SureColor T5170 36” Wireless Printer

The Epson T5170 prints quickly, cleanly and has good old fashioned print drivers for all the flavors of operating system we run on the shop floor. Everything worked straight out of the box and so far, I've been happy with the cartridge life. I will say that the paper catch is just that... a catch. Don't expect your prints to land in any organized fashion - rather expect to find them haphazardly rolled and folded in the "fishnet" style catch bin - this is an area where the T5170 could use some improvement. All in all the Epson is a keeper! But the Amazon Delivery Service stole the show! Regarding Amazon's service: I initially ordered this product at a competitor (Adorama who advertised the product to be in stock). After a week of waiting for a tracking number I made contact with Adorama, only to find out that the printer had yet to ship and in-fact was going to be drop shipped some 30 days later! With a project deadline looming, I simply couldn't wait and canceled the order with Adorama. Fearing the same treatment, but eager to get this equipment in the shop, I reluctantly purchased the printer here on Amazon. Amazon boasted the same low price but claimed to be able to make delivery before my deadline. I ordered on a Thursday afternoon and In three short days (Sunday afternoon!) I had accepted delivery from Amazon. I received clear communication on the shipping status through Amazon and the delivery drivers were friendly. It should be noted that our offices are not in a major town, quite rural in fact, and far from any metro area. This was simply amazing service! The printer arrived with the delivery box in pristine condition and the product was likewise unharmed. I couldn't be happier with the printer and my purchase through Amazon.

Update: Epson rep on phone says printer is "whole unit replace" even though the warranty documentation says next-day, onsite service. Have to disassemble and box it up and ship it back for a replacement. Warranty was prime reason for choosing this printer. Multiple errors during setup that could not be found at Epson.com. Had to search random websites. Error 00159A motor overtorque turned out to be caused by paper roll having too large a diameter and not rolling freely in slot. Paper purchased was what Amazon recommended. Had to strip off about 20 meters of paper to reduce roll diameter to clear this error. Then got a paper misaligned error and had to reload. Then got a paper jam and had to manually cut paper and pull out forcefully, leaving a bit of debris that fortunately did clear itself after the mandatory power cycle. Reloaded and got another jam. Reloaded and got a 00113C error (motor reversal count limit). Went through Amazon return process on website and got to point where I was given the option to have a call back. Amazon support called immediately, but had to hold for 30 min to get Epson on the line for a conference call. First thing we were told is that maximum paper roll diameter for this printer is 4.3 inches which equates to 130 ft of paper, even though machine settings default to 300 meters of paper during a paper load. Amazon-recommened paper we purchased was 300-foot roll with 5" diameter. Epson price for plain paper that fits this machine is $125 for 131 feet, which is basically $1/foot. Perhaps this wasn't a good choice for our business.

I love this printer it prints great quality picture but the downside are the ink cartridges. They drain so fast so you have to make sure you have extras. I love epson products. I have 5 epson printers. I wish this one was an ecotank.

Works fine

We've been using the 3170 and 5170 for a while now. These printers have been reliable workhorses for printing of both posters and photos. You'd think with only three colors (plus black), photographic printing would leave something to be desired, but the output is more than good enough to result in frame-worthy photos so long as you start out with an image of high enough resolution to be blown up to these sizes. The wifi is dependable, firmware upgrades are automatically applied, and the overall touchscreen interface has been bulletproof for us. Both color and monochrome images are reproduced faithfully. One of the major differences between the two printers, beyond the obvious difference in paper width capabilities, is that the wider (and heavier) 5170 comes with a stand. The largely metal stand requires about half an hour to assemble, has casters on the legs, and incorporates a catching basket for collecting the output. A stand is available for the 3170 separately. One problem we've encountered is that of finding the proper paper rolls. You need 2" core paper, and while this is available from Epson, paper is often mis-identified if you buy it from typical sources. Sometimes 2" cores are specified as having 3" cores, and sometimes the reverse. Should you accidentally end up with paper wound around a 3" core, that won't work, and you'll need to rewind the paper around a 2" core. I'd recommend keeping a used up paper core available so that you can do this should you have to. We've had great luck with matte paper and are just beginning to work with standard glossy photographic paper. Either way, at about $100 for a 100 foot roll, you end up with your paper costs being only a dollar per foot of length. The real cost is the ink - the carts that come with the unit go quickly and you'll definitely want the high capacity ink cartridges. These can be tough to find; even Epson is out of the magenta as of this writing, and Amazon doesn't stock them. The set of high capacity inks along with an ink maintenance tank (and you'll need that after your second ink cart replacement) runs about $230. We've found the inks to last through about 80 feet of the two foot width and 50 feet of the three foot width paper, give or take. The 3170 and 5170 share ink cartridge specs, so we keep a full set of spare ink on hand that can be utilized in either printer. We leave the printers on 24/7 so the printhead doesn't dry out, and even if not used for 4 to 5 weeks, the printers have had no trouble on the first print after extended downtime. After many months of use, we haven't had to run a maintenance cycle on either printer. Both the 3170 and 5170 have been manufactured in limited numbers and are likely hand built at least to some extent. Epson has provided very good support. Both units work perfectly with MacOS under Mojave and Catalina, and we've been printing straight from Apple's Photos application without needing any drivers or software beyond what's already included in MacOS. We used this even to print out a 2' x 10' photo that was composed by stitching together several landscape images; this turned out well enough for wall mounting. The most difficult part of the process has been figuring out how to best mount a 2x10 foot photograph! One final note: with the 3170, you can easily print out 24" x 36" posters and photos. These are very quickly and easily framed if desired using off-the-shelf materials and poster frames. The larger output of the 5170 generally requires custom mounting work. Ultimately, despite the rather expensive buy-in, these represent a cost-effective way to generate high quality poster-sized output. Overall, these are impressive printers that are complex yet robust, and each is more capable than one would think given the limited color spectrum with which they work.