Solved Ink Tank Printers

My A3 HP7070 colour inkjet printer is knackered and does not print yellow. I can replace head but really cost makes it uneconomic.

So I am thinking about buying a colour laserjet as inkjet cartridges are a PITA and quite expensive.

However, there are now INK TANK inkjet printers which are allegedly cheaper on ink use and easy to refill ink.

Have any of you "Eleveners" actually used ink tank printers and what is your experience?

Hey mate,

I haven't used an ink tank printer, but the older HP color laserjet printer I have has been great.

Usually color laserjet cartridges will last a lot longer than an ink tank making them cheaper to operate.

Well, I have an EPSON Eco Tank 2850 and I like the way it prints and scans. However, it does have a tendency to plug the ink head and you have to do a power clean to resolve the issue. One time I had to purchase an ink head cleaning kit which is basically a big syringe that you shoot water through the heads until it is cleared. Yes, it worked...just a pain in the arse.

I still haven't had to top off the ink chambers and in that respect, it is very good. But I was looking to replace it due to the clogging, but haven't found a solution yet that I like. I do have a Canon Color Laser printer but the toners are expensive. If you purchase remanufactured ones, the printer will work but the colors will not be right, and then the wife complains. So I just buy the Canon ones for now.

Hope this helps.

i cant help you with printers with ink tanks but i can agree with 'Brink'
i to have a colour laser printer. brother MFC-L3710CW which is a lot to cheaper to refill then ink jets.

hope this helps, best of luck. Steve ..

cereberus said:

However, there are now INK TANK inkjet printers which are allegedly cheaper on ink use and easy to refill ink.

Have any of you "Eleveners" actually used ink tank printers and what is your experience?

Click to expand...

I have had many bad experiences with inexpensive HP tank printers of Chinese origin. The problems are not related to the ink tank system itself, but to frequent software or hardware errors. Also, when the Wi-Fi is perturbed in any way, the printer losses the connection and it´s necessary to reconfigure it, which involves to connect via USB cable temporarily.

However, the prints are good when the printer decides to work.

cereberus said:

Have any of you "Eleveners" actually used ink tank printers and what is your experience?

Click to expand...

play2mefish said:

Well, I have an EPSON Eco Tank 2850 and I like the way it prints and scans. However, it does have a tendency to plug the ink head and you have to do a power clean to resolve the issue.

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I have had an EPSON Eco Tank ET-4750 since 2018 and have generally been pleased with it. I've only had to clean the print head a couple of time, and then only after being left idle for a month or so. It's not heavily used, so can be a long time between print jobs.

cereberus said:

My A3 HP7070 colour inkjet printer is knackered and does not print yellow. I can replace head but really cost makes it uneconomic.

So I am thinking about buying a colour laserjet as inkjet cartridges are a PITA and quite expensive.

However, there are now INK TANK inkjet printers which are allegedly cheaper on ink use and easy to refill ink.

Have any of you "Eleveners" actually used ink tank printers and what is your experience?

Click to expand...

I haven't used an ink tank printer.

Whether you could live with a color laser printer depends on what you wish to do with it.

Color laser printers may be poor for printing photos.

I've read mostly favorable things about the Epson ET-8550 printer. It uses dye inks (except for a pigment black, used only for documents).

I'm using
EcoTank ET-2800 Wireless Color All-in-One Cartridge-Free Supertank Printer with Scan and Copy | Products | Epson US
Works quite well and each color refill is $13...
Lasts longer than my old inkjet ink.

Dannydet said:

I'm using
EcoTank ET-2800 Wireless Color All-in-One Cartridge-Free Supertank Printer with Scan and Copy | Products | Epson US
Works quite well and each color refill is $13...
Lasts longer than my old inkjet ink.

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I assumed that "cereberus" wanted another A3 printer (297 X 420mm, 11.7 X 16.5").

cereberus said:

My A3 HP7070 colour inkjet printer is knackered and does not print yellow. I can replace head but really cost makes it uneconomic.

So I am thinking about buying a colour laserjet as inkjet cartridges are a PITA and quite expensive.

However, there are now INK TANK inkjet printers which are allegedly cheaper on ink use and easy to refill ink.

Have any of you "Eleveners" actually used ink tank printers and what is your experience?

Click to expand...

I replaced my bust Canon Pro 100 photo printer with an Epson EcoTank ET8550 A3 printer after an extensive review. Photo printing is excellent on a par with the Pro 100, ink costs are cheap and it has useful office printing features like duplex printing, paper trays and a competent scanner. I've had no print head clogging problems.

A colour laser printer is far inferior to an inkjet printer for photo printing.

cereberus said:

My A3 HP7070 colour inkjet printer is knackered and does not print yellow. I can replace head but really cost makes it uneconomic.

So I am thinking about buying a colour laserjet as inkjet cartridges are a PITA and quite expensive.

However, there are now INK TANK inkjet printers which are allegedly cheaper on ink use and easy to refill ink.

Have any of you "Eleveners" actually used ink tank printers and what is your experience?

Click to expand...

Added !!!

On initial setup you might get prompted for a password -- that;s just the product ID code probably at the bottom or on the "boiler plate" thing on the printer -- usually an 8 digit code,


Try the quite cheap epson (always a decent make) eco tank et-2812 printer -- I'm still almost 2 years later using the original set of inks that came with the printer (and it's wireless and does decent photo prints). It's only max to A4 so no go if you print at A3 or A3+.

I know you said your old one was A3 so @Steve C 's recommendation is great too - but if you really don't need A3 then the A4's are significantly cheaper -- depends on not what you previously had but what you want to do now.

These printers also generally have have Fax / Scan / copy functions too with direct email so so long as the internet is working you can email a document without needing a computer. Again depends on your requirements.

Probably newer models (and still cheap) ones around -- loading the tanks is a doddle and it worked straight OOTB. !!!

print speed is acceptable -- not blazingly fast like some laser printers but no slouch. The simplicity of loading the cartridges can't be over emphasised -- original tank type inkjets were messy, cumbersome and you needed a PhD in Mechanical Engineering to load the tanks successfully !!!.


Still happy with it -- I don't do a huge amount of printing and even when not used for longish periods - no clogging up of the print head / alignment errors -- also works on Linux BTW (not that you are interested in that though !!!).

@Steve C

great choice for A3 but if you don't need A3 then cheaper options - but the quality is excellent with those epsons and setting up is a doddle.

Added- at top of post -- if you are asked for a password on initial setup on the Wireless install of what it is.

Cheers
jimbo

I have an Epson Eco Tank 2760. The thing has been outstanding on ink usage and low ink costs.

The "only" issue I have is that if I do not print something more frequently than about 1 time per week, the heads get clogged up and require me to run a clean cycle to get it printing well again. I try to remember to run a test color page with black text each Monday to keep them printing well

Thanks all,

On balance, I am going to go for a colour A3 laser printer.

My A3 use is primarily printing engineering drawings which probably only require 5-10% coverage (90-95% of page is not printed to).

I have an A4 monochrome printer which is fine for most of my work needs and I just replaced original toner after 1 year (and they were not full capacity ones - a bit of a scam when you buy a new printer).

I have has zero problems with that.

I have seen a model that is a good deal but it is only usb connection.

However my router has a usb port than can be used for printer sharing. If that does not work, I will buy a usb printer server.

I will mark this solved.

Bought the EPSON ET-3850 probably 3 years ago. Been in frequent use. The above statements saying it will not print photographs as the same quality as an ink jet may be true, but it does fine on 4x7 or 5x8 photo paper. Definitely easy on the ink cost. Much cheaper than ink jet. Regarding heads clogging, not been an issue but I do use it regularly. Still have the full spare ink containers I bought new when I bought the printer. Used it as USB for a year then went to a wi-fi connection. Both worked well. Be warned though. A "maintenance" tank may eventually be required and it was a struggle muddling through their setup and software options. Printer itself. Superb!

cereberus said:

Thanks all,

On balance, I am going to go for a colour A3 laser printer.

My A3 use is primarily printing engineering drawings which probably only require 5-10% coverage (90-95% of page is not printed to).

I have an A4 monochrome printer which is fine for most of my work needs and I just replaced original toner after 1 year (and they were not full capacity ones - a bit of a scam when you buy a new printer).

I have has zero problems with that.

I have seen a model that is a good deal but it is only usb connection.

However my router has a usb port than can be used for printer sharing. If that does not work, I will buy a usb printer server.

I will mark this solved.

Click to expand...

Whatcha gonna get? Just curious.

Looking at B&H Photovideo, one of my favorite online (US) sources, A3 capable color laser printers seem to be relatively few. Prices start at around $2kUS.

I wonder why the Epson Eco tank printers on Amazon only rate four stars? I guess the nozzles block if you don't print every week.

kelper said:

I wonder why the Epson Eco tank printers on Amazon only rate four stars? I guess the nozzles block if you don't print every week.

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The HP tank printers on Amazon are also four stars, seems par for the course for an ink tank.

A few Epson Eco tanks are four and a half, and this one is five star.

Bree said:

The HP tank printers on Amazon are also four stars, seems par for the course for an ink tank.

A few Epson Eco tanks are four and a half, and this one is five star.

Amazon.co.uk

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Thanks, but only from four reviews!

I have a HP OfficeJet Pro x576dw which is a PageWide InkJet, the printing head is stationary but does not move. It is faster than a lot of Laser printers and actually can print 9200 pages per cartridge. The only problem after 11 years or so is the print head appears to be clogged, it prints fine for things I print but when doing the cleaning where it prints text pages, it will be missing things in the text. So trying to figure out how to do a manual head cleaning. I also have a Tektronix now Xerox Phaser 850 Solid Ink Printer.



I am thinking about an inktank printer as well but for whatever reason, it seems like the Canon and Epson inkjet printers seem to bleed more when printing text compared to HP's. Though I think Epson and Canon with 6-8 colors are really good with photos as even 15 years ago, I was printing high quality 11x14 photos.

MachineLanguage said:

Bought the EPSON ET-3850 probably 3 years ago. Been in frequent use. The above statements saying it will not print photographs as the same quality as an ink jet may be true, but it does fine on 4x7 or 5x8 photo paper. Definitely easy on the ink cost. Much cheaper than ink jet. Regarding heads clogging, not been an issue but I do use it regularly. Still have the full spare ink containers I bought new when I bought the printer. Used it as USB for a year then went to a wi-fi connection. Both worked well. Be warned though. A "maintenance" tank may eventually be required and it was a struggle muddling through their setup and software options. Printer itself. Superb!

Click to expand...

Isn't Ink Tank just Ink Jet printers but just don't use the cartridges?