Canon printhead is dead

[Bill]

For those following the printhead issues...

It's official...my 16 month old Canon i850 printhead is dead. It stopped
laying down ink halfway through a photo today. Half of the black nozzles
and most of the cyan nozzles are shot and will not work at all.

So much for Canon quality and printhead life expectancy.

I guess I'm going back to HP for my next printer. At least they last
longer and I won't have any issues with printheads dying.

 

[Tom]

For those following the printhead issues...

It's official...my 16 month old Canon i850 printhead is dead. It stopped
laying down ink halfway through a photo today. Half of the black nozzles
and most of the cyan nozzles are shot and will not work at all.

So much for Canon quality and printhead life expectancy.

I guess I'm going back to HP for my next printer. At least they last
longer and I won't have any issues with printheads dying.

Right. My Mercedes had a flat tire today. Mercedes must all be junk. I'm
going back to a Yugo because I never had a flat tire in a Yugo.

Tom

 

[MCheu]

Right. My Mercedes had a flat tire today. Mercedes must all be junk. I'm
going back to a Yugo because I never had a flat tire in a Yugo.

Tom

That's not really a valid analogy. It's one thing to have a flat, but
the printhead on a printer is a vital and replacement cost is a fairly
large percentage of the printer price.

If your Mercedes had a flat tire on your way off the lot, it probably
wouldn't shake your view of the quality of their cars. However, if I
was driving along a short while after purchase and the engine blew up
or seized up, I'd be more than a little miffed. Of course, if I never
changed the oil or ran the car with the oil pan empty, I'd only have
myself to blame.

My point? Car analogies are pretty useless.

 

[Michael Grey]

I have a new one if interested.
It is Genuine Canon.
If you factor in all of the ink savings from the Canon ink versus an HP in
18 months I am sure you would agree you could still buy a $100.00 U.S
printer and still be ahead.
My I850 is 18 months old and has printed well over 30,000 pages and, knock
on wood , still giving excellent quality.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Have you attempted any type of head cleaning process with the head out
of the printer?

Art

 

[PC Medic]

That's not really a valid analogy. It's one thing to have a flat, but
the printhead on a printer is a vital and replacement cost is a fairly
large percentage of the printer price.

If your Mercedes had a flat tire on your way off the lot, it probably
wouldn't shake your view of the quality of their cars. However, if I
was driving along a short while after purchase and the engine blew up
or seized up, I'd be more than a little miffed. Of course, if I never
changed the oil or ran the car with the oil pan empty, I'd only have
myself to blame.

My point? Car analogies are pretty useless.

But in comparison, your printer was not 'just off the lot either' and was 4
months out of warranty, so the car analogy works if you read it with an open
mind. Cars are higher ticket price and expected to last much longer than a
$200 printer. But in either case, had you dropped the transmission on your
car 4 months out of warranty, they also are not going to come running to the
rescue, just as Epson, HP, Lexmark or GM, Chevy or Volvo or any other
manufacture for that matter.

 

[PC Medic]

I have a new one if interested.
It is Genuine Canon.
If you factor in all of the ink savings from the Canon ink versus an HP in
18 months I am sure you would agree you could still buy a $100.00 U.S
printer and still be ahead.
My I850 is 18 months old and has printed well over 30,000 pages and, knock
on wood , still giving excellent quality.

And I thought I did a lot of printing!
30k pages in 18 months is getting your monies worth.

 

[J. Bronson]

I'm going on three years on the orignal print head for my F50.

It has the removable print head. When it starts to show signs of poor
printing I take the head out and flush it good with warm water and
disk soap.

It takes about 10 mintes to get all the color out of everything.

The IMPORTANT part is to be sure that it is TOTALLY DRY!!!!!!!

There maybe little circut board behind the contact panel, there is on
mine. Any moisture left there will short it out and maybe your
printer also.

 

[J. Bronson]

For those following the printhead issues...

It's official...my 16 month old Canon i850 printhead is dead. It stopped
laying down ink halfway through a photo today. Half of the black nozzles
and most of the cyan nozzles are shot and will not work at all.

So much for Canon quality and printhead life expectancy.

I guess I'm going back to HP for my next printer. At least they last
longer and I won't have any issues with printheads dying.

 

[J. Bronson]

I'm going three years on my F50.

It has the removable printhead.

When it starts to go bad I take it out and flush it with hot water and
dish soap.

It takes about 10 minutes before all the ink is gone.

Be VERY sure that it is TOTALLY DRY before reintalling!!!!!!!!

There is a small circut board behind the contact board. Any moisture
may short it out and smoke your printer.

 

[Bill]

Have you attempted any type of head cleaning process with the head out
of the printer?

Yes, but I knew it wasn't just a clog because it stopped working
properly right in the middle of a photo. For about a week prior to this,
it would streak a bit, but nothing dramatic. A regular head cleaning
helped for a while but then on Friday it just suddenly died.

Here in Canada, a new printhead is $60 plus shipping and taxes. That
makes it over $80 for a new one. Not at all economical or reasonably
priced.

 

[JXStern]

It's official...my 16 month old Canon i850 printhead is dead.

Out of curiosity, how much use did it get in that period?

(For that matter, does heavy usage even affect life?)

J.

 

[Bill]

I have a new one if interested.

Thanks for the offer, but I've already bought a new printer.

I considered buying a new printhead, but then was concerned that perhaps
when the printhead suddenly failed, it may have damaged the printer
electronics as well - it wasn't just a clog. Canon told me I couldn't
return the printhead if it didn't work as it may become damaged in my
printer.

So I had to weigh the costs of a new printhead and taking a chance of it
still not working thus wasting that $80. Or simply put that cost into
buying a new printer, not worry about anything, and get a new warranty
as well.

 

[Bill]

Out of curiosity, how much use did it get in that period?

Roughly 5,000 pages, and I'm guessing on the high side. My friend's i550
printhead died recently too, and he only had a measly 2,500 pages put
through it.

I used refills, and some people are blaming the ink (sounds silly to
me). But my friend used only genuine Canon ink tanks from day one, and
his failed at half the number of pages.

(For that matter, does heavy usage even affect life?)

Only Canon has that answer, and they're not talking.
:-/

 

[JXStern]

Roughly 5,000 pages, and I'm guessing on the high side. My friend's i550
printhead died recently too, and he only had a measly 2,500 pages put
through it.

Hmm. My i550 is about the same age as your i850, I've probably put
well under 2,000 pages through it (pretty much all text and most of
that draft mode, very light duty), and so far, so good.

Major irritation is that I suspect I'm using less than half the ink on
the color cartridges on paper, the rest goes into cleaning cycles, as
I print mostly black with a few color hilites, and sometimes go a few
days between uses. Even on the black, I suspect I'm using less than
80% on actual output.

But at least the Canon cartridges are cheap. A couple of black tanks,
one set of color cartridges per year with an extra yelllow or two, and
if the head lasts me another year, I'll figure that's about the cost
of doing business, until and unless some manufacturer does better.

...

So I should ask, with your i850, was a lot of your 5,000 pages photo?

Frankly, it's fascinating to me that these $100-class printers work at
all! But I'm an old fart, and having quick, quiet color output at
home seems like the next thing to witchcraft to me.

J.

 

[PC Medic]

Hmm. My i550 is about the same age as your i850, I've probably put
well under 2,000 pages through it (pretty much all text and most of
that draft mode, very light duty), and so far, so good.

Major irritation is that I suspect I'm using less than half the ink on
the color cartridges on paper, the rest goes into cleaning cycles, as
I print mostly black with a few color hilites, and sometimes go a few
days between uses. Even on the black, I suspect I'm using less than
80% on actual output.

Remember that if you print from a graphic application (Publishing software)
that even black text may use color ink as you often are getting composite
output. I generally change my black 3 to 1 over color tanks on my i560 but
most of my printing is MS Word or Acrobat documents. Also using any paper
setting other than 'Plain Paper' will use composite black causing use of the
color tanks.

But at least the Canon cartridges are cheap. A couple of black tanks,
one set of color cartridges per year with an extra yelllow or two, and
if the head lasts me another year, I'll figure that's about the cost
of doing business, until and unless some manufacturer does better.

Wait a minute!.... I thought all colors ran out at the same time? :0)

 

[JXStern]

Remember that if you print from a graphic application (Publishing software)
that even black text may use color ink as you often are getting composite
output.

Yah, when I switched to XP, my HP printer became useless because even
printing black text from Word it was doing that even for text, it
totally forgot it had black ink, and HP (nor Microsoft) didn't want to
fix the driver, tho it was probably a one-line fix and the printer was
barely a year old. Bastids. Um, 722C.

I generally change my black 3 to 1 over color tanks on my i560 but
most of my printing is MS Word or Acrobat documents. Also using any paper
setting other than 'Plain Paper' will use composite black causing use of the
color tanks.


Wait a minute!.... I thought all colors ran out at the same time? :0)

They all waste ink together in cleaning cycles, but I do *use* at
least some of the ink at different rates, too! The magenta and cyan
tanks went out together.

J.

 

[Mr Jessop]

Thanks for the offer, but I've already bought a new printer.

I considered buying a new printhead, but then was concerned that perhaps
when the printhead suddenly failed, it may have damaged the printer
electronics as well - it wasn't just a clog. Canon told me I couldn't
return the printhead if it didn't work as it may become damaged in my
printer.

That is incredibly bad customer service. If it was really true that they
made a printer that spontaneously died due to wear and tear to the point it
could destroy a new printhead then it is incredibly bad workmanship indeed.
Canon customer service utterly crap in their printer division. I just hope
their slr side is better. Fortunately i've never had to use it in 14 years
of ownership of slrs.

 

[Bill]

Major irritation is that I suspect I'm using less than half the ink on
the color cartridges on paper, the rest goes into cleaning cycles, as
I print mostly black with a few color hilites, and sometimes go a few
days between uses. Even on the black, I suspect I'm using less than
80% on actual output.

Just in case you don't know, if you want to make sure you're using black
ink only for text, just tick the greyscale box in the printer driver. It
will not use any colour at all.

So I should ask, with your i850, was a lot of your 5,000 pages photo?

About one quarter were photos.

Frankly, it's fascinating to me that these $100-class printers work at
all! But I'm an old fart, and having quick, quiet color output at
home seems like the next thing to witchcraft to me.

It is witchcraft...didn't you know? On the back every printer is a
serial number, and it ALWAYS has 666 in there.

 

[Bill]

That is incredibly bad customer service. If it was really true that they
made a printer that spontaneously died due to wear and tear to the point it
could destroy a new printhead then it is incredibly bad workmanship indeed.

I don't consider 2-5000 pages to be excessive wear and tear.

Canon customer service utterly crap in their printer division. I just hope
their slr side is better. Fortunately i've never had to use it in 14 years
of ownership of slrs.

I consider their SLR camera and lense service to be excellent. I've
never had a complaint in that regard.