So basically, in the face of declining sales, printer manufacturers decided to stop ripping you off on consumables and allowed to pour the ink from a jug
I had a Canon Pixma MG6120 for 10 years now, and it finally died claiming the "ink absorber full". I loved my printer and am super annoyed that I can't even use the scanner with this error message. It's so daunting to find a new one!! Great info about the ink tanks, too. I'm so used to using cartridges that I'll have to look into that more. =)
Give your inkjet printer to someone that needs it. I had an HP inkjet printer all in one connected flawlessly to the network, but it spent its time testing ink, needing replacement ink, and expecting a $10 a month subscription for life. So, I gave it to my mom who constantly had the same problems with all her HP printers but older, and harder to stay connected. You can save as a PDF in office, you can get a PDF editor without paying $10.00 a month for life from acrobat, or simply snip the image of the page and paste it in one note, zero margins, right click set to background and fill out forms and output as PDF. You don’t need paper and when you do. You don’t need ink more expensive than gold from HP.
Do not buy Epson products, no service, major issues with clogging, motherboard failures and no service centers. I have 3 bricks, all expensive printers. Avoid unless you buy a super extended warranty, you will need it.
Agree, I have a brother laser printer with over 6 year old cateridge. I usually print about 10 pages a year. She also didn't mention the laser quality is remarkably better then any other option in the market.
@Demon Kriss yes, but very costly. Like 3-5x more than monochrome. I just bought monochrome laser < 100usd and about 4-5usd for compatible cartridge (1000 pages), it can go cheaper if you fill by yourself like 2-3usd 😂, but I stick with the convenience one and go to compatible cartridge that already filled. For color printing, I more preferred to print on rental because at my country it's much cheaper, like 3-10 cent per page.
@Demon Kriss yes there are now reasonably priced awsome colour laser printers. For example, I have a five year old brother MFC-9340 CDW... the prices have come way down because they are now using LED's to generate the laser. The cartridges aren't liquid so they don't dry out, and they work really well (I did buy replacement cartridges after four years...)
It should be noted that Epson invented the ink tank concept and all the other brands were forced to come out with their version because they had no choice. I bought an Epson ecotank to support them for doing this.
Yeah because by doing that Epson broke the truce of many printer manufacturing to only make inkjet printer so they can capitalize in ink profit. People flock to buy inktank printer now.
Yep! I believe they also invented the idea of separate cartridges for each colour in consumer market inkjet printers, at least based on an advert I saw in the mid 2000s.
Joanna does a good job with her reviews but she omitted an important difference between inkjet and laser printers. Laser printers do not get plugged ink heads so they are much better if the printer goes for long periods of inactivity.
The ink tank system appears to be much better than the cartridge system ru-vid.comUgkxciSwynMJ7PnUvvx11rewiu-yFBkZTl53 and a lot cheaper to run. The machine was easy to set up. A small point but I thought they'd be a USB cable included to help with the set up but there was none. I've been using it now for a few weeks and it seems like a good product and superior to my previous printers which were all troublesome HP machines.
I bought Canon laser printer 10 years ago when I went to college. It’s still working fine and I am still occasionally using it. The model was LBP-2900. If you need a printer just for the documents - laser is the choice!
My Dad is still using his HP laser printer after more than 15 years, could be 17 or so even 18 years old. Original ink too! Takes around 10-15 seconds to warm up but then it just spits the pages out. It was one of the first reasonably priced laser printers at the time, like nearly a thousand dollars with tax, back in the era of buying a new ink jet when your ink ran out.
This is exactly the sort of info I've been hoping to learn. I'm absolutely fed up with having to buy a new HP every year because they just don't hold up. I wish they'd stop marketing their doorstops as printers...it's nice to know Canon has built at least one of theirs to last.
Nice comparison review. After working for well over 2 decades in IT, I can agree with everything Joanna said. No printer is really 'great' or 'the best.' I'm always checking online where I can get the least expensive replacement ink carts. Right now, Staples is the place, but that could change in a heartbeat. For a long time, I was always a fan of Epson. One of their best selling points IMO was they always provided the straightest paper path to reduce jams. Sadly, that's no longer true. Still, even as I don't print a lot now that I'm retired, I'm quite satisfied with the print quality of my current Epson, and I have a bit more time to look for the least costly cartridges. Thanks for this info, Joanna.
I looked at the ink tank printer. First, it costs more to begin with. Now, I could do that if costs were better over time. But, as I looked into the problems these printers have over time. Users report the ink getting clogged, and the print head is non-replaceable, and they have a limited number of prints before needing expensive service. The Epson I looked at had an 18k page limit where a counter is set off stopping the printer in its tracks. A workaround of that is possible by removing a set of sponges that get ink soaked, cleaning them, and then replacing them, followed by a $10 app that resets the counter. Only some would be willing to do this messy job. I went with a traditional HP. IMO opinion, the ink tanks have some development left to be done. I knew it wasn't going to be as simple as manufacturers just cutting our costs for ink and robbing themselves of income.
The Epson ink tank printer we have at home was well worth it. I can finally print my class notes without worrying about having to go to the store in the middle of a study/print session.
Same. I purchased a Canon ink tank last week. Went on you tube to find videos on setting it up and all of the videos were about hacks to getting the error codes to go away from soaked sponges or washing out the sponges. Too much work. Just let me print in peace please.😢
I gave up purchasing printers years ago. Whenever I need to print something, I just head to my local library and pay cents for each copy. I only print pages sporadically though 🙄
GAS TO GET TO THE LOCAL LIBRARY. WEAR AND TEAR ON CAR OR COST OF PIBLIC TRANSPORTATION. TIME SPENT TO TRAVEL WHICH MIGHT BE 1-2 HOURS. ANNOYANCE ANOTHER CHORE TO DO, DID OYU REMEMBER TO PICK UP THE MILK AT SAME TIME?
You have to also take into consideration maintenance cost of running an ink tank printer, the print head (it will fail by 2 to 3 years), ink absorbent pad replacement, chip counter resetting and cost of repair itself is almost the cost of buying a new printer. I would have to say getting monochrome laser printer is more worth it if you're only printing black and white.
@shriter k Could recommend a printer for me.. I need it for printing out documents, activities for my son, maybe use heat transfer sheets and photo copy. What printer would you recommend ? Please and thank you ☺️
I spent the money and my laser printer still works despite rare use, but my ink tank's crapped out on me. First it seemed like the head was clogged. Then it just kinda died on the 3rd cleaning cycle attempt. I'm hoping it's just the utterly trash power supply it came with.
@InfernosReaper you do need to use it once a week to not clog the printer heads. Just set a reminder to print a random webpage and your good to go. 😊😊
Traded in my fancy ink jet for a monochrome laser printer and it's been way better for me. I can just ignore the thing for like 2 years then decide to print 1000 pages and it just works. Hooray for low maintenance!
@@Raxerm: I just thought that if there was no ink in the cartridges the user wouldn’t need paper and that would save even more money…and a couple of trees!
The Epson EcoTank is nice. As others have mentioned, you need to use it regularly so that the jets don't jam. If they do, you have to run a cleaning cycle which uses a good amount of ink. AND the excess ink used during the cleaning cycle gets stored in a separate tank that, when filled, needs to be serviced ($$$). FEAR NOT! You can do this yourself. There's a number of tutorials on RU-vid.
this is a Honest Review ans expresses how i feel about printers after my VERY FIRST PURCHASE. However it fails to mention, the Epson and Canon Ink Tank has a self destruct system built in. its called an INk Pad, a non replacaeble component that literally soaks up all the ink you wasted trying to get the settings right or from not printing every day. IN SHORT if you are using this for casual everyday use DO NOT get an Ink Tank and especially not an Epson or Canon due to the afermentions Self Destruct system. It is not eco freindly becasue the Company will tell you to toss the Printer rather then find you a replacement.
I had an Epson ink tank but unless you print literally every single day, you will have a terrible experience with it since my ink tank print head always jams if I want to print, and I have to run a print head cleaning every single time I want to print (uses a lot of ink), which is only once every month or often longer. I changed to a cheapo wireless 3 in 1 HP cartridge ink jet and I would recommend it for anyone who barely ever prints. I haven't used it in a year and the moment I turn it on, it prints good as new again.
Lasers are much better in this respect, most new black and white laser printers come with a minimum of 500-1000 pages printing capacity in their included toner so if you print up to 50 pages a year you're set for 10+ years without additional cost. With inkjets there's much more faffing around with cartridge maintenance, replacement, and ink running out quicker.
@@ThapeloChuene Javier S hasn't responded yet so I thought I'd share my HP model, HP Envy 6052, $89 at Walmart. Javier's printer may be discontinued, my 6052 has already. You can find them refurbished on eBay for $50 + tax with free shipping. I hope that helps.
When I bought my ink tank printer no one told me to use it everyday so the ink rollers do not dry out. Calling support everyday had me do steps that took up so much time and did not work. Best buy and Epson was no help so it is sitting in the toss out pile. Wasted 300.00.
Same but you never know when you'll need to print next, in which case a basic black and white laser printer is best for emergencies (no need to rely on libraries etc being open). If you print up to 50 pages a year, basic laser printers will last you 10+ years as they come with a minimum of 500-1000 page printing capacity in their included starter toners and toners don't dry out (unlike inkjets).
I gave up inkjet printers aprox 3 years ago, and bought a B&W laser printer costing only twice of the inkjet one (including a multi-sheet scanner feeder). That was a huge improvement. As I rarely used my Inkjet most of the inc was used for cleaning the heads, and because of the long usage interval the head was cloged and dry when I eventually needed to use it. I repeatedly had to use alcohol to dissolve the cloged heads, and repetedly had to clean the pad where it's disposing of 50% (in my case) of the ink it spilled from cleaning the heads before printing. ..... The laser printer doesn't have any of these problems ! ..... It can stand for 3 months, and it's still gonna work on the first atempt. ....... And the toner cartridge is lasting (in my case) for a couple of years, whereas the ink cartridges I had to replace several times per year. ...... When I need a color photo I just upload it to the web page of my local photoshop and then I pick it up there after a few days, on real photo paper. .... I will probably never ever have an inkjet printer again. And I did have at least 4 different ones over the years. .....
Yeah but now when that message pops up "Looking for printer" it applies to the user. I've often printed something and have no idea where in the building it was printed!
I hate USB so much because of all the bad experience I have with USB devices over the last 25 years. If you didnt have the stupid malware CD for the drivers, they didnt work. You try installing a mouse when the mouse doesnt work. You have to go get your oldschool mouse in a box that you thought you would never need again, oh you gave it away? use shortcuts, dont know them and no internet? go to a bookstore and get Windows for dummies, on and on and on. Everything was so much harder back in the day, uphill both ways. I hate USB, I hate printers, I hate device drivers, setting up a network or sharing between PCs(it's still not great, but so much better). I hate all of them because they were so terrible. People these days have it so easy, everything just works, and if it doesnt, it's probably your fault. Operating a PC in the 90s was like running a nuclear reactor as a comparison between something that no one understands and something that a very few number of people understand. If you werent alive, you wont understand the dichotomy, and thus the analogy works if you dont have that retro experience. Every time a plug a USB in and it just works, an angel gets its wings. Things are good death to drivers, death to inkjets ra ra ra!
Advantage of the ink printers with tanks is that those have no way of telling if you used genuine ink and can buy cheapest one you will find in the world. Also cartridge systems should be made illegal to manufacture, completely unnecessary pollution, also a lot of entire printers went into landfill either because the owners realised it's a scam and or the only working cartridges were no longer sold.
bruh the HP neverstop Laser you had on there would print 2500 pages but instead of 77$ for the toner its 19$, you didnt even do your research did you...
With a laser printer you should take in account the price of the drum, but it's by far the better option to print high quality text documents. A black and white laser printer does the job for 90% daily tasks. Ecotank can be cheaper than laser but I prefer laser because : no clogged heads, no wet ink, better speed, auto duplex and crisp printed documents.
@@jimpad5608 Brother uses a separate drum unit and I think toner box (not entirely sure, never owned a Brother printer). Kyocera uses a separate developer, drum, and fuser. The idea is that it reduces cost as you only replace parts as needed. In practice, volume drives down cost particular if OEM is an option. When you replace the main wear items like Canon and HP does, you benefit from consistent high quality and reliability.
Don't buy it if you don't need it. I only bought a laser printer that scans both both sides automatically for tax purposes. But now its all online. So I actually don't print. The scanner is used a lot though to scan receipts for warranty, documents for tax purposes to upload and medical forms for health insurance to upload. I haven't faxed anything either.
There is a problem with these ink tank printers that hasnt been brought up here. There is a sponge in the bottom of these printers that receives all the ink purged at head and nozzle cleaning. Once this gets full the printer is basically bricked because it has a sensor that cannot be reset, and keeps throwing up an error. I use a B+W laser printer for regular text documents, and an epson artisan photo printer for colour; usually photo printing. Not much printing these days but its not breaking the bank, and they are both super reliable.
Good insight. There are some cheaper Ink Tank printers as well. I have a cannon that works amazingly. The best way to compare price is the cost per page vs ink refill. You'll see how to get more for your money. Its better to spend more on a printer that has a smaller cost per page when printing.
THAT's not too bright either!!! IF you don't PRINT a lot-- the ink tank lines can clog along with the jets and it's just a messy problem waiting to happen. IF you print a LOT- then yes the tanks are better.... Mathematically- yes- tanks are better-- but again-- if you DON"T print much-- the cartridges are MUCH better... the cartridge can dry out and not work- throw it away and get a new one-- the heads can clog-- soak it in some alcohol/water for a few hours - dry it off and continue- and when this no longer works-- buy a new printhead. I can not use laser-- I need COLOR.
Indeed. HP do instant ink where you pay for what you print, and they just send out new carts when needed. Works out cheapest for me as I hardly print anything - I just need to have a working printer for the occasional picture, label or form. (but is not such a good deal if you just need black and white (get a laser) or loads of colour (get an ink tank))
If you print rarely then the cost (+ time and inconvenience) of HP and its instant ink monthly subscription will likely be higher compared to getting a black and white laser printer, in the long run. This is because you don't need to change any cartridges as most laser printers come the ability to print a minimum of about 500-1000 pages with the included starter toner - if you print 50 pages a year, you're set for at least 10 years. With HP instant ink you need to keep paying their plan costs.
I convinced my friend to buy a Brother Inktank to use with her Mac. A total disaster. After hours with tech support it still doesn’t reliably print and scan.
After years of experience, my opinions are slightly different. The Inkjet printers with the ink reservoir are reminiscent of old inkjet plotters, which also had a reservoir, and I used them extensively. First thing first, the ink going into the reservoir has a very different formulation compared to the ink used to refill inkjet cartridges. They are incompatible, and the "compatible" reservoir type inks are difficult to come by. Not a big problem though, as the "original" reservoir inks are cheap to buy. The real life problem, that you haven't mentioned, is that if you leave the reservoir inkjet printer not used for a month or so, the printer's plumbing gets clogged. The solution is to replace the head-plumbing combo - - - It is expensive! Same as for the non-HP inkjet printers which, left unused for long, requires new printing heads. With the HPs, the heads are included in the ink cartridges, so they are replaced every time. But the cartridges are more expensive as consequence. In the end, a four - toners colour LaserJet printer is the ideal solution, as you can leave it idling for months without problems. You can print in B/W and replace only the black cartridge if you want, and you get 5,000 pages for $70. The initial outlay of money is slightly higher, but that is compensated from the fact that the LaserJet is more robust and lasts 5+ years. Just make sure the printer has a physical Ethernet port, not just the WiFi.
I’m so happy with my Epson Ecotank printer. I had to run a deep cleanse once because I rarely use it and the text looked like a hologram. But I’ve had it a year and still on the same ink. Oh, and it came with an extra set of ink!
I buy HP Laser Jet Pro...good for (2) years....and when the cartrage is done...I throw the whole printer in the garbage and buy a new one. Cheaper......and I feel good
Bought a brother printer 15yrs ago for $50, bought cartridge refills from eBay for cheap. The whole thing lasted 15yrs. Pretty happy with the time it lasted.
I found solution fore me Color laser printer ))) Cartridjes can be simbly refiled by toner, just break side seal and remove rubber cork, then add correct toner. If you warry about pages and cartrige locking - don`t. Even if it show EMPTY - it will continue operate. And you can reset printed pages to 0, afer refiling, just shorting two legs on control board (1&5 on counter cheap when starting). And you just can left it fore yaer without work, and then continue printing. Can you do the same with inkjet?
@@jimpad5608 either you're trolling/joking or you work for one of those 2 brands cuz HP and Canon are actually the bottom of the list. They're horrible. worst ouf ot all
If the black ink for the ecotank printer costs $20 for a yield of 7500 pages versus $77 for a toner cartridge that yields only 3000 pages with the laser printer, wouldn't it be better to go with the ecotank if you only wanted b&w prints?
Another negative of some inkjet printers is that some will lock up if the B&W or color cartridge goes dry, so you can end up buying new pair of cartridges and throwing away a perfectly good cartridge. I finally replaced my ink jet with a laser, I'll never go back to ink jet.
I have an epson eco tank and it's horrible! Nothing but hassles, shuts itself down and takes hours to reset, very slow, loud and clunky. And now it's clogged and won't print color - and finally, customer service is pathetic. Thanks for letting me rant 😉. I'm budgeting to go back to Brother color toner copier as soon as possible.
She didn't mention this in the video. But off brand ink ( or toner ) is usually the exact same quality you'd get from the original manufacturer and it's sometimes 70-90% cheaper.
I have always used off brand of a very good qualty but never found it to be as good as the genuine stuff but good enough and untill tanks it has been amazingly cheaper
I have my Brother DCP-J140W printer that's a solid workhorse for me. Sure, I just gave it some official cartridges today, but big deal. No chip, no problem! there are plenty of cheap unofficial cartridges that work just fine!
I found out about the Epson while watching some live TV one night. Shaq was their spokesman and I was intrigued about why Shaq would be hawking a printer. Then I looked into it and was more intrigued by the printer itself. Flash forward to the start of the pandemic and the wife working from home and needing to print stuff. The HP printer I had of course, was out of Ink because it always was. Knowing she was going to be printing a lot, it became the time to pull the trigger on a new printer. I got the Epson ET 3760 with the auto feed scanner. If I ever see Shaq at some sort of fan event with signing, I am taking my printer for him to sign. Screw a basketball, he is signing my printer. Best printer I have ever had. Most tolerable!!!
So... Maybe this video gets all the numbers wrong. 1. All ink tank printers says that part of the included set of ink would be used to initialize the printer so it would only last half of 2/3 as long as a new set. 2. The toner is only one part of the cost of a laser printer. There's also the image drum and not to mention way higher electricity bill. 3. There's also compatible inks and CIS. Some people prefer those over official warranty so it should be put as a fourth option.
Note that the Epson refillable versions AFIK do have another wearable component, their so call “Ink Maintenance Box” at 10-20 dollars, still far cheaper the some single cartridges ...
Inkjet printer : $100 (cartridge included) Ink cartridge : $ 50 (for single color) no wonder why many people ended buying NEW PRINTER after cartridges out of ink.
I got an epson eco tank when they first came out. I absolutely love it. Saved so much money on ink. We used to go through 3-5 cartridges a month. So spending $500 on an eco tank was well worth it
Yes, if you take out the print head and clean it then you can get a few more days out of the HP and it then prints beautiful faded art work which is what the text turns into??? Hi Brother Laser, I'm headed your way bye bye ink jets and their gold inks...
I've been cleaning the printhead every time I change (remanufactured) cartridges on my Epson WF-3620 (the older brother of the WF-3820 Joanna used as an example early on in the video), and it improves the color a bit, but it's so faded, and the reds especially are pathetic to non-existent! Shopping for a supertank printer now.
This does not take into account what happens when your color nozzles plug up from inconsistent use. This can be very difficult to correct if not impossible, resulting in another printer in the landfill. I’d like to know when the industry is going to solve this issue. There must be a way.
Shallow analysis. You need look for not original supplies and printer reliability, like ink head clogging. For volume users like me, how easy rechargeable the tonner is
@@paulsz6194 That's because the forward slash writer is 'spoofing' the real WSJ channel. Notice how the StreetJournal doesn't have a space between each word.
I brought a Canon G7000 and have only used it about 200 hundred prints and now it will not print in colour which I since learnt are very common problems I wish I knew this I may have stuck with the normal costly printer at least it was not hard work.
Can't really go wrong with a brother laser printer. I picked up a HL 2270 DW back in 2013 for I think 200 bucks and I have yet to have to replace the toner cartridge and didn't even come with a high yield cartridge. Just the regular toner
On one hand, you almost never have to worry about replacing the toner, and when you do, the toner can print for 1000 - 2000 pages. On the other hand, you can have printer errors and the printer will print 2 or 3 times the amount you asked, all because it wasn't able to print one of the pages in the queue correctly, making you waste both paper and toner powder. from my experience today: i tried printing 20 pages with my Brother laser printer, but because of weird printer errors, it ended printing 26 extra pages. That's 13 sheets of wasted paper. edit: i meant toner powder, not ink. fixed.
There is another RU-vid video which cautions against Eco Tank printers due to their built in "ink flushing" feature that sucks up ink and deposits it into an ink "sponge" in an effort to keep the ink tubes from clogging. After a couple of years, the sponge reportedly gets "full" and the printer is then rendered inoperable.
I use my fax as much as my printer. I'll have to find out for myself if any of these printers also have the capability to fax, since she never address the printer's multiple times fax question.
Be careful with the Epson Ink Tank. I bought 2 of those a couple of years ago and they worked for about a month. I went for about a week without printing anything on either one and they dried up and would no longer print anything. I got one of those kits on Amazon that is supposed to flush the hoses. Did nothing. I threw them out.
The video was good, but it really depends on what you need. This are probably the printers for a regular household that only prints A4 pages and no special need for quality. If you are doing anything photo related consider buying a printer that uses pigment ink instead of dye ink. Also consider buying a printer that can print A3, it might can come in handy. My favorite Ecotank printer with 'normal' dye inks is the ET-7750. If you want pigment ink (prints last longer without fading) the ET-16650 is a decent choice. My favorite is the big format printer SC-T3100X (The X is important) which also has pigment ink in bottles. I had to install additional icc color profiles to get good looking photos and art prints (I do not use Epson paper, so maybe you don't need this if you print on their paper). I do recommend printing from a program that supports the use of colorspaces like Photoshop, Lightroom, Epson Print Layout (my favourite). You maybe also want to look into printers with more colors, but that is a topic for another day :) Edit: I think the SC-T3100X also has dye inks (but they are water resistant). The printer can not print borderless, but is perfect for posters and CAD blueprints. For nice pigment prints you need at least 10 different pigment colors and the ET-16650 only has 4 different colors, so I'm not sure how good the photos get. (I learned that recently, sorry that I did not know better when first posting this) The ET-7750 (ET-8550 is the new model) is still my favorite printer and it produces really nice looking dye prints.
i have 10 home printers, from A2 col laser to a dot matrix, and my fave machine is the battered canon A3 laser since you can get knockoff carts everywhere.
Switched from an inkjet to a laser printer. Had to give up the ability to print in color(but really, if you think about it, you don’t have to print in color often), but never been happier. I’m laser only from now on!
Now that they decided to make ink look cheaper, there's the chip that counts the pages you print and that waste ink tank. So yeah, not so fast, people!!
She did an excelent job and is not responable for corporate greed! I quit using Epson printers long ago and now Canon is doing the same that is why I have the color prints made at a local store and want to buy a Laser printer to just do black printing.
I bought a black-toner Brother laser printer in 1999 - it is still going strong after 3 toner cartridges (3rd just a few weeks ago because the 2nd had gotten too old and had moisture problems) and a replaced photo-sensitive drum about half way along. Never have I ever wished I could print in color at home; it's cheap to do the few I have needed at the local copy shop (probably better quality there too).
Sigh. I've come to view these tech reviews as what I should do the opposite to get things right. Ink tanks - if you don't use it often, it turns to goo and gums up the printer just like inkjets. And you failed to mention the ink pads that needs changing.
I had an old Canon all-in-one that was extremely reliable, never clogged and the ink price was reasonable. The only reason I got rid of it was it didn't support Windows 10.
No way I'll ever give Epson another chance after they slipped in software updates that made their printers stop working if you used any 3rd party ink and never disclosed they would do this. I never heard the outcome of the class action suit against them---maybe it still hasn't gone to court yet---but I'm quite done with them.
