Best Printer for Continuous Ink System
Best ink tank printers of 2022: top ten printers you can top up yourself
If you're on the hunt for the best ink tank printers, then you're already aware of the most recent revolution to rock the world of inkjet printing. We're talking about the advent of the refillable ink tank.
It's easy to see why refillable ink has become so popular. By moving away from expensive ink cartridges to bottled ink, you can save up to 90% on your consumables cost. Whether you are printing photos at home, color documents at college, or monochrome manuscripts in the office, we have rounded up the best supertank printers money can buy.
Ink tank, or 'supertank' printers are simply inkjet printers that have swapped their disposable cartridges for onboard ink reservoirs that you can fill up with bottles of ink. As well as being much cheaper to buy, you can fit more of this bottled ink in the tank, which means less printer downtime.
Canon's MegaTank, Eposn's EcoTank and HP's Smart Tank systems all work in the same way and though the inks are incompatible between brands, they are all very easy to top up and all offer similarly dramatic savings. They all reduce the amount of waste plastic to the same degree too.
In this rapidly expanding category, we have tested color and monochrome printers and included models deigned for home and business use. Large and small, affordable and expensive, our list considers all of the best refillable cartridge-free ink tank printers available.
- Also check out our roundup of the best small business printers
Best ink tank printers of 2022 in full:
The Canon MAXIFY GX6020 (known in the UK as the GX6050) is a premium 3-in-1 device and it comes with all of the features you could need in a small business printer. It's also one of Canon's MegaTank models with large refillable ink reservoirs onboard and plenty of bottled ink in the box – enough for 6,000 monochrome pages and 14,000 color.
There's ample room for paper in the front and rear paper trays too, so it can meet high print demands in a busy office. Duplex printing, duplex scanning, Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi Direct and a rapid print rate combine to make this well-built inkjet an attractive alternative to laser printing. It's not quite as fast as your average laser, but the print quality is generally higher and the consumables cost is lower.
Read the full Canon MAXIFY GX6050 review .
As part of Epson's Ecotank Pro line, the ET-580 is built for high productivity and aimed at the busy medium-sized office. There's room for more than a ream of paper on board and it prints almost as quickly as a laser. It comes with plenty of ink (enough for 4,500 mono pages and 2,800 color) and is laden with features.
The robust ADF (automatic document feeder) can hold 50 sheets of A4 and photocopy both sides of the page automatically. Wi-Fi is built in with Wi-Fi Direct, AirPrint and every other wireless connectivity option covered.
It's all controlled by a user-friendly touchscreen interface that will save you time spent standing at the printer. In short, the Epson EcoTank Pro ET-5850 offers everything you could need in an office printer with the added attraction of rock-bottom running costs.
This refillable inkjet printer may cost several times more than HP's cartridge-based inkjet models, but with bottled ink being so much cheaper, there's no question that you will soon be making back your money.
It also comes with five bottles of ink in the box, so you will already have enough in the tank for thousands of printed pages before you need to buy more. In other respects, it's a typically well-specified all-in-one HP printer with auto duplex printing, auto duplex scanning and excellent wireless connectivity.
It's not flawless by any means - there's no touchscreen and it is somewhat slow at printing - but there is a 35-sheet ADF and room for a decent amount of paper in the main input tray. The print resolution is high enough for photo printing making it a great choice for the home office.
The Canon PIXMA GM4020 is a fully featured black and white all-in-one aimed at the small office. Where a monochrome cartridge printer would not make economic sense, a MegaTank printer does because the running costs are so low and the purchase price is also made more competitive by streaming the design.
Like life, not everything need to be black and white, and if color is a concern, then the Canon PIXMA GM4020 is upgradable. Simply add a tricolor cartridge and you'll see the results instantly.
However, if you can get away with printing only in mono then that's what you'll need in order to generate the remarkable page yield that is the headline act of this printer. Although, word of warning, Mac users will wish to look elsewhere, it's really not Apple-friendly. Instead, check out these best printers for Macs.
Read the full Canon PIXMA GM4020 review .
It looks a little ungainly with the refillable ink tanks ruining the symmetry of this otherwise compact A3 all-in-one, but it's the refined EcoTank system that sets this model apart from the competition.
If you can swallow the high price tag, your ongoing ink costs will be very low and Epson's five-color printing guarantees excellent image quality, thanks to the addition of a dedicated photo black pigment ink, and the build quality is streets ahead. This machine can also handle A3/tabloid-sized paper and boasts fast duplex print speeds and high-resolution photo printing.
The box includes a remarkably generous ten bottles of ink which will keep you printing for the next 3,600 photos. That's 10x15cm photo paper, not A4, but it's still way more than any other inkjet can offer.
Read the full Epson EcoTank ET-7750 review .
Canon's cartridge-free printers are particularly easy to top up whenever you see the ink in the window getting low and its four ink reservoirs (in a surprisingly compact three-in-one device) comes with a generous six bottles of ink in the box.
That's enough to print 18,000 black and white pages and 7,700 in colour. The Canon PIXMA G6050 is also small enough to sit on a desk without taking over and big enough to hold 250 sheets of paper.
Wi-Fi is built in, and the printer comes with an intuitive smartphone app for cloud printing and scanning. Auto duplex printing is covered and both the print and scan resolutions are good and high. It prints a beautifully bold photo and crisp text that won't run, thanks to the use of a pigment black ink.
Read the full Canon PIXMA G6050 review .
The Epson EcoTank ET-M3140 is a well-designed and fully featured all-in-one cartridge-free inkjet for the small office.
It cannot print in color, but that means there's more room on board for black ink, and the box includes three bottles giving you a total yield of 18,000 pages. Bottled ink costs around 90% less than cartridge ink, so your TCO (total cost of ownership) is very low, despite what might seem a high purchase price.
Despite the small output tray, the Epson EcoTank ET-M3140 makes it on this list of best ink tank printers thanks to its swift printing (at 39 pages per minute) plus the fact it can auto duplex (print both sides of the page), while the ADF (automatic document feeder) can dual scan.
It's also very well connected with Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct and NFC all available, though no USB port on the front is a disappointing omission.
Inkjet printers with refillable tanks are usually expensive, but that's not the case here. The HP Smart Tank Plus 559 is a compact all-in-one aimed at the home office with an exceptionally low TCO (total cost of ownership).
There's enough ink included in the box to print up to 12,000 black and white and 8,000 pages of color so you won't need to think about buying more bottles for some time. It is also particularly well connected with Bluetooth built in as well as dual-band Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct.
At up to 11 pages per minute in black and five pages per minute in color, the print speed is a little slow, but this high-resolution printer and scanner ensures decent quality photocopies. The display is a little small, but it's worth noting this printer is designed for teams of up to three, with a recommended output of up to 800 pages per month.
The Canon PIXMA G3560 is an affordable all-in-one aimed at the home office and sporting the latest evolution in Canon's refillable MegaTank system.
The four ink reservoirs are incorporated seamlessly into the compact body and the bottles themselves are an improved drip-free design. Wi-Fi is built in with Wi-Fi Direct and AirPrint compatibility available. There's also a couple of cloud printing options, you can choose either the Canon PRINT app or the PIXMA Cloud Link.
Unfortunately, duplex printing is manual only, but it can print onto a wide variety of media including photo paper, envelopes, stickers and even banners up to 120cm long. It ships with five bottles of ink, which is enough for 12,000 black and white pages, or 7,700 color. The two-line LCD display is small but simple to use, and refilling is just as easy with Canon's spill-free, resealable bottles.
The Epson EcoTank ET-2760 (known as the ET-2756 in UK) costs considerably more than Epson's cartridge-based all-in-one printers, but in the long term, the refillable tanks promise to reduce your consumables cost by up to 90%.
This is a well-specified and fully featured three-in-one device with Wi-Fi, duplex printing and a rapid monochrome print rate.
It's a shame that this model doesn't come with an automatic document feeder, and those looking for a broad range of connectivity options may be disappointed by the lack of ethernet cable, but what really sets it apart from the cartridge crowd and the headline reason for purchasing is the generous amount ink included in the box.
Epson reckon there's enough for 7,500 black and white pages, or 6,000 pages in color, which they say is equivalent to two years worth of printing. More importantly, they also say that's equivalent to a whopping 90 individual ink cartridges.
How to choose the best ink tank printers for you
Given you're already interested in finding out about the best ink tank printers, there's a good chance you already know of the significant economic (and environmental) benefits of owning an ink tank printer over the traditional cartridge models.
So the first, and most important, thing to consider is your likely usage. If you're on the lookout for a light, compact yet dependable printer that will sit in your home office for only a single user, your requirements will be drastically different to those needing a large and robust printer that will meet the needs of a team of ten in a small business.
So get a rough idea as to how many pages you'll be printing per month, then factor in whether you'll be happy with black and white prints, or whether you'll also need color. Both factors will play a big part in the overall cost of your printer.
You'll also want to consider how important print speed is to you - not all of these printers are the quickest to turn out a fresh page. Another consideration should be whether you need to print only A4, or will you be requiring A3 or even a variety of sizes? Lastly, consider how you'd like to connect to your printer from your device. If you're keen to avoid wires, prioritise those printers that offer cloud or Wi-Fi options.
The best ink tank printers: How we test
In running the rule over the best ink tank printers, we've whittled our choice down to the ten printers that we feel excel in key areas.
Although ink tank printers are typically more expensive than cartridge-based printers, the longterm savings can be vast. So we've listed where printers come included with starter ink quantities, and calculate which provide the best in terms of savings. Some, for example, provide enough ink to last up to two years before they need replaced.
Next up, we've looked at the design of each printer, noting size, weight, and any notable bulky features that needs to be considered in relation to where the printer will sit. We've tested printing speeds, and whether color printing is included.
Lastly, we've listed where printers offer other features that might prove especially useful in a home office or business environment, including scanning, photocopying, and even faxing.
- We've also featured the best printer
Source: https://www.techradar.com/best/ink-tank-printer
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