Epson F170 Setup, Ink and Maintenance: The Owner Guide

Updated: July 23, 2026

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The Epson F170 is the printer people land on when they are tired of reading about EcoTank conversions. It is Epson’s entry level dedicated dye sublimation printer, which means it ships with sublimation ink from the factory, keeps its one year limited warranty, and skips the conversion step entirely. But most of what is written about it stops at the moment you click buy. This guide covers the part that comes after: setup, ink, the maintenance tank, and the limits nobody puts in the product description.

Is the Epson F170 Good for Sublimation?

It is purpose built for dye sublimation transfer printing. Unlike a converted EcoTank, which is used outside its original document printing configuration and can raise warranty coverage questions, the F170 arrives as a sublimation printer. Epson’s own dye sublimation ink is in the box, the print software is set up for transfer paper, and both the warranty and Epson’s technical support cover the printer’s intended sublimation use.

That said, it is not the right printer for everyone. Here is the honest split.

The F170 fits you if	Look elsewhere if
You want warranty and support instead of conversion risk	You need prints wider than 8.5 inches, for example 13 x 19 projects
You want to start printing the day it arrives	You want the absolute cheapest ink per print, whatever the trade-offs
You print occasionally and want a machine designed to be supported	You prioritize very subtle photographic gradients and are comparing against wider gamut sublimation systems

For the full comparison against converted EcoTanks and the Sawgrass SG500, see our best Epson printers for sublimation guide and the head to head in Sawgrass vs Epson. This article stays with what happens once the box is on your desk.

Epson F170 Setup: The Two Moments That Confuse Everyone

The physical setup is simple: unbox, fill the four tanks, let the printer charge the ink, load transfer paper, install the driver. Two moments in that process make many new owners think something is broken, and neither is a fault.

First, the initial ink charge takes around 14 minutes and must not be interrupted. The printer is filling its lines, and cutting power in the middle of that can leave you with a half primed system. Start the charge, leave the printer powered on, and let it finish before you do anything else.

Second, the ink levels drop visibly after charging, and that is by design. Epson’s own specification notes that part of the ink from the first bottles is used for priming the printer. That ink has been used to charge the print head and the internal delivery system, which is why the first bottles yield less than later ones. Do not top up in a panic and do not assume a leak.

Two practical notes from MakerFlo’s F170 setup guide worth repeating: shake each ink bottle about 15 times before filling, and let the bottle drain into the tank without squeezing, because the fill port stops automatically at the right level. And plan to print from a computer. The F170 workflow is built around desktop print software, not phone apps.

When setup is done, print a nozzle check before your first real transfer. Every line should be solid. If lines are broken, follow Epson’s nozzle check and cleaning procedure, checking the pattern again between attempts rather than pressing on and blaming the paper.

Epson F170 Ink: The Part That Actually Costs Money

The F170 uses Epson T49M ink bottles in four colors, 140 ml each, with black, cyan, magenta and yellow sold separately. Two facts about these bottles matter more than the price per bottle.

The first is shelf life. Epson rates the bottles at two years from the production date, but only six months after opening. Low volume users may not finish an opened bottle inside that window, and the four colors are refilled separately, so open bottles only as they are actually needed and skip the temptation to stockpile ink on sale.

The second is the third party ink question. Epson’s specification sheet states plainly that the printer is designed for use with Epson ink bottles only, and Epson does not guarantee the quality or reliability of third party ink. Nothing physically stops you from pouring something else into an open tank system, but damage caused by non-Epson ink may not be covered under the limited warranty, so you take on both a compatibility risk and a coverage risk. A converted EcoTank is already running outside its original document printing configuration, which is why third party ink is the norm there. On the F170, genuine T49M ink is what preserves the matched workflow you paid for.

One more detail that rarely gets mentioned: Epson state that their dye sublimation ink is OEKO-TEX ECO PASSPORT certified. That certification applies to the ink as a textile chemical input, not automatically to the finished items you produce with it, so treat it as a point about the ink itself rather than a safety claim for your products.

The Maintenance Tank: The Consumable Nobody Budgets For

Every head cleaning flushes ink through the system, and that waste ink has to go somewhere. On the F170 it collects in a small replaceable maintenance tank, Epson part number C13S210125. The printer tracks how full it is and will eventually refuse to print until the tank is swapped. This is normal, not a defect, and the tank is user replaceable, which saves sending the printer in over a full waste ink container.

If a newly installed tank is not recognized, verify that it is the genuine C13S210125 part, switch the printer off, reseat the tank so it clicks fully home, and power back on. If the message remains after that, it is a case for Epson’s F170 support page rather than more reseating. The printer comes with a year of toll free phone support, and that page also hosts the drivers, the full user guide and FAQ sections for ink, error lights and print quality.

The practical takeaway: order a spare maintenance tank before you need one. It fails to matter right up until the printer stops mid batch.

Keeping the Print Head Healthy

Sublimation ink and idle printers are a bad combination on any machine, and the F170 is no exception. Ink that sits in fine nozzles dries, dried ink means missing lines, and missing lines mean streaky transfers. A practical low cost precaution is regular use: a small print job or a routine nozzle check costs a few drops of ink and reduces the risk that long idle periods bring, even if nothing can guarantee a clear head.

If you are already seeing banding or gaps, do not chain cleaning cycles back to back. Each cycle burns ink and fills the maintenance tank, and the F170 family has its own quirks worth understanding first. Our sublimation banding guide has a dedicated Epson F170 and F570 section, and the step by step recovery order is in how to unclog a sublimation printer.

Color looking wrong rather than streaky is a different problem. If the nozzle check is complete but pressed colors still look off, work through print settings, color management, paper, substrate and press conditions before assuming a hardware fault. Start with our sublimation ICC profile guide before touching the hardware.

What the Epson F170 Cannot Do

Three limits define this printer, and knowing them up front prevents common buying and layout mistakes.

Limit	The number	What it means in practice
Paper width	8.5 inches maximum	No 11 x 17, no 13 x 19. Large panels and oversized shirt prints need a wider printer
Margins	3 mm on each side	No borderless printing. Every sheet has a thin unprinted edge, so size designs accordingly
Color setup	4 colors, 1200 x 600 dpi	Well suited to typical craft graphics and photos; the four color ink set may show its limits soonest in very subtle tonal transitions

Like standard four color dye sublimation printers, the F170 does not print white ink. White in your design is simply the substrate showing through, which is why designs that rely on white areas or accurate light colors need a white or very light, sublimation ready surface.

The white edge question comes up constantly. Those 3 mm margins are the printer’s design, not a driver bug, and the fix is layout: keep your artwork inside the printable area and trim the paper, or cut designs out before pressing. If a project genuinely needs wider paper, our best 13×19 sublimation printers guide covers the step up.

The 47 Inch Detail Almost Nobody Mentions

Here is the surprise hiding in the official specification: the maximum paper size is listed as 8.5 x 47.2 inches, with user definable sheet sizes up to that limit. The width is fixed, but the length is not. In principle that allows long, narrow transfer layouts, think full wrap tumbler designs or mug wrap strips laid end to end, from a printer usually described as letter size only.

Epson’s fine print adds the caveat that maximum printable length is limited by the application, operating system and driver you use, and long cut sheets also have to feed reliably. So test the complete workflow with plain paper before committing expensive transfer paper or promising anyone a long print. But if you have been told the F170 is limited to 8.5 x 14, that describes its listed standard sizes rather than Epson’s maximum user definable sheet specification.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Guides

If you are still comparing machines, start with best Epson printers for sublimation and cheapest sublimation printers. Owners chasing print problems will find the F170 specific sections in sublimation banding and unclog a sublimation printer, and the color workflow lives in our sublimation ICC profile guide.