Recommend me an Ink Tank Printer

[Reynard]

I'm in the market for a new printer after my venerable Canon S900 ground to a halt over the summer after two decades of sterling service. As I tend to print a fair bit (manuscripts, scanned documents, the occasional homemade greetings card) a printer with ink tanks and aimed at the home office / small business seems to be the logical way to go.

1) Budget is somewhere between £150 - £200, but I can stretch it a little at the upper end if need be

2) Integrated scanner is not necessary, as I have a separate flatbed (Canon Lide 220)

3) Needs to handle different paper sizes (A6 to A4 plus custom sizes if possible) and weights - from ordinary printer paper through to fairly sturdy art paper or card stock

4) Ideally compatible with both my laptops - a Lenovo running Win 10 and a Sony running Vista. The latter has most of my heavyweight image editing software on it, as well as most of my word processing stuff, most of which won't run on the machine with the newer OS.

The three options that fit the bill the best (with the odd compromise) are:

1) Epson ET-1810 (basic tank printer, no scanner, a "ronseal" piece of kit with no frills, gets good reviews, compatible with both laptops)

2) Epson ET-2850 (mid-range tank printer, includes scanner, compatible with both laptops but bigger than and weighs twice as much as the ET-1810)

3) Canon G1520 (cheapest option, no scanner, only compatible with the Win 10 laptop but decent print quality according to reviews)

Would love to know what the Great CC Hive Mind thinks about these. Or any other printers that I should consider.

 

[Mike Ayling]

My experience with low level Epson ink jet printers is that they lock you into their consumables and the printers do not recognise cheaper compatible cartridges.
The stuff costs too much anyway IMNSOHO.
I WILL not be buying another Epson.
Go for the Canon.

 

[slowmotion]

I would seriously consider a laser printer. Inkjets are unreliable and (sorry!) a bit last week.

 

[Bazzer]

We don't have the specific Canon Printer you listed, I think ours is one of the G3xxx series. It's still an ink tank one, but unless there was some really compelling evidence, we wouldn't have another.
Our two previous Pixmas (MG series) had been brilliant, the last one having done several years of great service, before going off to the office supplies in the sky. So when looking for a replacement, we went for a Canon again.
It may be software faults specific to our printer, but we have a couple of issues. The wifi on ours isn't great. The printer is in another downstairs room and cannot find the router. So it has to be linked to a wifi range extender, which was bought for other reasons. It's not a big deal, but the previous printer which was in the same location, was quite happy linking to the router, which was also in the same location as the current router. - The printer was still unable to connect to a new router when our router was upgraded after we ditched the copper wire from the telephone pole.
Also, the older of our laptops, (both run W10), will not communicate with it after the laptop has been switched off. It prints as requested after the printer software has been installed, but switch the laptop off and back on, then try and print and an error message is almost inevitable. Again not an issue with the previous Pixma, but we only discovered this particular fault after having had the printer for a few months.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

I have a Canon pixma mp495. I went with it due to the cartridges not being too expensive. Had it donkeys years and never had a problem. When it does die I will replace with another Canon., so of your choices I’d pick the canon.

 

[fossyant]

Left field, HP on Instant Ink programme ?

 

[vickster]

Left field, HP on Instant Ink programme ?

I have that (a Pro printer) but the monthly price has doubled in the last year so considering cancelling (50 pages is now £4 a month)

 

[fossyant]

I have that (a Pro printer) but the monthly price has doubled in the last year so considering cancelling (50 pages is now £4 a month)

I've dropped to the £4 a month - still need to be able to print and 50 pages is enough for us.

 

[vickster]

I've dropped to the £4 a month - still need to be able to print and 50 pages is enough for us.

It used to be £2 for ages. I doubt I print that many but 10 likely isn’t enough

 

[Oldhippy]

HP smart tank 7305. I use one in the office and can't fault it. Ink lasts forever and I do a lot of printing.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

I was looking recently because I thought my HP was deaded, and the Epson Eco range seemed particularly good, and was all set to buy when the HP stopped sulking!

 

[BoldonLad]

I have the Epson ET2850. Have had it for a few years, not sure how many, but, 3-4 years I would guess.

I have not owned/used any other Eco-tank type inkjet, so, cannot really compare.

No real problems with Epson, except, if it is not used for a week or two, the nozzles clog up and have to be cleaned.

I think I would echo @slowmotion above and say, buy a Laser Printer, if you can afford one.

 

[Alex321]

I have a Canon Pixma (MG5350S), and have used it for years with no issues, including using cheap third-party ink tanks.

So I would vote for the Canon from your options.

The HP printer we had prior to that never worked properly with anything but the HP branded inks (and it wasn't separate ink tanks per colour either, which the Canon is).

 

[Dogtrousers]

I've got an Epson ET-2xxx can't remember the number. Might be 2850, not sure. It's been fine. Had it for a few years. I don't use it much.

 

[Reynard]

Hmm... You've all given me some things to think about.

@Oldhippy - I've had two HP printers in the past, and they weren't good, keeling over after a couple of years each. But that's 25-odd years ago, so things may have changed somewhat in the interim. I'll look that one up.

@Mike Ayling - I'm looking at printers with ink tanks and NOT ink cartridges. Because I print a fair bit (I maintain an archive and I'm a writer / researcher) it makes far more sense to me, purely on environmental grounds. Bottles of ink (which last years according to the blurb) are a far better option than generating lots of waste plastic. I ran my Canon printer for years on third party inks, btw, where I paid as much for the whole set of six cartridges as I did for a *single* OEM cartridge.

@Bazzer - all the printers have USB connectivity, so any possible wi-fi issues are a non-issue. Wi-fi falls under the "nice to have but not necessary" category for me.

@fossyant - I do not want to be tied into a subscription service because some months, depending on what I'm doing, I might print next to nothing, and others I might be generating 20 or 30 sheets of print out per day.

@slowmotion - I'll look into laser printers, but I suspect colour ones (I need the facility for colour printing) are a) at the top end of my budget or above it though I did mention there is wiggle room, and b) too big / heavy for the space I have in which to keep a printer. When one lives in a very small cottage, the size of assorted appliances and gadgets is also a consideration. I have to be able to move the printer from its storage space onto the dining room table when I want to use it.