper.. and it looks GREAT! But.. I was buying it for making 2-sided booklets for graphic design.. honestly I have really low standards.. but the prints on uncoated paper were gross.. terrible.. the ink sinks into the paper, smears, nothing is readable (nothing is readable).. and I bought every type of paper OfficeWorks sold, and tried to source more online. I spent a week testing hundreds of settings, profiles, drivers trying to solve this issue.

This printer is obviously great for photo printing.. thats its go-to.. if you can source really nice double sided coated paper for every day business printing.. then this probably works great too.. but I have now given up, I tried all the online print shops.. its a bit more common overseas.

I don't know how to rate this Printer, because its wonderful for some people.. but it does sell itself as a general use printer.. I was actually really lucky I was able to get mine refunded.. and I ended up going for a pigment based printer (the Canon GX6060), the ink sits on the paper (instead of sinking in like dye based), and the results are much better... not perfect.. not print quality.. but totally acceptable for test printing documents.. even on uncoated paper (UNCOATED paper). However.. results still vary by paper type, the JB Burrows premium digital paper gives the best results that I've found.. I will still try to find some quality coated copy paper though in time.