Epson ET-4550 Gives You Ink For Years
Set Up and Performance
Contents
ET-4550 Setup
This printer comes with two sets of four ink bottles. Epson includes plastic gloves and full instructions. The process actually only involves opening the bottles, removing the caps, squeezing the plastic bottles to pour the ink into the tanks, and replacing the attached caps. Not being the neatest person in the world, I readied myself for the worse by donning old clothes and covering everything with newspaper. It wasn’t necessary. The process took five minutes and I didn’t spill a drop.
The ET-4550 required about 20 minutes for the calibration and another ten minutes to complete the network configuration and software installation.
Performance
The ET-4550 is rated for print speeds of 13 black ppm and 7.3 color ppm color. So while this isn’t the fastest printer you can find, most will find the speeds adequate. The print resolution is 4,800 x 1,200 dpi. Epson’s MicroPiezo inkjet technology kept the text quite crisp and clear. Although this is not advertised as a photo printer, it does a good job on photos if you print on photo paper and choose the best resolution by changing the settings on both the printer and the computer.
This printer has a built-in duplexer and fax machine. It works with Epson Connect, Google, Cloud, Kindle Fire Print, and Apple AirPrint, so all your mobile printing needs should be covered. It is, of course, Wi-Fi enabled and also has a USB 2.0 port and an Ethernet port.
One caution here, because of the liquid ink in the tanks, you will want to be careful to keep the printer level when moving it from room to room.
The EcoTank ET4550 has four ink tanks. The black is pigment ink and the three color inks are dye. These printers are still undergoing testing for permanence. In my opinion, this is really not an issue unless you will be printing photos that you want to make sure will be good in a hundred years or more.