Depressed at the prospect of leaving my ip4500's and ip4300's behind

[nanosec]

Hi,

Long time refiller of ip4300/ip4500 machines.



To make a long story short, when I finally got my hands on a redsetter, I was able to prove that when the printer gave me an unrecognized ink tank error message, simply resetting the tank with the redsetter would clear that error message.

It proved a theory of mine that it wasn't actually a technical problem with a cartridge, but was Canon's way of forcing refillers to buy new cartridges.
When the resetters came, it all changed and that error message 9 times out of ten could be fixed by throwing the cartridge in the resetter.


Life was good, if a printer died, I'd run out and buy a replacement ip4500, no problems. Then it seems Canon moved to get the IP4500's off the market with alarming swiftness. (I don't know what they did, but all of a sudden Staples is blowing them out the door at 39.99, and a few months later so is the The Source (circuit city)

So now, I'm starting to see my printheads get a little worn out, and the printers are starting to get tired with the heavy use I've put on them.

I'd like to stick with the same features as the ip4500, and of course, it brings us to the Ip4600, which is really a response to the resetters on the market and not a step up.

Just how bad is this Ip4600? I'm hearing now you can't reset the waste ink counter??

I'm more than annoyed that most of the problems i've had on my printers have been as a result of their damn chips on the cartridges and nothing more.

I know that the end of life is nearing for my printers and the future is kind of terrifying as I've just gotten to a comfortable place with refilling
the ip4500/ip4300s.

I guess i could extend the life of some of my gear with new print heads, but the cost is a real pissoff considering the printheads are going to cost me as much as if not more than some of my printers have. My concern is if i spring for new printheads and something else fails.


Overall I am happy with the print quality and speed of my Canon printers, but I'm not real happy with the overall sleaziness of this company.
They did such a good job of hiding that they were blocking refilling on the ip4300/ip4500 with "unrecognized ink tank" that very few users caught on to what was really happening. I urge anybody with a resetter that gets this message to try and reset the cartridge again.

I think that they should have got nailed with a class action on this. I know the bastardized ip4600 is a real bitter pill to swallow for those of us with ip4300/ ip4500s.

 

[websnail]

Hold on a second, you're forgetting that you can buy replacement printheads from Canon so there's no need to kiss your printers goodbye just yet...

EDIT: Just seen your "concerns"... To be honest... compared to the newer units the lifetime of these printers is unlikely to hit any issues other than "waste ink absorbers full" which is relatively easy to resolve (and something I'm working on)....

Look around at some of the requests from people with i865's etc... You've got some life in those printers yet... Can't say the same for the iP4600, etc... though as they are now designed to last a lot less time and frankly aren't worth bothering with past one new printhead (if that!).



The best place for replacement printheads, is usually Canon itself (if you're in the USA) or they can at least tell you where you need to buy them from, if elsewhere.

Hope that helps...

 

[msmart]

iP4500s can be found on craigslist with regularity. I picked up a new and a used one there.

 

[leo8088]

Ip4500 and ip4300 are the best high quality general purpose printer Canon ever made. Don't give them up too easily. If I need a printer I will pick up one any time.

 

[avolanche]

Ip4500 and ip4300 are the best high quality general purpose printer Canon ever made. Don't give them up too easily. If I need a printer I will pick up one any time.

How does the ip4200 fit in?Is it as reliable as the ip4300/4500?Reason I ask is that I have 3 new ones that I got at CCity before they went under.

 

[websnail]

How does the ip4200 fit in?Is it as reliable as the ip4300/4500?Reason I ask is that I have 3 new ones that I got at CCity before they went under.

It's still a good printer, just slightly less quality and slower in terms of output... Nothing wrong with them though.

 

[nanosec]

Thanks guys, I think the best solution is just to keep nursing these printers along, going to buy a mp500 printhead off of craigslist today!
Does anybody have any links to waste pad maintenance and purge unit maintenance? (in specifically mp500,ip4300,ip4500)

I'm not sure I'm following how the waste ink is dealt with in Canon printers, I know the r200 for epsons you could redirect the exit tube into a container behind the printer. How does the canon deal with waste ink? Is there something I should be doing to remove the waste ink from the printer?

I am comfortable with opening the printers.

 

[websnail]

Thanks guys, I think the best solution is just to keep nursing these printers along, going to buy a mp500 printhead off of craigslist today!
Does anybody have any links to waste pad maintenance and purge unit maintenance? (in specifically mp500,ip4300,ip4500)

I'm not sure I'm following how the waste ink is dealt with in Canon printers, I know the r200 for epsons you could redirect the exit tube into a container behind the printer. How does the canon deal with waste ink? Is there something I should be doing to remove the waste ink from the printer?

I am comfortable with opening the printers.

LOL... read my mind... I finally went on a massive purge of the workshop/office space today and I've put an iP4200/4300/5200 and 4500 to one side ready to be taken apart in detail to deal with this very issue.

Obviously I've decided to create some specific kits to create the same sort of effect that I have with Epsons but I've no idea how they'll sell as it is that much more involved than opening a trap door.

Re: the Mp500, I'm thinking I'm going to leave that for the moment although I do have one (and an MP830). They're likely to be too much work for a "simple" solution unfortunately... but we'll see.

 

[websnail]

Right... I've learned the hard way about making promises I can't keep so I checked this out and managed to create a video (unedited) with only a few photos (I'll take stills from the video too).

I've a long day ahead tomorrow so it'll probably be a couple of days before I get a chance to edit the whole thing.. sort out my "erm" and "ahh" soundtrack and put it all together.

It is, as I remembered it, something of a learning curve but not impossible and you will need latex gloves (guess who didn't bother - Doh!) Took me about 25 minutes in all but then I was videoing it too.

Watch this space...

 

[nanosec]

Thanks, I may be asking too much, but I am also hoping to see where exactly the purge unit is as well