Which Tank Printer Should You Buy [2023 Updated]

* Correction the Epson Et 2850 does not have a touchscreen. The Epson Et 3850 and up does.

0:00 - 2:43 Introduction / Important Info
2:44 - 3:36 Printer Info
3:37 - 6:01 Usability
6:02 - 7:14 Quality
7:15 - 8:31 Performance
8:32 - 10:46 Which Tank Printer Should You Buy?

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[AinzOoalGwn]

u brought up some good points for consideration. one big aspect though is how easily it is to maintain these printers, and the cost of ownership.

example, epson has a maintenance box module. this can be easily removed, self cleaned under a sink, reinserted, then use an unofficial resetter app. there is an official method for this which is to replace the maintenance box, but it's more costlier and wasteful so not your 1st go to option.

next is how to maintain the headers. we all know these ink bottle printers have an issue with clogging if not used often. so the epson refering to printer guy's past videos, you can see how it's done, and it seems doable (easy enough), and using the cleaning kit for the header.

Also the epson can handle re-manufactured ink which is cheaper than the official ink.

So maintaining an ecotank you do these 3 things mostly for keeping it running and lowering cost of ownership.

So then what about the other brand printers? So that is my point. It's not just how good the performance is (though is definitely important), or other features. You also have to consider the cost of ownership and ease of maintenance (whether via official or unofficial methods).

so despite the Epson being worse on performance, for a casual user with low volume printing, it might not matter as much, as long as it fared well in other areas, especially the points i brought up when compared to the other brands.

[markstipulkoski]

Well I just bought the Canon G7020 for reasons not covered in this video. The Canon is on sale right now, July 2023, for $229. Epson ET-2850 is also $229. The HP Smart Tank 6001 is way up there at $345. The Canon G7020 has an Automatic Document Feeder which is slmost a must if you want to use its Fax function, which is another feature that the others don't have. Dual paper trays allow me to use the lower tray for standard paper and the upper tray for speciality papers, like photo and cardstock. On top of that, it came with 3 bottles of black ink, which will last me for years.

[westcoastjj]

I bought the HP 6001 from their website. The pages printed slightly crooked, but no amount of adjustments would fix it. I then had to mail the printer back to them with a full load of ink installed, because there was no way to remove the ink. And I also had to go through a bunch of steps with tech support before they would give me a return authorization number, and many attempts by them to persuade me to keep the printer even though it printed crooked. In the future I will probably stick to a local seller, Costco, Best Buy etc.

[dhauxhurst]

I am a paper crafter and I am researching printers mainly to print and copy card stock prints . both from scanning and download pictures . The cost of cartridges is adding up quickly in my current HP printer

[VeitLehmann]

What I would be most interested in is reliability and maintainability and longevity. So can all wearing parts be replaced to keep the printer alive? Does it work reliably if I don't print once a week? I rarely print, so I don't want a printer that just doesn't work after I haven't used it for a while. I don't want to buy new cartridges just because they dried over time. And I also don't want a massive, expensive color laser printer just to be able to print color, and then not even get decent picture quality. That's why I'm looking into tank printers. But I have seen reports of Epson smearing ink on the paper while printing, or Canon dying because of full ink sponges (I guess this is not an issue anymore, it should be replaceable now, right?). Not sure if HP has/had similar issues. Does anybody have long-term experience and can tell about that?

[JohnnyT]

I brought an Epson Eco Tank ET-2850 back in 2023 But it stopped working in a year. So I went back to the brand that I first used when I had my first PC back in 1999 Canon.
To me the Canon G7020 prints better than the ET-2850 did. There are no streaks when I print color pictures with the G7020 but when I used the ET-2850 I would get streaks when I would make color prints.
Plus once again, the Epson ET-2850 stopped working in a year. It's now just a GIANT PAPER WEIGHT sitting on the side.

[maureentaphouse]

The one aspect of these printers that very very few even mention is dealing with paper jams. I have an older Epson eco 2810 printer. It has given me good results for printing out family history related work. For just over 1 year I used a whole ream of paper with little impact on the ink tanks, about 1/4 use of black . However one day the paper decided to do a double sided print for some reason (I I never set that before printing) and maybe because I was using cheap paper it got jammed. Now I cannot remove the back cover on 2810 to get to the crushed paper right at the back. Eventually I found a review that confirmed that the newer 2850 has a cover easy to remove so that'll be my next purchase. I can't tell you just how many reviews I've watched to find out this vital fact . As a heavy home user this is so important to know before I commit a sizeable extra cost to my genealogy hobby.

[timfoster]

I've been an HP guy for the last 20 years. But I'm tired of paying for cartridges. Even the generics for my current HP are $30 ea. Time to look at tank printers.

For me, the main thing I was looking for was the ability to change out the print head should it die. For that, the Canon won by a mile. The heads are cheap, readily available on Amazon, and easy to swap. Not so for the HP, and I'm pretty sure the Epson doesn't let you change it easily.
I saw your video, and it confirmed my decision to go with the Canon. ( I actually had the G7020 in my Amazon cart when I decided to give your video a look)

[p.a.politicalrevolutionpod]

Which one uses third party ink the best?

[ahuesphoto]

In my personal experience the big difference is in the type and quality of the ink. I have two Canon Pixma MegaTank G4000 series and the big problem is that Canon decided to use their “natural pigment” ink that has large particles and clogs the printer unless you waste-print at least 4-5 pages per day to unclogs

I came up with two test pages (text black, text color), and a few colorful images to print as tests / unclogging every day

The other problem is that from time to time the printer needs to go to regular maintenance to empty the cleaning bucket / sponge.

Why Canon didn’t use their “artificial pigment” based inks, that they already use for their Pixma Pro entry level model… I don’t get it, that artificial pigment ink lasts half (50 years vs 100 years of the natural pigment ink) but has a lot smaller particles and never clogs the printer

[piksnapper]

Your point about the screens is valid, but all these printers are designed to use with apps whether be on a computer or mobile. Something that’s important to me how the printers work with the software, I am running a brand new Mac with the newest operating system and also a 10 year old Mac, and I’d really like to know how well the printers will work in these scenarios. I think this is valid for windows users also.

[Ninjamom]

So far I'm liking the Epson, I don't need a fast printer. but still doing my research. This helped, thanks.

[gertrudedaraklis]

7/5/24 Based on a 2 yr average:which printer is most durable ? Which printer throws the least amount of error codes forcing the not so tech savvy user to make the dreaded call to tech support ? For that matter which brand offers live person tech support ( that’s a biggy ) . I’ve had the Pixma g7020 for 3 yrs now and I want to luv it but man it presents allot of error codes & getting hold of live tech support ??? Good luck. They were nice when you could get a hold of them but I encountered two separate emergency’s where I needed tech support that day. Nope, nadda. I just asked allot of questions & took notes when I did eventually reach a live person. I printed a gazzillion pages in 3 yrs only went thru one ink refill . Can’t complain there . Now after 3 yrs I just encountered my first print quality issue ( everything shaded green . So I ordered your cleaning kit and we’ll see what happens.

[memoarias]

I'm looking to buy an updated printer and looking at the Epson 2800 tankprinter or the HP Envy 7955e. What printer will I spent more ink on?

[maverickmikekauai]

Thanks for the great video. Any comment about the reliability of these printers?
I believe that reliability would probably be my number one important item followed by ease of use.
Thank You!

[DOSBoxMom]

Sam's Club only carries the Epson EcoTank printers, and is currently running a special on the ET-4850, with 2 extra bottles of black ink beyond what other vendors would include. I would like to upgrade from my Brother INKvestment MFC-J1215DW, and like the convenience of the INKvestment cartridges, but would be willing to drop the brand loyalty for a display screen and larger paper tray.

[darylfriedrich]

I'm looking for a new Eco tank type of printer. The reason I'm here is because my expensive EPSONET-4550 has some clogging issues. I was looking at your cleaning kit and I thought you mentioned in one of your videos that you had some videos for some specific printers. Do you have something for THE Epson ET-4550? At the time those were close to $500. Right now I'm looking at the new Epson ET- 4850 and the Canon G7020. I'm looking to see if there are clogging issues, a tiny waist ink collector like HP did with their Mega tank printers. After a few deep cleanings those printers disable themselves. Which renders the printer unusable. Sounds like HP doesn't want to let go of their Stranglehold on the price of ink. Well other manufacturers do. if there are jamming or disconnect issues. That seems to be the laundry list of common problems. I don't want to be Pennywise and pound foolish I'm hoping the Canon has good reviews it's almost half the price but there's probably a reason.

[TERRIBESSETTE]

I had an Epson tank printer. It just stopped printing. All ink was still full, but blank pages were coming out. Tried cleaning, aligning ect...no avail. Threw it out!!

[Facilitecoutureetpatron]

Hello, does the enco tank printer smug on venyl stickers or westherproof paper sticker? Thank you

[kyleglowacki]

Which printers let you use generic ink from whatever manufacturer or are they locking us to their brand ink (like the Epson does via the bottle nozzle shape etc)?