Epson EcoTank ET-3930 Ink Cost per Page: Excellent in Black, a Shade Behind on Color
The Epson EcoTank ET-3930 is a duplexing ink tank printer that prints, copies, and scans over Wi-Fi. It sells for $390 and costs $0.29 per 100 pages in black and $1.08 per 100 pages in color to run. The black figure comes from Epson's EP-502-BK cartridge, priced at $25 for a rated 8,500 pages.
Among the 30 ink tank printers InkTax tracks, the ET-3930 ties for 1st on black cost per page, a four-way tie that includes Epson's own ET-4950. That $500 sibling adds fax and a touchscreen while matching that rate. Across every type InkTax tracks, the ET-3930 ranks 2nd of 97 printers on black-and-white cost per page.
The Canon PIXMA G3270 holds the color running-cost floor among ink tank printers, at $0.97 per 100 pages against the ET-3930's $1.08. On black, though, the ET-3930 leads by a solid margin, $0.29 versus the Canon's $0.38 per 100 pages. The G3270 costs $249 up front, lacks duplex and Ethernet, and tops out at 11 ppm against the ET-3930's 18 ppm.
The HP LaserJet Pro 4006dw is a cross-type option: a black-and-white laser at $400, printing only, with a touchscreen included. It runs far faster, at 47 ppm against the Epson's 18 ppm, but its toner costs $2.23 per 100 pages in black, far above the ET-3930's own rate, and it has no color option at all. It also drops copy and scan, which the ET-3930 offers.
Stepping down Epson's tank lineup, the ET-2900 sells for $240 with the same print, copy, and scan functions but no duplex and no Ethernet, running at 11 ppm. Its ink costs $0.38 per 100 pages in black — a solid lead for the ET-3930 — and $1.10 in color, essentially matching the ET-3930's color cost per page.