Epson EcoTank ET-2500 inkjet printer

Office product reviews – best kit for the home office

Having the best tools makes sense when you work from home and can’t afford to lose time or money, but with so much choice it can be difficult to decide what to buy. We tested the Epson EcoTank ET-2500 inkjet printer.

Epson EcoTank ET-2500 inkjet printer

Epson EcoTank ET-2500

What is it?
The Epson EcoTank ET-2500 is a multi-purpose printer, copier and scanner with wifi. So you can print from email, or from smartphone and tablets anywhere in the world, and scan to the cloud. Dead clever!

Design *****
Neat, compact, lightweight and sleekly black. The lid is light, unlike the one on our previous printer, so you can lift it easily without danger of it crashing down. Nice, clear buttons.

How easy is it to set up & learn to use? ****
The instruction sheet is relatively clear. Putting the ink in is a bit fiddly as you have to squeeze the bottles to get all the ink out. And don’t leave it till you need an urgent copy as it takes 20 minutes for the ink to charge. I found the wifi was easy to set up.

Does it do what it claims? *****
Very much so. It’s too early to judge how long the ink will last (Epson say 2 years).

Quality *****
Good quality printing, scanning and copying, very quick and quiet. At first I didn’t think it was working because I was in another room and couldn’t hear the chugging and clanking I’m used to!

Does it increase your productivity/save you money, time or hassle? *****
You can buy the inks separately so you can get the colours you need without wasting money. And it’s cheaper than buying cartridges because you’re not paying for the build and packaging of the cartridge.

It should also save the time and aggravation caused by running out mid-sheet and having to change the cartridge under pressure.

Plus because it’s wifi you don’t need to have it next to your computer, so the EcoTank ET-2500 could also save space in your home office – it could be at the other side of the room or in another room.

And you don’t have to hold stock (which has usually mysteriously disappeared by the time you need to change cartridges!) You can see the ink levels so know when it’s running out, unlike printers that give a low message when there’s plenty left in the cartridge.

So far I haven’t been able to link to my colleague’s old MacBook, maybe because the printer/driver software doesn’t work with older computers. (But we can still print from the laptop using the email function).

Worth the investment? ****
At about £200 EcoTank ET-2500 is probably more expensive than many standard printers, but my feeling is you’d make the difference back by saving time, hassle and money on peripherals.

Overall score ***** 4.7

Best for
A very good buy for small business owners and freelancers who work away from the home office and need to print remotely/share documents with clients or colleagues. It will save you headaches trying to arrange for copies to be made and sent.

Also for employed home workers who need to keep up to speed with colleagues in the main office.

With thanks to Epson for supplying a sample Epson EcoTank ET-2500 for us to review.

Buy the Epson EcoTank ET-2500 from Epson.