Need a New Printer!! Any Feedback on the Ink Tanks Vs Ink Cartridge

[emeryjre]

My 10 year old Canon Printer will not recognize the Prescence of Ink Cartridges anymore

I see that the major printer Mfgs have developed Ink Tank Printers Vs Ink Cartridge Printers

The Ink Tank Printers offer lower cost for ink and many more copies before needing more ink

I do not know anybody that has an Ink Tank Printer from any Mfg

The Ink Tank Vs Ink Cartridge looks like a great idea

Any Negative feedback on the Ink Tank Printers

 

[Cornell]

I've moved to a laser printer. I don't print very much. When you're an infrequent printer, Inkjet printers results in the print heads drying out, need aligning, etc. Constant fiddling. This occurred with my EcoTank as well.

 

[RX8]

I currently have an Epson ET 2720 ink tank printer since 2021 (purchased from Costco). I've had many HP ink printers in the past. The Epson ink lasts much longer than the previous HP cartridge printers. I have zero complaints with the Epson other than these printers seem to have a need to be used at least once or twice every couple of weeks to keep the heads from clogging.

 

[DrQ]

Stay away from HP. They put chips in the cartridges that record the date that keep you from refilling the cartridge and will complain bitterly with 3rd party ink.

I had an HP that had a separate ink cartridge and a head. They were both replaceable units. It was a PIA.

The advantage of of a cartridge with an integral print head is that you get a new head with each change. This is a plus for a printer that is not used much.

Whatever you get, make sure that the print head is a replaceable unit.

 

[moonstone]

Not one of your choice but we bought a new laser printer last spring. We had cartridge printers for many years and got really tired of the nozzles drying out when we left for months at a time each winter. We tried taking the cartridges out and sealing them in bags, putting wax over the nozzles and other suggestions but nothing worked. We always ended up buying a new cartridge (or more if we needed colour) when we got home to use for a few months, to do maybe a dozen printed pages, then had to repeat the process the following spring.
The laser printer cost more to buy but we are saving massive amounts on new cartridges every year.

~Diane

 

[AlmostRetired]

I just bought the HP 8130e on sale ay Costco last week for $129 (60 off). This week it is 80 off so I will stop by Costco and get the additional 20 off. I was wrestling with a couple of Epson ink tanks and an HP ink tank that was on sale at Costco but the cost is significantly higher. I print a fair amount because I like reading from paper of the computer when it comes to documents from work.

I went with the HP for 2 reasons. First, it comes with 6 months free with instant ink program that starts at printer registration. If you register it right away, the clock starts ticking with the cartridges that come with the machine and once you start, those cartridges are throw away if you move off the program. I will register the machine once the cartridges are mostly used. This means they will ship new ones once the program starts giving me 6 real months of print. Second, if you search Youtube, it shows you how to turn off the cartridge protect chip allowing you to use any cartridge replacement. The second reason was much more important to be then the first. I would move off of HP if I had to buy their expensive cartridges replacements.

 

[RX8]

Wanted to add that I have not yet had a need to purchase ink for the Epson. The Costco purchase included a second black ink. I don’t print that much but still pretty impressive that I have gone almost four years on the original ink.

 

[DeniseM]

It doesn't matter - as soon as you stock up on ink, it will break down.

 

[ScoopKona]

Every time I have researched cost-per-page, longevity, and the ability to play ball with off-brand cartridges, I have wound up with a Brother laser printer.

 

[TheHolleys87]

Stay away from HP. They put chips in the cartridges that record the date that keep you from refilling the cartridge and will complain bitterly with 3rd party ink.

I had an HP that had a separate ink cartridge and a head. They were both replaceable units. It was a PIA.

The advantage of of a cartridge with an integral print head is that you get a new head with each change. This is a plus for a printer that is not used much.

Whatever you get, make sure that the print head is a replaceable unit.

Yes! HP cartridges became so expensive that we tried refilled “genuine recycled” HP cartridges, but our printer wouldn’t recognize them.

We bought a Canon tank printer, and it’s been fine. We print mostly documents, mostly B&W with bits of color, but we print photos too, and the Canon does fine with them too.

 

[jp10558]

It depends on the type of printing you want to do - my suggestion is like many above, get a brother laser printer. The toner lasts darn near forever unless you're printing something like 200 pages a day. Also, if you're doing that, you need an much more expensive mid range office printer or you'll wear out the home ones in a year or two, faster if you're doing more.

If you're doing photograph printing as a hobby or profession, you need an expensive photo specialized printer - though I'd strongly recommend for home people just sending it off to Printique or Nations Photo Lab.

If you're just printing the occasional photo that you want on photo paper or decent standard paper, OR if you're doing various crafts like dye sublimation or heat transfer paper - you need an Epson Ecotank IMHO. There's subtle differences in the tech used for different manufacturers, and some don't work for dye sublimation but Epson does. The Ecotank seems to solve pretty much all my issues with inkjets - you can use generic ink, you can get it cheap, there's no cartridges or chips. When you can buy 70 to 100ml ink at a time and just pour it in a tank, it's a LOT cheaper. It also seems to not dry out or clog the inkhead overtime like cartridge ones always did. I am guessing it's both being a simple tank with a lot of liquid in it mixed with better inkjet head auto cleaning tech, but I've let my ecotanks sit for months and they do an auto cleaning (that doesn't hurt with the amount of ink used cause big TANK) and just works. No lines missing etc.

So the tanks are dope, and almost make the printing like laser, but it still I think costs more and there's still the risk of an inkhead clogging.

 

[simpsontruckdriver]

Every time I have researched cost-per-page, longevity, and the ability to play ball with off-brand cartridges, I have wound up with a Brother laser printer.

I too have a Brother (I have the HLL2390DW but this is the newest version), I also signed up for their Refresh program. When you sign up, you get a $0 toner, and the subscription is $1 - $9 per month depending on your use. They also give your laser printer an extended warranty! When your printer is low, it sends a message to Brother to send out another toner (for $0) as long as your printer is hooked via Wi-Fi.

TS

 

[easyrider]

I rarely need to use a printer since DocuSign became the norm. We use the scanner more than the printer. Ours is a cheap bulky laser printer from the Office Depot.

Bill

 

[billymach4]

And we talk about scams here all day long.
Printers are another big scam!

 

[emeryjre]

The shift to ink tanks vs ink cartridges is a big deal in the printer industry
The cost for the ink is much lower in a bottle vs the ink in a cartridge
Ink Cartridge printers are marketed like razor blades
Give you the razor handle and then charge a lot for the blades
But the initial cost of the printer is higher for an ink tank printer vs an ink cartridge printer
The lowest cost for printing is a laser printer
But the initial cost is high
The best thing about the laser is the fact that there is no ink to dry out and be wasted
This is what makes ink cartridge printers really expensive per copy and a PIA

 

[billymach4]

FWIW most recent printer is an Epson printer with a tank. It serves my needs for the time being. Purchased from Costco

 

[PigsDad]

I've moved to a laser printer. I don't print very much. When you're an infrequent printer, Inkjet printers results in the print heads drying out, need aligning, etc. Constant fiddling. This occurred with my EcoTank as well.

Do you shut your inkjet printer off when not using? If so, that is the problem. Inkjet printers are made to stay powered on, and then they will occasionally conditition the print heads which will prevent them from drying out. I’ve had HP inkjets for years, and have never had a cartridge dry out before the ink was gone. And this is in an environment where I live in CO in the summer and FL in the winter, and each place has a printer so they both sit idle for 6 months out of the year!

The #1 mistake people do is turn off their inkjet printers, thinking they are going to save some electricity or something. It ends up costing them more due to dead cartridges.

Kurt

 

[PigsDad]

We had cartridge printers for many years and got really tired of the nozzles drying out when we left for months at a time each winter. We tried taking the cartridges out and sealing them in bags, putting wax over the nozzles and other suggestions but nothing worked.

That was your problem. Leave the cartridges in the printer and leave it turned on. The printer will occasionally condition the print heads and they will never dry out. At least with HP printers.

Kurt

 

[Bucky]

Like some others here I have moved on from inkjet printers. Just got tired of having to go through the change of life to clean them every time they sat unused for a period of time. I moved on to the laser which isn’t really expensive if you don’t need a lot from it. I bought two Brothers. One color for home and one black and white for beach house. Both of them were under $100 ea. just have to keep your eyes open for sales. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Laser+pr...prefix=laser+printer,aps,152&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

 

[dioxide45]

If you’re primarily printing black and white, just go with a laser printer. Less issues. Though we have had great success with Epson EcoTank printers. They usually have a couple models at Costco for a great savings.

 

[rickandcindy23]

We have an HP printer that uses toner. It works all of the time, and thank goodness, but I see a day when HP causes it to error out and not work. Bought it at Costco. Toner lasts a long time in those printers.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

I stuck with lasers for the reasons above. I had an office Brother color laser that was $275 and broke after about 3 years. Really big footprint and a piece of junk. YMMV

Bought an HP color Laserjet for about $450 and it has been running strong for 15+years. The only downside is that it costs about $650 per year to replace color cartridges. But this is for a business and is a write-off.

 

[moonstone]

That was your problem. Leave the cartridges in the printer and leave it turned on. The printer will occasionally condition the print heads and they will never dry out. At least with HP printers.

Kurt

We did always leave it on after our 1st winter away when we had the heads dry up for the 1st time. A neighbour who had the same one told us to leave the printer on so it would do that self service thing, but the following winter we had the exact same issue. After that we were trying anything we could think of to preserve them. It was an Epson and we got to the point that we only bought black due to the cost of the cartridges and never needing to print anything in colour. We ware very happy with our Brother laser one.


~Diane

 

[PigsDad]

We did always leave it on after our 1st winter away when we had the heads dry up for the 1st time. A neighbour who had the same one told us to leave the printer on so it would do that self service thing, but the following winter we had the exact same issue. After that we were trying anything we could think of to preserve them. It was an Epson and we got to the point that we only bought black due to the cost of the cartridges and never needing to print anything in colour.

Interesting. Perhaps Epson printers do not do the cartridge conditioning like HP printers do?

Kurt

 

[DrQ]

Interesting. Perhaps Epson printers do not do the cartridge conditioning like HP printers do?

Kurt

My 3 year old HP, which has been plugged in with usable ink cartridges, is total junk right now with clogged color heads.