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Opinions: Separate printer and scanner or an MFP?

crazyfingers

crazyfingers

Supermagnon
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Mar 15, 2001
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Massachusetts USA
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Secular Humanism
I'm pissed off at my HP OfficeJet Pro printer/scanner. The magenta print head is fried even though diagnostics say it's good. Repeated cleanings fail to fix the problem. In the beginning of the pandemic in cartridges were out of stock so I got into the habit of printing black only. But repeated cleanings by the printer still use up color ink. Piss me off. The printer does a self clean around every other time I try to print, which isn't much and wastes more ink cleaning than printing. On top of that, the first page out spec is wrong. If I try to print on a day that the printer wants do do a self-clean, the cleaning process takes about 2 - 3 minutes. So first page out is not 5 seconds like the specs say but half the time 2-3 minutes.

Anyway I need a new printer that I can print color and photos from time to time. I want an Epson Ecotank because they just use ink bottles that are cheap and high ink volume. No expensive cartridges.

But I also need a scanner and the scanner needs to be an ADF with two side scanning. The HP OfficeJet Pro I have does 2 side scanning but I'll bet that when the ink cartridges are empty the printer will refuse to scan too. That's a dirty trick among printer companies. To use the scanner the ink needs to be installed. So most likely even if I try to use the HP as just a scanner and get a new printer, the HP will still use up ink in the cleaning process and I'll have to buy cartridges just to waste them to use the scanner.

So do I buy a very expensive Epson Ecotank that has a 2 side ADF scanner for about $900 or do I buy a single function Ecotank printer and a separate 2 side ADF scanner? The cost will probably end up around the same. The All-in-one will take less space but if one function dies I don't need to replace the whole thing.
 
Buy both and send me the configuration you don't like
 
Epsons seem to clog print heads pretty regularly if not used often,

Some laser printers are very good at printing photos. I would go that route.
 
Get a laser printer. It is more reliable and the cost per page is lower. I bought a Canon 5050N about 14 years ago for A$270. Cartridges are still available. A set of 4 costs A$400, but they last a very long time - about 3000 pages at 5% coverage, I think. Two of the four cartidges in my printer are still original. The only problem I have with it is that I have to reinstall the driver software every now and again. Scanner is separate.
 
The cost per page of a laser vs these ink bottle inkjets will be much higher. The ink bottle inkjets will be way lower cost per page than any laser that's not a production class machine. And finding a color laser with auto two side scanning that's not as large as a truck will be hard or ompossible. Auto 2 side ADF scanning is a must have for me and it seems to have become a less popular feature than it used to be for home use.

The inkjet will also be far better for the environment. Way less energy use and way less waste.

EcoTank Pro ET-5800 All-in-One Cartridge-Free Supertank Printer | Products | Epson US

The EcoTank Pro ET-5800 wireless all-in-one offers fast Cartridge-Free Printing with easy-to-fill supersized ink tanks. You can save up to 80 percent with low-cost replacement ink bottles vs. standard-capacity color laser toner cartridges1 – about 2 cents per color ISO page versus 14 cents with...
epson.com epson.com
 
My HP Deskjet 3720 ADF scanner often doesn't feed in perfectly straight so I bought a used Canon LiDE 210 scanner which had some scanning issues so I then bought a used LiDE 220. The Deskjet ADF feeds into the front of the top of the printer.
358610-Product-1-I_e0470129-96cf-4edc-af28-6d66a23aa102_1024x1024.jpg

I didn't like my flatmates using colour ink sometimes (sometimes accidently) so I just never ended up changing the colour cartridge (plus I'm pretty broke).
 
Last edited:
excreationist said:
My HP Deskjet 3720 ADF scanner often doesn't feed in perfectly straight so I bought a used Canon LiDE 210 scanner which had some scanning issues so I then bought a used LiDE 220. The Deskjet ADF feeds into the front of the top of the printer.
Click to expand...
Document feeders in general are prone to skew. If you don't mind the skew, fine, but if you want a good job do it manually.
 
Unless shelling out huge amounts for a corporate level printer/scanner, these need to be bought separately. I have given up trying to buy something that can scan.

Ultimately, it comes down to how much you are going to use it. A B/W laser isn't expensive and toner can be had for cheap. I've saved a good deal in money with the occasionally used laser verses an ink jet that just never stops drying out. The toner lasts a long time. A color laser, that'll be a bit more expensive. If you have a library near by, I'd check to see if they have a scanner.
 
Coleman Smith said:
We like our Epson ET-4700 combo because it uses bottled ink and we get 4,000 pages per load.

Head cleaning is automatic and can be started from the keyboard.
Click to expand...

Nice machine. The ink bottles are great. Only I needed one that does 2 side scanning for documents printed front and back. The ET-5800 does that.

Too often I have to scan a multipage document printed on both sides of the paper. And I HATE it when they staple it. People need to use paper clips instead of staples.
 
Coleman Smith said:
We like our Epson ET-4700 combo because it uses bottled ink and we get 4,000 pages per load.

Head cleaning is automatic and can be started from the keyboard.
Click to expand...
*click link*

"Discontinued"

The problem with this stuff today. By the time it is around to prove itself, it isn't being made anymore.
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
Coleman Smith said:
We like our Epson ET-4700 combo because it uses bottled ink and we get 4,000 pages per load.

Head cleaning is automatic and can be started from the keyboard.
Click to expand...
*click link*

"Discontinued"

The problem with this stuff today. By the time it is around to prove itself, it isn't being made anymore.
Click to expand...
Partly true. But if you scroll down a little you'll see that it was replaced by the ET-4800 which is the identical mechanical print /scan engine. The only difference is likely in the firmware.
 
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