Which Epson ink does your EcoTank need?

If your printer has six tanks it is an EcoTank Photo. In Europe those are the ET-8500 and the ET-8550. Both machines take the Epson 114 series: pigment black, photo black, cyan, magenta, yellow and grey, each in a 70ml bottle.

Two blacks and a grey sounds excessive until you know what they are for. Pigment black is for text on plain paper, photo black for photo paper, and grey is what gives black and white photographs their mid-tones without grain or a colour cast.

Most EcoTanks are office machines with four tanks: black, cyan, magenta and yellow. Those take the 104, 102 or 103 series depending on the model. The 114 bottles do not fit them: the filling ports are a different shape, precisely so you cannot pour the wrong ink into the wrong machine.

If you have an ET-2710, ET-2750, ET-2850 or similar, you do not need 114, however often a search engine suggests it.

Epson gives the same ink a different number in each part of the world. In North America the bottle for the ET-8500 and ET-8550 is called 552. In parts of Asia and Latin America the same machine is sold as the L8160 or L8180, and the ink is called 554, 555 or 115.

If your manual names one of those, you have a printer from another market and our ink simply fits. If you are searching for 555 because that is what the Alibaba seller printed on the box, you are searching for exactly this bottle.

The ink series number is printed on the label beside the filling ports. That is the one source that is always right, more reliable than the box the printer came in and certainly more reliable than a product page.

If you are still in doubt, send us a photograph of the tanks. We will look and tell you honestly whether you are in the right shop.