Hello Canon, Goodbye Epson

[tom6667]

Well, after less than three years, my Artisan 1430 died. The autopsy said it was "print head delamination". I had cross-contamination between cyan and magenta, causing the magenta to produce a nice shade of blue. While in denial I worked around the problem by printing a sheet of magenta stripes until it finally printed true magenta. Then I would hurry and do my prints before the cyan again leaked into the magenta side. If the printer sat idle for even 20 minutes the magenta channel would again become contaminated with cyan.

I had a long chat with Mike at Precision Colors last week, since that's where I've been getting my ink. Glad I did. He said the print head problem on the 1430 is fairly common. He told me about the Pixma Pro-100 and the amazing rebates! Also, the fact that Canons have user-replaceable print heads! I have one now, and couldn't be happier! This baby rocks! Never could get good black and white from the 1430, and no wonder, only one black. I am so amazed with not only the vibrant colors, but the super black and white prints I'm getting! Thanks, Mike! I just ordered a refill kit from you for the Pixma! I'm not a pro and don't sell my prints so I'm not that concerned about longevity of pigment inks. I'm pretty sure at my age that my dye prints will outlast me by several decades!

 

[jddriver]

Gidday! I am new to this forum and oh dear, I was just getting started with my 1430 only to find that it has this head problem! Oh well so far it prints very well and I feel like I have already got my money's worth. The Canons worry me a great deal, mainly due to their heat type print head, you certainly do not want to run the carts low. Also they seem to have this habit of throwing up B200 errors of which there seems to be no answer other than to throw the thing in the trash. So far with the 4 epsons that I have including one that is 10 years old and still printing great photos I have never had that sort of issue. I use nothing but 3rd party inks.

 

[websnail]

Just as a thought... We've had a few customers take a risk and purchase in replacement epson printheads from Aliexpress for P50 and PX710W printers and they found that they worked while resolving issues such as thoroughly clogged black (a regular problem with the PX series it seems) or delamination (as described above).

I've got one in for an L800 we received with a de-laminated printhead way back so it's on the list to do (not done yet), but if you've nothing to lose and $80 or so to burn then it might be worth considering...

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&SearchText=epson+1430+printhead

Hasten to add this is a very different proposition to the Canon printheads that appear on Aliexpress, eBay, etc... where they don't appear to be well remanufactured at all.

 

[jddriver]

That is good to know, but then you have to work out how to fit it.

 

[websnail]

That is good to know, but then you have to work out how to fit it.

This is true... and that's where youTube and various service manuals, etc... all come in useful. every day is a school day.