Thoughts on the Canon iP7250?

[The Hat]

I would air a bit on caution with this one, the giveaway here are refilled cartridges, is there damage to the print head ?,
could you ask for a nozzle print if thats ok then your good to go even at the 120 mark.

The 9000 will happily work 99% of the time printing on A4 paper and with the large amount of cartridges it has on board
youll not need to refilling very often, plus you can occasionally print A3 size whenever you have a need for it,
however it cant do banner prints, its limit is 594 mm length (All most 2 feet).

 

[Lumi]

The seller willingly posted a pic of the print test page, but it was blurry so she has also confirmed via eBay message that there are no streaks on the colored boxes and no broken lines on the black nozzle test area. The current inks are from INKredible and I am guessing this is the kit that is currently installed. Are there any problems with 3rd-party carts? I've never used them before, I always bought the original Canon carts and just refilled those, on my iP3000, I just used the carts that came with the printer.

The seller would not go below 120 and although it is expensive for a "mere printer" for me, I hope it would last me years of good service.

As for "banner prints," I am aware it will only take A3 paper, but I've printed out banners before on A4 paper and tri-color carts --- obviously some sticky tape and cutting is required but I figure stringing 3-4 A3 sheets would look stunning compared to 4-6 sheets of A4. Look better and less work cutting and aligning. With the ability to print in color with impunity (I love what doing my own refills allows me to print!!), I should be able to make some stunning banners! Pity they won't be waterproof....

 

[The Hat]

Once there is a good nozzle check then the 9000 is a good bargain,
but as for the inks and cartridges well ! ! !

Only use genuine OEM cartridges and good quality inks and your troubles will be few
plus your savings will be huge, and the ink differences are only slight.

Think about this for just one minute, a complete set of these Inkredible cartridges are just about the same price as one new OEM cartridge,
that should tell you straight away what kind of rubbish they really are.

Check out octoinkjet.co.uk for just about everything youll ever need for refilling
plus they also have empty OEM CLI-8 cartridges so theres no need to buy new ones.

Keep the rubbish Inkredable cartridges but only for their on board chips, you may be able to be reset these chips
and they could come in handy later if needed. (Dont use the Carts dough)

When you get your new printer up and running and for whatever reason in the future you get or notice poor print quality,
STOP printing straight away and fact find the cause of it immediately,
poor print quality will prematurely cause an early end to your print head.

 

[Lumi]

I agree re: INKredible inks. I was initially impressed when the seller said she had replaced all inks, but as a set of inks for less than 15 (they sure must get a lot of business but at that price) it is just scary! I had planned to replace the carts and quickly flush out all the old ink, but I looked at an OEM set of carts in Amazon and 92 is just too expensive to get in one go. I do know Octoinkjet has a kit for the Pro 9000, but I did not know they had empty OEM carts as well. Rough estimate is 70 for OEM carts + the starter refill kit. A complete kit for 70 vs just carts for 92... sweet!

I'm a bit unsure about the "empty" carts though... I mean obviously these are OEM carts that have been "discarded" by people who do not know their worth, but I'm worried about dried-up ink or bad sponges due to it being empty for a while. Have you had much experience regarding these vs new OEM carts?

Any advice or suggestions for the initial print runs? I won't be getting the replacement carts and ink for a few days but I plan to make a few prints, head cleaning routines, and then a few more prints.

What exactly are you talking about regarding the INKredible cartridge chips?

And just in case, where can I look if I need a replacement Pro 9000 print head?

Thanks! I'll be off to pick up the printer this afternoon!

 

[Lumi]

Had a leisurely drive to the seller's house... the lady was nice enough and the collection was straightforward. I've seen the dimensions listed on the Canon website and "measured it out" with my trusty measuring tape, but damn, I was still surprised at how big it is! Took the family for a bit of shopping as well, so we just got home.

I brought the printer up to my man-cave, unplugged the MP230 and replaced it with the Pro 9000. My son's PC automatically recognized it, looked for drivers for it, and done! In the meantime, I opened up the lid to have a look at the carts.... and was immediately disappointed. 8 carts with various levels of ink, thankfully none were empty. However, 2 of them looked like one brand, another 2 looked like another brand, and the remaining 4 were all different from each other! The seller said her husband was a photographer and did his own prints (they also have a iP4000) but he's not been doing it lately as they just had a baby, hence the sale. I guess he just bought inks from wherever was cheapest and ran with that. None of the carts were visibly self-refilled, though I guess I'll need to peel off the top labels to check there as well.

I did a cleaning test and a nozzle check and was disappointed straight away:

The first thing I noticed was that the "Red" bar looked more "pastel yellow" than anything resembling red. Next thing was that the colors were very muted. However, the thing that scared me the most was the faint streak at the photo magenta bar. I immediately considered returning the printer and getting my money back, but I tried a deep clean first.

Thankfully, it seemed that the streak was getting fainter so I ran a second deep clean. Damn difficult testing as the colors are very light!

Third nozzle check and I think I can still make out a faint streak but I'm no longer sure if it's really there or just my imagination. I guess it's at least better than before!

I made the printer print a few highly-colorful images just to get the inks flowing and again, I was disappointed. I'm familiar with a slight distortion of the sharpness/brightness/fullness of colors when comparing a printout with the image on a computer screen, but the printout was just very..... poor. Like all the colors were muted out. I guess I should be thankful that I've not noticed any streaking so the printhead is at least working and healthy, so at this point I really hope a new set of used OEM carts + proper inks would fix the "muted out" issue. Any idea how much ink is "in the system"? How many deep cleans should I do before I flush out the old ink and be working with the new ink? I initially though I'd just print stuff out and the old ink will eventually be replaced by new ink, but then the "special colors" may not be used as much so the old ink might stay in there for a good while so a uniform suction/wasteage via deep clean should do the trick. I hope.



EDIT: Am I good with the current drivers as well or should I manually search for and install a driver (and software) for the Pro 9000?

 

[The Hat]

It looks like youre very good to go, now are youre ready for this, STOP doing the deep cleaning sessions
they only fill up your waste pads quicker, stick with normal head cleans.

There will be no need to flush out the old inks, once you put in your OEM cartridges with proper ink
then the colours will come up very quickly, nozzle prints are always very light anyway so don't worry.

The drivers you have are most lightly the current ones so leave them to get on with their job,
all in all the only thing left for you to do now is a bit of shopping.

Just start off with small bottle of each ink, some syringes, needles and a resetter
then decide if you want to get some empty cartridges while youre there.

If unsure then ask for some advice from the owner Martin
and he will put a complete refill package together for you.

The empty cartridges will just need a purging of the old ink thats left inside them,
then they will be as good as new again, while youre waiting on your supplies to arrive
do a bit of research on good refilling practices. (Not suggesting you need it like)

Until you get proper inks you wont get good quality anything except black text printing so good luck with your new toy
and in a couple of months you wont know how you ever managed without it,
check out Lidl for good cheap plain and photo glossy paper..

 

[Lumi]

Thanks for that, The Hat! I normally do normal cleans but I did deep clean this time just to be a bit more "thorough" as the printer is "new to me."

I went ahead and ordered one of each cart plus the Pro 9000 starter refill kit, so once that comes in, I should be all set. Damn, this is way too much money to be throwing at a printer considering my "needs," but I figure as I've bought a big-ass printer anyway, might as well do everything properly. I guess I'd rather spend money now and keep it running for ages than be skimpy on the funding and end up with another expensive paperweight.

Re: refilling -- I do remember articles and videos of "purging" the carts, but this was mostly done when people do "on top" refilling. I was thinking of doing a "through the sponge" method. Does either method work better than the other? When I had my iP3000, one problem of the "through the sponge" method was finding that small hole at the plastic barrier, so if the CLI-8 carts are the same, then I know that's one difficulty.

Thanks for the heads up on Lidl. I didn't know they sold paper, but then again I've never been there.

Let me just put forward a few questions that are still un-answered:
1. Any particular thoughts regarding the two different refilling techniques?
2. What were you trying to say about the INKredible cart's chips?
3. Where can I go for a Pro 9000 print head if I need one?
4. Is the nozzle check really supposed to look like that especially the "Red" bit?

Plus a couple more:
5. Is there a good test-print page that will allow me to do something like a nozzle check but with better, fuller colors?
6. Is there a way to take care of the inevitable "full waste ink pad" problem?


Thanks!

 

[The Hat]

Most guys would never consider or ever need to own an A3 printer,
therere only real need is for easy affordable trouble free A4 printing and refilling.

If an A3 printer can give you all of these pleasures then I reckon a good clean out of your work space
is recommended to accommodate the new beast in your life. (An A3 Printer)

Just get one before you waste your money on something that will eat into your wallet constantly
especially if you have a couple of kids in the house. (Loads of printing)

If on the other hand you print rarely or occasionally then the newer Canon A4 printers will work surprisingly great for you,
therere really good at the job of print and go just like a laser is but with colour, if used sparingly then the cost is not as noticeable.

The method you choose to refill the CLI-8 cartridges is down to you, use the one you like the best and are most comfortable with,
thats why it would be better for you to do a reappraisal of both methods again, just to be sure.

Lumi Let me just put forward a few questions that are still un-answered:

1. Any particular thoughts regarding the two different refilling techniques?
2. What were you trying to say about the INKredible cart's chips?
3. Where can I go for a Pro 9000 print head if I need one?
4. Is the nozzle check really supposed to look like that especially the "Red" bit?

Plus a couple more:
5. Is there a good test-print page that will allow me to do something like a nozzle check but with better, fuller colors?
6. Is there a way to take care of the inevitable "full waste ink pad" problem?

(1) Thats not a fair question; I will always choose my own preferred method as the better one (Top Fill)

(2) The Inkredible carts chips may be the resettable type, but I dough it, if they are then keep in case one of your OEMs goes duff.

(3) The Pro 9000 print head is fairly easy to get, try Tasktron in Surry, code No. QY6-0076-000

(4) Normal nozzle checks are always pretty light, there not meant to show the correct intense colours at all,
just all of the representative colour segments in the head and if any are missing
then the heads will need a bit of cleaning to correct that, its a non destructive print-out method.

Here is one of my printouts:-

(5) The best and only test page is the nozzle check but you can use something like this to check you colour output.
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/downloadable_2/frontier_color57s_2.zip or any others from northlight-images.co.uk

But only if you have a perfect nozzle print first, never try to fix any poor output with a printed document other than the standard nozzle check.

(6) The waste pads can be checked by entering Service Mode on your printer, it will show you just how much ink that has been deposited in there,
normally you have years before it fill up, its not a big priority with a Canon printer unless you have been using a CISS.

 

[PeterBJ]

For checking photo print, here is a test image "Printer Evaluation Image", that I like very much, as there is an instruction telling you what to look for.

The image: http://www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi048/essay.html and the instruction: http://www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi049/essay.html

A link to the German refill method: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2465 and the top filling method: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=40766#p40766

 

[Lumi]

For checking photo print, here is a test image "Printer Evaluation Image", that I like very much, as there is an instruction telling you what to look for.

The image: http://www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi048/essay.html and the instruction: http://www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi049/essay.html

A link to the German refill method: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2465 and the top filling method: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=40766#p40766

Hehehe... to be honest, I've never considered an A3 printer until you mentioned the Pro 9000. Plus the fact that the people selling iP4500s at this time are about a 2+ hour drive one way, while the seller of the Pro 9000 was just a 30min drive. Although I've spent more money on this printer, I hope it'll last me a long while and will have some cool projects in A3 size.

I play tabletop roleplaying as well and I told my GM today that I just got this printer and now we're planning to print out some dungeon terrain. It would've been a pain to do this in A4 and stick them together but with an A3 layout, it'll be more awesome and less work.

So it's basically something new and different. Plain old A4 vs new and exciting A3? Hehehe....

Regarding cleaning out my work area.... not quite onto that yet. The wife is planning some re-arrangement of the house furniture so I'll be waiting until that's over before I do anything.

(1) Thats not a fair question; I will always choose my own preferred method as the better one (Top Fill)

I would love to hear why you prefer the top fill method over the other one! Do not worry if my "preferred method" is the other method, I have my reasons for that and I want to know what made you think that the top fill was the best one. I'm hoping to learn something I may have missed.

(2) The Inkredible carts chips may be the resettable type, but I dough it, if they are then keep in case one of your OEMs goes duff.

Ah, I see. Gotcha!

(3) The Pro 9000 print head is fairly easy to get, try Tasktron in Surry, code No. QY6-0076-000

Thanks for that link! Seems like almost 100 for a new printhead, ouch! I'll be sure to take care of this one! At least now I know where to go to and how much for a printhead.

(6) The waste pads can be checked by entering Service Mode on your printer, it will show you just how much ink that has been deposited in there,
normally you have years before it fill up, its not a big priority with a Canon printer unless you have been using a CISS.

I have a stinking feeling that I lost my iP3000 to a waste pad problem. I do remember opening up one of my printers to see what the waste pad was like. Should I worry about my Pro 9000? How exactly do I enter Service Mode and check?


@ PeterBJ: Thanks very much for the links! And thanks for reminding me of the name of the "other" refill method!