New all-in-one Ink tank printer

 

I have had a HP Deskjet printer for many years and a separate flatbed UMax scanner. The scanner was no longer viable because they never provided updated drivers for Windows 10, so I kept a dual boot for Windows XP on my desktop computer just so I could scan when I needed to (that was a PITA). The HP printer still worked great and did good quality duplex printing and a great job with printing photos on glossy paper. But I was getting sick of the ever increasing costs of ink cartridges. The official HP branded cartridges had gone up to $65 for the tri color and $60 for the black. With the low volume printing I do I usually had to replace the cartridges a couple times a year. If I printed photos, the color cartridge had to be replaced even more often. I tried the cheaper refill cartridges from several suppliers (about $20 each). The black cartridges were pretty good but it seemed like one color would run out on the tricolor cartridge after a month or two. Several of the refills I tried had one color missing right out of the box and had to be returned/replaced.

So I decided to give myself a Christmas present of a new all-in-one printer. After a lot of research, I selected the Canon Pixma MegaTank G7020, which has functions for duplex printing, copying, scanning and faxing. It has a automatic document feed for the copy/scan/fax functions. The best part is that it uses bottled ink tanks instead of cartridges which have at least 10 times the ink volume for about half the price of a single HP cartridge. The printer wasn't cheap ($349 at Amazon), but it will easily pay for itself in a year or two in the cost savings for ink.

I have tested all the functions and they all work well. The auto document feed for copying, scanning and faxing is great when you have multiple pages to scan. I will have to admit that the photo printing does not produce quite as vibrant of colors as the old HP printer did, but the ink cost on the HP made photo printing almost unusable anyway. My only complaint about the Canon is that it has a rather cumbersome interface on the operator control panel, but they provide good software for both Android and Windows so you normally don't need to use the operator panel on the printer except for manual faxing or copying.

I considered getting a color laser printer, but wanted the ability to print photos so decided to stick with an ink jet. So far I am happy with my choice of the Canon.

Has anyone else gone with an ink tank printer for home use? If so what did you get and how do you like it?

(Incidentally, I offered my old HP printer on Craigs list for free and got rid of it in a couple of days. I told the taker about the high ink cost, but he wanted it anyway ... said he might try refilling the cartridges himself).

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon
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New all in one ink tank printer

I purchased a Canon G3200 Tank printer awhile back and it only does photos and copying.The large tanks are great.After doing a print head cleaning it shut down due to error "waste ink pad" full so it would not do anything. Online searches found a solution and is back to normal.Does a great job on photos.

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The Home of BLUMARU HOUNDS

Epson ET-3750 and ET-16500

I have an Epson ET-3750 which has ink wells rather than ink cartridges. I've printed over 27,000 pages on it in a bit over 2 years and have only spend ~$80 on extra ink. My ink tanks are full and can easily print another 6-7000 pages before I have to think about getting more ink.

I have also stumbled upon an ET-16500. A friend of fine had it and it needed some work on it as it jammed frequently. She let me have it for the price of a dinner. I had to order a new printer tray to prevent it from jamming ($50) and it is good to go. It is an Eco Tank like the 2750 only it prints on 11x17 as well.

If you aren't going to do a laser, ink well printers are the way to go. Besides Epson and Canon, I believe HP is starting to carry a line as well.

These printers cost a little bit more upfront because they actually make a profit on the printer itself rather than the ink. In the long run, they are actually cheaper since the cost per page is so low. It is as low (if not lower) than a laser printer.

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Garmin Nuvi 2450

Printer.

In my research, I considered HP, Epson, Canon and Brother. I wanted a printer that would do automatic duplex printing, so that eliminated most of the lower end tank printers. In reading reviews, both professional and user submitted, each brand and model had mixed reviews with pros and cons, so making a selection was not easy. On top of that there seems to be a supply shortage with most of my choices being listed as "out of stock" or "on backorder". When Amazon listed the Canon model I ordered in early December, it sold out on the first day, even though it was offered at $20 more than the Canon site listed it for. I suppose the holiday shopping season didn't help with the product availability. I called Canon direct to see when they might have printers back in stock and they couldn't tell me. The sales rep said working from home during COVID was creating the increased demand especially for the higher end home office products.

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

Wow, looks impressive.

Wow, looks impressive.

(photo --> https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media/vc/9719301d-7bb7-4721-b8a1-00953b7d2d39.__CR0,37,650,350_PT0_SX650_V1___.jpg)

They've come a long way from a different device for each task.

( line to the "Tank" $299.99 https://www.staples.com/canon-pixma-g7020-megatank-3114c002-...

--
. 2 Garmin DriveSmart 61 LMT-S, Nuvi 2689, 2 Nuvi 2460, Zumo 550, Zumo 450, Uniden R3 radar detector with GPS built in, includes RLC info. Uconnect 430N Garmin based, built into my Jeep. .

Funny.

soberbyker wrote:

Wow, looks impressive.

(photo --> https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media/vc/9719301d-7bb7-4721-b8a1-00953b7d2d39.__CR0,37,650,350_PT0_SX650_V1___.jpg)

They've come a long way from a different device for each task.

( line to the "Tank" $299.99 https://www.staples.com/canon-pixma-g7020-megatank-3114c002-...

I actually tried to order from Staples based on that ad which said it would be delivered in a couple of days. After filling out the order it came back as "on backorder", so I cancelled and went with Amazon for $50 more. Maybe Staples really has them now, but they were deceptive with their ad back in Dec.

Sadly, after I had received my Amazon order, Amazon itself offered the same printer for $299. Again it sold out almost immediately, and I was already past their 2 week price reduction guarantee. So I just said a couple of cuss words and decided to be happy that I had my new printer. That price difference was less than the cost of one HP ink cartridge! smile

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

canon brand

We have had several Canon printers including one Pixma. They have operated flawlessly over many years.

dobs108 smile

Ink cost.

By the way, the Canon printer came with 3 large bottles of black ink, and one bottle of each of the 3 colors. The tank for the black ink is quite a bit larger than the 3 color tanks. I suspect I will never need to buy any more black ink during my lifetime. I have ordered the 3 color bottles to have them on hand since I plan to print photos. The cost for the 3 bottles of colored ink was $36. I have already printed quite a few pages of photos with the Canon printer and the ink level has not gone down by any detectable amount in the color ink tanks. On my old HP printer, the $65 color cartridge would have been used up with printing that many photos.

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

Thanks

alandb wrote:

By the way, the Canon printer came with 3 large bottles of black ink, and one bottle of each of the 3 colors. The tank for the black ink is quite a bit larger than the 3 color tanks. I suspect I will never need to buy any more black ink during my lifetime. I have ordered the 3 color bottles to have them on hand since I plan to print photos. The cost for the 3 bottles of colored ink was $36. I have already printed quite a few pages of photos with the Canon printer and the ink level has not gone down by any detectable amount in the color ink tanks. On my old HP printer, the $65 color cartridge would have been used up with printing that many photos.

Thanks for the tip Alan and congrats on your COY!

I'm looking at printers now and may give this one a try. I did have an early Cannon tank type printer years ago. I forget the model number but I had some problems with it. The cheaper ink factor was great and it worked flawlessly for a year or so until the print head wore out. Cleaning helped for a while but eventually became ineffective. The print head wasn't replaceable so I had to scrap it.

One advantage to many types of ink cartridge is you replace the print head along with the cartridge since it's built in.

It will be interesting to see how well these newer tank printers hold up over time.

Cartridge type printers

Re using cartridge ink becomes an issue when you refill them to many times. I worked for a company that used HP cartridges for mailing operations in plants and factories. When the customer wanted to go cheap due to the expense they used refilled cartridges. It wasn't to big of a problem till their mail failed to read at the Post Offices because the bar codes weren't to specs. The orifices in the cartridges were worn out and allowed to much ink to be dispensed. All we dis as techs was to use new HP cartridges to print a test bundle and then take them to the Post office for verification. Since they passed, our job was pretty much done.

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Nuvi 2460LMT.

VueScan for legacy scanners

alandb wrote:

... The scanner was no longer viable because they never provided updated drivers for Windows 10, so I kept a dual boot for Windows XP on my desktop computer just so I could scan when I needed to (that was a PITA)...

VueScan (https://www.hamrick.com/) is an excellent program to use legacy scanners under Win10. The Win10 drivers are built-in the software.
Mark

Thanks, I'll try it.

baumback wrote:
alandb wrote:

... The scanner was no longer viable because they never provided updated drivers for Windows 10, so I kept a dual boot for Windows XP on my desktop computer just so I could scan when I needed to (that was a PITA)...

VueScan (https://www.hamrick.com/) is an excellent program to use legacy scanners under Win10. The Win10 drivers are built-in the software.
Mark

Thanks for the tip. I haven't thrown my old UMax scanner in the landfill yet, so I will hook it back up and give it a try. If I can make it work, I will try to give it away on Craigs List like I did with my HP Printer. I am not very optimistic though. The UMax is pretty old, maybe over 20 years? The software CD that cam with it was for Windows 98!

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

tank printer

I was looking at the Epson printer/copier/scanner for the same reason. I have always used HP printers but don't use it that often but was finding that I had to replace the ink cartridges whenever I went to use it. I have an older model which doesn't have bluetooth/wifi so I thought it would be great to do wireless printing. I didn't buy yet b/c of the cost but after reading your blog, the cost will pay for itself in the savings in ink. I never considered Canon but will check it out. Thank you.

That looks awesome

That looks awesome, alandb. Thanks for the heads up. I might have to run down my stock of small inkjet tanks for the Canon all-in-one I got three years ago and look into replacing it with the one you got. I love the autofeeding, auto-duplex scan and print features of this one. Is there anything more boring than feeding a 20-page document into a scanner, one page at a time? Answer: no. And the ink usage--this one sips it where my Canon guzzles ink like a drunken sailor. Consumer Reports says the three black ink bottles you got might be expected to last nine years in normal use /shockface/.

Note to other potential buyers that most lower-model-numbered, less-expensive Canon megatank all-in-ones do *not* offer auto-duplex scanning or printing. (Auto-duplex means that it scans and prints two-sided documents, flipping the pages over automatically. All-in-ones that don't offer this require the user to flip pages over and refeed them through the machine, which often causes duplex jobs to fail.)

My one concern with this one is the photo-print quality. Consumer Reports agrees with you, rating it only 2/5 or Fair on photo printing. Lower-numbered Canon megatank models are rated higher by them for photo printing, which I don't really understand, because it seems to be the same technology.

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"141 could draw faster than he, but Irving was looking for 143..."

You might be surprised.

alandb wrote:
baumback wrote:

VueScan (https://www.hamrick.com/) is an excellent program to use legacy scanners under Win10. The Win10 drivers are built-in the software.
Mark

Thanks for the tip. I haven't thrown my old UMax scanner in the landfill yet, so I will hook it back up and give it a try. If I can make it work, I will try to give it away on Craigs List like I did with my HP Printer. I am not very optimistic though. The UMax is pretty old, maybe over 20 years? The software CD that cam with it was for Windows 98!

Vuescan has been supporting a lot of scanners for over 20 years that I can recall. It would definitely be worth giving it a try with your UMax.

- Tom -

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XXL540, GO LIVE 1535, GO 620

Canon

Alandb, I was an Epson buyer for a long time, probably because I started with one of their dot matrix printers so bought one of their inkjets when the time came.

My most recent printer/scanner is a Canon (with ink cartridges although I have success with generic cartridges). It's a TS9020 which is a bit better at photo printing and doesn't have an auto-feed which would be overkill and too "office-looking" for my tastes wink

It does duplex printing as yours does and I had worried about the added mechanism but it's been flawless as I hope you will find yours as well. It is also a wifi-enabled printer/scanner which didn't seem a big plus when I bought it but I now love the feature as it allows the printer to be installed anywhere in my home and not clutter the computer desk area. It also allows my Chromebook to print.

You've done well with your purchase.

Auto Duplex on Canon printer

Lost Anyway wrote:

That looks awesome, alandb. Thanks for the heads up. I might have to run down my stock of small inkjet tanks for the Canon all-in-one I got three years ago and look into replacing it with the one you got. I love the autofeeding, auto-duplex scan and print features of this one. Is there anything more boring than feeding a 20-page document into a scanner, one page at a time? Answer: no. And the ink usage--this one sips it where my Canon guzzles ink like a drunken sailor. Consumer Reports says the three black ink bottles you got might be expected to last nine years in normal use /shockface/.

Note to other potential buyers that most lower-model-numbered, less-expensive Canon megatank all-in-ones do *not* offer auto-duplex scanning or printing. (Auto-duplex means that it scans and prints two-sided documents, flipping the pages over automatically. All-in-ones that don't offer this require the user to flip pages over and refeed them through the machine, which often causes duplex jobs to fail.)

My one concern with this one is the photo-print quality. Consumer Reports agrees with you, rating it only 2/5 or Fair on photo printing. Lower-numbered Canon megatank models are rated higher by them for photo printing, which I don't really understand, because it seems to be the same technology.

Please be aware that the Canon Pixma G7020 does NOT auto duplex on the ADF (auto document feeder) for scanning, copying or faxing. There is supposed to be a way to do manual duplex scanning with the ADF where you basically run the documents through twice (once for front side and once for back side) and it will re-collate the pages in memory/software so they could be printed duplex. That process sounds kind of complex and I haven't tried it.

The duplex for printing is fully automatic as it was on my old HP Deskjet.

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

UMax scanner

-et- wrote:
alandb wrote:
baumback wrote:

VueScan (https://www.hamrick.com/) is an excellent program to use legacy scanners under Win10. The Win10 drivers are built-in the software.
Mark

Thanks for the tip. I haven't thrown my old UMax scanner in the landfill yet, so I will hook it back up and give it a try. If I can make it work, I will try to give it away on Craigs List like I did with my HP Printer. I am not very optimistic though. The UMax is pretty old, maybe over 20 years? The software CD that cam with it was for Windows 98!

Vuescan has been supporting a lot of scanners for over 20 years that I can recall. It would definitely be worth giving it a try with your UMax. The scanner still works on XP, but I was never able to use it on Vista, 7 or 10.

- Tom -

I gave this a quick try and VueScan didn't recognize the UMax scanner. They list my scanner as supported in their FAQ, but link you to the UMax web site for the driver. The provided link returns a "Page not found". I am not surprised. I have searched far and wide for a Win 10 or even a Win 7 driver for this old scanner without any luck.

The scanner still works on XP, but I was never able to use it on Vista, 7 or 10.

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

I have an epson ET-4550. It

I have an epson ET-4550. It does a fantastic job.

Sorry

alandb wrote:

Please be aware that the Canon Pixma G7020 does NOT auto duplex on the ADF (auto document feeder) for scanning, copying or faxing. There is supposed to be a way to do manual duplex scanning with the ADF where you basically run the documents through twice (once for front side and once for back side) and it will re-collate the pages in memory/software so they could be printed duplex. That process sounds kind of complex and I haven't tried it.

The duplex for printing is fully automatic as it was on my old HP Deskjet.

Okay, I'm sorry, I misunderstood. It has an automatic document feeder, but works one-sided only on scans. Autofeed scan of duplex documents is a little complex and easy to mess up. You can end up with a document that goes p. 1, 3, 2, 4, etc. Another thing that can go wrong is that a page late in the job doesn't feed right and gets skipped. If you remember to check it page-by-page when it's done, you can spot the error and re-do it, but it can waste time. But if you forget to check it, you can have documents that are saved with problems.

Thanks for clarifying the feature set.

--
"141 could draw faster than he, but Irving was looking for 143..."

Duplex Scanning.

@Lost Anyway ... yeah, I agree that the manual duplex method described for the automatic document feed and software collating of the pages has those potential flaws. For copying or faxing, you would first have to process the job as a scan, then resubmit the saved collated document for faxing or print. Not ideal, but doable if it works as advertised. I guess it is still better than doing it one page and one side at a time on the flatbed which would be the other option.

When I get some time, I will try to scan a multipage 2 sided document with the Canon ADF/software as a test and let you know how well it works.

Here is a Canon FAQ describing the process for a different model printer, but I am pretty sure it works the same way on the printer I have. https://support.usa.canon.com/kb/index?page=content&id=ART17...

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

I was sick of HP's cost

I was sick of HP's cost increases, and went with Generic Ink, until HP came out with Firmware that recognized Generic Cartridges, and Locked printer from working....
Thinking Printer died, I called HP Support. This was before HP told support about what they did... This error message was new to Support, so they said it was dead, (and Out of Warranty)...
I pitched Printer, quickly did research, and bought a Brother all in one....
THEN -- A WEEK AFTER PITCHING HP PRINTER: FOUND A THREAD WHERE HP ADMITTED THEY CAUSED THE ERROR PREVENTING PRINTING!!! and they provided a Firmware Update to fix it!

Oh was I mad! I called support again, and they issued me a $100 Credit at HP Store.... Where I promptly bought $99.98 worth of Paper for my new Brother Printer!!!

Brother doesn't care about cartridges: To this day I use a mixture of Factory and Generic INK... Sometimes Factory Ink is as inexpensive as Generic Ink!! and Cartridges are available in larger quantity volume, and less expensive, than HP was....

I'm happy with Brother Printer.... Does everything we need it to do..... But... Printing and Scanning better be flawless in ANY Printer.... This is NOT Rocket Science!

Gee.. That was about 5-6 years ago... Past History with printers is they last 5 or so years.... Well, this one is +5 Years, but at least it's on a UPS, so that should minimize issues somewhat....

(Fingers Crossed!)

PS.. There's an Brother APP for iPhones that prints flawlessly!

The longest we kept a printer was a HP Laserjet 6+... That was the first HP we ever bought (Daisy Wheel before), and Wife used it in her mass mailing Business... And Beat the Crap out of it, and there was never a complaint.... I had stuffed it with 256K Ram and extra Fonts, in Ram and Cartridges, and that thing ran for 10-12 years before Power supply burned up....

That is why we went with HP inkjets.... but they never were as good.....as the Laserjet 6+

--
A 2689LMT in both our cars that we love... and a Nuvi 660 with Lifetime Maps that we have had literally forever.... And a 2011 Ford Escape with Nav System that is totally ignored!

I thought I always had to have the best

Printers with scanner and FAX were what I always wanted. I bought several over the years, Epsons, Canon and HP.
I liked the HP and bought several over the years always researching and getting what I thought was better than the others. I think the last HP printer I bought cost almost $200.
Last year I was disgusted with how often I had to pay $89 for the ink so I researched and found that Brothers offered printers that used less ink at a more reasonable price so I looked for one.
I found information on a lot of printers but the Brother MFCJ497DW
Wireless Color Inkjet All-in-One Printer with Mobile Device and Duplex Printing was what I decided to look for. The reviews were good and it used cheaper ink.
I was surprised at the low price for these printers and was afraid to get one so cheap. I found one that sold for $79 on sale at Best Buy for $49.00. After going back and forth I decided that wasn't much to loose if it was worthless.
I bought it and will never go back to the higher priced printers and ink.
It works beautiful. It cleans itself when it thinks it should. It updates itself and I don't know what else it does. I will hear a litle sound and it tells what it is doing on the screen. It prints great.
Great buy and great printer.

Brother MFCJ497DW
Wireless Color Inkjet All-in-One Printer with Mobile Device and Duplex Printing

Mary (sounds like a commercial grin )

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Mary, Nuvi 2450, Garmin Viago, Honda Navigation, Nuvi 750 (gave to son)

Good Info

I've been in the market for a new printer/scanner. Lot's of good info here. Thanks everyone.

printhead worry

Kodak made a major attempt to find a position in the inkjet printer market which would simultaneously serve customers and hide from the wrath of HP. Their play was to make the printers fairly expensive, but the ink very cheap (at least compared to HP Lexmark and the rest). The visible big trick was that they included the printhead in the printer instead of in the cartridge. They thought they had found a solution where the combination of the ink, the printhead design, and software that put the machine through a sort of cleaning cycle when it had not been used for a while would mean the printhead would really last a long time.

But every single person I knew of about half a dozen who got a Kodak printer found themselves with a clogged printhead within a few years. It was actually quite easy to replace and in the early months Kodak was very generous, not only sending you a free new printhead but also sending you replacement ink cartridges in case you had wasted ink figuring out your problem. That generosity went away, and the warranties expired. Kodak itself very nearly expired, though you can still find the ink for sale.

Enough of my old story. My concern here is that any printer that relies on long durability of a printhead had better have a means for the customer to replace the printhead, or I personally would be very reluctant to buy it.

--
personal GPS user since 1992

Ink tank print heads.

archae86 wrote:

Enough of my old story. My concern here is that any printer that relies on long durability of a printhead had better have a means for the customer to replace the printhead, or I personally would be very reluctant to buy it.

That is a valid point and one I considered. The Canon ink tank printer has user replaceable print heads, one black print head and one tri-color print head. They are about $40 each and very simple to install.

That said, there is one major flaw in the Canon printer. It has a waste ink component that is not user serviceable. If that fails, the printer will not work and has to be sent in for repair/replacement.

I am hoping to avoid clogging/frequent cleaning problems on my Canon printer by printing color and black pages at least once a week to prevent the ink from clogging. The ink cost is low enough that regularly printing a few unneeded pages isn't a big deal. I can always find a picture I would like to print, and can print a couple of black and white documents on scrap paper that will be thrown out anyway.

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

Wondered...

I've wondered about the tank printers. I have an HP Deskjet that works great and does very nice photos. The problem with it is that I rarely ever actually use it anymore. I print on a laser printer for almost everything. When I do go to use the color printer the damn cartridges are kaput. I'm not going to buy more ink for the thing. I'll get rid of it and "perhaps" buy a tank printer. Then again, I'm old and maybe I just won't replace it at all. This year the only actual color printing we did was at Christmas.

--
GPSMAP 76CSx - nüvi 760 - nüvi 200 - GPSMAP 78S

HP and Epson at it again

JanJ wrote:

I was sick of HP's cost increases, and went with Generic Ink, until HP came out with Firmware that recognized Generic Cartridges, and Locked printer from working....
Thinking Printer died, I called HP Support. This was before HP told support about what they did... This error message was new to Support, so they said it was dead, (and Out of Warranty)...
I pitched Printer, quickly did research, and bought a Brother all in one....
THEN -- A WEEK AFTER PITCHING HP PRINTER: FOUND A THREAD WHERE HP ADMITTED THEY CAUSED THE ERROR PREVENTING PRINTING!!! and they provided a Firmware Update to fix it!

HP got caught doing this back in 2016, and due to angry customers, walked it back, saying they were updating firmware to allow third-party ink in those models where it was blocked, and last I heard until today, that was the end of it.

In a 2018 article in the New York Times, HP, Epson, and other printer manafacturers said they discouraged but did not block the use of third-party ink. (paywall warning: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-third-party-... --the relevant paragraph is two-thirds of the way down the article under the heading, "What printer manufacturers say about third-party ink")

But in checking before posting here, now I see that HP started doing this *again* in 2019 with certain models!
https://inkjet411.com/?page_id=8648

And Epson was the target of a late 2019 class action suit over this issue.
https://trofire.com/2019/11/13/lawsuit-says-epson-printers-d...

What the heck?!

I know, I know, printer manufacturers generally sell the printers as loss-leaders and need to make it up on the ink. But they more than do make it up from those customers who buy OEM cartridges. Locking out third-party ink is the wrong answer. Pricing OEM replacement ink cartridges right is the better answer.

--
"141 could draw faster than he, but Irving was looking for 143..."

Buying printer instead of ink

I know someone that will buy the same printer (or a newer ver of it) in place of buying ink. He say the reason he does that is that the printer he buys is cheaper than the ink cart. itself!!

I asked what does he do with the printer, he said that he gives them to a school / no profit so that it is still being used.

I did tell him that the ink that is in the new purchase of the printer has a very small amount in the Cart but he says it works for him.

What do you think?

--
Bobkz - Garmin Nuvi 3597LMTHD/2455LMT/C530/C580- "Pain Is Fear Leaving The Body - Semper Fidelis"

Depends on how much he prints

If only a couple sheets a month he might get by in doing that. I can't. And I am a HP person. Yes the ink is expensive. I tried generic a couple times and had problems with the cartridges. Both times I had to throw out both the black and tri color because they just stopped working. It wasn't worth the aggravation. I print 99% in draft mode and re-use paper when I can.

bobkz wrote:

I know someone that will buy the same printer (or a newer ver of it) in place of buying ink. He say the reason he does that is that the printer he buys is cheaper than the ink cart. itself!!

I asked what does he do with the printer, he said that he gives them to a school / no profit so that it is still being used.

I did tell him that the ink that is in the new purchase of the printer has a very small amount in the Cart but he says it works for him.

What do you think?

--
Nuvi 2460LMT.

Wasteful.

bobkz wrote:

I know someone that will buy the same printer (or a newer ver of it) in place of buying ink. He say the reason he does that is that the printer he buys is cheaper than the ink cart. itself!!

I asked what does he do with the printer, he said that he gives them to a school / no profit so that it is still being used.

I did tell him that the ink that is in the new purchase of the printer has a very small amount in the Cart but he says it works for him.

What do you think?

If the ink cartridges are too expensive for him, they are too expensive for the schools too. Sounds to me like a way to put the responsibility of more printers in the landfill on the schools instead of himself.

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

The schools have deeper

The schools have deeper pockets, and the ability to get better prices by buying cartridges in volume.

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Frank DriveSmart55 37.322760, -79.511267

Good point.

That's a good point phranc. School discounts and group/bulk purchase options can give very deep discounts.

Still, a school would generally have higher print volume than a home user, so investing in a printer that is efficient in long term ink costs would make sense for them too.

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

new heads

alandb wrote:
archae86 wrote:

Enough of my old story. My concern here is that any printer that relies on long durability of a printhead had better have a means for the customer to replace the printhead, or I personally would be very reluctant to buy it.

That is a valid point and one I considered. The Canon ink tank printer has user replaceable print heads, one black print head and one tri-color print head. They are about $40 each and very simple to install.

That said, there is one major flaw in the Canon printer. It has a waste ink component that is not user serviceable. If that fails, the printer will not work and has to be sent in for repair/replacement.

I am hoping to avoid clogging/frequent cleaning problems on my Canon printer by printing color and black pages at least once a week to prevent the ink from clogging. The ink cost is low enough that regularly printing a few unneeded pages isn't a big deal. I can always find a picture I would like to print, and can print a couple of black and white documents on scrap paper that will be thrown out anyway.

That's the reason for the expensive ink in my HP all in one printer, the cartridges have new heads in them so it's the old half a dozen of one 6 of the other thing. Mine does a head cleaning before it prints so it wastes a lot of ink too but the printed pages are always crisp. I have found a suitable generic cartridge for less money. The printer will give me a non compatible cartridge error but will still use it after.

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. 2 Garmin DriveSmart 61 LMT-S, Nuvi 2689, 2 Nuvi 2460, Zumo 550, Zumo 450, Uniden R3 radar detector with GPS built in, includes RLC info. Uconnect 430N Garmin based, built into my Jeep. .

color printers

what about laser vs. inkjet.

laser vs inkjet

Consumer grade laser printers are great for print quality and economy on color documents and business graphics, but aren't really designed for photo printing. If you want to print photos, you need to go with ink jet printers.

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

New all in one ink tank printers

As for Canon ink tank printers the waste ink pad is replaceable and if you go on line there is a procedure that erases the error code,no cost, and the printer functions again as normal.I have done mine .The waste pad or (diaper) is washable to be reused.

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The Home of BLUMARU HOUNDS

Link?

D

coonhunter wrote:

As for Canon ink tank printers the waste ink pad is replaceable and if you go on line there is a procedure that erases the error code,no cost, and the printer functions again as normal.I have done mine .The waste pad or (diaper) is washable to be reused.

That sounds like something I need to keep tucked away in my "How To" folder. Do you have a link for that procedure? I haven't done extensive searching, but so far what I have found indicates that the waste ink system on my Canon Pixma G7020 is not user serviceable.

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

New all in one ink tank printers

I could not find the link but I printed the instructions.So here goes.Canon G series reset page counter for ink absorber full (error5B00).(To put in Service mode) Printer off hold the stop button then press the stop button 5 times then the power button once,wait for it to reset and run a page.Then press the stop key 3 times then the power button, wait for the printer to print out a page then turn off the printer. (ink filling)(air bubbles in pipes) Turn on printer,press and hold the stop button for about 5 seconds for 5 flashes and release. It could use some ink while it goes through the cycles.Make sure the tanks are almost full.The pad is not real easy to get but it is do able.Hope this helps.Every other method I found wanted money but I lucked out and found this.

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The Home of BLUMARU HOUNDS

Thanks coonhunter!

I will keep a copy of your message and hope I never have to use it. I really appreciate you posting this.

I know the cleaning cycle uses the waste ink absorber pads. I wonder what other processes might shorten the life of the waste ink system. I assume that printing borderless photos does it somewhat.

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

RE dual boot; Have you

RE dual boot;

Have you considered using a vm product to run xp (or windows 7) as a guest, then pass the old printer's usb port to it.

There's vmware player which is somewhat of a lite version compared to vmworkstation pro, but should still get the job done. I don't have any old unsupported printers any more but do virtualize my old pc when upgrading to something new. It's available if I need to reference something from the old config.

My printer is a canon color laser. 99.9% of my printing is b/w, however seems the color cartridges are still used in some manner. Had to replace all the carts (4) last year because b/w pages were getting artifacts from the color toner.

Oracle VM

zx1100e1 wrote:

RE dual boot;

Have you considered using a vm product to run xp (or windows 7) as a guest, then pass the old printer's usb port to it.

There's vmware player which is somewhat of a lite version compared to vmworkstation pro, but should still get the job done. I don't have any old unsupported printers any more but do virtualize my old pc when upgrading to something new. It's available if I need to reference something from the old config.

My printer is a canon color laser. 99.9% of my printing is b/w, however seems the color cartridges are still used in some manner. Had to replace all the carts (4) last year because b/w pages were getting artifacts from the color toner.

Hear is a no-cost alternative to the Virtual Machine
https://www.virtualbox.org

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Frank DriveSmart55 37.322760, -79.511267

New Comments?

I'm resurrecting this old thread to see if anyone with this Cannon G7020 has had any issues with the product.

It's still well reviewed on Amazon with few complaints. Amazon reviews can be misleading though so I'm curious what those here with the product have to say.

Canon 7020

So far I love my Canon G7020. Everything works as advertised. I don't do a lot of printing but have probably printed a couple hundred pages and a few photos. I can't see any perceptible drop in the ink tank levels yet! On my old HP Deskjet, I would have had to replace the color and black cartridges by now at a cost of over $100 for the authentic HP cartridges. I never had much luck with refills as 2 out of 3 of them always seemed to be defective or run out of one color after a few pages.

I have also used the scanner/copier a few times and the fax feature once. They both worked well for my purposes.

The main complaint I have read about the Canon G7020 is that the maintenance module is not replaceable. That is the box where overspill ink is deposited. Once that component fails, the printer will no longer work and has to be sent in for repair. Print head priming and cleaning is the main culprit for using up the maintenance module. So far I have not had to prime or clean the print heads on my Canon, so I don't think I will have a problem.

To mitigate the possibility of print head clogging which would require the cleaning cycle I have created a graphics document that has large boxes filled with pure black and each of the colors (magenta, yellow, cyan). If I haven't used the printer much for a few days, I print this document (that I named InkDump) on a piece of scrap paper. So far that has kept the ink flowing so I have not ever had to run the print head cleaning cycle. I make sure to do this at least once a week. The Canon ink cost is so low, I don't worry about wasting the ink.

(Edit: In reading back through this thread, I see I have already talked about this issue...sorry for repeating the same info redface )

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

Another comment about the Canon G7020.

My main complaint is that the small LCD operator control display is completely unreadable. Even though my office has bright florescent ceiling lights, there is enough shadow/glare where I have my printer sitting that I am unable to read the display. I was able to correct this by mounting a small battery operated spotlight on the wall above the printer and have it pointing directly at the display. I just switch it on when I need to operate the controls (which isn't that often, usually when changing paper type). It is the type of accent light that is sometimes used to highlight wall hung paintings or display case objects. That has taken care of the problem for me except that once in a while I forget to turn the light off when I am finished and I have depleted the batteries. I put rechargeable NiMH batteries in the light so even that isn't a big deal.

Why Canon would put such a lousy display on a premium printer is kind of a mystery. That said, would I buy this printer again? Yes!

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

Gave up on inkjet type

Gave up on inkjet type printers, tired of the ink drying up on the print head if not used regularly.

Thanks!

alandb wrote:

My main complaint is that the small LCD operator control display is completely unreadable. Even though my office has bright florescent ceiling lights, there is enough shadow/glare where I have my printer sitting that I am unable to read the display. I was able to correct this by mounting a small battery operated spotlight on the wall above the printer and have it pointing directly at the display. I just switch it on when I need to operate the controls (which isn't that often, usually when changing paper type). It is the type of accent light that is sometimes used to highlight wall hung paintings or display case objects. That has taken care of the problem for me except that once in a while I forget to turn the light off when I am finished and I have depleted the batteries. I put rechargeable NiMH batteries in the light so even that isn't a big deal.

Why Canon would put such a lousy display on a premium printer is kind of a mystery. That said, would I buy this printer again? Yes!

Thanks Alan for the additional information.

I've had the 7020 on my radar for the last year since my existing Epson WF-3520 has been showing signs of age. I only print 200 to 300 pages per year so the ink cost savings of a tank printer wouldn't be that much.

I'm also concerned about the print heads which are permanent on the Cannon but replaceable on ink cartridge printers. Still, I like the other features of the 7020 and it's good to know you haven't had any issues.

Thanks again.

G7020 print heads.

The print heads on the Canon G7020 are replaceable. There are 2 print heads, black and color. When I purchased the printer last winter, I checked the price of replacement print heads and they were about $40 each at that time.

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

InkJet Printer

I dropped my HP Inkjet off at a place that takes e-waste. I printed on it so rarely that, whenever I actually wanted to print in color, the damn cartridge had dried up. The cost was prohibitive so, if I wanted to print photos, I submitted them to Walgreen online and then went and picked them up. Way cheaper than paying for the outrageous HP ink cartridges. Some folks find it cheaper to just go buy a new low-end printer rather than replacing the HP ink.

If I ever do get another inkjet it will definitely be a tank type. They hold much more ink and it doesn't dry up like the HP cartridges. It will need to have cleanable print heads.

For the vast majority of my printing needs I have a small networked laser printer. My wife can print from her laptop and I print from my desktop (rarely use it these days though), my laptop, my tablet, and my phone.

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GPSMAP 76CSx - nüvi 760 - nüvi 200 - GPSMAP 78S

HP vs. Epson

I have an HP with the cartridges' but am thinking of getting an Epson 2760 0r Epson 3760. The only issue is the Epson is more expensive than the HP printers.

Brother printer

About 3 three years ago I got fed up feeding my ink jet printer and decided to get a simple black and white printer that uses a toner cartridge. I decided on a Brother HL-L2340D that prints single sided and duplex and that's about it - no fax, no copying. I print about a hundred pages a month and have had to replace the toner cartridge only twice after the original starter cartridge that came with the printer. It takes about a minute to replace the toner and about the same to add paper. In the time I've had the printer I've had absolutely zero problems with it. I'm like the former poster that mentioned getting photos printed at Walgreen's. We have a Walgreen's about a mile away and when we need the rare picture printed we go there. If memory serves, the prints cost about 20 cents each. Again if memory serves, three years ago I purchased the printer from Amazon for about $99. Can't go wrong.

Phil

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"No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won't make it worse."
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