Many homes have many different kinds of printers, for example, inkjet printers, laser printers, and thermal label printers. Many people use printer inkjet because it’s easy to use and they are cheap. We use our printer so much that we spend a lot of money to replace the ink cartridge. This is where the Epson EcoTank ET-4700 comes in. It’s a revolution in printing where we replace your printer’s printhead and tank assembly instead of just the empty cartridge.
Inks are expensive, and they are not getting cheaper. Managing the cost of using inkjet printers has been a challenge for everyone, and that’s why Epson developed a new printer that can be compatible with ink bottles and ink tanks. The Epson EcoTank ET-4700 printer focuses on being more user-friendly, cost-effective, eco-friendly, and offering users more features. In this Epson EcoTank ET-4700 review article, we will cover the main details about this exciting product from Epson.
Epson EcoTank ET-4700 Review
The Epson EcoTank ET-4700 inkjet printer is designed to help you save money. It uses individual ink refill bottles instead of expensive cartridges, and the large capacity reservoirs make it easy to refill them. Using the ink sets included or replacements, you can print for up to 2 years. With each ink bottle set, you’ll be able to print 4,500 pages – the equivalent of about 80 individual ink cartridges. This upfront cost savings makes the ET-4700 one of the most affordable printers on the market.
The Epson EcoTank ET-4700 wireless inkjet printer goes beyond the norm, offering a range of features that create a truly remarkable experience. This all-in-one printer is ideal for everyday home and business use, from its fixed photo paper tray to its ability to print borderless photos. A 30-sheet automatic document feeder is also available with the ET-4700. Easily print lab-quality photos from your smartphone or PC with the free Epson Connect printing app. In addition to its wireless and wired networking capabilities, the ET-4700 offers a limited warranty valid for two years after registration.
Design and Build
At only 10 x 14 x 22 inches deep, the ET-4700 is small enough to fit most desktops without any problems. It is approximately the same size as rivals such as the HP SmartTank Plus 651, Brother MFC-J805DW, and Canon Pixma G4210; however, the Epson is significantly lighter.
The ET-4700 features an automatic document feeder (ADF) for scanning or copying two-sided originals. The ADF here is a 30-sheet manual duplexer, so you must flip the originals manually for the second half of the job. The Brother and Canon machines can hold only 20 pages, and the HP feeder can hold 30. They all have manual duplexing rather than automatic duplexing.
The ET-4700’s multi-button control panel lets you do walk-up tasks like printing or copying to the cloud. In addition to key navigation and commands, the control panel has a 1.44” color display and a number pad.
The controls are a bit old-fashioned and don’t work quite as well as larger screens with touch controls, but they do the job. This printer has neither a touch panel nor an auto-duplexing print engine. You need to flip and place it back into the paper tray to print two-sided pages. As the Epson walks you through the process step-by-step, this is tolerable but not as convenient as a machine that automatically duplexes. In order to handle paper, the machine has a tray that holds 100 sheets of paper that can be pulled up and out of the back of the chassis.
Print Quality
The Epson inkjet printers we’ve used have always worked well. It’s no different with the ET-4700. Using test prints, we successfully printed highly readable, well-shaped characters as small as 6 points, which is more than adequate for home and small office uses, including those instances in which it is necessary to stand out from the crowd.
For our test spreadsheets and graphs, Excel generated solid dark fills and backgrounds and gradient fills that flowed smoothly from one color to another or from light to dark and back. Intricate details, such as hairlines (fewer than 1 point), were reproduced well, and colors were accurate and vibrant.
In addition to the 4×6-inch photo, the 8×10-inch photo came out with vibrant, accurate, and vivid colors. The details were also great. It is true that the ET-4700’s images don’t compete with the quality of a Canon or Epson consumer photo printer with five or six inks. Still, they’re awesome for embedding into business reports, handouts, and promotions.
Speeds
According to Epson, you can print approximately 10 monochrome pages in a minute on the ET-4700. We tested the printing speed over an Ethernet connection with our Windows 10 Pro testbed running Intel Core i5. Using Microsoft Word to print out the 12-page document, the all-in-one printed at an impressive 8.4ppm. By comparison, it was just 0.1ppm faster than the Canon Pixma G4210 and was just 1.7ppm faster than the HP Smart Tank Plus 651 & Brother MFC-J805DW.
Afterward, we printed several PDs, spreadsheets, and handouts that included charts, various sizes of colored text, and complex graphics. Combining those results with the 12-page Word file, we got a comprehensive print rate of 5ppm for our whole set of documents. The Brother printer is about 0.2ppm slower and the Pixma 0.5ppm slower than the Epson EcoTank ET-4700.
As part of our testing, we also measured the ET-4700’s speed, at which it produced two very colorful and detailed snapshots. With the exception of the Brother, which was only half as fast as the other models, it averaged 28 seconds per piece, which was similar to the other models mentioned above.
Ink System
As a final point, it is virtually impossible to avoid thinking of ink, one of the greatest concerns that we have when we acquire these devices. This is due to the fact that consumables can significantly increase the total cost of printing. You will not have to use cartridges for this inkjet printer because it has a large ink tank, and you can refill it using bottles. This printer will save you up to 90% in ink costs. You can print up to 4,500 black and white pages and 7,500 color pages using each ink pack.
Printing Costs
It’s the printing costs that make the ET-4700 an appealing option. If you print frequently, it’ll save you a lot of money in comparison to most other ink printers on the market.
Naturally, this will depend on how frequently you print, and if you only do so occasionally, it may not be worthwhile to purchase a device of this kind. Ink for this printer is included for printing 7,500 pages in full color, and refilling it is also not that expensive either. This will be a wise investment if you spend a lot of money on ink cartridges.
Connectivity
The ET-4700 comes with Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and USB 2.0 connectivity for connecting to a single PC. Wi-Fi Direct is another peer-to-peer method of connecting a printer and handheld device without being part of a network so that you can print and scan without being a part of a network. In addition to Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Mopria, and Fire OS, Epson Connect also includes a variety of mobile utilities. Printing from Epson Email, Remote Printing, Scan to Cloud, and iPrint are all included.
However, the ET-4700 does not have a USB port for printing from or scanning to flash drives. With IFTTT scripting, it works with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and other voice-activated devices just like many other Epson, Canon, and HP consumer inkjets during the last few years.
What We Like
- Lightweight and compact.
- The quality of the print is excellent.
- Runs extremely efficiently.
- Excellent options for mobile connectivity.
- Ink in the box would cover thousands of pages.
What We Don’t Like
- No auto duplex printing
- The USB port does not work for flash drives
Note: Epson EcoTank ET-4700 is undoubtedly a good printer for people who have heavy printing demands. Businesses can play a heavy role in the use of this product. Since the ink is long-lasting, it will save you on a consistent basis, so it’s well worth the money.
Final Words
Overall, the Epson EcoTank ET-4700 has a lot to offer. It’s a great choice for businesses and offices, whether they need their documents printed at a large volume or don’t want the hassle of having to refill their ink cartridges constantly. Likewise, it’s also a good choice for home users who need to print many color documents. The price tag is also not much high, but users get plenty for the money for being able to print thousands of pages on a single tank of ink. However, if you’re in the market for an office that prints many photos and documents, it can be worth the cost savings over time to get one.