Canon planned obsolesence?

[turbguy]

Based on some bad personal experience, I'm getting the impression that within the last 4 or 5 years Canon has designed their print heads to last a relatively short time, after which that failure disables the entire machine. Did I just have bad luck, or are you guys getting limited usage out of your Canons now too?

I forget the model of the previous Canon I had, but it used cartridges identical to the CLI-8's, but without the chip. It printed well for years, and when that one died, it didn't owe me a thing. A little less than 4 years ago, I bought an MP610 all in one because that was one of the last models still in production that used the resettable CLI-8 cartridges, and the next generation of printers used cartridges that held less ink, IIRC. My BCI-8 cartridges had been refilled 8 times when I got the message along the lines of 'Print Head Not Recognized' or "Wrong Print Head', after which the machine wouldn't power up. No green light; nada.

I can find similar stories on the web on a variety of different models of Canon printers. Are those of you who are heavy printers seeing the same thing, or did I just have bad luck? I was considering a used ip4500 but I'm leery of getting something whose life expectancy is limited. I'm getting the impression that the Epsons may be replacing Canons as the printer of choice for longevity and refilling although they use more ink - apparently because of their cleaning cycle.

I am convinced that Canon's drop-on-demand print head technology (thermal bubble jet) is more prone to wear and failure than Epson's piezo technology. Just reflect on what has to happen to eject a drop in a thermal print head. A large pulse of current has to be injected into a resistor (heater) in each nozzle to boil a portion on the ink. And this happens at repeatedly at an extremely high frequency. There are REALLY violent actions going on in each nozzle. Canon attempts to "protect" the head with temperature monitoring and cooling pauses during extended printing. But I believe they have not achieved optimum operation. I believe that Canon's marketing department pushes the engineering department to raise printing speed (ie, higher nozzle firing frequencies) in order to stay with the competition. And the printer only has to make it through a one year warranty period....

That's why I slow down printing on my Canon's to the "quite" mode. Firing frequency is reduced.

Epson (piezo) print heads eject ink via a small crystal or ceramic structure that changes shape/volume and displaces ink out the nozzle opening. Very little current is used. Only VOLTAGE is applied to the crystal, and heating is much less of an issue (although there is still some "wear and tear" on a microscopic level).


Wayne

 

[colintivy]

I have a sturdy i905D which has served me for many years since new (approx 2000!) but it suddenly stopped printing any colour at all. I tried the built in cleaning process a few times but to no avail. I have used BB-BCI6 cartridges from Premier in UK for most of the time because they seemed to last longer than the originals as well as being cheaper, colours were excellent in photographs, indistinguishable from those printed in a small HP 460 miniprinter (which has to have standard HP carts, clones just will not work) I gritted teeth and sought a replacement head QY6 0050000 only to be told that Canon cannot supply them now and there were no existing stocks in UK. Do you think that there is any prospect of doing a satisfactory cleaning job and, if so, which one??

 

[MP640]

....My computer and peripherals are all on an Isobar power strip which I turn off when I'm not using the computer, so they're not continuously exposed to power line spikes.

I have learned the printer should be in a powered socket at all times, even when it's turned off. If you don't, it will do more cleaning cycles.

 

[The Hat]

I have a sturdy i905D which has served me for many years since new (approx 2000!) but it suddenly stopped printing any colour at all. I tried the built in cleaning process a few times but to no avail. I have used BB-BCI6 cartridges from Premier in UK for most of the time because they seemed to last longer than the originals as well as being cheaper, colours were excellent in photographs, indistinguishable from those printed in a small HP 460 miniprinter (which has to have standard HP carts, clones just will not work) I gritted teeth and sought a replacement head QY6 0050000 only to be told that Canon cannot supply them now and there were no existing stocks in UK. Do you think that there is any prospect of doing a satisfactory cleaning job and, if so, which one??

There are still some available if your look hard enough for the i900, i905, iP6000D
and Pixus 900PD part number Canon QY6-0050

http://www.thesuppliesshop.co.uk/catasp/pdetl.asp?fldStockID=14244

 

[turbguy]

I have a sturdy i905D which has served me for many years since new (approx 2000!) but it suddenly stopped printing any colour at all. I tried the built in cleaning process a few times but to no avail. I have used BB-BCI6 cartridges from Premier in UK for most of the time because they seemed to last longer than the originals as well as being cheaper, colours were excellent in photographs, indistinguishable from those printed in a small HP 460 miniprinter (which has to have standard HP carts, clones just will not work) I gritted teeth and sought a replacement head QY6 0050000 only to be told that Canon cannot supply them now and there were no existing stocks in UK. Do you think that there is any prospect of doing a satisfactory cleaning job and, if so, which one??

Cleaning is worth a try, but potentially you have a bad purge unit as the potential cause (printing of one color would have ceased after a cart change is the most common symptom of a bad purge unit), or you could have a bad "motherboard" which is quite likely, which a new printhead will not solve.

If it still prints SOMETHING (text), try cleaning the printhead (exhaustive instructions on this forum) and if that fails, set up an automatic Ebay search for your printhead, and Ebay will email you when a matching listing appears..

There's one there now, but cost is WAY too high...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sealed-Cano...7522127?pt=US_Print_Heads&hash=item232067b24f

Here's a cheaper one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Canon-P...5165907?pt=US_Print_Heads&hash=item2c681b1353

Wayne