Second dead Canon printhead in a year?

[Jacques E. Bouchard]

The offical lifetime of the head can be measured in terms of about 10
cartridge changes.

18,000 pages
Black 1,500 character pattern 7,200 pages
Color A4, 7.5% duty per color pattern 5,400 pages
A4, photo, borderless printing 300 pages
4 x 6, photo, borderless printing 3,600 pages
Postcard, photo, borderless printing 1,500 pages

The 1,500 character patern is about 1/3 less than 5% yeild. Whle
others have experenced greater than 10 changes, i've heard as high as
20, doing the math works out to about 10 cartridge changes.

The problem is knowing whether you have a clog or burnout.

I'm actually glad to know that this is due to normal wear, not crappy
manufacturing. I've already ordered the new head on ebay for $60 CAN,
shipping included ($53 US).

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. I think I'll add this ng to my
queue, great group of folks.


jaybee

 

[Gary Tait]

it is the use of no name unbranded generic ink purchased from a
relabeler that did not disclose what you bought but you are too proud to
admit it.

You don't remeber very well. Zakerzuke is using strictly OEM on the MP760,
and a well known quality brand forumlated (IE, not generic) aftermarket ink
on the iP3000.

 

[Frank]

Measekite, you need a life...BAD. I viewed your profile...5476 messages
in 1 year...OH MY GOD. Talk about TYPE-ARRHEA. More than 15 messages a
day...everyday...Just on Google!!! WOW!!!! DUDE YOU NEED A
LIFE...BBBBBBAAAAADDDDDD.

Yeah when you kill file his dumb ****ing ass you're getting rid of a lot
of shit!
Frank

 

[zakezuke]

I'm actually glad to know that this is due to normal wear, not crappy
manufacturing. I've already ordered the new head on ebay for $60 CAN,
shipping included ($53 US).

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. I think I'll add this ng to my
queue, great group of folks.

Well, we don't know if in your case if it's

1. normal wear and tear i.e. burnout
2. crappy manufacturing
3. crappy ink

But these are like lightbulbs, like 1600 lightbulbs on your mp730 and
my ip3000, and anything beyond 10 cartridge changes is a good run.
It's the nature of the technology. The only alternative is Epson's
micropiezo which is less prone to burn out as it's not thermal, but
more prone to clogging.

It's your choice between can replace the head for US$50 to $80, or
gotta get someone to service it to replace the head for more.

 

[measekite]

I can creatively snip too.

thank you for replying. you are one of 3 that i can count on to get
people to read the truth that is in my posts. :-* love hearing from you

 

[measekite]

I'm actually glad to know that this is due to normal wear, not crappy
manufacturing. I've already ordered the new head on ebay for $60 CAN,
shipping included ($53 US).

it may be normal wear for generic ink but not for oem ink. i have not
problem with mine and expect to get 5 years out of the head

Thanks to everyone for the feedback.

your welcome

 

[Brendan R. Wehrung]

How many ink cartridges or refills did you use before the printheads
failed?


Who do you buy your refill ink from? Canons are very easy to refill,
and if you use good refill ink you should not have any problems.


Most small offices use HP.


If you had the problems with your Canon S800, such as replacing 2
printheads in 1 year, why would you buy another Canon?


Without question the most durable overall inkjet printers are HP's. The
HP 9xx series is a excellent example. The HP 9xx series is not great
for photo's, but it's a workhorse for text and spot colour.

The way prices for the cheaper ones are coming down would it be better to
consider a color laser, as long as photo quality isn't required?
Cartridges are hideously expensive but you get an awful lot of prints out
of them and I don't think there's a problem with not using the printer for
a period of time.

My default printer is a mono laser and my inkjet only gets used for
special projects.

Brendan

 

[Impmon]

But these are like lightbulbs, like 1600 lightbulbs on your mp730 and
my ip3000, and anything beyond 10 cartridge changes is a good run.
It's the nature of the technology. The only alternative is Epson's
micropiezo which is less prone to burn out as it's not thermal, but
more prone to clogging.

Or just go with HP. THe print head is right on the cart. And you can
refill to your heart's content and when it does clog or burn out,
replacing is easy. Heck you could probably get an empty cart that's
never been refilled for next to nothing.

My 940c is still running after maybe 3 years and its color cart is
almost a year old and not showing any problem. The black cart I
forgot how old or how many refills but the last time it was empty, the
cart sounded like it had a dozen or so marbles inside.

I know the resident anti-refill troll is going to try and flame this
one but it's hard to flame something that works. HP, Lexmark (cough)
and most other printers that uses disposable print head are generally
less prone to expensive repairs since the print head are meant to be
tossed out.

 

[zakezuke]

Or just go with HP. THe print head is right on the cart. And you can
refill to your heart's content and when it does clog or burn out,
replacing is easy. Heck you could probably get an empty cart that's
never been refilled for next to nothing.

Actually the hp 8250 uses an intrigated head, but I have no direct
experence with it. There are also the business jet series, with
several replaceable heads.

If you refill, I would lean tward Canon. While you "may" be able to
get an empty cartridge for next to nothing... they are never around
when you need them and you'll likely end up shelling out for new ones.
If you do get a free empty odds are it's clogged. At least with the
older generation of Canon, and the current generation of Epson, you
"can" buy empties. You might want HP, HPs are pretty good.

My 940c is still running after maybe 3 years and its color cart is
almost a year old and not showing any problem. The black cart I
forgot how old or how many refills but the last time it was empty, the
cart sounded like it had a dozen or so marbles inside.

I could never master the art of refilling the HP tanks.

I know the resident anti-refill troll is going to try and flame this
one but it's hard to flame something that works. HP, Lexmark (cough)
and most other printers that uses disposable print head are generally
less prone to expensive repairs since the print head are meant to be
tossed out.

Well, Canon does honor the printhead if it fails under warranty.
Afterwards you are SOL. These are shipped next day air. Epson, well,
you gotta replace the whole printer which may require a visit to a
service center, or they "may" mail you a replacement. It seems to
depend on who you talk to.

This is the choice the user has to make. While I would agree $60 to
$80 sucks for a replacement printhead, those printheads last a good
long while, officaly 10 cartridge changes which tends to work out to be
an extra $2.00 per cartridge if at the low end of the scale.

Given the current price of Canon OEM though... $13.50 per color and
$16ish for the black, HP does look much more attractive.

 

[Impmon]

I could never master the art of refilling the HP tanks.

It's like learining to ride a bike, you will get messy at first but
given enough time and practice you could refill them on top of an
expensive brand new computer keyboard and not have one drop at all.

Well, Canon does honor the printhead if it fails under warranty.
Afterwards you are SOL. These are shipped next day air. Epson, well,
you gotta replace the whole printer which may require a visit to a
service center, or they "may" mail you a replacement. It seems to
depend on who you talk to.

This is the choice the user has to make. While I would agree $60 to
$80 sucks for a replacement printhead, those printheads last a good
long while, officaly 10 cartridge changes which tends to work out to be
an extra $2.00 per cartridge if at the low end of the scale.

Given the current price of Canon OEM though... $13.50 per color and
$16ish for the black, HP does look much more attractive.

It's a matter of choices. Those that can handle refilling would
probably do better with disposable heads than integrated heads. My
brother works at an office supply store that has cart recycling
program (*cough*refill*and*resell*cough*) and when a good looking
virgin 15's or 78's pop in he picks them up and I put them in a ziplok
bag to keep them from drying out too much.

I generally need only 1 of each. Before I refill for the first time I
soak the head in a shallow dish of hot water and Windex to clean out
clogs, air dry them and fill it. Rarely had any problem getting a
freshly filled cart to work.

Personally I would have prefered Canon printers anyway for better
looking printouts and certain models could be hacked to print direct
to CD a feature I don't think any HP printer can do.

I don't want epson, heard too many horror story with them and my
brother had one that had mysteriously developed permanet clog with the
second set of ink carts. Both the original pack in ink carts and the
replacement set were Epson OEM and not 3rd party or refills yet the
printer managed to do nothing but print blank pages. :/ Lexmark
seemed to be on the expensive end for cheap quality machines. If they
die or run out of ink, it's often cheaper to replace the whole thing
than just the carts.

 

[Jacques E. Bouchard]

I have a Canon MP730 multifunction printer that's gone through two
printheads in one year. Both printheads died in the same fashion:
first long white (blank) strips appear on the page, then it stops
printing altogether. No black, no color, nothing. Cleaning (through
the control panel and manually) does nothing to help.

The first printhead was replaced under warranty, but this time it's
going to cost me a minimum of $40 on ebay. I bought this printer
because I wanted to have separate tanks that were easy to refill, but
if I have to replace the head every year or so the savings aren't so
great.

Well, I received the new genuine Canon printhead in the mail and put it
in this week. There is no black printing at all. Other colours are fine
(they were fine with the previous printhead which I thought was
defective). So obviously, the problem is elsewhere in the printer. Any
clues?

This is exactly what happened last time, but since Canon replaced both
the printer (with a refurbished unit) and the printhead I was not able
to isolate the problem. Now the warranty is expired however, and I have
a $400 paperweight sitting in my office that barely lasted a year. Tech
support is now closed so I'll have to call tomorrow, but I know what
they'll say.

Saying that I am extremely pissed off at Canon would be an
understatement. I am sorry I ever bought this printer, and I will not be
buying Canon products ever again (printers, cameras, etc.). I might be
getting this POS fixed as I don't want to have to buy another scanner
(and standalone scanners with document feeders are outrageously
expensive), but Canon is on my black list.



jaybee

 

[Taliesyn]

Well, I received the new genuine Canon printhead in the mail and put it
in this week. There is no black printing at all. Other colours are fine
(they were fine with the previous printhead which I thought was
defective). So obviously, the problem is elsewhere in the printer. Any
clues?

Exact same thing happened with my sister's printer. She bought a new
printhead when she suddenly lost most of her black and no amount of
cleaning - of any kind - would help. Color inks were fine. However, with
the new printhead she couldn't get the black going either after several
primes. At first we thought it might be a faulty new head. After several
more cleanings we gave up. Fortunately I had a spare working printer
(same model) in my basement that I wasn't using. We put her new
printhead into it and it worked right away after one prime. Seemed like
her old printer wasn't pumping black ink to the printhead. So now she's
thinking she might have TWO good printheads.

-Taliesyn