Goodbye little canon printer :(
noise747
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My Canon pixma ip4200 seems to have dies, I know it is 5 years old and been used a fair bit, but it is now flashing the resume light 5 times, which is the print head. I tried cleaning the contacts and head, but no joy.
I knew this time was a coming as it been playing up for a while now, now to decide which printer to get now. I looked at the canon IP7250 a while back, but changed my mind as my printer was still working. May look again
It is like losing a old friend.
I knew this time was a coming as it been playing up for a while now, now to decide which printer to get now. I looked at the canon IP7250 a while back, but changed my mind as my printer was still working. May look again
It is like losing a old friend.
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That is sad I am looking for a cheap under 100 to print of documents for work. So if you looking at new printers let me know how you get on.
The 7250 looks nice, but it cost twice as much for the inks than the 4200 even third party.
I know Epson is cheaper to buy inks for, but to be honest I have not been impressed with Epson machines for years, they seem to look cheap.
Also pricing of printers are stupid, it is cheaper to get a all in one than a stand alone, that do not make sense, I do not want a all in one.
I will have a look tomorrow when I get home from work, I was going to order one from Argos, but it is a bit pricey compared to other places ont he net.
I'm sick of inkjets, tiny cartridges and endless wasted ink when cleaning them and having to buy colour cartridges when I never use colour so I decided on a cheap laser.
I only need it for at most 6 invoices a month so it seems a better option.
What I like is that it's only takes about 30 secs to start printing from switching on, the old Epson took forever.
I know the Toner costs more and the Drum double that but if they are separate then it's not going to cost any more. Actually if the Drum does wear out it will work out cheaper just to buy another cheap printer.
Cheap printer £47 with 700 page ink (Basic printer USB nothing else)
Replacement Toner (1000 pages) £25-£35, Drum £35-£45
Inkjets tend to do 200-250 pages but will probably do a lot less if it's not being used very often and has to be cleaned several times.
I know there are very cheap replacement inks but I found several problems using them.
They seem to run out much quicker and the monitoring software didn't work so I couldn't tell which cartridge needed replacing.
When I bought my first one it was on special offer so I bought 2 and stuck one in a cupboard for a few years until the first one died
So it's unlikely I'll be able to get another as they probably stopped making them
I'm a bit tempted to buy a printer that has the cheapest refill cartridges because the galling thing with the canon is that buying a B&W and a Colour cartridge costs more then the printer did..........which is why I assume they sell the printers so cheap knowing that you're going to pay through the nose for the ink
That is good for a £25 machine to be honest to last for 5 years, I think my ip4200 cost me £50. i must admit I thought about a laser printer, but I need colour and DVD direct printing.
I know you can get colour laser printers, but they are expensive and are not great for photos.
The only problem I may have with the new printer is using it with linux.
I may get a monochrome laser at some point as well.
That is the same with all printers, be it from Epson, HP, Brother or Canon, they hope to make their money on the ink, but third party ink puts a blot on that.
sony and Microsoft does the same thing with the games consoles, they are sold cheap and they make their money on the games.
I'm not prepared to risk even that with error lights flashing. (and the reset process is akin to launching a nuclear missile)
My Epson inks (4 cartridges), I can get for £5
I'm an Epson fan and use really really cheap compatible inks with no problem...silly cheap. When my children were young (around 18 years ago) I let them use a laser printer as the costs were so cheap then compared to ink jets.
These days my Epson lets me print off the occasional photograph(s) but I did buy a laser a few months ago for business use from home. My wife is a part time lecturer and the laser is simple and fast for knocking out twenty or thirty five or ten page handouts.
I know Epson inks are cheaper than other printers, but I do like Canon, i suppose you like what you like.
I only ever had one Epson injet, that was a stylus 800 or something like that a big beast, really well made and touch plastic, just like my Canon. I tried a Lexmark Z42 after the Epson, but the ink was so expensive, but again it was a really good printer, quality was amazing for it's day. I did look at Epson, my brother uses Epson, but they always seemed to be flimsy and the one my brother had, the plastic used to flex when the printer was in use.
HP, too expensive to run and I have seen too many of them go wrong. I must admit I did have a quick look at a brother, but I did not see printer only models, just all in ones and no CD printing. Epson also seems to be going for the all in one only and no CD printing.
I just hope this new Canon is ok. the wi-fi may be useful, the only problem is Linux, I hope it works.
That is the problem, Not that this new Canon is cheap, it is not expensive as such, but it is not a £30 model.
When I had a look at printers, I was shocked at the price of some, there was printers with scanners that was cheaper than the stand alone Canon, I know they are sold cheaper because the companies hope to make money ont he ink, but it still makes me wonder how they do that.
Something must be missing in the quality and how long will they last?
I had a quick look at a Kodak, my next door neighbour got one, it works well and pretty cheap to refill, but it only got two cartridges and it seems a bit clunky, also we could not get it to print out multiple prints a few days back.
If they make their money off the ink then logically the printers should be built like Soviet tanks and last forever........then they've got you buying their ink for life......:D
I read somewhere that compatible ink cartridges are dodgy so we only use the real ink. Costs a lot more but maybe it's the reason the printer has lasted for so long!
Probably why it's best not to believe everything you read on the internet!
The main problem with compatible cartridges is that they tend to vary so much but it is possible to get some decent ones.
I see what you are getting at, but I suppose they also like people to update now and again. It was the print head that have gone in mine, I never understood why Canon do not build them into the printer, because buying a new print head anyway even if I could would cost as much as a new printer.
There are drivers for it and i have done searches, but not much info.
We will see, not that important, I will get myself a monochrome laser at some point, that will work with Linux.
How long have your printer lasted? My printer is 5 years old and apart from the original ink that came with it have always had third party ink. five years is pretty good for a printer, and it was used a lot.
I don't think I read it on the internet. I might have read it in a computer mag years back. I think my dad believes everything he reads more than I do as he tells everyone not to use compatibles.
We've had it since sometime in 2007 and it doesn't show any signs of snuffing it yet. It's been used a lot and has even survived a house move!
As you say the only downside is the very expensive ink cartridges. Even remanufactured or compatible inks are more expensive than most other makes, but this is because the print head is on the cartridge unlike other makes.
This has it's pros and cons though.
Before this Canon I was an Epson Fan, previous printer was an Epson Stylus Photo 700 that I had for years. Ink cartridges were dirt cheap, but if the printer wasn't used for a month or two the print head always got clogged as the ink dried up, and cleaning it was wasteful and messy. Eventually the print head failed, and after a quote of nearly £70 to replace it from a local shop, the printer was junked and the Canon bought.
I refill the Canon cartridges with decent quality ink, and three years later I am only on my second set of original cartridges. Refilling can be slightly messy, but latex gloves and newspaper helps a lot. I can't notice any difference between prints with the refill ink compared to the original ink in the cartridges. If you refill though you do lose the ability for the printer to show ink levels on your PC, but that's minor. The print heads have clogged once on this set, after the printer wasn't used for a few months, but that was eaasy to solve. Kitchen roll soaked in cleaning fluid that comes with the refill kits, sit the cartridges on the kitchen roll over night, let them dry then run a couple of cleaning cycles with a folded kitchen roll sheet under the print heads inside the printer, and all back to working properly.
Very, very noisy! Clunk-clunk-clunk, but the advantage was I could print from my laptop in the living room and hear it start printing upstairs. So I knew it was doing it.
(Note: It is only a USB printer, it required my upstairs PC to be on)
However, I only managed to refill the cartridges twice and then I got error codes.
As I previously mentioned I couldn't find cheap Canon 3rd party carts so I bought a £30 Epson SX130 (All-in-one)
I don't bother refilling now and I prefer a 4 cart printer to 2 cart.
I get 3 sets with two extra blacks for about £1 per cart, although I have heard some claiming they can find them for 50p (probably in larger quantities)
Personally I don't know why people don't like All-in-ones but I'm sure they have their reasons.
Oh and while I like my Epson SX130, changing the carts is a bit fiddly.
The software doesn't bring the empty cart to the correct position for changing, so I have to retry or force it across with my finger.
I know someone like that
That is pretty good to be honest, I know someone who still got a old HP printer that is almost 15 years old and still going strong, which is very good for HP. But no drivers for windows 7.
the ink for my Pixma IP4200 worked out about £1.50 each, which is not bad, the ink for the new one is more expensive, but I did buy some ink at the same time for just under a tenner for the set, which is not too bad, I just hope they are ok.
My old printer is not that clunky or noisy, but it it did do a lot of head cleaning when it started up. I think most printers do that, maybe it is a way to waste ink so we buy more.
you want clunky, buy a Kodak
I have not refilled since the Lexmark, too messy and not that much cheaper for the canon.
My old Canon is not noisy, but a mates of mine newer one is.
It is not that I don't like all-in-ones, but the quality of the scanner on them seems to be hit and miss. Or you may get a good scanner and printer is not that great.
I have a scanner that cost over £300, so i have no need for a all in one, also I do not think there is any all in ones that have CD printing.
I did buy a all in one a philips, great printer, great scanner, also had fax built in, but oh so expensive to get the ink for. One of the worse mistakes i made with printers.
Epson software is a bit iffy to be honest, always had problem with the software on their printers,