Does a Tank printer that does duplex scanning actually exist?

milleniumaire

The printhead on my 9 year old HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus has failed and disappointingly the cost of replacing this part is prohibitively high, clearly HP want customers to purchase new printers and discard the old, rather than helping save the planet!

So, given the cost of printer cartridges is so high, I thought I would purchase a tank printer and promptly bought an Epson ET-4750. This is my first move away from HP in 25 years! The Epson wasn't cheap at £350, but I consoled myself with the thought I would make savings on cartridges over the years.

Unfortunately on day 3 of owning the Epson, I realised it doesn't do automatic double sided scanning!  Although this isn't something I do often, I do have to do it and the inconvenience of having to feed the documents in twice to scan both sides is not acceptable. At £350, this printer should be making my morning drink of tea, so it is a real loss of functionality that it can't do the basics of duplex scanning, especially when it does duplex printing and copying!

Thankfully, it was purchased from Amazon, so can easily be returned.  I've now done more research to find a tank printer that can perform duplex scanning. To my surprise I've been unable to find one, so it would seem that I have to choose between a tank printer, using cheaper ink supplies and single sided scanning, or revert back to an expensive cartridge printer that does double sided scanning.

Has anyone come across a tank printer that includes duplex scanning? Ideally, I don't want to spend more than £400, but would be prepared to go above this to get the "right" printer.

getmore4less

Brother do duplex scanner all in ones.

carts are reasonable in the compatible market and big.

I have the A3  J6530 that has 50 sheet single side scan duplex print

they do a double side scan/copy versions

A3 footprint.
https://www.brother.co.uk/printers/inkjet-printers/mfc-j6930dw
https://www.brother.co.uk/printers/inkjet-printers/mfcj6947dw

A4 scan/A3 print
https://www.brother.co.uk/printers/inkjet-printers/mfc-j5730dw
https://www.brother.co.uk/printers/inkjet-printers/mfcj5945dw

maisie_cat

Do you mean laser printer by tank printer? if so we have an HP laserjet, we've had it years and replaced numerous inkjets that we were forever cleaning and replacing the heads of. Ours is a laserjet pro M277 and it does automatic duplex. We paid something like £250 for it but we'd gone through a printer a year plus cartridges for the previous 5 years and I'd had enough.

milleniumaire

maisie_cat said:

Do you mean laser printer by tank printer? if so we have an HP laserjet, we've had it years and replaced numerous inkjets that we were forever cleaning and replacing the heads of. Ours is a laserjet pro M277 and it does automatic duplex. We paid something like £250 for it but we'd gone through a printer a year plus cartridges for the previous 5 years and I'd had enough.

Hi Maisie, I've never owned a laser printer as I considered them to be too expensive in terms of initial cost and running costs for the toner cartridges.  I don't do much printing, but as I'm working from home these days, it's a little more than it used to be.  The speed of printing offered by laser printers is also something that isn't necessary for me.  I believe it is also required to purchase specific types of "laser" paper for laser printing.

Tank printers are the newest technology and instead of buying a cartridge containing a small amount of ink, that never seems to last very long and is extremely expensive, the ink is provided in bottles and so is cheaper and provides more volume.  The bottles of ink are poured into a "tank" built into the printer.  Also, I suspect there's an environmental advantage as there are no old cartridges to throw away and the ink bottles can be recycled.

I'm not aware that laser printers use "tanks" as the printing method is different to that used by an inkjet printer.

milleniumaire

getmore4less said:

Brother do duplex scanner all in ones.

carts are reasonable in the compatible market and big.

I have the A3  J6530 that has 50 sheet single side scan duplex print

they do a double side scan/copy versions

A3 footprint.
https://www.brother.co.uk/printers/inkjet-printers/mfc-j6930dw
https://www.brother.co.uk/printers/inkjet-printers/mfcj6947dw

A4 scan/A3 print
https://www.brother.co.uk/printers/inkjet-printers/mfc-j5730dw
https://www.brother.co.uk/printers/inkjet-printers/mfcj5945dw

I'm aware that all the manufacturers do sell printers that can do double sided (duplex) scanning automatically from the document feeder, however, I specifically would like to purchase one of the newer "tank" printers to save on the cost and waste that is associated with print cartridges.

I have tried compatible ink cartridges in the past, but had issues with them.  Printer manufacturers now seem to make it more difficult to use them and pop up warnings every time you try to print, which is just annoying.  I've read that some printers simply won't accept compatible cartridges.

getmore4less

Brother have been fine with compatibles.

have you done a proper cost per page comparison or just assume a tank will be cheaper?

Those brother have 3k page carts

Laser can print on regular paper.


a simple google found a few but I suspect your price may be a sticking point
https://www.google.com/search?q=2+sided+scan+tank+printer


have you tried a filter at printer base.
https://www.printerbase.co.uk/buy-printers.html

CoastingHatbox

Do you need a combined printer and scanner?

BTW I think laser printers are far more reliable for people who print infrequently as there is neither risk of the toner drying out nor any heads to dry out. For mono (black) printing they are cheaper than an inkjet, in terms of £ per sheet.

milleniumaire

getmore4less said:

Brother have been fine with compatibles.

have you done a proper cost per page comparison or just assume a tank will be cheaper?

Those brother have 3k page carts

Laser can print on regular paper.


a simple google found a few but I suspect your price may be a sticking point
https://www.google.com/search?q=2+sided+scan+tank+printer


have you tried a filter at printer base.
https://www.printerbase.co.uk/buy-printers.html

Hi, yes I've used printerbase and searched Google, but with all these sites you have to be suspicious of the results and sometimes trying to figure out from the manufacturers tech specs if they really can do duplex scanning is not always easy!

I haven't spent the time doing a comparison of prices, but given that it would cost £40-£50 for a full set of OEM tank ink bottles, that's a lot less than the cost of inkjet cartridges and toner cartridges, plus you get more printed pages from the ink bottles, so it's not difficult to see that it would be much cheaper for consumables.

milleniumaire

CoastingHatbox said:

Do you need a combined printer and scanner?

BTW I think laser printers are far more reliable for people who print infrequently as there is neither risk of the toner drying out nor any heads to dry out. For mono (black) printing they are cheaper than an inkjet, in terms of £ per sheet.

Yes, I need an all in one printer and it needs to be colour.

I would be interested in considering a colour AIO laser printer that could do duplex printing, scanning and copying and where the toner cartridges were cheaper than inkjet cartridges 

My old HP inkjet printer lasted 9 years and was reliable up until the day the printhead failed, so not too bad, although it was quite a good quality printer for a home office.

CoastingHatbox

HP do sell colour AIO laser printers and there are often on ebuyer with some quite good cash back deals.

I know that replacement toners and drums for colour printing can be quite expensive and I can't say we have never had problems with them in the office. That said, the office printers pre-COVID had a fairly hefty duty cycle.

I wasn't involved in purchasing printer consumables so I have no idea what they run to.

Alternatively, I see that after market print heads are available for the HP Officejet Pro 8600 from ebay from ~£70. I'd be tempted to grab one of those and repair the old printer, but then I'm rather keen on reducing e-waste.

jamesd

It isn't necessary to use specific laser paper. Copier paper is fine. No need for the surface treated papers that are desirable to maximise inkjet performance either. Laser printers store their toner in tanks. That's what the toner cartridge is, a box with air and toner inside it.

Toner costs vary and might be more costly at the cheaper end of the colour laser printer market. Whether it's worth paying more for a printer with cheaper toner depends on your print volumes, though compatible toner is also normally available. Sometimes it could be worth a cheap mono printer for bulk mono printing work and colour with scanning for the rest.

Having used lasers for mono and colour I'm not going to consider inkjets again. The reliability is just way better, as is the usual print quality. You'll probably find that most others here with experience of both have a similar view.

This place has convenient options to narrow down the range of printers it shows you, as does this one. Once you've found a printer that looks possibly interesting you can look into its toner costs and estimated pages per cartridge of each colour and see how that compares to the potential cost of bottled inks.