Epson EcoTank ET-3850 vs Canon PIXMA G7020: EcoTank or MegaTank for the Home Office?

The Epson EcoTank ET-3850 and Canon PIXMA G7020 are the two obvious refillable all-in-ones for a home office that has outgrown a basic tank printer but does not need a business machine. Both have document feeders, automatic duplex printing and bottled ink. The differences are in fax, interface quality and how each brand handles photographs.

Specifications side by side

Canon gives you fax, more paper capacity across two sources and a slightly larger ADF. Epson gives you a proper touchscreen, faster printing and a closed front cassette that keeps paper clean. Both have Ethernet, which is more than many tank printers manage.

Running costs

Epson has the cheaper black, at roughly 0.25 cents per mono page against Canon's 0.35. Canon has the cheaper colour, at roughly 0.6 cents against Epson's 0.9. A mixed colour page ends up around one cent on both.

Over a year at 200 pages a month, the difference between them is a few dollars. Neither has a running-cost advantage worth acting on, which is the healthy situation when both use bottled ink. Our ink tank vs cartridge guide shows how far ahead both are of any cartridge machine.

Print quality and everyday feel

Both use a pigment black for documents and dye colours for photographs, so text is sharp and water-resistant on both while photos retain good saturation. Epson's engine is faster, at 15.5 ppm mono against roughly 13 ipm, and the difference is noticeable on any job over a few pages.

The interface gap is larger than the specification suggests. Epson's 2.4-inch colour touchscreen makes walk-up copying, scan destination selection and maintenance genuinely quick. Canon's 1.35-inch mono LCD with buttons requires several presses for tasks the Epson does in one tap. If more than one person uses the printer, that matters.

Canon's dual paper sources are the counterweight. Keeping photo paper in the rear tray and plain paper in the cassette, switching by driver selection rather than by swapping stacks, is a real convenience for anyone who prints both.

Who each printer suits

Choose the Epson EcoTank ET-3850 if

• You want the faster machine and a touchscreen interface.
• Mono document printing dominates and you want the 7,500-page 502 black bottle.
• You want a closed front cassette rather than an exposed rear tray.
• You have no use for fax.
• More than one person will operate the printer directly.

Choose the Canon PIXMA G7020 if

• You need a working fax line.
• You print both photos and documents and want two paper sources loaded at once.
• Colour printing is frequent and you want the cheaper GI-20 colour bottles.
• You want the slightly larger ADF and higher combined paper capacity.
• You are comfortable operating a printer mostly from a computer or phone.

Setup, apps and drivers

Epson Smart Panel handles ET-3850 setup and maintenance without requiring an account, reports tank levels accurately, and gives direct access to nozzle checks and head cleaning. Desktop scanning uses Epson ScanSmart, which with the ADF makes a solid document-digitising combination.

Canon uses Canon PRINT on mobile and Canon IJ Setup on a computer, also without an account requirement. Because the G7020's on-device display is limited, you will spend more time in the app or the embedded web interface for anything beyond copying.

Both support AirPrint and Mopria Print Service. Both have Ethernet, which is the single most reliable way to eliminate the network problems that dominate printer support tickets.

Known weaknesses and common errors

Epson EcoTank ET-3850

The permanently installed printhead is not user-replaceable, so a severe clog from months of disuse is a serious problem. Printing a colour page weekly prevents it. Banding usually clears with one or two cleaning cycles; if not, work through streaks and lines.

The waste ink pad counter eventually produces the message covered in Epson ink pad service life. Wireless dropouts appear as the fault in Epson communication error, avoidable by using the Ethernet port.

Canon PIXMA G7020

Canon also uses a fixed printhead. Head or power-circuit faults present as error B200, which is effectively terminal at this price. The waste ink absorber counter eventually produces error 5B00, a service item rather than a fault.

Colour output is slightly warm out of the box compared with Epson's; if you are seeing larger shifts, our wrong colours when printing guide covers the profile and driver causes. Wireless problems are covered in Canon printer will not connect.

Regional availability and model names

• United States and Canada: EcoTank ET-3850 with Epson 502 bottles; PIXMA G7020 with Canon GI-20 bottles.
• United Kingdom and Ireland: Epson sells the ET-3850 under the same name, using Epson 102 or 104 bottles depending on the variant. Canon sells the PIXMA G7050, using GI-50 bottles.
• Australia and New Zealand: Epson lists the ET-3850 locally with European-numbered bottles. Canon's model is the G7050 with GI-50 ink.

Bottles do not cross regions. Both manufacturers key their bottles by market, and buying the wrong number leaves you with ink you cannot decant safely into the tanks.

Refilling in practice

Both brands moved away from the messy squeeze bottles of early tank printers, and both refill systems now work well, but they differ.

Epson uses keyed bottles that fit only the correct tank and stop flowing when the tank is full. You invert the bottle, wait, and remove it. It is close to spill-proof and takes under a minute per colour.

Canon's bottles are also keyed and use a similar stop-flow design. The tanks sit on the right of the machine behind a hinged cover, which is slightly less convenient to see at a glance than Epson's front-facing window but perfectly workable.

Both should be refilled before a tank runs completely dry. Running a tank printer empty pulls air into the ink lines, which then needs a purge cycle to clear and consumes far more ink than topping up early would have. Set a habit of refilling at the low-level mark rather than waiting for a warning.

Verdict

Choose the Epson EcoTank ET-3850 if you want the better everyday machine. It is faster, its touchscreen makes walk-up operation genuinely quick, its 502 black bottle is the cheapest mono consumable of the two, and the closed cassette keeps paper clean.

Choose the Canon PIXMA G7020 if you need fax, or if two paper sources and cheaper colour bottles suit how you print. It is the better choice for a mixed photo and document household, and the fax modem alone decides it for anyone in healthcare, legal or property work.

If you need both fax and a touchscreen in a tank machine, look at the Epson ET-4850 or Canon's MAXIFY GX range. See the Epson and Canon support hubs for model-specific help, or how to choose a home office printer for the wider picture.