We're in the market for a new printer for the house. Last one we bought was over 10 years ago, so I know nothing. I hear horror stories about printers that require subscription ink refills and will disable your printer without a valid CC on file. We use the scanner also, so that would be helpful to have.

I'm looking for something that doesn't use ink cartridges, that instead uses ink tanks. Does anybody have any recommendations? I don't care if it's a smart printer, or is internet connected, I just need it to work. Even wifi is optional, frankly.

My wife is a teacher, and we print stuff fairly often. Any thoughts?

We need color. My wife's school is limited in their capacity to print color, and there are a lot of things she does at the house. I'm not opposed to laser at all, but we would need color.

Although it is a pro level printer and I don't use it as much as I thought I might (I will use it more when I have additional time), I like my purchase of the Canon PIXMA PRO-200. Yes, its huge (and I mean HUGE); yes, you really need to use it to be able to get the best picture results; yes, it can be a little finicky to work with. But when you need something printed in color -- particularly pics -- it does as well or better than most things out there. I wouldn't hesitate to use it for personal, framed art work purposes. I'm not sure if it can print on things like canvas -- other Canon PRO printers can -- but for what I need, this works fine.

Its a little costly but it should last a while.

Thanks for the feedback!

That Canon is a bit more than what we need I think. The Epson models seem right in line.

I'll check around some other ones and update here. I appreciate the responses

Buy a color Brother laser jet. If you are printing often it's a no brainer. Great printers that last forever and laser toner will be way cheaper than ink.

I cannot warn against the Cannon tank printer more! Purchased on for my home office a few years ago to get the tank feature. It looked more professional level than the Epson units. It was literally the worst printer I have ever owned (I have owned a lot and print a fair amount for my businesses.) Horrible paper handling, constant jambs, no support, lost connection all the time. After a year or so of frustration, I finally just trashed it.

ETA, my Cannon was not that Pixa one. It was a high personal/small business tank model. forget teh exact model. But will never buy a Cannon printer again.

I've had good luck with the Brother Inkvestment printers (mostly MFC-J4355DW and J5855DW models). I work in construction and these are the printers I put in all of our on-site office trailers, so they get rode pretty hard.

I stopped buying Epson printers. Always had problems with the print heads drying out and not being able to clear clogs.

I've heard good things about the liquid ink refill one.

We've got a HP 9510 (I think) not a bad printer though I'm sure there are better. Signed up for the ink refill subscription for like $6.99/month. I don't print a ton but so far in 2 years the subscription has worked out cheaper than buying ink so I'm happy.

Avoid anything HP, they are the poster child for the ink subscriptions you mentioned. Plus, their printers have a ton of bloatware.

I have been through Canon, Epson, and HP ink printers. All of them sucked. I have been really happy with the HP color laser I bought. If you time it right, Office Max often has them on sale.

Burdizzo said:

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I have been through Canon, Epson, and HP ink printers. All of them sucked. I have been really happy with the HP color laser I bought. If you time it right, Office Max often has them on sale.

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Doesn't HP require you to have a subscription to use your own printer?

htxag09 said:

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Burdizzo said:

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I have been through Canon, Epson, and HP ink printers. All of them sucked. I have been really happy with the HP color laser I bought. If you time it right, Office Max often has them on sale.

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Doesn't HP require you to have a subscription to use your own printer?

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I have had my MFP 4301 about a year and have not paid for any subscription. Office Max has the toner cartridges available.

I have honestly had pretty good luck with my hp officer pro printers. I have one on the ink subscription for printing high ink demand brochures and one not on subscription for the rest of my printing.

Burdizzo said:

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I have been through Canon, Epson, and HP ink printers. All of them sucked. I have been really happy with the HP color laser I bought. If you time it right, Office Max often has them on sale.

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This is the reason why I recommend the pro printers. For the home use ones, you are going to pay through the nozzle (pardon the pun) for ink either in usage or in replacement as it dries out (or whatever it does to make it unworkable). Not that you won't spend money on the pro level ones, but I haven't had -- in 2+ years of ownership of my Canon whatever I said it was -- to replace or refill the ink cartridges. Before I print my next art work I will replace them, but I like how the ink has continued to work.

From everything I've heard, the lower end printers need to be refreshed constantly. Bottom line is that you're going to spend money regardless. Might as well get the ones with the best results.

Have to revise my statement on HP a little. Still happiest with my Oficejet pro 9020s from a functional and cost per page point.

But Yesterday I was working on a monthly print job and the unit that I had removed from the instant ink program suddenly stopped printing and throwing out various vague errors. It was using HP cartridges that were not instant ink program cartridges. It had worked for 6 months in this configuration. Feels like maybe they changed something to require a subscription of some sort? Maybe I was still paying for one that I had paid for a year? Got a weird email around the first about something HP subscription related that I ignored.

Anyway, it was weird and annoying. I was in the middle of an important print job and having it on the instant ink subscription is not significantly different in cost for me because of the amount and density of what I print. So I just resubscribed Got 3 months free even.

In general I hate the subscription model as much as anyone. If I could be guaranteed of paper handling and envelope printing I would look at switching again, but don't have the time to mess with it or the desire to replace two printers at the moment .

Not sure what printer people should buy. I think I would give the epson eco tank a try for if I were in the OP's situation.