You would be wrong about that assumption. I have used my Hp Z3100 for nearly 4 years now, every day. So far I have only replaced 4 of the 6 heads ( two ink channels per head, 12 inks), which cost me about $65.00 each. I've never seen a degrading of image quality due to the head wear except on one occasion. That was when I ran a couple of 44" rolls of huge textured rag prints with total black backgrounds and that finished off my Mk head. At that point I needed to replace the MK head because it wore out. That was after 2.5 years of heavy use on all kind of media. Head alignment is fast and fully automated. These very inexpensive heads are very durable, and run very cleanly They never clog ever, which is well worth a new set every couple of years. But I've never had to come close to even doing that. I relinearize the various media about once every couple of months, though I've never actually seen the output drift. But since it only takes 10 minutes and it fully automatic, I do it anyway. I've had Epson heads go out on me in less time than this and that is $1,200.00 if your lucky, probably a lot more these days. Now the ink carts can be used up fairly quickly on the HP since they are only 130 ml. That's a drag, Hp needs bigger carts. You use more of the light gray, gray, and black than any of the others generally. Some of the other channels like the blue, green, and red last a very long time for me.
The only situation that would worry me about the new Cannon's is the very expensive price of replacing those heads. Some people just give up on the printer and buy a new one at that point. I don't have any idea why the Canon thermal heads cost so much since they are easily replaced and do essentially the same things the hp heads do. But the Canon ink carts are huge and last forever practically.
