Epson EcoTank Printer Review: Why 'How to Change Ink in Epson Printer' Is the Wrong Question
If you're searching how to change ink in Epson printer, you're probably asking the wrong question. I know, because I spent my early years obsessed with that exact search. It's tempting to think that once you know how to swap a cartridge, you understand the printer. You don't.
Let me be clear: you still need to know the mechanics. But in 2025, the bigger decision is what kind of ink system you should be running in the first place. The industry has moved, and a lot of printer advice hasn't.
What I got wrong in 2017
When I first started handling print orders for our shop, I assumed the lowest cartridge price was the whole story. I compared page yields, bought an Epson that looked economical on paper, and then spent the next year watching ink run out at the worst possible moments. My initial approach was completely wrong.
I thought ink cost was a line item. It's actually a system cost. The $29 cartridge is only the beginning: wasted media, nozzle cleaning, downtime, failed prints, and the occasional reprint all come out of the same budget. I've personally made—and documented—four significant mistakes totaling roughly $6,200 in wasted budget. The biggest theme? I treated ink as a simple replacement task instead of a workflow decision.
That's when I created our first checklist. It wasn't about the mechanics of changing ink. It was about knowing which Epson model made sense before I bought anything.
An honest EcoTank review from someone who had to refill it
If you've only used cartridge printers, the EcoTank line feels like cheating. And honestly, for a lot of businesses, it is a game-changer. The bottles hold a lot more ink than cartridges, and Epson's published specs as of early 2025 list some black EcoTank bottles around 4,500 pages. I can't confirm that number in every real-world scenario, but the difference between cartridge and tank is not subtle.
Here's the part most Epson EcoTank reviews don't tell you: 'ink change' doesn't disappear. It turns into 'ink refill.' Instead of swapping a cartridge, you open the tank, unscrew the cap, pour the bottle in, and reset the ink levels. It's simpler, but it's still a step. If you're gonna run one for production, plan for that step. The reason I like it for production is the lower cost per milliliter and the fact that one bottle doesn't mean a full replacement cycle.
If you do need the mechanics for a cartridge model, here's the short version: turn the printer on, open the front cover, wait for the carriage to stop moving, push the latch to release the old cartridge, press the new one in until it clicks, close the cover, and run a nozzle check. For an EcoTank, skip the cartridge part and refill the tank before the low-ink warning becomes a clogged-printhead problem.
Converting a 1390 for DTF taught me a different lesson
If you've searched for '1390 DTF printer' or 'EnjoyColor DTF printer,' you're probably looking at the same tempting math I was. A converted Stylus Photo 1390 plus DTF ink and a powder shaker costs a fraction of a dedicated DTF machine. I thought I was being smart.
I wasn't wrong about the price. I was wrong about the maintenance. A 1390 DTF printer is still an Epson with a cartridge or ink system, but it demands a completely different mindset. Trust me on this one: the white ink settles. The printhead needs flushing. The film and powder need a consistent environment. In March 2021, I skipped a routine maintenance day because a deadline seemed more important. Two days later, my white ink had clogged halfway through a 140-shirt order. That mistake cost me $320 in film and ink, plus a reprint schedule I still remember.
This is where the 'industry in evolution' point gets concrete. The 1390 was originally a photo printer. Running DTF through it is a conversion, and the old Epson manuals don't cover it. Brands like EnjoyColor have built their whole support model around that gap, for good reason. You're not just changing ink; you're managing a specialized ink system that behaves differently from anything Epson originally designed for.
UV printer LED lamp machines are the next frontier
Now add UV printing to the mix, and the old rules collapse completely. A UV printer LED lamp machine doesn't rely on absorption. It relies on curing. That means the ink is designed to stay wet until the LED lamp zaps it. And the lamp itself is a wear item that affects quality more than any cartridge change.
The most common mistake I've run into is operators babying the printhead and ignoring the UV lamp. That's backwards. If the LED lamp machine is losing output, you get inconsistent curing, then adhesion failure, then a job that looks fine for a day and scrapes off a week later. I made that mistake in Q1 2024 on a $2,400 order. We caught it before delivery, but only because our pre-check list now includes a UV output test.
But isn't 'how to change ink' still important?
Of course it is. If you're running a $99 desk printer, the most important Epson question might genuinely be how to swap cartridges without making a mess. I do not mean to overcorrect.
Here's what I can't do: pretend my experience covers every situation. My experience comes from about 200 orders in small and mid-sized production runs. If you're running a high-volume print center with dedicated technicians, your priorities will be different. If you're a home user, an EcoTank might be overkill. What worked for me came from mistakes, not universal wisdom.
What I actually check now
After a few expensive misses, I stopped asking whether a printer was easy to refill and started asking whether the ink system fit the workflow. Here's the checklist I use now, and it's shorter than you'd think:
- What does the ink cost per real-world page, including waste and cleaning cycles?
- Can I get ink quickly, or am I at the mercy of one supplier?
- Does the printer have a documented maintenance routine for the kind of ink I'm running?
- For UV and DTF, is the cure system as monitored as the printhead?
None of these questions show up in a typical 'how to change ink in Epson printer' article. That's not a criticism. It's just evidence that the industry moved on.
The bottom line
Some things will never change: clean nozzles matter, good profiles matter, and ink should be stored properly. But the assumption that 'ink change' is the core skill for running a printer is as outdated as comparing only hardware prices. Epson EcoTank changed the cost equation. DTF conversions like the 1390 and EnjoyColor changed the maintenance equation. UV printer LED lamp machines changed the curing equation. If you're still only asking how to change the ink, you're making the same mistake I made in 2017—just at a different step.
So yes, learn how to change the cartridge. Then spend more time on the system around it. That's where the real savings, and the real headaches, live.