Epson WorkForce ES-500W Wireless Color Duplex Document Scanner for PC and Mac, Auto Document Feeder (ADF)

I am so glad that a coworker recommended this scanner to me. I have used flatbed scanners for decades and love their ease of use. However, they take up room and are slow. Likewise, I have had multi-function printers that serve as a scanner as well. They work when they work, sometimes hit or miss because sheet feeding on consumer grade units isn't the best. This scanner remarkably provides the flexibility of a flatbed with the speed of a professional sheet feeding scanner - including two-sided at the same speed. It is extremely fast and can easily feed small items like photographs or business cards as easily as it can a 3 foot long banner. I had to laugh while at the doctor's office the other day. The receptionist scanned my health insurance card on this very same scanner. If it can hold up to constant use in a high volume clinic, it should do well in a home office. My only disappointment is that it doesn't like legal size or larger sheets scanned at high resolutions, particularly in color. In these cases it generates a memory overflow message. However, this is a relatively unusual use case. A typical letter sized sheet can be scanned under the same conditions with no problems. Do not spend the extra money for the model with a color display screen. It is an identical unit simply with the screen tacked on, which is rarely used and not worth the extra $75 to $100. You will notice that those using this scanner for commercial applications have typically reached the same conclusion and go with this less expensive unit. Highly recommended.4/2025 UPDATEAfter uninstalling the drivers and software available in early 2024, cleansing all EPSON files and registry entries, and installing the 2025 Epson updated drivers, the memory overflow problem noted above appears to have gone away. I have upgraded the review to a 5 star rating. Note, though, that if you install the scanner via a WIFI connection, it does not appear possible to switch to a USB link. It keeps hunting for the WIFI connection and won't recognize the USB wired connection. I presume that you could totally uninstall and reinstall the package again, omitting the WIFI option,but that is a real hassle considering the uninstalling, deletion of EPSON file folders and purge of EPSON registry entities necessary for a totally clean reinstall.

I've had this scanner since May of 2020, which as of the writing of this review was 5 years ago. This thing has done well by me during that time. I've never had any issues with the wireless collection, it scans relatively quickly and the image quality is great. I have to scan a stack of a couple dozen documents every week or so for work and it hasn't caused me any trouble yet. I scan the items to my PC, not sure if it's possible to scan to a phone or something like that, never tried. I did have one issue with the software, which they might have fixed by now. The epson scanning software that came with this was not able to separate scans into different batches. It would just make one large PDF. I solved this by using NAPS2 instead (Not another PDF scanner 2) which allows me to scan all the documents at once and then create separate PDFs with just the forms I want in each. Overall a great purchase though and if I needed another scanner I would look at Epson again.

I’ve been using the Epson ES-500W II for a few weeks, and it’s been fantastic for my home office.Durability: The build feels solid and can handle daily use without issue.Functionality: Scanning speed is impressive—35 pages per minute—and it scans both sides in one pass.Ease of Use: The setup was easy, and the Epson ScanSmart software is simple to navigate.Comfort: The compact design saves space, and the wireless connectivity is convenient.Quality: Scan quality is sharp and clear, with great OCR features for text recognition.Possible Issues: Initial wireless setup can be a bit tricky.

Works beautifully. Second one purchased for another office.

Game changer if you have to scan a lot of two-sided documents! I love it, I’ll never live without one again! I only wish that it would stay better connected to my laptop (new Macbook Pro). Each time I need to start a scanning session, it takes a couple of minutes and button pushes to reestablish connection.