Help me choose a Canon printer

[kiki443]

Hello,

I am looking for a new printer with color ink, preferablly a MegaTank one (the one you can refill), with ADF (must have ADF).

Right now I have Canon Pixma G2415, it's a great printer, had no problems with it at all (except a small issue with air bubles forming in the ink tubes, but I fixed it), the problem is, it doesn't have ADF, which could be very usefull to me, as I have to do a lot of scanning.

So I am considering a new one, and I narrowed down the choice between Pixma G7000 and Maxify GX 7050. Maxify even has duplex ADF, wich is even better, but it's almost twice as expensive as Pixma. It also has a touch screen interface, now I don't care much about that, however it would be used in poor lighted room and it would be helpfull to have an illuminated screen, Pixma has dotted screen without illumination.

Now there is something else I need to know, Maxify uses all pigment ink, while Pixma uses black pigment and rest are dye (like my current printer), do I need to worry about clogs, pigment ink clogs much faster than dye?
I will be printing approx. 10-20 pages a month, and all are usually in the same day, and than the printer would be sitting there waiting most of the time (I know... a large investment for such a use case, but I need ADF, and these two are only ones available from canon in my Country, that have tanks for refilling)
Despite the situation my current printer never cloged not even the black pigment in two years that I have it, so it gives me hope that if I go for Maxify, I won't have such problems with it, but I am still worried, it costs 2 full sallaries for me, I don't want to be forced to replace the printheads after a few months.
Speaking of printheads, I can't find any information if they are even replaceable for Maxify, my current printer have printheads which can be easilly pulled out and cleaned manually, or put in a isoprophyl solution if they clog, and I think the Pixma G7000 has the same ability, but I am not sure if I can do that on Maxify, or are they screwed in or something?
(That is also a reason I didn't consider Epson - as it has a printhead that is fully integrated and can't be pulled out or replaced, at least not as simple as moving a lever and pulling it out), The maxify also has user-replaceable maintanance catridge, while Pixma has to be taken to repair for internal pads replacement, there is another reason for me to opt for Maxify.

Regarding clogs, I work in print shop - we do a lot of t-shirt printing and stuff, so we have a DTF printer, and a DTG printer, both are using pigment white, and it's a hell, it clogs up extremelly fast, every evening, I have to clean the capping stations, vipers and arround printheads, especially white, and put destillled watter into capping station before manually closing it, to prevent white from drying and clogging the print heads, it happened twice already within a year, forcing us to replace the printheads.
I just want to know if I will need to do the special treatment like that for Maxify printer as well?

 

[Artur5]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Answering your questions in no particular order....

1- DTG printers use a totally different stuff from the water based dye pigment inks used by regular inkjet printers. We’re comparing apples and oranges.

2- According to my experience with Canon printers, there’s no significant difference on dye vs pigment inks for what regards clog issues. More important is the quality of the product. OEM inks will give you little trouble, provided you take proper care of the printer. Third party ink is a different story. The cheaper products probably will shorten the lifespan of the printhead but, again, it isn’t a matter of dye vs pigment but of good vs. bad ink.

3- Concerning your choice of these two models, yes they’re very expensive, I checked Canon official shop and the GX7050 is priced at 700 euro.
I wonder if you really need a tank printer, printing only 10-20 pages per month. Classic Maxify printers use cartridges instead of tanks and are considerably cheaper, For instance, the MB5150 has roughly the same specifications of the Maxify GX7050 and costs 200 euros.
The fact that cartridge based Maxifys haven’t a maintenance cart, it doesn’t matter in your case, because the waste ink pads will never get full, if you print 200 pages per year.
No need to worry about the cost of consumables either. The black cart contains 70ml of ink and that would last you forever, Color carts are smaller (20ml) but, at your printing rate, this is enough for maybe a couple of years.

4- Printheads for the classic Maxify range are available from reputable dealers. I don’t know about the Maxify tank models.
If you want to clean the printhead out of the machine, removing the printhead isn’t as straightforward as a Pixma, but it’s no rocket science either, Yes, you need to remove two screws and a plastic part, but once you have done it once it’s easy. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t advice to extract the printhead for cleaning. If regular or deep cleaning cycles can’t fix the issue, probably you won’t get better results with manual systems, Besides, you’re likely to run into issues later because Maxify printheads can be damaged easily if submerged in cleaning solution, unless they’re very, very thoroughly dried before reinserting them into the printer.

 

[pharmacist]

I had to replace my duplex A3+ desktop office printer (Epson WF-7525) and was looking at the ecotank printers.....but for the price difference between the Epson ET-16600 and the similar WF-7840 wa a huge price difference of 3.5x times. Exactly the same specification but the difference is the built-in CISS in the ET-16600 for the price difference of about €600 I could buy plenty of ink and refillables and resetters or theoretically install a CISS to make it myself an ecotank avant la lettre and would still save 50%.

Just buy 2 sets of refillables and if possible a resetter for the carts and when one or more cartridges are registered as empty, remove them and install the other set. Meanwhile you have plenty of time to refill and reset the set of cartridges you have removed from the printer, while the second set is feeding the printer to print hundreds of pages of paper before you will have to swap the cartridges again.

 

[The Hat]

a MegaTank one

Just because you buy an ecotank printer, doesn’t mean you’ll have trouble free printing for ages, these ecotank printers can be just as much trouble as a self-install CISS..

 

[kiki443]

I wonder if you really need a tank printer, printing only 10-20 pages per month. Classic Maxify printers use cartridges instead of tanks and are considerably cheaper, For instance, the MB5150 has roughly the same specifications of the Maxify GX7050

I had to replace my duplex A3+ desktop office printer (Epson WF-7525) and was looking at the ecotank printers.....but for the price difference between the Epson ET-16600 and the similar WF-7840 wa a huge price difference of 3.5x times. Exactly the same specification but the difference is the built-in CISS in the ET-16600 for the price difference of about €600 I could buy plenty of ink and refillables and resetters or theoretically install a CISS to make it myself an ecotank avant la lettre and would still save 50%.

Just buy 2 sets of refillables and if possible a resetter for the carts and when one or more cartridges are registered as empty, remove them and install the other set. Meanwhile you have plenty of time to refill and reset the set of cartridges you have removed from the printer, while the second set is feeding the printer to print hundreds of pages of paper before you will have to swap the cartridges again.

Just because you buy an ecotank printer, doesn’t mean you’ll have trouble free printing for ages, these ecotank printers can be just as much trouble as a self-install CISS..

Thank you for sugestions.

Originally I had an Epson SX2030 (I think, can't remember the exact model), before Pixma G2415, and the very reason I switch was the catridge issue, so I bought a brand new original ink catridge about 15 EUR back then, put it into the printer, all was fine, catridge full and everything, print out 10 pages full collor, and it says BK catridge not recognised, turn off-on, nothing pull out the catridge and re insert, nothing, pull out the catridge, wipe the contacts on both the catridge and catridge unit, nope, still not recognised, buy another black catridge for another 15 EUR, put it in, it works, print a few like 3-4 pages, BK catridge not recognised. Again., It happened nomerous times before with different catridges, but that was the turning point when I decided to not go with catridges ever again, I mean during the lifespan of that Epson I spent over 300 EUR on ink that I basically just put into garbage.

Buy Canon G2415 about 150 EUR it cames with set of bottles of ink (14000 pages black (2 bottles)/7000 pages of CMY each), I used it for two years now and I still have over 60 % ink left - the original ink I put into the printer, haven't yet touched the 2nd black bottle. And I wouldn't change that inktank system for anything, if it only had ADF, but still I couldn't afford a printer with ADF back then, and had little reason to go for it, but now it's a necesity.

The MB5150 is trully much cheaper than both that I consider, but I am still repeled by the experience I had with catridges before, and I did some research, the Canon catridge based printers have a tendency of B200 errors, forcing you to ultimatelly replace the entire printer, not saying this one will have the issue, just pointing out that it's another issue that doesn't happen on inktank printers.

2- According to my experience with Canon printers, there’s no significant difference on dye vs pigment inks for what regards clog issues. More important is the quality of the product. OEM inks will give you little trouble, provided you take proper care of the printer. Third party ink is a different story. The cheaper products probably will shorten the lifespan of the printhead but, again, it isn’t a matter of dye vs pigment but of good vs. bad ink.

The OEM inks are the only ones available though, at least they are cheap enough where third party inks don't make much of a sense, so many retailers don't even have them on stock, as people mostly opt for a slightlly more expensive original ink.

So as expected Pigment ink shouldn't be a problem, I had used pigment black in my current printer and never had any issues, GX 7050 has all pigment so I was worried things will be different than.

Concerning your choice of these two models, yes they’re very expensive, I checked Canon official shop and the GX7050 is priced at 700 euro

No need to worry about the cost of consumables either. The black cart contains 70ml of ink and that would last you forever, Color carts are smaller (20ml) but, at your printing rate, this is enough for maybe a couple of years.

Well the price is prety accurate to my situation as well.
the PIXMA G7040 - specifically the one I am comparing here is priced at 400 EUR.
ragarding consumables I calculated that as well:

Maxify GX 7050 (GI-56 ink set) - about 30 EUR per bottle - 6000 est. black pages/14000 est. color pages, meaning 0,005 EUR for a single black page or 0,002 EUR for a single color page.

PIXMA 7040 (GI-40 ink set) - about 10 EUR per bottle of CMY or 13 EUR for BK, sufficient for 6000 pg for BK or 7700 pg for CMY each to calculate cost per page: 0,0021 EUR for black / 0,0012 EUR for color

MB5150 (PGI2500XL) - about 35 EUR for BK catridge or 25 EUR for CMY catridges each; black is estimated at 2500 pages while CMY are estimated at arround 1400 pages ( took an average for calculating, it varies between each catridge 1295-1755 pages) - the price per page is as follows: for black: 0,014 EUR/page, for CMY: 0,018 EUR/page.

To me it seems much more long-term efficency has the PIXMA 7040 - at least when it comes to consumables.

here 400 EUR doesn't seem that bad when comparing the cost per page, and you also get 3 bottles of black and 1 of CMY each, so the ink alone costs 69 EUR, of course you get ink catridges with MB5150 and combined they are 110 EUR- kinda makes you wonder about the quality of the printer itself for the overall price of 200 EUR.

4- Printheads for the classic Maxify range are available from reputable dealers. I don’t know about the Maxify tank models.
If you want to clean the printhead out of the machine, removing the printhead isn’t as straightforward as a Pixma, but it’s no rocket science either, Yes, you need to remove two screws and a plastic part, but once you have done it once it’s easy. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t advice to extract the printhead for cleaning. If regular or deep cleaning cycles can’t fix the issue, probably you won’t get better results with manual systems, Besides, you’re likely to run into issues later because Maxify printheads can be damaged easily if submerged in cleaning solution, unless they’re very, very thoroughly dried before reinserting them into the printer.

I am aware of this, and resort to manual cleaning only if deep cleaning doesn't help at all, and submerging the printhead itself not the contacts, but even so I would leave it to dry for 48 hrs before re-inserting.
Submerging is a very last resort I would take, still having a simple way of doing it is very welcome.

 

[kiki443]

Sorry to necromancing an old thread, however It's connected with the previous conversation.

So, After some thinking, I have decided that I need in fact an A3 printer, with all features mentioned above, as I sometimes need to print and scan A3 formats.

So A3, CISS, ADF, and wired Network are mandatory, Duplex is optional.

Since Canon (to my knowledge) does not offer a printer with all these, (it's either CISS A4 or Catridge based A3 or CISS A3 with no ADF), I found a printer on the Epson site.

Here I have two options Epson L15150 and Epson L15160, the L15160 is about 10€ higher than L15150.

Bassically both have pretty much the same price as Maxify GX7050 from before, and they also have identical features, same speed, same functions, all have Duplex ADF and Duplex printing, they all relly on pigment based ink etc.
The only difference I see here between Canon and Epson is that Epson (both) have A3 format, while Maxify from Canon is A4.
That being said I have to go with Epson, and that means choosing between the two models I listed, so the question is: What is the real difference between L15150 and L15160, they seem identical at first glance, perhaps L15160 is faster (or at least that is what Epson marketing video says)?, Which one would be better?

Now without repeating the question, I worry about clogs, so How is Epson pigment Ink standing in that area, is it more or less prone to cloging the printheads compared to Canon?

 

[The Hat]

is it more or less prone to cloging the printheads compared to Canon?

I never use Epson printers so can’t say, but Canon very seldom if ever clog..

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I worry about clogs, so How is Epson pigment Ink standing in that area, is it more or less prone to cloging the printheads compared to Canon?

It's not the cse that Epson or Canon are clogging less - it's the low printing frequency causing lots of the clogging issues

I will be printing approx. 10-20 pages a month, and all are usually in the same day, and than the printer would be sitting there waiting most of the time

Such long idle times are the primary reason for clogs - on Epson or Canon printers.

I rather would recommend you to separate the scanner and the printer - get a lower cost printer - with a replaceable printhead if you feel safer with it - and get a separate document scanner - do you really need an A3 scanner ?

And keep your printer busy on a more regular and frequent basis - just print a page twice a week - e.g. the news headlines with an image in between.

 

[The Hat]

Such long idle times are the primary reason for clogs - on Epson or Canon printers. just print a page twice a week - e.g. the news headlines with an image in between.

That’s the real truth in owing any inkjet printer…

 

[kiki443]

It's not the cse that Epson or Canon are clogging less - it's the low printing frequency causing lots of the clogging issues


Such long idle times are the primary reason for clogs - on Epson or Canon printers.

I rather would recommend you to separate the scanner and the printer - get a lower cost printer - with a replaceable printhead if you feel safer with it - and get a separate document scanner - do you really need an A3 scanner ?

And keep your printer busy on a more regular and frequent basis - just print a page twice a week - e.g. the news headlines with an image in between.

Ok, I understand, I might be a bit to paranoid about it, and it may never happen, like I said right now my Canon printer has pigment black, and it never cloged, ever, regardless of my infrequeent printing.
I just wanted to know if for any reason, Epson ink is more prone to cloging which would mean that I need to be more carefull with it, regardless I would likelly go with that printer anyway.

As for your advice, I did consider it, however, I need a scaner mostly for copying, and separating them means I have to scan to PC first and than print from PC, meaning I have to be there the whole time If say I have like 20 documents, I need to repeat the same scan to PC> open the file > configure print> print, procedure 20 times, 40 if they are double sided. With them attached, I only have to put the 20 documents into ADF and press copy, I can than move on to something else while the printer does it's thing, if the printer can do duplex that's even better, now sure I don't need to do this very frequentlly, but when I do need to, than it is a good thing to have.
Unless there is a way to automate the proccess, scaner scans the document, and printer prints it in one go, with PC in the middle serving as a middle-man in between, but without me having to controll the proccess.
Now I don't really need an A3 scanner, it would be welcome to have, if I happen to need it at some point, but it's not neccesary, the A3 printer however is, and they come together so they are both A3.