If you want one printer to handle permission slips, homeschool worksheets, craft projects and the occasional photo print, the Epson EcoTank ET-2800 is our answer for the best all in one printers for families. It prints, scans and copies, it prints wirelessly from a phone, and its cartridge-free tanks cut the running cost to among the lowest of the ten we compared. The Canon MegaTank G3270 is the runner-up for families that print the most color, and the Brother DCP-L2640DW takes the crown when a home office shares the machine and black-and-white volume is heavy.
Families are a strange printing household. Printing happens in bursts: a permission slip on Sunday, a stack of worksheets on the first of September, a science project the night before it is due, then almost nothing for two weeks. That pattern is exactly what punishes cheap cartridge printers, because the ink cost per page is where the real money goes and a printer that sits idle through a school break is the one most likely to need attention when the next burst arrives.
We compared ten all-in-one printers against that reality. Each one was assessed on running cost per page, paper handling, how much work the scanner takes off a parent’s hands, wireless setup, and the reliability notes that only show up after a year of family use. Every pick below includes the trade-offs, not just the good parts. Last updated September 2026.
Table of Contents
Top 3 Best All-in-One Printers for Families (October 2026)
Epson EcoTank ET-2800
- Cartridge-free ink tanks
- Up to 4500 black or 7500 color pages per set
- Flatbed scan and copy
- USB and Wi-Fi
Canon MegaTank G3270
- Up to 6000 black or 7700 color pages per set
- Borderless photo and square formats
- 1.35 inch LCD
Epson EcoTank ET-2400
- Lightest EcoTank at 8.6 pounds
- Up to 4500 black or 7200 color pages
- Status LEDs with no screen
All 10 Printers Side by Side for 2026
The table below is the fastest way to narrow the field. Look at the ink system first, because that is the line item that decides your three-year cost, then check the document feeder, because that is the line item that decides your evenings.
| Product | Specs | Action |
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| Epson EcoTank ET-2800 |
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| Canon MegaTank G3270 |
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| Epson EcoTank ET-2400 |
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 Brother DCP-L2640DW |
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 Brother MFC-L3720CDW |
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 Canon PIXMA TS6520 |
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 Epson EcoTank ET-4800 |
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 Brother Work Smart 1360 |
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 HP Smart Tank Plus 651 |
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 Canon MAXIFY GX2020 |
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Two things stand out immediately. Five of these ten use refillable tanks rather than cartridges, and only four come with an automatic document feeder at all. Those two features together cover most of the difference between a printer that suits your family and one that frustrates it every week.
1. Epson EcoTank ET-2800: Best All-in-One Printer for Families Overall
Epson EcoTank ET-2800 Wireless Color All-in-One Supertank Printer – Black
Inkjet color
10 ppm black and 5 ppm color
100-sheet tray
Flatbed scan and copy
11.4 pounds
Pros
- Cartridge-free ink bottles cut running cost sharply
- Up to 4500 black or 7500 color pages per ink set
- Sharp text and vivid color photos
- Compact footprint for a full print scan copy unit
Cons
- Single-sided printing only
- Modest 10 ppm black speed
- Small LCD with no touchscreen
The ET-2800 is the printer we keep coming back to for family households, and the reason is arithmetic rather than features. One ink set covers up to 4500 black pages or 7500 color pages, which in a home with three or four school-age children can mean a full academic year of worksheets, coloring pages and craft prints before a refill. Owners consistently describe the bottle system as the difference between a printer that is affordable to run and one that quietly becomes the most expensive line in the household budget.
Print quality is a genuine strength. Epson’s Micro Piezo Heat-Free head delivers 5760 dpi black and up to 5760 x 1440 dpi color, which is sharp enough for a laminated reference chart and rich enough for a photo printed on glossy stock. It handles 4×6 inch and 5×7 inch paper as well as envelopes and plain stock, and the maximum media size is 8.5 x 14 inch.
This is also the unit with by far the largest owner base in our comparison, at more than 18000 ratings, and that matters when you are buying something that has to survive years of use rather than a month of testing. Two thirds of owners give it five stars for the ink economics and the output quality. The critical 16 percent cluster around three specific things: single-sided printing, unhurried speed, and Wi-Fi setup friction on some routers.
Connection options are USB and Wi-Fi, and the scanner is a flatbed unit with a copier built in. The paper tray holds 100 sheets, which is a full ream, so refills are rare even on a heavy September week. The LCD is small and there is no touchscreen, which means changing settings happens in the companion app or on your computer rather than at the machine.
Who the ET-2800 fits best
It suits families whose printing is mostly color worksheets, book reports, reward charts and craft pages, and who want color output without paying cartridge prices. The yield numbers mean a refill every several months rather than several weeks, and the flatbed handles permission slips, medical forms and warranty paperwork fine as single sheets or small batches.
It also suits anyone who prints from several devices. Once it joins the home network, phones, tablets and laptops can all reach it over Wi-Fi, and borderless photo printing is available for album pages and holiday cards.
Where the ET-2800 falls short
There is no automatic duplex, so two-sided worksheets mean turning the stack over and re-feeding it yourself. At 10 ppm black and 5 ppm color, a forty-page packet takes noticeably longer than it would on a laser unit, which is fine at the kitchen table and painful during a deadline night.
The small LCD also means no on-device job preview, and Epson’s recommendation to use genuine EcoFit ink is worth heeding because third-party fluid is not covered by the one-year limited warranty. A dedicated duplex model is the better call if your family regularly prints two-sided work or runs a home office alongside the school printing.
2. Canon MegaTank G3270: Best Value Ink Tank for Color-Heavy Families
Canon MegaTank G3270 All-in-One Wireless Color Printer
Inkjet color
11 ppm black and 6 ppm color
100-sheet tray
No ADF
13.2 pounds
Pros
- Up to 6000 black or 7700 color pages per ink set
- Borderless support for square and photo formats
- Backlit 1.35 inch LCD shows ink at a glance
- Wireless print copy and scan
Cons
- Single-sided printing only
- No automatic document feeder
- Modest 11 ppm black and 6 ppm color speed
Where the ET-2800 leads on black page yield, the G3270 leads on color. A single set of GI-21 bottles covers up to 6000 black and white pages or 7700 color pages, the highest color figure in this group, and Canon puts the saving from avoiding cartridges into the hundreds over the life of the machine. For a family printing a lot of craft pages, coloring sheets and photo prints, that margin is the whole argument.
The media handling is unusually broad for an ink tank printer. Borderless printing works on square formats as well as 4×6, 5×7, 8×10, Letter, A4, A5, A6, B5, Legal and envelopes, so scrapbook pages and square photo prints are possible without cropping.
Owners rate it at 4.1 stars across more than 5100 ratings, with 67 percent giving five stars and 14 percent giving one. Praise centers on the ink economics and on the fact that the backlit 1.35-inch square LCD makes it easy to see ink levels at a glance, which removes the guesswork that makes cartridge printers stressful. Canon ranks it second in its ink tank category, which tells you how well it sells.
It copies up to 99 pages per run and reaches 4800 x 1200 dpi in both black and color. Maximum media size is 8.5 x 14 inch, the tray holds 100 sheets, and the body weighs 13.2 pounds at 21.9 inches deep, 16.4 inches wide and 10.6 inches tall.
Why the G3270 beats the ET-2800 for some families
Choose the G3270 when color volume is your dominant cost. Scrapbooking, school art projects, reward charts and photo printing all drain the color tank, and this machine stretches that tank further than any other refillable unit here. The visible ink level display also removes the anxiety of not knowing whether a print job will fail halfway through.
It is a good second pick for families that print legal-size paperwork occasionally, and the square and borderless formats are a genuine advantage for anyone building an album rather than filing a worksheet.
What you give up for the G3270
There is no automatic document feeder, which is the single most common complaint in the reviews alongside the missing duplex. Every permission slip, form or worksheet stack means lifting the flatbed lid and placing sheets one at a time, and that friction is what turns a two-minute job into a ten-minute one during a busy week.
Printing is single-sided only, and at 11 ppm black and 6 ppm color it is not a fast machine. If your family scans as much as it prints, the Canon MAXIFY GX2020 further down this list adds a 35-sheet feeder to a refillable tank system.
3. Epson EcoTank ET-2400: Best for Small Spaces and Light Households
Epson EcoTank ET-2400 Wireless Color All-in-One Supertank Printer
Inkjet color
10 ppm black and 5 ppm color
100-sheet tray
8.6 pounds
Pros
- Lightest body in the group at 8.6 pounds
- Very low ink cost with refillable EcoFit bottles
- Sharp text and clean color output
- Recognized immediately over USB
Cons
- No display screen only status LEDs
- Manual duplex means flipping the stack
- Occasional paper jams and no borderless printing
The ET-2400 solves a specific problem: a family that wants tank-ink economics but has no shelf for a bulky machine. At 8.6 pounds it is the lightest unit in this comparison, and at 22.8 by 14.8 by 10 inches it can live on a kitchen counter, a small hall table or a shared home office shelf without taking over the space.
The ink economics match the ET-2800 closely. Epson T522 EcoFit bottles, one 65 mL bottle of each color included, deliver up to 4500 black and white pages or 7200 color pages, and each bottle set is roughly equivalent to 80 individual cartridges. Micro Piezo Heat Free technology keeps text sharp and color images clean, and the first page comes out in about seven seconds.
Ratings land at 4 stars across roughly 4600 reviews, and the split is unusually sharp. Owners who print heavy color art or dense school notes give five stars and praise the savings. A 17 percent one-star bloc complains about paper jams, the missing screen and the absence of automatic duplex. Several also note that Wi-Fi pairing on a dual-band router is easier if the 5 GHz band is disabled during setup.
The output tray holds 30 sheets, so large jobs need attention partway through. Paper support covers A4, A6, Executive, Half Letter, Legal and Letter, and duplex is manual, meaning the print wizard walks you through flipping the stack mid-job.
Who should buy the ET-2400
It is built for light to moderate family printing in a tight space: a couple of kids, a small kitchen, a home office desk where the printer shares surface with a laptop. The refillable bottles mean the cost per page stays low even if the machine is only used in bursts, and the low weight makes it easy to move between rooms or to clear a surface for something else.
It is also a sensible pick for anyone who prints from a computer over USB and does not want a wireless setup project on day one.
Limits worth knowing before you buy
There is no display at all, only status LEDs, and reviewers single that out as the hardest part of troubleshooting. When a job stalls you cannot read a message, so you are relying on the computer or the app to tell you what happened.
Jams are reported often enough to mention, and there is no borderless printing, so full-bleed photo pages are not an option. Owners also stress that it needs regular use to keep the nozzles clear, which makes it a poor fit for a household that prints only at Christmas.
4. Brother DCP-L2640DW: Best for Heavy Black-and-White Printing
Brother DCP-L2640DW Wireless Compact Monochrome Multi-Function Printer, Copy, Scan, Duplex, Mobile Printing
Monochrome laser
36 ppm black
250-sheet tray
50-sheet ADF
25 pounds
Pros
- Fast monochrome output up to 36 ppm with automatic duplex
- 50-sheet ADF for batch scanning and copying
- Dual-band Wi-Fi plus Ethernet and USB
- Toner does not dry out between bursts
Cons
- Monochrome only with no color printing
- Bundled scanning software is convoluted
- Heavy at 25 pounds and a short power cord
The Brother DCP-L2640DW is the pick for families where a home office and school printing share one machine, and where the work is mostly black text. It prints up to 36 pages per minute, includes automatic duplex so two-sided documents come out correctly on their own, and the 50-sheet automatic document feeder handles a full stack of scanned paperwork without you standing there turning pages.
Laser toner changes the idle problem that frustrates inkjet owners. Powder toner does not dry in the nozzles of a printhead because there is no printhead, so a printer that sits untouched through the school holidays wakes up and prints. That reliability pattern shows up repeatedly in the reviews, including long ownership stories from people who have kept earlier Brother laser machines running for years.
Paper handling is the strongest in this group for volume work: a 250-sheet main tray, a 120-sheet output tray, and a maximum media size of 8.5 x 14 inch. Connectivity covers dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless plus Ethernet and USB, which makes it the easiest machine here to place on a wired office network if the wireless signal in your house is weak.
It ranks first in laser printers in its category, and the 4.1 star average across nearly 3900 ratings reflects that. The Brother Mobile Connect app handles multi-page ADF scans reliably and lets you track toner usage, and Refresh EZ Print is available as a toner subscription if you prefer to have consumables arrive on a schedule.
Where the DCP-L2640DW earns its place
It is the right machine when your family prints worksheets, chapter books, recipes, manuals and archived school paperwork in volume and rarely needs color. A duplex-capable laser at 36 ppm turns a forty-page two-sided document into a one-minute job rather than a re-feeding chore, and the 50-sheet feeder makes scanning a term’s worth of forms a single action.
Flatbed and sheetfed scanning are both present, so odd-sized items like a lunch receipt or a worksheet with a photo stapled to it still scan properly. Initial page print time is about 8.5 seconds.
What the DCP-L2640DW is not good at
There is no color at all, which rules it out for craft projects, coloring pages and photos. If a child brings home a poster that needs to be in color, this printer cannot do it.
The most-cited complaint in the reviews is software rather than hardware: firmware password prompts and a scan-to-PC save window that can hang and need a restart. Third-party scanning tools are often reported as working better than the bundled package. At 25 pounds it is also the second-heaviest unit here and needs a shelf with real support.
5. Brother MFC-L3720CDW: Best for Color Laser, Fax and Large Workloads
Brother MFC-L3720CDW Wireless Color Laser Printer, Scanner, Copier, Fax, Auto Duplex, 250-Sheet Capacity
Color laser
19 ppm black and color
250-sheet tray
50-sheet ADF
44 pounds
Pros
- Color laser with print scan copy and fax
- 19 ppm in both black and color with automatic duplex
- 3.5 inch color touchscreen with 48 shortcuts
- 50-sheet ADF and 250-sheet adjustable tray
Cons
- Heaviest unit in the group at 44 pounds
- Color toner costs more per page than tank ink
- Needs a sturdy dedicated surface
This is the only true color laser all-in-one in our comparison, and it is the machine to consider when a family wants sharp, smudge-resistant text and color from a machine that will not clog after a quiet month. It prints up to 19 pages per minute in both black and color, includes automatic duplex, and handles print, scan, copy and fax in one body with a 50-sheet automatic document feeder and a 250-sheet adjustable paper tray.
The 3.5-inch color touchscreen is the best control panel of the ten, with 48 customizable shortcuts and direct tiles for Google Drive, Dropbox and OneNote. That means scanning a permission slip into a shared folder is a screen tap rather than an email address typed on a phone.
Print resolution of 2400 x 600 dpi in both black and color gives text that stays crisp at small sizes, which matters when a child is reading a worksheet. First page out takes under 15 seconds, the output tray holds 150 sheets, and the maximum media size is 8.5 x 14 inch. Up to 99 copies can run per job.
Toner comes as a TN229 set with high-yield TN229XL variants and a DR229CL drum unit. The 4.0 star average sits on just over 1000 ratings, the smallest review pool here, so treat that number as less informative than the others rather than as a warning.
Who should consider the MFC-L3720CDW
It fits households that need real color documents, not just printouts: a family running a home business, a parent working from home who needs fax for a form, or a house where craft and school projects are constant. The touchscreen and shortcut tiles suit a shared machine used by two or three people, and the 250-sheet tray means fewer refills during a busy term.
It is also the pick for anyone who plans to keep the same printer for a long stretch and wants sharp output that does not depend on nozzle maintenance.
The trade-offs to weigh
At 44 pounds it is the heaviest unit here, and at 17.5 inches wide by 16.1 deep by 15.8 tall it needs its own sturdy surface rather than a corner of a desk. Color laser toner costs more per page than refillable tank ink, so a family printing thousands of color pages a year will spend more on consumables here than on an EcoTank or MegaTank unit.
Buyers who need color plus fax and a large display rate it highly, while the main reservations in the reviews are size, weight and per-page color toner cost. The 250-sheet tray is a single tray, so there is no second paper source for photo stock.
6. Canon PIXMA TS6520: Budget Pick With the Highest Average Rating
Canon PIXMA TS6520 Wireless Color Inkjet Printer, Duplex Printing, Copier/Scanner, 1.42″ OLED Display, Compact, White
Inkjet color
14 ppm black and 9 ppm color
Automatic duplex
15.4 pounds
Pros
- Highest average rating of the ten at 4.2 stars
- Automatic duplex and dual-band Wi-Fi
- 1.42 inch OLED shows ink levels and status
- Compact 6.7 inch tall footprint
Cons
- Small starter ink tanks that refill often
- No automatic document feeder so scanning is manual
- Single-sheet paper capacity listed for the tray
The TS6520 is the one to buy when a family wants a capable everyday machine without committing to a refillable ink system. It carries the highest average rating in this comparison at 4.2 stars, and it includes two features that budget units often omit: automatic two-sided printing and dual-band Wi-Fi. For a household printing a few pages a week, that combination covers most of what matters.
The ink system is a two-cartridge hybrid using PG-295 pigment black and CL-286 dye color, which is the standard approach for sharp text and vivid color in a compact body. Output reaches up to 1200 x 1200 dpi, first page out is 7.5 seconds in black and 9.5 in color, and the speed rating is 14 ppm black and 9 ppm color, faster than any EcoTank on this list.
It is also the smallest footprint here by height at just 6.7 inches, and the 1.42-inch monochrome OLED gives you a status and ink-level readout that cheaper printers lack. Canon PRINT app support plus Apple AirPrint and Mopria means phone printing works without hunting for a driver, and the three-year manufacturer limited warranty is longer than most in this group.
Seventy percent of owners give it five stars and only 12 percent give one star, the lowest one-star share of any printer we evaluated. Buyers consistently treat it as a capable entry-level machine, and the recurring limitation is the size of the ink tanks rather than print quality or setup.
Where the TS6520 makes sense
It suits families with light to moderate printing: a permission slip here, a coloring page there, a photo every few weeks. Automatic duplex means a two-sided worksheet comes out correctly without re-feeding, and at 14 ppm black the machine keeps pace with a busy evening of printing.
The compact body and AirPrint support make it a good choice for a desk in a home office or a bedroom, and the OLED display removes the guesswork when ink runs low.
Where it will frustrate you
The starter tanks are small, and that is the reason to pick an EcoTank or MegaTank instead if your family prints more than a few hundred pages a month. Refilling often adds up in time and in ink cost, which is the exact trap this article is trying to help you avoid.
There is no automatic document feeder, so every multi-page scan is a flatbed job with the lid open. The listed paper capacity is a single sheet, and maximum media size is Letter, so legal-size documents are out of reach. A three-year warranty helps, but it does not change the running cost math.
7. Epson EcoTank ET-4800: Best for Remote Ink Monitoring and Two Trays
Epson EcoTank ET-4800 Wireless Color All-in-One Supertank Printer
Inkjet color
10 ppm black and 5 ppm color
Two trays
Flatbed scan and copy
Pros
- Large refillable tanks hold roughly a bottle per color
- Epson Smart Panel app for remote printing and ink levels
- Compact 9.3 inch height and 11 pound body
- Built-in flatbed scanner and copier
Cons
- Lowest rated EcoTank here at 3.8 stars
- Manual duplex only and reported ADF roller failures
- Very small display and dated menus
The ET-4800 is an EcoTank with two paper trays and a proper app story, which makes it interesting for a family that wants to check ink levels from a phone rather than crouching beside the machine. Each color tank holds roughly one 65 mL bottle, and the Epson Smart Panel app handles remote printing and ink level checks. It is compact at 9.3 inches tall and 11 pounds, with a rear paper feed and Ethernet alongside Wi-Fi.
Print quality is the familiar EcoTank standard: 5760 x 1440 dpi in both black and color using Micro Piezo Heat-Free technology, with a flatbed scanner and copier built in and up to 100 copies per run. Power draw is 12 watts.
This is also the one pick in the list we would approach most carefully, and we would rather explain why than skip it. It carries the lowest average rating of the three EcoTank models at 3.8 stars, with 18 percent one-star reviews, one of the widest gaps between satisfied and dissatisfied owners in this comparison. Durability reports, including an ADF roller falling apart within months and repeated jams, drive most of the negative feedback.
Setup also asks more of you. The firmware installation requires downloading several separate files, and some owners report the printer is unusable until that process completes. The display is very small with dated, clunky menus, and print output is described as slow and noticeably noisy.
Reasons to still consider it
The two-tray configuration is genuinely useful, letting you keep plain paper loaded in one tray and photo or card stock in the other without reloading between a worksheet and a craft project. The refillable tanks still deliver the low running cost that makes EcoTank the right family philosophy, and the app-based ink monitoring is more convenient than reading a tiny screen.
For a family that prints steadily rather than in bursts, the nozzles stay clear and the durability complaints have less room to develop.
Reasons to look elsewhere
Duplex is manual, so you turn the stack yourself, and the reported ADF roller failures make it a risky choice for anyone who plans to scan volumes of paperwork. The 3.8 star average across more than 6300 ratings is a large enough sample to treat as a real signal rather than noise.
The firmware setup process is the most demanding of any machine on this list. If you want tank ink with a more settled ownership record, the ET-2800 or the Canon G3270 carry the same economics with stronger review profiles.
8. Brother Work Smart 1360: Most Features on a Modest Budget
Brother Work Smart 1360 Wireless Color Inkjet All-in-One Print, Scan, Copy
Inkjet color
16 ppm black and 9 ppm color
150-sheet tray
20-sheet ADF
Pros
- Automatic duplex plus a 20-sheet ADF and 150-sheet tray
- 1.8 inch color display with direct cloud print and scan
- Fast at 16 ppm black and 9 ppm color
- Compact 7.2 inch height suits a desk
Cons
- Uses ink cartridges rather than refillable tanks
- Small 20-sheet single-sided ADF
- 19 percent one-star share with cartridge reliability reports
The Work Smart 1360 is the feature-count winner among the cartridge-based units here. You get automatic duplex printing, a 20-sheet automatic document feeder, a 150-sheet paper tray and a 1.8-inch color display, which is more than most tank printers in this comparison offer. Print and scan to Google Drive, Dropbox, Box and OneDrive directly from the display, and the Brother Mobile Connect app adds Page Gauge ink usage monitoring.
Speed is good for the class at 16 ppm black and 9 ppm color, with first page out in about 6.2 seconds for black and 9.6 seconds for color. Resolution reaches up to 1200 x 6000 dpi on Windows, copies run to 99 per job at 1200 x 1200 dpi, and maximum media size is 8.5 x 14 inch. At 7.2 inches tall and 16.8 pounds it fits a home office desk without crowding it.
The catch is the ink. It ships with starter black, cyan, magenta and yellow cartridges and there are no refillable tanks, so the running cost per page is the highest of any inkjet on this list. Families who print heavily will feel that in the second and third refill rather than the first purchase.
It rates 3.9 stars across about 2550 ratings, with a 19 percent one-star share, the second highest in this set. Buyers like what is included for the money; recurring gripes center on cartridge running costs and occasional cartridge or reliability problems rather than setup or print quality.
Where it fits a family
It suits a household that wants a document feeder, duplex printing and a real color display without moving to a laser or a tank system. The cloud tiles are a genuine time-saver for a parent archiving school paperwork straight into a shared folder, and the 150-sheet tray reduces refills.
It is Energy Star certified, which matters for a machine left switched on in a shared room, and the 150-sheet tray reduces refills.
Where the running cost bites
Cartridge economics are the reason we would steer most families toward a tank system first. Buying four ink cartridges a year at typical cartridge pricing can exceed what a full ink bottle set costs, and mixed cartridge models have a further trap: printing in black can still consume color ink, so a printer may refuse to print monochrome when a color cartridge is empty.
The 20-sheet feeder is also single-sided only, so scanning a double-sided form still means turning it over. And with 19 percent one-star reviews mentioning cartridge issues, long-term reliability is the part of this machine to watch.
9. HP Smart Tank Plus 651: Best for Mess-Free Refills and Large Out-of-Box Yield
HP Smart Tank Plus 651 Wireless All-in-One Printer, Ink Tank Printer-for-Home Use, 2 Years of Ink Included Auto Document Feeder, Mobile Print, Scan, Copy, Fax. (7XV38A)
Thermal inkjet color
11 ppm black and 5 ppm color
100-sheet tray
10.3 pounds
Pros
- Mess-free bottle refills with no squeezing or spilling
- Up to 8000 color or 6000 black pages out of the box
- Borderless printing plus mobile and wireless
- Compact 7.8 inch height and 10.3 pound body
Cons
- Wireless only with no USB connection option
- Wi-Fi setup defaults to 5 GHz and needs 2.4 GHz
- Highest one-star share in the group at 20 percent
The refill design is the reason to look at this machine. HP’s bottles plug in and drain, so there is no squeezing, no funnel and no spilled ink on a table, which matters when the person refilling is a teenager doing it without supervision. Out of the box you get a 135 mL HP 32XL black bottle and 70 mL bottles of cyan, magenta and yellow, worth up to 8000 color pages or 6000 black pages.
It prints, copies and scans, adds fax capability, and supports borderless printing along with mobile and wireless output. Print speed is 11 ppm black and 5 ppm color, with first page out at 14 seconds for A4 black and 21 seconds for A4 color. At 7.8 inches tall and 10.3 pounds it is one of the more compact tank printers here.
What holds it back is reliability and connection. It carries the highest one-star share of all ten products at 20 percent and ties for the lowest average rating at 3.8 stars. The negative reviews cluster on print head installation, which owners describe as awkward and poorly documented, and on a Wi-Fi setup that defaults to the 5 GHz band and requires 2.4 GHz instead. There are also reports of print head failures at well under 20 prints.
HP backs the hardware with a one-year or 30,000 page limited warranty plus two-year spare part availability and a year of 24/7 technical support, which is better support coverage than most competitors in this comparison offer.
Who will like it most
A family that prints color photos and borderless images, refills ink often, and wants the least messy refill process available. The out-of-box yield means most households will not need to refill during the first year, and the compact body suits a shelf or a counter.
Anyone comfortable with a wireless-only setup, with no USB cable option at all, will also find it straightforward once the 2.4 GHz band is selected during setup.
What to watch out for
Print head installation is the most repeated complaint, and a failure there is expensive relative to the machine. The 5 GHz default trips up a lot of first-time users, and 600 x 1200 dpi black resolution is the lowest in this comparison, so small text is less crisp than on a laser unit.
Duplex is manual, and the 30-sheet output tray is small. If the machine is going to be scanned or printed in heavy volume every week, a unit with a larger feeder and a stronger review profile is the safer long-term choice.
10. Canon MAXIFY GX2020: Best for Fax With Refillable Tank Ink
Canon MegaTank MAXIFY GX2020 All-in-One Wireless Color Printer – Print, Copy, Scan with Duplex Printing – Refillable Tank System, Compact Desktop Design – Wireless Print Scan Copy for Home & Office
Inkjet color
15 ppm black and 10 ppm color
250-sheet capacity
35-sheet ADF
Pros
- Refillable tanks combined with duplex and a 35-sheet ADF
- Automatic two-sided printing and 250-sheet two-tray capacity
- 2.7 inch color touchscreen for menu navigation
- Three year limited warranty
Cons
- Color resolution capped at 600 x 1200 dpi
- Lowest ink yield per set at roughly 3000 pages
- Smallest review base here at 872 ratings
The GX2020 exists because of an uncommon combination on this list: refillable tank ink, automatic duplex, a 35-sheet automatic document feeder and fax, in a body that is still only 8.9 inches tall. If a family needs to send a fax for a medical or school form, or to scan a term’s paperwork in one pass, this is the machine that covers it without switching to cartridges or a desktop laser.
It prints, copies, scans and faxes wirelessly, with a 2.7-inch LCD color touchscreen, two trays and 250 sheets of output capacity. Speed is 15 ppm black and 10 ppm color, copies run to 100 per job at 14 ppm, and it supports dual-band 2.4 and 5 GHz wireless plus wired LAN, so placement in a house with weak wireless is flexible.
Black resolution reaches 1200 x 2400 dpi, which is good for text, but color tops out at 600 x 1200 dpi, lower than every other inkjet here. That difference is visible on photographs and detailed color pages, and reviewers consistently flag it.
Yield is also the lowest per ink set in this comparison, at roughly 3000 black and white or 3000 color pages from a set of GI-25 pigment bottles. It is still tank ink, so the per-page cost remains well below cartridge printing, but you will refill more often than with the G3270 or the ET-2800.
Reasons it makes the list
The feature set is the argument. A tank system, automatic duplex, a 35-sheet feeder, fax and a color touchscreen in one unit is hard to find elsewhere, and the 250-sheet two-tray capacity handles a full project plus refills of photo paper. The three-year limited warranty is tied for the longest in this comparison, and Energy Star certification is a plus for a machine left on all day.
At 17.8 pounds it is the heaviest inkjet here, so it needs a reasonably solid surface, but it is nowhere near the size of a color laser.
Reasons to hesitate
It has the smallest review base in the set at 872 ratings, so its 3.9 star average rests on a thin base and long-term reliability is less well documented than for the picks above. That is a real consideration for a machine you expect to keep for years.
The color resolution cap and the lower per-bottle yield both push it behind the G3270 and the ET-2800 for color-heavy families. Buy it for the feeder, duplex and fax, not for photo quality.
How to Choose an All-in-One Printer for Your Family
The right pick depends less on brand than on three numbers: how many pages you print in a month, how many of those are color, and how much paperwork you scan. Get those straight and the decision takes about two minutes. Here is how each factor plays out in a home.
Inkjet or laser for family duty
Choose inkjet if color matters, which for most families it does: coloring pages, craft projects, book covers, reward charts and photos are the reason many households buy a printer at all. Choose laser if the household prints mostly black text in volume, such as a work-from-home parent plus school worksheets, or if you want sharp text that will not fade or smudge.
The other difference shows up between bursts. Laser toner is powder and sits unused indefinitely without drying. Inkjet nozzles are liquid and can dry if the machine sits for weeks, which is why an inkjet that has been in a closet since January can need a cleaning cycle before it prints. Families who print seasonally should lean laser; families who print constantly can run any inkjet indefinitely without trouble.
Tank ink against cartridge ink
Tank systems, sold as EcoTank, MegaTank, Smart Tank, MAXIFY with GI ink, and INKvestment, hold refillable ink bottles. A bottle set replaces dozens of cartridges and typically covers thousands of pages. Cartridge systems use sealed cartridges that must be replaced far more often, and reviewers regularly report that the cartridges end up costing more over time than the printer itself.
Two traps are worth knowing. First, on many mixed cartridge models, printing in black still pulls from the color cartridges, so a machine can refuse to print monochrome when a color cartridge is empty. Second, subscription ink programs tie you to a specific cartridge model and a monthly page allowance, which can be a poor fit for a family whose printing is seasonal. If you buy a tank printer, you buy the ink, on your schedule.
The break-even point is easy to estimate. If your household prints more than roughly 100 pages a month, a tank system will usually recover its higher purchase price through lower per-page cost within a couple of years. Below that, a cartridge-based unit with automatic duplex may be the more sensible spend.
ADF and duplex scanning, in plain language
Duplex printing and duplex scanning are two different features, and plenty of printers have only one of them. Here are the three tiers you will meet:
Single-pass duplex ADF. The feeder has a second sensor underneath, so a double-sided page scans face up and face down in one trip through the machine. You load the stack once and walk away. The Brother DCP-L2640DW and MFC-L3720CDW, and the Canon GX2020, fall into this group.
Reversing ADF. The feeder scans the front of every sheet, flips the stack internally, then scans the backs. The result is the same, it just takes longer and you may hear the machine working through the pile twice.
Single-sided or no ADF. The machine scans one side at a time, so a double-sided form means you turn it over and scan it again by hand. A flatbed with no feeder at all means lifting the lid for every single sheet, which is the situation on the ET-2800, G3270, ET-2400 and TS6520.
For families, the useful question is simple: how much double-sided paperwork arrives in a week? If the answer is a stack, buy an ADF. If it is a single form, the flatbed is fine.
Wireless printing and phones
Every pick here prints wirelessly over Wi-Fi, so once the machine joins your network any phone, tablet or laptop can reach it without cables. Look for dual-band support, meaning 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, because it makes setup more forgiving. The Brother DCP-L2640DW, the Canon TS6520, the Brother Work Smart 1360 and the GX2020 all list dual-band wireless, and the Brother laser also has Ethernet for a wired office.
For phone printing, Apple AirPrint and Mopria are the two standards that matter, and the TS6520 and several Brother models support both. Every manufacturer here also ships an app for remote printing, ink level checks and cloud scanning; the Epson Smart Panel and Brother Mobile Connect apps are the most complete of the set. One practical note from owner reviews: several units default to the 5 GHz band during setup and will not connect until you select 2.4 GHz.
Cost per page and a three-year running cost
Cost per page is the only number that tells you what a family printer will really cost, and the yield figures make it easy to estimate. The ET-2800 covers up to 4500 black or 7500 color pages per ink set, the G3270 up to 6000 black or 7700 color, the ET-2400 up to 4500 black or 7200 color, the HP Smart Tank 651 up to 6000 black or 8000 color, and the GX2020 roughly 3000 of either. Divide the cost of one set by those numbers and you have your real per-page figure.
For a family printing 200 pages a month, that works out to about 7200 pages over three years. A tank unit that runs a set every one to two years will need two or three refills across that period, while a cartridge unit on the same workload will need many more sets, which is where the ownership surprise comes from. Add the toner route for the Brother lasers, where high-yield cartridges push the per-page cost down over volume and the machine never clogs.
The ET-2400, ET-2800, ET-4800 and Canon models all ship with up to two years of ink in the box, which pushes the first refill well past the first school year. That is a meaningful cushion for a family that does not know its own volume yet.
Matching a printer to your family profile
Light use, small space. The Canon TS6520 for automatic duplex and the highest average rating here, or the Epson ET-2400 if running cost matters more than features.
Color-heavy, arts and crafts. The Canon G3270 for the highest color yield and borderless formats, or the ET-2800 for the largest owner base and strong black yield.
Homeschool and heavy printing. The Epson ET-2800 or Canon G3270 on ink economics; add the Brother Work Smart 1360 if you need a feeder and duplex on a smaller budget.
Scanning and paperwork heavy. The Brother DCP-L2640DW for a 50-sheet feeder and duplex, or the Canon GX2020 if you also need fax and color.
Shared home office plus family. The Brother MFC-L3720CDW for color laser, fax, a 3.5-inch touchscreen and a 250-sheet tray.
Seasonal or occasional printing. Any Brother laser, since toner does not dry out between bursts.
Keeping an inkjet from clogging
The most common long-term complaint about family inkjets is a dried printhead after a quiet stretch, and prevention is simple. Print something at least once a week, even a single test page, so the nozzles stay moving. Keep the cartridges or tanks installed rather than removing them between uses, since open nozzles are what dry out. Use the manufacturer’s genuine ink where the warranty depends on it, because the ET-2800 in particular warns that non-genuine fluid can cause damage not covered.
Run the printer’s own cleaning cycle at the first sign of a streak rather than waiting, and keep paper loaded so a job can start immediately. If your household really does print only a few times a year, a laser unit removes the problem entirely.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best all-in-one printer for home use?
For most households we recommend the Epson EcoTank ET-2800, a cartridge-free ink tank unit that covers up to 4500 black or 7500 color pages per ink set, prints, scans and copies over Wi-Fi, and carries the largest owner base in our comparison. Families that print mostly black text in volume should look at the Brother DCP-L2640DW, a monochrome laser with a 50-sheet document feeder and automatic duplex.
What is the best printer for families?
The best printer for families is whichever one matches your color volume and scanning load. Color-heavy households that also scan paperwork want the Canon MAXIFY GX2020, which combines refillable tanks with automatic duplex and a 35-sheet feeder. Light users who want an easy machine should consider the Canon PIXMA TS6520. The key is cost per page rather than sticker price, because ink dominates a family printer’s ownership cost.
What is the best all-in-one ink tank printer for home use?
The Epson EcoTank ET-2800 leads our ink tank picks, with up to 4500 black or 7500 color pages per ink set, a flatbed scanner and copier, and USB plus Wi-Fi. The Canon MegaTank G3270 is the alternative if color output is your priority, covering up to 6000 black or 7700 color pages and adding borderless square and photo formats plus a backlit ink level display.
Should I buy an inkjet or laser printer for home use?
Buy an inkjet if you print color, photos, crafts or coloring pages, since only inkjets handle those jobs at a reasonable running cost. Buy a laser if the household prints mostly black text, runs a home office, or prints only in seasonal bursts, because powder toner does not dry out between uses. Inkjets also produce sharper photos, while lasers produce sharper small text that will not smudge.
Which all-in-one printer is the most reliable?
The Brother laser units carry the strongest reliability signals in our comparison, and the DCP-L2640DW is our pick for households that print mostly black. Owners of earlier Brother laser models report multi-year ownership, and toner cannot dry in a nozzle the way inkjet fluid can. The Canon PIXMA TS6520 also has the highest average rating at 4.2 stars with the lowest one-star share of the ten.
Do I need an automatic document feeder for a family printer?
You need one if more than a few pages arrive per week. A feeder lets you scan or copy a stack of permission slips, medical forms and school paperwork in one action instead of lifting the flatbed lid for every sheet. In this comparison the Brother DCP-L2640DW and MFC-L3720CDW carry 50-sheet feeders, the Brother Work Smart 1360 has a 20-sheet feeder, and the Canon GX2020 has a 35-sheet feeder.
The Verdict on the Best All-in-One Printers for Families
The Epson EcoTank ET-2800 is our pick for the best all in one printers for families, because cartridge-free ink and an owner base of more than 18000 ratings make it the least risky long-term choice for a household that prints in bursts. The Canon MegaTank G3270 takes over when color volume is the priority, the Brother DCP-L2640DW wins on heavy black-and-white work and scanning, and the Brother MFC-L3720CDW covers families that need color laser and fax. Whatever you choose, work out the cost per page before you buy, and print something every week to keep an inkjet healthy in 2026.