Epson EcoTank ET-2800 vs HP Smart Tank 7301: Which Ink Tank Printer Is Better in 2026?

Refillable ink tanks have quietly become the default recommendation for anyone who prints more than a few pages a month. The Epson EcoTank ET-2800 and the HP Smart Tank 7301 are the two machines most people actually cross-shop, and they are far less similar than the shared "tank printer" label suggests. One is a stripped-back home all-in-one; the other is a small-office machine that happens to use bottles.

We look after a lot of support tickets for both, so this comparison covers the things spec sheets leave out: what breaks, what the apps are like, and what the ink genuinely costs once you do the arithmetic.

Specifications side by side

The pattern is clear from the table. Epson has built the cheapest credible tank printer it can; HP has built a compact office all-in-one and given it bottles. If you have ever waited to hand-feed the back of a rear-loading printer while copying a ten-page contract, the ADF and cassette on the 7301 will matter more to you than any speed figure.

Running costs: the actual maths

Both manufacturers advertise "two years of ink in the box". That claim assumes low monthly volumes, so treat it as marketing and look at replacement bottle economics instead.

A mixed colour page therefore lands at roughly 0.9 to 1.1 cents on either machine. In the UK, Epson 104 bottles run around GBP 11 to 13 each and HP's 32XL is around GBP 20, which puts both under 1p per mono page. Compare that with a cartridge all-in-one at 5 to 12 cents per page and the case for tanks is obvious. Our ink tank vs cartridge guide works through the break-even point in more detail, and reduce printing costs covers the settings that shave another 20 to 30 per cent off either figure.

Print quality and speed in practice

The ET-2800 uses Epson's four-colour dye set through a Micro Piezo head at 5760 x 1440 dpi. On plain paper the difference against HP is negligible; on Epson photo stock the ET-2800 produces noticeably smoother gradients and deeper blacks. If you print school photos, craft prints or anything glossy, that resolution advantage is real.

The Smart Tank 7301 is the faster machine by a comfortable margin, and the gap widens on multi-page jobs because duplex output does not require you to flip and reload. Its pigment-blend black is also crisper on plain paper for text-heavy work. Neither printer is fast by laser standards; if your household prints 40-page PDFs regularly, read inkjet vs laser printers before committing to either.

Who each printer suits

Choose the Epson EcoTank ET-2800 if

• You print under about 150 pages a month and mostly single-sided.
• Desk space is tight, or the printer has to live on a shelf.
• Photo output matters more than document throughput.
• You want the lowest possible purchase price to get into bottled ink.
• You do not need to scan or copy stacks of paper.

Choose the HP Smart Tank 7301 if

• You copy or scan multi-page documents and want an ADF.
• Two-sided printing is routine, for coursework, contracts or tax paperwork.
• You want to refill the paper tray once a month rather than every week.
• You are on a congested 2.4 GHz network and want a 5 GHz connection.
• You are furnishing a small home office rather than a kitchen worktop.

Setup, apps and driver differences

Both printers are set up from a phone app, and both apps are competent, but they behave differently.

Epson Smart Panel is the ET-2800's companion. It is lightweight, exposes maintenance functions directly (nozzle check, head cleaning, ink level reset after refilling) and does not push subscriptions. The desktop experience relies on the standard Epson driver plus Epson ScanSmart for scanning, which is a separate download.

HP Smart is a much larger application that doubles as the driver installer on Windows and macOS. It is polished, and features such as scan-to-cloud and mobile fax are genuinely useful, but it insists on an HP account during setup and will repeatedly offer HP+ and Instant Ink enrolment. Note that Instant Ink is not relevant to a Smart Tank; decline it. If HP Smart cannot see the printer during setup, our HP Smart cannot find printer guide covers the mDNS and network-isolation causes that account for most failures.

Both models support AirPrint and Mopria, so you are never locked into the vendor app for basic printing.

Known weaknesses and common faults

Epson EcoTank ET-2800

The single biggest long-term issue is the maintenance box and internal ink pad counter. Epson tracks waste ink electronically, and once the counter is exhausted the printer stops with a service message. Our Epson ink pad service life guide explains what the message means and the legitimate options. Epson-branded communication faults are the other frequent ticket, usually a dropped 2.4 GHz association rather than a hardware failure; see Epson communication error.

Because the ET-2800 uses dye inks with a permanently installed head, extended idle periods cause nozzle dropout. Print a page of colour weekly and you will almost certainly never see a clog. Leave it for three months and you may be running several cleaning cycles.

HP Smart Tank 7301

The Smart Tank uses one integrated printhead assembly for all four colours. It is user-replaceable on most units, but a replacement head is a significant fraction of the printer's price, so treating it well matters. Persistent colour dropout that survives two cleaning cycles usually points there; start with HP printhead problem.

The other recurring complaint is the printer dropping off the network after a router reboot or firmware update, which manifests as the classic HP printer offline state. Assigning a DHCP reservation solves it permanently in most homes.

Regional availability and model names

These printers are sold under different numbers depending on where you buy, which matters a great deal when you go looking for ink.

• United States and Canada: ET-2800 and Smart Tank 7301 are the correct model numbers. Epson 522 and HP 32XL/31 bottles.
• United Kingdom and Ireland: the ET-2800 is sold as the ET-2810, ET-2811 or ET-2812 depending on retailer bundle, and takes Epson 104 ("wine cork") bottles. HP's nearest equivalent is the Smart Tank 7305.
• Australia and New Zealand: Epson lists the ET-2810; HP's local line-up centres on the Smart Tank 7605 and similar.

The hardware is essentially identical within each pair; only the ink part numbers, power lead and bundled software region change. Buying North American bottles for a European machine, or vice versa, is a false economy because the tank fill caps and bottle keying differ.

Verdict

Choose the Epson EcoTank ET-2800 if you want the cheapest honest route to sub-cent printing, your volume is modest, and you value photo quality and a small footprint over paper handling. It is the better buy for students, retirees and anyone whose printer sits idle for weeks at a time and then prints ten pages.

Choose the HP Smart Tank 7301 if you run a household that behaves like a small office. The ADF, the 250-sheet cassette, automatic duplex and dual-band Wi-Fi are worth the extra outlay several times over if you use them, and the running cost is effectively identical.

If neither quite fits, the decision usually comes down to whether you print documents or photographs. Our how to choose a printer for a home office guide walks through that in a brand-neutral way, and the Epson and HP hubs collect the model-specific support material for whichever you pick.