Don't buy a Canon Pixma

J

JosefK

I've had a Pixma MP610 for about 20 months. The first 12 months it
worked fine, great printing and excellent for scanning. Then it
started to develop the dreaded error 6A00. When that happens you can't
do anything, not printing, not scanning, not copying.
I checked with Canon customer support and they said I would have to
send it to one of their service agents. When I checked with the agents
the cost of sending it back for repair was just under what I paid for
it.
I checked the error online and lo and behold it turns out the error is
not just confined to the MP610. Lots of Canon printers seem to suffer
from it. That struck me as an indication of some kind of design flaw
in the Pixma and maybe other Canon printers too. There was a range of
possible solutions that people had come up with. I tried most of them
but the only one that worked was switching the unit off, moving the
print cartridges to the left by hand and then manipulating (with a
biro) a small slider to the right of where the print heads rest which
seems to act as a kind of squeegee for cleaning the print heads. That
worked for a while and then I got the error back. I reapplied the
solution and once again the MP610 worked for a while. I am now having
to apply this remedy several times a day and it's getting to be a real
pain.
I'm reluctant to give up on the MP610 since it is such a good printer
but with this experience I would not advise anyone to buy one or any
other Canon printer.
Joe
 
H

Hari Seldon

JosefK said:
I've had a Pixma MP610 for about 20 months. The first 12 months it
worked fine, great printing and excellent for scanning. Then it
started to develop the dreaded error 6A00. When that happens you can't
do anything, not printing, not scanning, not copying.
I checked with Canon customer support and they said I would have to
send it to one of their service agents. When I checked with the agents
the cost of sending it back for repair was just under what I paid for
it.
I checked the error online and lo and behold it turns out the error is
not just confined to the MP610. Lots of Canon printers seem to suffer
from it. That struck me as an indication of some kind of design flaw
in the Pixma and maybe other Canon printers too. There was a range of
possible solutions that people had come up with. I tried most of them
but the only one that worked was switching the unit off, moving the
print cartridges to the left by hand and then manipulating (with a
biro) a small slider to the right of where the print heads rest which
seems to act as a kind of squeegee for cleaning the print heads. That
worked for a while and then I got the error back. I reapplied the
solution and once again the MP610 worked for a while. I am now having
to apply this remedy several times a day and it's getting to be a real
pain.
I'm reluctant to give up on the MP610 since it is such a good printer
but with this experience I would not advise anyone to buy one or any
other Canon printer.
Joe

Oh well,

Had a HP Photosmart D7160 here... gave all kinds of colors on photos, except
the colors on my calibrated screen.

Never buy an HP for that part.

Epson, here we come!
 
A

Al

I've had a Pixma MP610 for about 20 months. The first 12 months it
worked fine, great printing and excellent for scanning. Then it
started to develop the dreaded error 6A00. When that happens you can't
do anything, not printing, not scanning, not copying.
I checked with Canon customer support and they said I would have to
send it to one of their service agents. When I checked with the agents
the cost of sending it back for repair was just under what I paid for
it.
I checked the error online and lo and behold it turns out the error is
not just confined to the MP610. Lots of Canon printers seem to suffer
from it. That struck me as an indication of some kind of design flaw
in the Pixma and maybe other Canon printers too. There was a range of
possible solutions that people had come up with. I tried most of them
but the only one that worked was switching the unit off, moving the
print cartridges to the left by hand and then manipulating (with a
biro) a small slider to the right of where the print heads rest which
seems to act as a kind of squeegee for cleaning the print heads. That
worked for a while and then I got the error back. I reapplied the
solution and once again the MP610 worked for a while. I am now having
to apply this remedy several times a day and it's getting to be a real
pain.
I'm reluctant to give up on the MP610 since it is such a good printer
but with this experience I would not advise anyone to buy one or any
other Canon printer.
Joe

I understand your feeling there Joe. I expect stuff to last forever
too. You bought a cheap printer ($82 @ Beat That) and it lasted 20
months before problems cropped up. It sounds like you may do lots of
printing. Could you share what the volume has been on the machine so
we have a better idea of the longevity? You seem to have found a
temporary fix that is not working as well. I love these situations.
Maybe you can sit there and concentrate on the mechanism to fabricate
some fix. I wonder if there is a build up of coagulated ink where that
squeegee is located. A glob of ink can restrict head and cleaning
mechanism movement. You could try deep cleaning it and pulling out
globs with a long instrument. Sometimes it's not practical, but what I
like to do is cut access panels into the cover so I can work freely
for cleaning. The AIO is so tightly packed that it may not be
possible. You could do damage. When I do cut panels, I use a Dremel
like tool with a thin saw. You sound like a bit of an experimenter, so
keep trying before giving up on the printer. in my opinion a printer
is so vital that I always have several available backup devices
installed.
 
B

Bast

Hari said:
Oh well,

Had a HP Photosmart D7160 here... gave all kinds of colors on photos,
except the colors on my calibrated screen.

Never buy an HP for that part.

Epson, here we come!


Epson ? You are a glutton for punishment, aren't you.
Just wait until you see the price to replace a plugged epson printhead, and
they DO all plug up.

Bottom line nowadays seem to be 12 months (or when the original ink runs
out) and you buy a new printer, cheaper than you can fix the old one.
Welcome to the disposable society.
 
M

Max

Epson ? You are a glutton for punishment, aren't you.
Just wait until you see the price to replace a plugged epson printhead, and
they DO all plug up.

Bottom line nowadays seem to be 12 months (or when the original ink runs
out) and you buy a new printer, cheaper than you can fix the old one.
Welcome to the disposable society.

After many Epson head clogs, I vowed never again too.
 
B

Brendan R. Wehrung

Max said:
After many Epson head clogs, I vowed never again too.

Having dissed all three major brands, maybe we should try Terry Prachett's
solution, an imp in a box.

Brendan
 
A

Arthur Entlich

Almost every Epson printer I have ever helped anyone with a clog issue
has been brought back to as new life with a bit of time and a buck worth
of grocery store supplies. In well over 95% of the time, the heads last
nearly forever, and just need some occasional cleaning maintenance. I
have helped well over 10K people with resolving head clogs, and the
problems you mention, while true (they will clog after about 18 months
of hard use) are only true for people who had no interest in cleaning
the printer system or happen to have particularly bad luck, have no
followed proper methods, which I have been supplying free of charge for
10 years or more now), or just happen to fall into that couple percent
of bad luck cases.

Use of really inappropriate cleaning techniques or really poor inks can
cause permanent destruction, but Epson printer still provide the best
overall output, allow for the widest variety of ink types and brands to
work, as well as paper types, have the most available and cheapest work
arounds to the ink chips and OEM cartridges, and produce the most
permanent prints.

I don't like Epson';s business model, but then again, I don't like the
majority of inkjet companies' approach to printer and ink sales
(Currently Kodak may be the exception) but as far as ultimate durability
and longevity, as well as output quality, Epson still has a nice lead
(although it is narrower than in the past due to improvement by their
competitors).

If you print a lot in color, buy an Epson printer which offers a 3rd
party continuous inking system and quality 3rd party inks and you'll not
likely be disappointed for years to come.

Also, get a copy of my free Epson Cleaning Manual by asking, indicating
the printer model you have, via email at:

e-printerhelp(at)mvps(dot)org

(at) = @
(dot) = .


and no, I don't sell a darn thing involved with inkjet cleaning or
repair, and I don't spam, trade or sell names of people who contact me.

Art

If you are interested in issues surrounding e-waste,
I invite you to enter the discussion at my blog:

http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/
 
J

Joel

JosefK said:
I've had a Pixma MP610 for about 20 months. The first 12 months it
worked fine, great printing and excellent for scanning. Then it
started to develop the dreaded error 6A00. When that happens you can't
do anything, not printing, not scanning, not copying.
I checked with Canon customer support and they said I would have to
send it to one of their service agents. When I checked with the agents
the cost of sending it back for repair was just under what I paid for
it.
I checked the error online and lo and behold it turns out the error is
not just confined to the MP610. Lots of Canon printers seem to suffer
from it. That struck me as an indication of some kind of design flaw
in the Pixma and maybe other Canon printers too. There was a range of
possible solutions that people had come up with. I tried most of them
but the only one that worked was switching the unit off, moving the
print cartridges to the left by hand and then manipulating (with a
biro) a small slider to the right of where the print heads rest which
seems to act as a kind of squeegee for cleaning the print heads. That
worked for a while and then I got the error back. I reapplied the
solution and once again the MP610 worked for a while. I am now having
to apply this remedy several times a day and it's getting to be a real
pain.
I'm reluctant to give up on the MP610 since it is such a good printer
but with this experience I would not advise anyone to buy one or any
other Canon printer.
Joe

But why did you buy it then advice other not to buy? What if I advice you
not to buy Epson, HP?
 
T

TJ

Ato_Zee said:
There are design flaws in many retail high price, high tech
products. Manufacturers know of these flaws. They
don't bother to fix them.
So we put up with TV's where the screen goes black
and the firmware hangs until the set is power cycled.
Flaky phones, printers, toys (and a lot of products
with the CE Chinese Export trade mark) so what's
new?

Not just Chinese stuff. There have been thousands of design flaws in the
various Windows versions, a USA product, yet that doesn't stop Microsoft
from selling them, or people from buying them.

TJ
 
H

Hari Seldon

Brendan R. Wehrung said:
Having dissed all three major brands, maybe we should try Terry Prachett's
solution, an imp in a box.

Brendan

I thought the Hi-Ti printers had imps
 
B

Bast

TJ said:
Not just Chinese stuff. There have been thousands of design flaws in the
various Windows versions, a USA product, yet that doesn't stop Microsoft
from selling them, or people from buying them.

TJ

In the early 70's, companies started realizing that if they sold a product
that lasted 50 years.
By the time people needed a replacement, they would be out of business.

Chances are pretty good everyone reading this has something at home that has
gone through 3 generations of owners, still works great, and if you ever do
replace it, the new one falls apart in a couple of months.
 
J

Joel

Ato_Zee said:
There are design flaws in many retail high price, high tech
products. Manufacturers know of these flaws. They
don't bother to fix them.
So we put up with TV's where the screen goes black
and the firmware hangs until the set is power cycled.
Flaky phones, printers, toys (and a lot of products
with the CE Chinese Export trade mark) so what's
new?

Well, the news that we can always pay Chinese to take our plames.
 
J

Joel

Bast said:
In the early 70's, companies started realizing that if they sold a product
that lasted 50 years.
By the time people needed a replacement, they would be out of business.

Chances are pretty good everyone reading this has something at home that has
gone through 3 generations of owners, still works great, and if you ever do
replace it, the new one falls apart in a couple of months.

Very true, and the problem that we now have that after using cheap Chinese
products to kill most if not all other manufactures, they start raising the
price so consumers end up paying more for poor quality.

Of course the Chinese can make standard quality product, but the companies
don't want to pay extra for better quality product.
 

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