Printer reviews: Reliability
To find out which tech brands are the UK’s favourites, every year we ask almost 10,000 Which? members to tell us about the technology products they own – from how happy they are to recommend a brand, to how reliable the products are once they’re home.
Read our expert which? reviews of the best printers.
Best printers for reliability
If your printer breaks when you've just put in a new set of ink cartridges, that could be £30 in ink down the drain and if it keels over when you're printing to meet a deadline it can be a big inconvenience. That's why we survey thousands of members every year to find out which brands produce the most reliable printers, so you're less likely to be left with half of an important report in your hand.
Our survey provides reliability and customer satisfaction data for big printer brands including HP, Canon, Epson and Brother. Our results highlight the printer brands you can really trust, and highlights the most common reasons for printers failing.
Which? members can log in to see the full results. Or you can try Which? today for just £1.
| Printer Which? reliability index | |
|---|---|
| Brand | Score |
| Brother |  |
| Canon | |
| Dell | |
| Epson | |
| HP | |
| Kodak | |
| Lexmark | |
| Samsung | |
| Overall reliability | |
Common printer problems
- Problems with the paper feed 20% - the biggest problem tends to be printers not taking the paper, taking two pages at a time or feeding paper through wonky or jamming.
- The ink jets stopped working 19% - if the print head is built into the printer and it gets blocked, you may find that no amount of head-cleaning can clear it.
- Deterioration of print quality 16% - plenty of members reported problems with decreased print quality over the life of the printer.
Printer reviews
Our reliability survey uncovers common printer problems and highlights the most and least reliable printer brands. Combined with our extensive lab testing, this means we can recommend the best printers to buy. Our unique print cost tests also show which printers will give you the best value for money when it comes to printing, so you're not throwing money away on ink.
We test printers for quality, speed, ease of use and print costs. Our unique ink running cost tests go further than many others, by testing the ink use of a printer if you only print occasionally. These tests have shown that some printers use up to 500% more ink if you only print occasionally compared to printing the same number of pages in one go. Other printers hardly waste any ink in our tests, so we can help you find the best value printer.
Which? is independent - we work for you, the consumer, so you can be sure that our product recommendations are influenced only by our test results. We don't take advertising and we buy all the products that we test, so our advice helps you to make the right choice and avoid costly mistakes.
- Best Buy printers - find our which printers we rate above all others
- How we test printers - what makes a Best Buy printer
- How to buy the best printer - an essential guide on how to choose the right printer
