The best all-in-one printers for families are the Epson EcoTank ET-2800, the Canon MegaTank G3270 and the Brother DCP-L2640DW. Between them they cover the three family profiles that matter: low ink cost for everyday colour, a flatbed scanner and copier for school paperwork, and fast monochrome output for heavy homework weeks.
Most households fall into one of three camps. Light and occasional printers handle permission slips, a few photos and the odd recipe. Heavy homework printers get hammered with worksheets, essays and science projects every week of the school year. Mixed printers do colour, photos, scanning and enough volume to make the running cost matter.
We picked all three camps, plus seven more models, and framed every pick around what a household actually does with it. An all-in-one combines a printer, flatbed scanner and copier in one chassis, usually with Wi-Fi and an automatic document feeder. Our editorial note for 2026: every printer below prints, scans and copies, no single-function machines in the list, and each pick lists the drawbacks as plainly as the wins.
If you want a broader look at multifunction machines beyond the family use case, our guide to all-in-one printers takes a wider view.
Table of Contents
- Top 3 Picks for Best All in One Printers for Families in October
- All 10 Family Printers at a Glance in 2026
- 1. Epson EcoTank ET-2800: Best Overall for Families
- 2. Canon PIXMA TR8620a: Best for Colour and School Projects
- 3. Canon MegaTank G3270: Top Rated for Ink Value
- 4. Brother DCP-L2640DW: Best Value for Heavy Homework Volumes
- 5. Canon PIXMA TS3720: Budget Pick for Occasional Printing
- 6. Brother HL-L3300CDW: Best for Laser Colour Without an ADF
- 7. HP Smart Tank 5003: Best Tank Printer for Small Spaces
- 8. HP LaserJet MFP M235sdw: Best for Fast Black and White
- 9. Brother MFC-L3720CDW: Best for Fax and a Touchscreen
- 10. HP OfficeJet Pro 8135e: Best for a Large Inkjet Tray
- Inkjet vs Laser: Which One Matches Your Household Volume
- Cartridge vs Ink Tank: The Three-Year Cost Picture
- ADF, Duplex Scanning and Paper Handling
- Wi-Fi Stability, Mobile Printing and Dropouts
- Reliability, Ink Drying and Common Failure Modes
- Photo Printing and Colour School Projects
- Printers a Non-Technical Parent or Child Can Operate
- Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the best printer for families?
- What is the best rated all-in-one printer for home use?
- What is the best printer for household use?
- Which printer is best for homeschooling?
- What is the best printer for home use with kids?
- What type of printer do schools use?
- What is the most reliable ink tank printer?
- Are laser printers being phased out?
- Which Printer Should Your Family Buy?
Top 3 Picks for Best All in One Printers for Families in October
Epson EcoTank ET-2800
- Refillable ink bottles
- up to 4500 black and 7500 color pages per set
- Flatbed scanner and copier
- Wi-Fi and USB
- 10 ppm black and 5 ppm color
Canon MegaTank G3270
- Up to 6000 black or 7700 color pages per fill
- Up to 2 years of ink in the box
- Borderless and square photo printing
- Wireless print
- copy and scan
Brother DCP-L2640DW
- 36 ppm monochrome laser
- 50-page automatic document feeder
- Automatic duplex printing
- Dual-band Wi-Fi plus Ethernet and USB
- 250-sheet tray
All 10 Family Printers at a Glance in 2026
Every model below scans and copies. The functions column matters most for school paperwork, because a separate scanner is a purchase most families never need to make twice.
| Product | Specs | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Epson EcoTank ET-2800 |
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 Canon PIXMA TR8620a |
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| Canon MegaTank G3270 |
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| Brother DCP-L2640DW |
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 Canon PIXMA TS3720 |
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 Brother HL-L3300CDW |
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 HP Smart Tank 5003 |
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 HP LaserJet MFP M235sdw |
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 Brother MFC-L3720CDW |
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 HP OfficeJet Pro 8135e |
|
Check Latest Price |
1. Epson EcoTank ET-2800: Best Overall for Families
Epson EcoTank ET-2800 Wireless Color All-in-One Supertank Printer – Black
10 ppm black, 5 ppm color
Flatbed scanner and copier
Wi-Fi and USB
100-sheet tray
11.4 pounds
Pros
- Cartridge-free ink bottles keep cost per page low
- Up to 2 years of ink in the box
- roughly 4500 black and 7500 color pages
- Flatbed scanner and copier built in
- Wireless plus USB with app control
- No cartridge waste
Cons
- Simplex only
- no automatic duplex printing
- 100-sheet tray fills quickly on project weeks
- Single LCD rather than a touchscreen
Our pick for most households, and the ET-2800 has the largest owner base of the ten. The reason is simple: the ink economics never punish a family that prints colour. You buy bottles instead of cartridges, and one set is rated at up to 4500 black or 7500 color pages.
Owners report using it as the household machine for homework, permission slips and a school art project in the same week without trouble, and the flatbed scanner handled a photographed worksheet and a signed form cleanly.
Two years of ink ship in the box, which means most families will not buy ink during the first full school cycle. That removes a familiar source of frustration in home printing: the surprise cartridge purchase in week three.
The catch is duplex printing. This is a simplex machine, so a two-sided worksheet means two print jobs and manual paper handling. Families that print long handouts every week will feel that immediately, and it is the main reason the Canon TR8620a also deserves a spot on this list.
How much a family really prints before the tanks need attention
At 4500 black pages per ink set, a household printing 150 pages a month has roughly 30 months of black output per fill. Colour runs out sooner at 7500 pages, but colour work in a typical home is mostly a handful of pages a week rather than whole documents.
Print speeds of 10 ppm black and 5 ppm color are honest rather than impressive, and they match the Canon MegaTank G3270 closely. A single worksheet takes seconds. A 30-page project takes a few minutes, which is fine if nobody is waiting on the last page to start homework.
When the ET-2800 is the wrong pick
Choose something else if your family prints multi-page worksheets weekly and wants true two-sided output, or if you regularly scan a stack of paperwork that needs feeding through a sheet-fed scanner. Neither is a weakness in normal use, but both are daily-use features for some homes.
Epson also recommends genuine ink, and buyers using third-party bottles have reported effects on print quality and warranty coverage. Treat that as a running-cost decision rather than a blocker, since genuine bottles are easy to find in ordinary retail stores.
2. Canon PIXMA TR8620a: Best for Colour and School Projects
Canon PIXMA TR8620a – All-in-One Printer Home Office|Copier|Scanner|Fax|Auto Document Feeder | Photo, Document | Airprint (R), Android, Black, Works with Alexa
15 ppm black, 10 ppm color
20-sheet ADF
Automatic duplex
200-sheet capacity
Tilting touchscreen
Pros
- Wireless print
- copy
- scan and fax in one unit
- 15 ppm black and 10 ppm color for a home inkjet
- Automatic two-sided printing
- 200 sheets across cassette and rear feed
- Tilting touchscreen display
Cons
- ADF handles single-sided originals only
- Canon app connection reported as slow by some owners
- Loud during operation and slow to wake from sleep
This is the one to buy when colour output is not optional. Canon individual ink tanks, a touchscreen that tilts toward the person using it, and automatic duplex printing make it a strong fit for a busy family desk.
Owners running daily homeschooling schedules report consistent wireless printing from phones, laptops and Chromebooks. The 15 ppm black and 10 ppm color speeds are quick for an inkjet, and automatic two-sided printing cuts the paper for every two-sided page, which adds up across a school year.
The 20-sheet automatic document feeder is a genuine time saver when a school requires a signed form scanned and emailed back. You load the stack, press one button and walk away, instead of lifting each sheet off the flatbed.
Fax is still supported, which matters for families that deal with institutions still using a fax line. Borderless printing up to 8.5 x 11 inches handles photo prints without a separate photo machine.
What the 20-sheet feeder and duplex printing actually save you
Two-sided printing on a 20-page worksheet halves both paper and time. The feeder handles up to 20 sheets at once, which covers most single-submission documents a parent scans for a school portal.
Duplex scanning is the limitation to know about. The feeder takes single-sided originals, so a two-sided document needs two passes through the machine. If your family scans a lot of double-sided forms, check that before buying.
When the TR8620a is the wrong pick
It sits in the cartridge world, so running costs are higher than a refillable tank model across a heavy volume of colour. Households printing 300 or more colour pages a month will spend more on ink here than on the EcoTank or MegaTank options.
Several owners also report slow app connections and error messages about the printer being unavailable, which is a recurring complaint with Canon’s software. The hardware performs well; the setup app does not always keep up.
3. Canon MegaTank G3270: Top Rated for Ink Value
Canon MegaTank G3270 All-in-One Wireless Color Printer
11 ppm black, 6 ppm color
Borderless photo printing
Wireless print, copy and scan
100-sheet tray
13.2 pounds
Pros
- Ink bottles cover up to 6000 black or 7700 color pages
- Up to 2 years of ink included in the box
- Borderless and square photo printing from the flatbed
- Compact body with wireless print
- copy and scan
Cons
- Single-sided printing only
- Small 1.35-inch LCD rather than a touchscreen
- 100-sheet tray and slower speeds than laser
A top average rating among the ten, and the running cost is the reason. Canon rates one fill at up to 6000 black or 7700 color pages, which puts it on the same cost-per-page footing as the Epson ET-2800.
A home that mixes school projects with a steady stream of photos can cover both on the included ink alone. The flatbed handles borderless and square formats, so prints come out sized for a photo fridge rather than with white edges.
Two thirds of owners give it five stars, which is among the strongest scores here. Media support is broad too, covering card stock, envelopes, legal and custom sizes.
The trade-off is duplex. Like the ET-2800, this is a single-sided machine. Families printing long double-sided handouts will spend longer at the printer than they would with the TR8620a.
Is 6000 pages per fill realistic for a home?
That figure comes from standard page counts and assumes normal coverage rather than heavy photo printing. A household printing 150 pages a month uses about 1800 pages a year in black, so one fill covers well over two years of that pattern.
Colour is where the math tightens. Photo printing consumes more ink per page than documents, so a family printing a page a week in colour still gets multiple years from a full set.
When the G3270 is the wrong pick
The 1.35-inch LCD is functional for tapping menus but not for anything detailed, and copying multi-page documents means flatbed work only.
At 11 ppm black and 6 ppm color it is slower than the inkjets with larger paper systems and much slower than the four laser models here. For a homework-heavy family, speed is where you give something up.
4. Brother DCP-L2640DW: Best Value for Heavy Homework Volumes
Brother DCP-L2640DW Wireless Compact Monochrome Multi-Function Printer, Copy, Scan, Duplex, Mobile Printing
36 ppm monochrome laser
50-page ADF
Automatic duplex
250-sheet tray
25 pounds
Pros
- 36 ppm black output
- 50-page ADF plus flatbed scanner
- Automatic duplex printing cuts paper use
- Dual-band Wi-Fi plus Ethernet and USB
- Toner does not dry out like ink
Cons
- Monochrome only
- no colour print or copy
- Firmware setup needs a password printed on the back
- Dated on-printer menus and awkward bundled scanning software
When homework volume is the deciding factor, a monochrome laser changes the conversation. This Brother prints up to 36 pages a minute, handles automatic two-sided printing and carries a 50-page document feeder for scanning and copying.
Owners replacing aging inkjets report crisp black output, fast printing and a notable absence of paper jams over a full term of worksheets.
Toner does not dry out the way ink in a lightly used cartridge printer can, which matters for a household that goes quiet for a summer holiday and comes back in September. The output tray holds 120 sheets and the main tray loads 250.
Dual-band wireless at 2.4GHz and 5GHz gives it a better chance of staying connected on a busy family network, with Ethernet and USB as backups. First page arrives in about 8.5 seconds.
Why a laser wins on volume and loses on colour
Speed and paper handling are where a laser pulls ahead. Automatic duplex on every page plus a 36 ppm engine means a 50-page double-sided handout is a short job rather than a two-stage chore.
There is no colour path at all. Any colour school project has to be printed elsewhere or in black and white, which is the limitation that keeps laser models out of the lead spot for most families.
When the DCP-L2640DW is the wrong pick
It weighs 25 pounds and stands 12.5 inches tall, so it is not a small-shelf printer. It also needs no ink, but toner cartridges are a real ongoing cost for high-volume homes.
Setup is the most-reported friction. The firmware step asks for a network password printed on a label on the back of the machine, and several buyers failed on the first attempt. The on-printer menus are dated too, which favours the Brother Mobile Connect app over the panel.
5. Canon PIXMA TS3720: Budget Pick for Occasional Printing
Canon PIXMA TS3720 Wireless All-in-One Printer for Basic Home Printing, White
7.7 ppm black, 4 ppm color
Wireless print, copy and scan
60-sheet tray
8.7 pounds
Dual-band Wi-Fi
Pros
- Low entry cost for a wireless print
- copy and scan machine
- Lightweight 8.7-pound body for a small shelf
- Setup completes from the printer without a computer
- Dual-band Wi-Fi
- AirPrint
- Mopria and Chromebook support
Cons
- Single-sided printing only
- 60-sheet tray with no second paper source
- Two cartridges only
- so one colour can waste the rest
- Small 1.5-inch non-touch display
If a family prints a few pages a month and the budget is tight, this is the honest low-cost answer. It is a genuine all-in-one with wireless printing, a flatbed scanner and a copier in a body under 9 pounds.
Owners treat it as a budget machine for occasional schoolwork and forms, not a photo or high-volume printer. Setup completes from the printer itself, so it works without a computer, which is convenient for a child’s first printing job.
It supports AirPrint, Mopria and Chromebooks, so a school-issued laptop can print without installing anything. Borderless and square photo formats are supported too, even if the output is not what a photo printer produces.
Speed is the compromise. At roughly 7.7 ppm black and 4 ppm color, a multi-page document takes noticeably longer than on the faster models here.
When a budget inkjet makes sense over a refillable tank
This machine works when total output is genuinely small and colour printing is occasional. A household printing a handful of pages a month will get through cartridges slowly and spend less overall than on a larger refillable model.
The threshold is roughly 100 pages a month. Above that, cartridge ink costs start to dominate, and a tank printer becomes the cheaper machine even when both cost more to buy.
When the TS3720 is the wrong pick
Two cartridges means black plus a single tri-color unit. Printing one yellow page can draw on magenta and cyan too, so partial colour use wastes ink you paid for. That alone makes it a poor fit for art-heavy families.
The 60-sheet tray has no second paper source, so photo paper and regular paper mean constant swapping. And it is simplex only, so there is no automatic two-sided option at all.
6. Brother HL-L3300CDW: Best for Laser Colour Without an ADF
Brother HL-L3300CDW Wireless Digital Color Multi-Function Printer with Laser Quality Output, Copy & Scan, Duplex, Mobile | Includes 2 Month Refresh Subscription Trial ¹, Works with Alexa
19 ppm colour laser
Automatic duplex
250-sheet paper capacity
40.8 pounds
No ADF
Pros
- Laser-quality colour at up to 19 ppm
- Automatic duplex printing cuts paper use
- Built-in dual-band wireless
- Wi-Fi Direct and USB
- 250-sheet paper capacity suits steady volume
Cons
- No automatic document feeder for multi-page scanning
- Heavy 40.8-pound body
- Not a fax machine
- Small non-touch LCD control panel
Colour laser output is rarer at home than monochrome, and this Brother is a reasonable route into it. It prints up to 19 pages a minute in both colour and black with automatic duplex, and the flatbed still scans and copies.
Owners buying it cite laser-quality colour pages and lower per-page cost than inkjets for repeated colour work. There is no ink to dry out between uses, which suits a household with irregular printing.
Paper capacity is 250 sheets, comfortable for a month of homework sitting in the tray. Dual-band wireless, Wi-Fi Direct and USB cover most connection needs.
The absence of an automatic document feeder is the deciding limitation for families. Every multi-page scan or copy means lifting sheets onto the flatbed one at a time.
Colour laser versus colour inkjet for a family
A colour laser wins on speed, on paper handling and on not having ink dry in a nozzle while the machine sits unused. Colour text and simple graphics look good, which is what school worksheets mostly need.
An inkjet wins on photo quality and on the ability to print one page of magenta without using up the cyan. If school projects involve craft paper or photo output, an inkjet remains the better tool.
When the HL-L3300CDW is the wrong pick
It weighs 40.8 pounds and stands 14 inches tall, so it needs a proper shelf rather than a desk corner. For a flat-scanning-only family in a small space, that bulk buys nothing.
With 413 reviews it has a much thinner owner base than the established picks, so long-term feedback is less settled. Colour toner also adds up quickly once a family prints whole colour documents.
7. HP Smart Tank 5003: Best Tank Printer for Small Spaces
HP Smart Tank 5003 Wireless All-in-One Ink Tank Printer, Scanner, Copier with up to 3 Years of Ink Included, Best-for-Home, Cartridge-Free Refillable, AI-Capable (9B2D3A)
About 6000 pages of ink in the box
Print, copy and scan
Flatbed only
6.19-inch tall
Manual duplex
Pros
- Roughly 6000 pages of ink included
- up to 3 years
- Mess-free bottle refill with no squeezing
- copy
- scan and borderless photos in a slim body
- AirPrint and Mopria support
Cons
- Manual duplex only
- Flatbed scanner with no automatic document feeder
- 100-sheet paper capacity
- Scan resolution capped at 600 dpi
HP’s take on the refillable tank, and the body is the reason to look at it. At 6.19 inches tall it is one of the slimmest machines here, so it fits a shelving unit or a small cabinet where the larger models will not.
Refilling is a plug-and-drain process. You set the bottle on the tank port and it empties on its own, which avoids the squeezing and spilling that makes some families abandon refillable printers.
The box includes roughly 6000 pages worth of ink, claimed as up to three years of supply. On a small family workload that is a long runway before the first bottle purchase.
Sentiment is strongly positive, with 68 percent five-star ratings. As a newer model it has a smaller review base than the established tank printers, so long-term reports are still accumulating.
Refillable tank versus small cartridge printer
A tank moves ink from bottles into fixed reservoirs, so there is no cartridge to throw away and no chip to lock the printer. Cost per page stays low because you are not paying for a plastic shell every few months.
The cartridge option’s advantage is the upfront cost and the physical size. If your family will print more than about 100 pages a month, the tank model is the cheaper machine over its life.
When the Smart Tank 5003 is the wrong pick
Duplex is manual, with driver support rather than an automatic mechanism. There is no automatic document feeder, so a stack of paperwork means flatbed scanning page by page.
Scan resolution tops out around 600 dpi, which is fine for documents but not for digitising photographs. And at 10 ppm black and 5 ppm color it is not a speed choice for a busy household.
8. HP LaserJet MFP M235sdw: Best for Fast Black and White
HP LaserJet MFP M235sdw All-in-One Laser Wireless Printer, Scan/Copy, Black & White, Duplex, Best-for-Office
28-30 ppm black and white
Automatic duplex
ADF for scanning and copying
150-sheet capacity
21 pounds
Pros
- Up to 28-30 black-and-white pages per minute with automatic duplex
- 7-second first page
- Automatic document feeder for hands-free scanning and copying
- 21-pound footprint suits a home office
- Dual-band Wi-Fi with self-reset plus Ethernet
Cons
- Monochrome only
- no colour print or scan
- Scanning and copying through the feeder are single-sided
- Setup software widely criticised
- Replacement toner cartridges are costly
HP’s answer to a fast, quiet, black-and-white household printer. It runs at up to 28 to 30 pages a minute with automatic duplex and puts out a first page in about seven seconds, the quickest of the ten models here.
Long-term owners report a year or more of solid use, with rock-solid Wi-Fi and crisp black output. The self-resetting dual-band connection is aimed squarely at the dropout problem families complain about most.
At 21 pounds it is lighter than the colour laser options, and the document feeder handles scanning and copying without hands on the machine. Scan to email and scan to PDF are supported directly from the unit.
Paper capacity is 150 sheets, adequate for most households but well under the 250-sheet trays on the Brother laser models.
What the self-reset dual-band Wi-Fi actually fixes
A printer on 2.4GHz alone competes with Bluetooth speakers, baby monitors and the neighbour’s router. Dual-band radios let the machine drop onto the cleaner 5GHz band when the network is crowded, which reduces the dropped-off-the-network reports.
Self-reset detects a connection problem and recovers without a manual reinstall. For a family where two children share devices, that removes a recurring ten-minute fix.
When the M235sdw is the wrong pick
It is monochrome only, with no colour print, copy or scan path at all. A school project that needs colour has to go to another machine or another house.
Scanning and copying through the feeder are single-sided, so two-sided forms need two passes. HP’s setup and configuration software is widely criticised as messy even when the hardware performs well, and replacement toner is a meaningful ongoing cost.
9. Brother MFC-L3720CDW: Best for Fax and a Touchscreen
Brother MFC-L3720CDW Wireless Color Laser Printer, Scanner, Copier, Fax, Auto Duplex, 250-Sheet Capacity
19 ppm colour laser
50-sheet ADF
Automatic duplex
3.5-inch touchscreen
250-sheet tray
Pros
- Full four-in-one including fax
- 50-sheet ADF plus flatbed and sheetfed scanning
- 19 ppm in colour and black with automatic duplex
- 250-sheet adjustable paper tray
- 3.5-inch colour touchscreen with 48 shortcuts
Cons
- Highest purchase outlay of the ten
- Heavy 44-pound body with a 15.8-inch footprint
- Ongoing colour toner adds up at high volume
- Network setup can be demanding
Fax, a 50-page feeder, automatic duplex and a 3.5-inch colour touchscreen with 48 customisable shortcuts all sit in one 44-pound body. Nothing else in this list combines all four, and for a household that needs every function it removes the second machine entirely.
Those shortcuts are the part families actually use. A parent can put a scan-to-email workflow on one key so a school form goes straight out without navigating menus each time.
Output is 19 pages a minute in both colour and black, and the adjustable 250-sheet tray suits steady volume. The companion app adds remote access, toner monitoring and printer management from a phone.
Buyers highlight build quality and consistent page output. The reservations are its physical size and its total outlay, both the largest in this group.
Whether fax is worth paying for
If anyone in your household still corresponds with an institution by fax, this saves a dedicated machine and a phone line. Three of the ten models here include fax, and all three pair it with an automatic document feeder.
If fax is not part of your life, pay for it anyway or not at all. Splitting the money toward a larger inkjet tray or a tank model usually serves a family better than a rarely used function.
When the MFC-L3720CDW is the wrong pick
At 44 pounds with a 15.8-inch tall body, it needs real furniture. A compact desk printer corner will not take it comfortably.
Colour laser toner costs accumulate across three or four cartridges, so a family that prints heavy colour may spend more here than on an inkjet tank. Network configuration is also demanding if nobody in the house enjoys setup menus.
10. HP OfficeJet Pro 8135e: Best for a Large Inkjet Tray
HP OfficeJet Pro 8135e Wireless All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer, Print, scan, Copy, fax, ADF, Duplex Printing Best-for-Home Office, 3 Month Instant Ink Trial Included, AI-Enabled (40Q35A)
20 ppm black, 10 ppm color
225-sheet tray
ADF and fax
Automatic duplex
2.7-inch touchscreen
Pros
- Colour print
- scan
- copy and fax with automatic duplex and an ADF
- 225-sheet tray
- the largest among the inkjets here
- 2.7-inch colour touchscreen with a phone-like interface
- 20 ppm black and 10 ppm color for an inkjet
Cons
- Lowest average rating of the ten
- ADF is single-sided only
- Blocks third-party cartridges and pushes a subscription
- Inkjet running costs exceed tank and laser options
Feature-rich and fast for an inkjet, with the largest paper tray of the inkjets in this list at 225 sheets. Print, scan, copy, fax, automatic duplex and an automatic document feeder all live in one 19-pound body.
The 2.7-inch touchscreen uses a phone-like interface, and alongside the Brother MFC-L3720CDW it gives a child a large visible menu to work from. HP’s on-device formatting also strips out web page clutter before printing.
It has an unusually deep feature list for an inkjet, and also the lowest average rating in this group, with a high share of one-star reviews. Buyers who stay tend to like the feature set and the tray size.
The detractors focus on money and lock-in rather than performance. The printer requires cartridges with HP chips, which blocks third-party ink, and the bundled subscription trial is promoted hard during setup.
Is the large tray worth the cartridge cost
A 225-sheet tray means refilling a few times a year for a moderate family rather than every few weeks. That is a real convenience on project weeks when several children print at once.
The convenience is capped by running cost. At 20 percent one-star ratings, a large share of complaints are about ink expense and cartridge restrictions. If colour volume is high, a refillable tank model is the better financial call.
When the OfficeJet Pro 8135e is the wrong pick
That is the lowest average score among the ten models in this roundup, so expect more variability in long-term reliability than with the tank and laser models above it. The 18-second first page is also slow next to any laser.
The single-sided ADF is another limit on multi-page paperwork. And if anyone in the house is comfortable with non-HP ink, this machine deliberately blocks it, which narrows your future options.
Inkjet vs Laser: Which One Matches Your Household Volume
Pick a laser if your family prints mostly black and white at volume. Pick an inkjet if colour, photos or craft output appear at all. That single question resolves most of the shortlist before you look at any specification.
A family printing under 50 pages a month can go either way, but a cartridge inkjet at that volume keeps the lowest total outlay. Between 50 and 150 pages a month, refillable ink starts to pull ahead on running cost. Above 200 pages a month, a monochrome laser usually wins on paper handling and speed alone.
Laser printers also sit unused without penalty. There is no liquid ink sitting in nozzles over a long holiday, which is why a laser suits a home that prints in bursts rather than steadily. Our wider overview of all-in-one printers takes in the office end of this range as well.
Cartridge vs Ink Tank: The Three-Year Cost Picture
Cost per page is the number that decides this, and it is a simple division: what you pay for ink, divided by how many pages that ink prints. Cartridges lose badly above roughly 100 pages a month because you keep paying for plastic shells.
Worked example for a household printing 150 pages a month. That is 1800 pages a year and roughly 5400 pages over three years. A cartridge inkjet charging a high per-page rate on cartridges adds up quickly across that total, while a tank printer reaches the same output with far fewer purchases.
Brother INKvestment models sit in between. They use refillable-style cartridges rather than bottles, so they share tank economics without the loose-ink handling. None appear in this roundup, but the term confuses plenty of buyers who assume any tank-style machine takes bottles.
Subscription ink programs deserve a separate look. They lower the cost of a cartridge printer for people who print steadily, but the monthly fee continues whether or not you print, and switching away later can be awkward.
ADF, Duplex Scanning and Paper Handling
An automatic document feeder means a stack of worksheets goes in once and comes out scanned or copied without you lifting each page. For families dealing with school paperwork, that is the feature that removes the most friction.
Stated feeder sizes range from 20 sheets on the Canon TR8620a to 50 sheets on the Brother MFC-L3720CDW and the Brother DCP-L2640DW.
Six of the models here have automatic duplex printing, and the refillable tanks on this list do not, which is the clearest functional gap between the inkjet families.
Duplex scanning is rarer still. A single-sided ADF means two passes for a double-sided document. Only check that feature if scanning two-sided forms is a regular part of your week.
Paper capacity decides how often you refill mid-job. The 60-sheet tray on the Canon TS3720 is the tightest, while the 250-sheet trays on the Brother laser models hold a month of homework.
Wi-Fi Stability, Mobile Printing and Dropouts
Wireless printing is expected now, so the useful question is which radios the printer carries. Models with dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz support have a better chance of staying reachable on a crowded family network.
The Brother DCP-L2640DW, Canon TS3720, HP LaserJet MFP M235sdw and Brother HL-L3300CDW all list dual-band wireless. The HP LaserJet adds a self-reset function that recovers a dropped connection without a manual reinstall.
Mobile printing works through AirPrint, Mopria, and each brand’s own app. AirPrint and Mopria support means a Chromebook or a school laptop prints without installing anything, which matters more than app features for most families.
To reduce dropouts in the first week: connect on 5GHz if your router separates the bands, keep the printer on the same floor as the router, and avoid hiding it behind a large metal cabinet. Assign a fixed address in your router settings so the machine keeps the same identity after a reboot.
Reliability, Ink Drying and Common Failure Modes
The most common household complaint is ink drying in a printer that sat unused through a school holiday. A cartridge inkjet left for weeks or months can develop clogged nozzles, and the fix is either a cleaning cycle or new cartridges.
Refillable tanks and lasers largely sidestep this. There is no cartridge to dry, and laser toner is powder. If your family prints in bursts, that reliability advantage is worth more than a lower headline price.
Paper jams usually trace back to cheap or worn rollers rather than the paper itself. Loading envelopes correctly and not overfilling the tray reduces them, and a laser with a proper roller system rarely jams.
Running out of colour mid-project is another classic. Some colour inkjets refuse to print black-and-white documents once a colour cartridge is empty, which can stop a homework deadline. A monochrome laser has no such failure mode.
Owners replacing aging inkjets consistently report that the switch removes jams and printed-until-empty behaviour at the same time. That is the reliability case for laser, priced in size and colour capability.
Photo Printing and Colour School Projects
For craft projects, borderless 4×6 and 5×7 printing matters more than raw resolution. The Canon MegaTank G3270 and the Canon TS3720 both print borderless, and the HP Smart Tank 5003 lists borderless output as well.
School art projects are the realistic home photo use case: a poster-sized sheet of a volcano model or a full-page colour chart. The Canon TR8620a handles borderless printing up to 8.5 x 11 inches and adds a tilting touchscreen for previewing results.
Laser colour printers print text and simple graphics well, and they never dry out mid-project. They are a poor fit for photographs, where inkjet colour and gloss produce a noticeably better result.
If your family prints real photographs regularly, weigh a dedicated photo printer alongside any all-in-one rather than expecting one machine to cover both jobs perfectly.
Printers a Non-Technical Parent or Child Can Operate
A touchscreen is the clearest dividing line for a child operating the machine alone. The HP OfficeJet Pro 8135e, the Brother MFC-L3720CDW and the Canon TR8620a give a visible interface; the sub-2-inch LCDs on the cheaper models do not.
Second is app independence. The Canon TS3720 completes setup from the printer without a computer, and models supporting AirPrint and Mopria print from a laptop or Chromebook with nothing to install.
Third is job discipline. Setting a default paper size and tray on the machine once saves a child from feeding photo paper into the plain tray. A parent who spends ten minutes on defaults saves twenty later.
Finally, print queues on a shared family computer get long. Naming each machine clearly on the network stops worksheets going to the wrong printer, which is the most common reason a child reports that the printer is broken.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best printer for families?
The Epson EcoTank ET-2800 is the best all-in-one printer for most families. Refillable ink bottles hold up to 4500 black or 7500 color pages per set, it scans and copies from a flatbed, and it connects over Wi-Fi and USB. Families that print heavy homework should add a monochrome laser such as the Brother DCP-L2640DW for speed and duplex.
What is the best rated all-in-one printer for home use?
The Canon MegaTank G3270 is our highest-rated pick, scoring 4.1 stars from more than 5000 reviews. One ink fill covers up to 6000 black or 7700 color pages, it prints borderless photos, and it handles wireless print, copy and scan. Its main limitation is single-sided printing.
What is the best printer for household use?
It depends on monthly volume. Under 50 pages a month, a cartridge inkjet such as the Canon TS3720 costs the least overall. Between 50 and 150 pages, refillable tanks such as the Epson EcoTank ET-2800 win on running cost. Above 200 pages, the Brother DCP-L2640DW offers faster output and automatic duplex.
Which printer is best for homeschooling?
The Canon PIXMA TR8620a suits homeschooling families best. It combines colour printing, fax, a 20-sheet automatic document feeder and automatic duplex printing at 15 pages per minute in black, so a parent can print a two-sided worksheet and scan signed forms without a second machine.
What is the best printer for home use with kids?
The HP OfficeJet Pro 8135e is the easiest for a child to run alone, thanks to a 2.7-inch colour touchscreen, a large 225-sheet tray and a quiet mode. Its higher running cost and cartridge lock-in are the trade-offs, so it suits families that print colour occasionally rather than heavily.
What type of printer do schools use?
Schools mostly use monochrome laser printers because they are fast, cheap per page and durable for high daily volume. Colour is usually reserved for art and project rooms using inkjets. Home families can approximate that split by keeping a monochrome laser for worksheets and an inkjet for colour projects.
What is the most reliable ink tank printer?
Reliability comes down to how little can go wrong between uses. Refillable tanks such as the Canon MegaTank G3270 and the Epson EcoTank ET-2800 have no cartridge to dry out, so a printer idle over a long holiday does not need new ink to print. Laser printers avoid the problem entirely.
Are laser printers being phased out?
No. Laser printers remain the standard for high-volume black-and-white printing in offices and schools, because toner is cheaper per page and does not dry out. What has changed is the household range, where refillable ink jets have taken over the low-volume colour end of the market.
Which Printer Should Your Family Buy?
For most households, the Epson EcoTank ET-2800 is the best all-in-one printer for families: cheap colour, a flatbed scanner and copier, and enough included ink to cover the first full school cycle. Add the Canon PIXMA TR8620a if you need automatic duplex and a document feeder every week.
If homework volume dominates, take the Brother DCP-L2640DW for monochrome speed and paper handling. If photos and colour projects matter more than two-sided printing, the Canon MegaTank G3270 gives you the largest colour page yield of the tank models here.
Our pick for 2026: the ET-2800 as the default family machine, with the TR8620a for duplex-heavy homes and the DCP-L2640DW for black-and-white volume. Use the buttons above to check current pricing before you buy, since costs move regularly.