Heads are not available for purchase. Canon will replace them under warranty
for free. You can buy an extended warranty for under $50 if you are worried.
I've had my i850 since august of last year and it sometimes sits idle for a
few weeks at a time. I've printed a ream of 8.5"x11" paper and about 30-40
4x6 photos and a few 8.5x11 photos and I'm still on the orginal cartridges.
I have a spare black that I bought because it was on sale. The two lowest
carts are the black and the magenta. If I print any photos, I'll have to
pick up another magenta, but I figure I'm good for another 15-20 pics on that
one. Oh yeah, there's only one print head. It's part of the carrier that
holds the ink tanks.
Thanks.
I'm pretty much decided to go ahead with buying the i865. Like you, my
printer often sits idle for several weeks at a time. Non user
replaceable heads are a mixed blessing I suppose.
All that's kept my BJC-6200 alive until now is three head replacements
(costing $90 for each of the two separate heads). I've spent $540 in
replacement heads in two years. Looking back on it now, I'd nearly have
been better off chucking the 6200 and buying a new printer.
Each time I've had to replace the heads, it's been due to several nozzles
failing to operate. I refill my tanks with non genuine ink - something
which might make warranty pretty doubtful.
I'm thinking that the only way to go, is to do a nozzle check *every*
day - whether the printer is used or not. Maybe by doing this, you'd
pick up on a problem nozzle almost straight away.
I suspect our failed 6200 nozzles were caused by continuing to print
stuff after the nozzles blocked (because we didn't notice the blockage).
By the time the cleaning cycles commenced, the blocked nozzles had
probably been out of action for weeks.
Regards,
Hughy.