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Canon Pixma iX4000 printer - needs CLA - recommendations for a suitable technician please?
- Thread starter Glenn
- Start date
My experience is that a repair can cost more than a new printer
Heads left to soak on a pad soaked with proprietary head cleaner then flushed each channel in turn with cleaner from a a syringe. Finally flushed with distilled water and properly dried before remounting. Examined the heads with a loupe and all seemed clean. The printer had the same issue unfortunately. Accumulated dirt on the rollers has been suggested but ran out of time and patience. A job for another day. Found the service manual but no disassembly instructions. No YouTube video. Typical!
Can I just say that this printer model dates from late 2006. It is not a true "photo printer", only using 4 basic CMYK inks and no greys inks. It is no longer supported by Canon and, really, is long past its retirement date.
I would also ask, if the owner is penny conscious, have they been using third party inks?
As a woman with Yorkshire heritage, even I would say it may be time to let the moths out of the wallet and get something newer and better suited to photographic work? From personal experience, once a printer gets to this stage, it is nature's way of reminding you that nothing lasts forever, especially when it comes to old technology .
I would also ask, if the owner is penny conscious, have they been using third party inks?
As a woman with Yorkshire heritage, even I would say it may be time to let the moths out of the wallet and get something newer and better suited to photographic work? From personal experience, once a printer gets to this stage, it is nature's way of reminding you that nothing lasts forever, especially when it comes to old technology .
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You know Joanna, I sometimes think that about myself. So true, so true.
Yes, I am conscious of it being an old printer Joanna. Having seen the work she produced with it in the past it has to be said you'd never know it was a four ink device. Beautiful A3 prints on Ilford Galleria paper and the ink is original Canon. Many of the prints were club competition winners and significantly better than my own poor fare.
I think the real issue is that she hasn't used it in a very long time and the ink reservoirs were bone-dry when I first saw it. The quality of the printing, beyond the dragging of the ink in dark areas, still appears very good and it seems a shame to replace the machine without at least trying to resurrect it with simple maintenance. But yes you are right, replacement is always an option as is using an external lab for printing as her output is likely to be a couple of A3s once a month for six months of the year.
I think the real issue is that she hasn't used it in a very long time and the ink reservoirs were bone-dry when I first saw it. The quality of the printing, beyond the dragging of the ink in dark areas, still appears very good and it seems a shame to replace the machine without at least trying to resurrect it with simple maintenance. But yes you are right, replacement is always an option as is using an external lab for printing as her output is likely to be a couple of A3s once a month for six months of the year.
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A bit like film photography .... or that's what they said when digital was driving the sales of camera's exponentially upwards. We are now in the situation where digital sales have crashed in comparison and mechanical film cameras are the easiest to maintain long term.
Agreed there aren't many mechanical inkjet printers for a direct comparison other than a huge plate press printer. My experience with inkjet printers is that in most home / soho environments they are rarely cost effective and outsourced printing is the best option.
Here's how to make a small fortune out of doing your own inkjet printing.
Start off with a large fortune....
I like that! An unexpected answer.
The quality of the inks have increased since the 1st series of printers such as the Epson 1150 3 colours and a black, the 1200 4 colours and a black Then the 1200s. This was same as the 1200 just with a new set of clothes. The cost of inks has risen way above what is reasonable. The full set of dyes for my Canon Pro 300 is now nearly £170 (10 cartridges that hold 12cc of ink (and you thought a litre of petrol was expensive - see below typed in bold). As good as the Pro 300 is I am using it less and less, mainly for printing documents, which is a waste of a superb printer.
I have yet to have a blockage of any sort, but once the cartridges are loaded there seems to be a seepage of the dyes which appears to keep the tubes clear, but at a bit of an unadvertised and unwanted expense. Canon say this is normal! There is another wastage route and that is if you don't use the printer for 3-4 days it goes into an agitation mode where the carriage physically vibrates the device and shakes the ink/dyes to stir the contents up. That also uses ink as well. I know this because on numerous times I have seen a cartridge with a reasonable amount of ink in the cartridges to drop significantly after being shaken. Even if the ink is getting low and this vibration mode kicks in, you can find the 'low' cartridge is now empty and you have to change it. After the change it senses the new cartridge and it goes into the vibration mode again. You can guess now what this does!
Now if you thought that traditional photography was expensive work this out. Each cartridge for the Pro 300 costs £16.99 and contains 14cc of dye.
Assume you were buying a litre of one single colour to refill a cartridge you would be able to refill it around 71 times. Now multiply that number of times x £16.99 and the total is £1214.00. Multiply that cost again by the 10 cartridges and you could buy a more than half decent car!
I need a printer but I am doing less and less digital printing and concentrating on B&W in my darkroom. I do use my digital camera, but convert the pictures from that, or scan colour negatives and convert them into images I can project. Once my supply of colour film is exhausted the projected pictures will be all digital. Prints will be B&W, all from 120 or 35mm negatives
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