The Epson EcoTank ET-2850 is, for us, the best all-rounder you can buy: low-cost colour printing, scanning and copying, with refillable ink tanks instead of pricey cartridges. Here is what it does brilliantly, and the one caveat worth knowing before you buy.
For years the dirty secret of home printing was the ink: the printer was cheap, then the cartridges quietly bled you dry. Epson's EcoTank range was built to break that cycle, and the ET-2850 is the model that brings it within reach of an ordinary household budget. It looks like a normal small inkjet, but instead of cartridges it has refillable tanks you top up from bottles, and the difference that makes to the running cost is the whole reason it is our best overall pick.
| Model | Price | Type | Functions | Connectivity | Rating | Link | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ★ Top pick Epson EcoTank ET-2850 Cartridge-Free Printer | £384.10 | Inkjet, refillable ink tank | Print, scan, copy (3-in-1) | Wi-Fi, USB, Epson Smart Panel app | ★ 4.5 | View → |
£384.10
Inkjet, refillable ink tank · Print, scan, copy (3-in-1) · Wi-Fi, USB, Epson Smart Panel app
The verdict from Daniel Whitfield, home office and printing tester
Our best overall pick. The Epson EcoTank ET-2850 ends the cartridge trap that makes so many cheap printers a false economy. You pay more up front, but the refillable tanks cut the cost per page to a few pence, and the bundled ink lasts most homes a year or two. Add reliable Wi-Fi, a clear app and crisp everyday prints and it is the printer we would buy for most households.
Fills its tanks once and then quietly gets on with the job for months without a cartridge prompt.
The ET-2850 is the right printer if you print regularly and in colour, and you are tired of cartridges. A busy household running off school projects, recipes, forms, the odd photo and a steady stream of documents is exactly its sweet spot. The maths is simple: you pay more up front than for a cartridge printer, but the cost per page drops to a few pence, and the ink that comes in the box lasts most homes a year or two. If you print more than a handful of pages a week, that up-front premium pays for itself, often within the first year.
It is less obviously the right pick if you barely print at all. If you print only a few pages a month, you would take a long time to recoup the higher purchase price, and a cheaper cartridge inkjet or a mono laser may suit you better. It is also worth saying that if your printing is almost entirely black text, a mono laser is faster and cheaper still. But for the typical colour-printing home, nothing here matches the EcoTank on long-term cost.
This is where the ET-2850 wins, and wins decisively. Refilling from bottles brings the cost per page down to a fraction of any cartridge printer here, and the generous bundle of ink means many owners go a year or more before buying any more. Over the life of the printer, the savings dwarf the higher sticker price. If you have ever stood in a shop wincing at the cost of a set of cartridges, this is the printer that ends that experience.
Text comes out sharp and clean, more than good enough for documents, letters and homework, and colour graphics are bright and accurate. Everyday photo prints are perfectly respectable, though a dedicated photo printer like the HP ENVY Inspire will edge it for glossy 6x4s. For the blend of documents, colour and the occasional photo that most homes actually print, the ET-2850's output is more than enough.
Wi-Fi setup is straightforward, and the Epson Smart Panel app makes printing from a phone or tablet genuinely easy, which matters in a household where people print from whatever device is to hand. As a 3-in-1 it also scans and copies, covering the everyday needs of a home office. The main thing it lacks is an automatic document feeder, so multi-page scans go on the glass one sheet at a time; if that is a regular chore for you, the Canon PIXMA TR4750i has an ADF.
Filling the tanks the first time takes a few minutes and a steady hand, but Epson's keyed bottles make spills unlikely, and once it is done you simply forget about ink for a long time. The body is compact and tidy, sensible for a desk or a shelf, and the build feels built to last several years of regular use rather than one summer of light printing.
The ET-2850's only real drawback is that it costs noticeably more to buy than a cheap cartridge inkjet. That is not a flaw, it is the deal: you are paying up front for years of cheap ink. The trap to avoid is judging it on the sticker price alone, because that is exactly how cartridge printers win the shop floor and lose over the following year. If you print enough to benefit, the EcoTank is cheaper, full stop. If you genuinely print very little, a budget all-in-one like the Brother MFC-J1010DW may make more sense for you.
Yes, by a wide margin. Instead of cartridges it uses refillable bottles of ink, which brings the cost per page down to a few pence. The bundled ink alone lasts most homes a year or two, so although it costs more to buy, it usually works out far cheaper over its life.
It prints solid everyday photos and excellent text and graphics, but if photo quality is your main priority a dedicated photo inkjet like the HP ENVY Inspire will edge it. For a household that wants sharp documents, colour graphics and the occasional photo at a low running cost, the ET-2850 is ideal.
If you print regularly, yes. The premium over a cartridge inkjet is recovered through far cheaper ink, usually within the first year or two. If you barely print at all, a cheaper cartridge printer or a mono laser may suit you better, because you would take longer to recoup the up-front cost.
The ET-2850 is our best overall pick because it solves the problem that makes printing miserable: the cost of ink. It prints, scans and copies well, sets up easily, and then quietly runs for months on the ink in the box, all at a cost per page no cartridge printer here can touch. For a household that prints regularly and in colour, it is the soundest buy on this site. If you would rather spend less up front, look at the Brother MFC-J1010DW for value or, if your printing is mostly black text, the HP LaserJet M110we. Before you decide, it is always worth reading our cheapest printer to run guide and our buying guide to be sure the EcoTank fits how you print.