Epson SureColor F170 review

Dye sublimation is a consumables business wearing a printer costume.

Specifications

Specifications above come from Epson's published product information as listed by the authorised seller. Treat pricing as approximate, since Amazon pricing moves.

What it does well

• It is a factory sublimation printer with genuine Epson sublimation ink, not a converted desktop inkjet. That removes clogging risk, warranty ambiguity and the whole category of forum troubleshooting that converted printers generate.
• The ink is ECO PASSPORT by OEKO-TEX certified, which is a documented textile safety certification and a genuinely useful thing to be able to point at when a customer asks what is on the shirt.
• The closed, dust-resistant 150 sheet tray matters more than it sounds. Dust on sublimation paper becomes a defect on the finished product, and an open tray in a spare room collects dust.
• Auto-stop refill bottles mean topping up ink is a two-minute job rather than a mess, and bottle ink is far cheaper per millilitre than cartridges.
• It is genuinely compact and quiet enough to live in a spare bedroom, which is where most print on demand businesses actually start.

Where it falls short

• The printer is the cheap part. Sublimation ink, sublimation paper, a heat press and every blank you print on are the real cost base, and the blanks dominate. Price a full unit economics model on your actual products before you buy the printer, not after.
• 8.5 by 11 inches is the hard ceiling. You cannot print a full-front adult tee design, you cannot do all-over prints, and the workaround of tiling multiple sheets is fiddly and shows. If large format is where your product ideas live, this printer will frustrate you within a month.
• Sublimation only bonds to polyester and to specially coated blanks. On cotton it washes out. This surprises a large number of new sellers who bought the printer intending to make cotton t-shirts, and no setting or paper fixes it.
• The listing states that once inks are loaded the unit cannot be returned, because ink leaked in transit may cause skin irritation. Decide before you fill it, not after.
• You still need a heat press, and that is a separate several-hundred-dollar purchase plus a mug press if you want mugs. The printer alone produces nothing sellable.

What owners report

Sellers consistently report that the F170 is reliable in the specific way converted inkjets are not: it prints when you come back to it after a week, and the colours are repeatable batch to batch. That reliability is the recurring reason people recommend paying for a purpose-built machine rather than converting a cheaper printer.

The consistent frustration is size. Owner after owner describes buying the F170, succeeding with it, and then wanting to print larger within the first year, at which point the upgrade path is expensive. The second recurring theme is the learning curve that has nothing to do with the printer: colour management, ICC profiles, press time and temperature per blank, and the discovery that different blanks from different suppliers take colour differently.

Before you commit, put your blank cost, your press time per item and your target price into our Etsy shop revenue calculator. Sublimation margins are decided by blank cost and labour per unit, not by the printer, and seeing that on screen changes what people buy.

Who it suits

• Sellers making mugs, mousepads, coasters, tumblers and polyester performance apparel where sublimation is the right process.
• Print on demand sellers who want to bring fulfilment in-house to protect margin on a proven product.
• Anyone who wants a sealed manufacturer sublimation printer rather than a converted inkjet with no warranty.

Who should skip it

• Anyone whose plan is cotton t-shirts. Sublimation does not bond to cotton, and a heat press with heat transfer vinyl or DTF is the correct process.
• Sellers who want large or all-over prints, where the 8.5 by 11 ceiling is a permanent constraint and the F570 is the honest answer.
• People who have not yet priced blanks, ink, paper and a heat press, because the printer is a small fraction of the real startup cost.

Alternatives worth considering

Common questions

Can the Epson F170 print on cotton t-shirts?

No, and this is the single most common misunderstanding about sublimation. The process works by turning solid dye into gas that bonds with polyester fibres or a polymer coating. Cotton has nothing for the dye to bond with, so the print washes out. For cotton you need heat transfer vinyl cut on a machine like the Cricut Explore 3, or a DTF setup. Our heat press vs sublimation printer comparison lays out which process suits which product.

What does it really cost to start sublimation?

Far more than the printer. Add sublimation paper, a heat press, and for mugs a mug press, then the blanks themselves, which is where the money actually goes. The printer is commonly a quarter or less of a realistic starting spend. Model it properly before you commit: put your blank cost and time per item into the Etsy shop revenue calculator and see what the margin per unit really looks like.

Is the F170 big enough to make t-shirts?

For youth sizes, pocket prints and sleeve designs, yes. For a full-front adult design, no. The 8.5 by 11 inch ceiling is the constraint most owners hit, and there is no upgrade path within this printer. If full-front apparel is the plan, the F570 at 24 inches is the machine, and it costs roughly six times as much.

Sublimation printer or heat press first?

You need both, so the question is really which process. Decide by product: polyester and hard coated blanks means sublimation and you need both a printer and a press. Cotton apparel means vinyl or DTF, in which case a cutting machine plus press is the kit and no sublimation printer is involved. Deciding process first saves people from owning a printer they cannot use for the product they wanted to sell.

Is a converted inkjet cheaper than the F170?

Up front, yes. Over time, frequently not. A converted printer voids its warranty, is prone to clogging when left idle, and has no manufacturer support when colours drift. The F170 arrives sealed with genuine Epson sublimation ink and full warranty coverage. For a business rather than an experiment, that is what you are paying the difference for.

Keep reading

• Heat press vs sublimation printer
• Print on demand business guide
• Etsy shop revenue calculator
• Cricut Explore 3 review
• Silhouette Cameo 5 review

This review draws on published specifications, manufacturer figures and the consensus of verified owner reviews. We have not tested this product ourselves, and we say so rather than implying otherwise. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.