Which ink does the Epson EcoTank ET-4500 use?

The EcoTank ET-4500 has no cartridges at all. It has four refillable tanks that you fill from bottles of Epson 664 ink in black, cyan, magenta and yellow, which is why a search for ET-4500 ink arrives at a bottle number rather than a cartridge number.

Getting that number right matters, because Epson's bottle families do not interchange. This 2015 machine takes 664. The ET-4850 further up the same EcoTank range takes Epson 502, and nothing in the two model names warns you that they differ.

Running cost is what pays back the higher price of a tank printer. A $13.00 bottle of 664 black is rated for 4000 pages, so 0.33c. Each colour bottle is the same $13.00 for 6500 pages, or 0.20c. A complete set of four bottles comes to $52.00. Against an HP 63XL black at 7.71c in our catalogue, the EcoTank puts a black page on paper for roughly a twenty third of the cost.

No firmware update can shut this printer out of third party ink, and Epson states that rather than leaving it to be worked out. The footnote on its Ink Yields page calls EcoTank an open system designed not to prevent the use of non-OEM inkjet bottles, while the body of the same page says Epson cartridge printers are designed for Epson cartridges only and that some updates may affect the functionality of third party ink. One document, two policies, and the tank machines sit on the permissive side of it. Epson does still tie warranty cover to genuine ink, warning that non-genuine ink could cause damage the limited warranty will not pay for. Genuine 664 is inexpensive to start with, so a compatible bottle saves less here than it would on any cartridge printer. Buy ink sold specifically as 664, stay with one brand per tank, and fill to the upper line.

Tank printers go wrong in their own way, and the cause is usually ink flow rather than an empty tank. After a refill, or after the printer has stood unused for a while, run the ink charging or head cleaning cycle so ink reaches the nozzles properly. A missing or banded colour usually clears with a nozzle check and one or two cleaning cycles, with a rest in between so the ink can settle. Keep the caps closed and put a page through every week or two, because regular use is what keeps the nozzles clear.

What will end this machine is the waste ink rather than the supply of it. Epson's guide for the ET-4500 lists ink bottle part numbers and documents no maintenance box, which puts it in the older group where surplus ink from cleaning goes into pads fixed inside the printer. Epson describes those pads on its Ink Yields page, says the printer shows an end of service life message at a point chosen at the factory, and adds that owners who want to keep using the machine can contact its support. That counter, rather than the price of a bottle, is what sets how long a 2015 EcoTank goes on earning back what it cost. Our guide to waste ink pads and maintenance boxes, further down this page, explains how the count is kept.