canon heads 2-3 year life !!

[smjphoto]

I went to pick up some ink today from my canon dealer. He has started servicing the printers in-house. They have been servicing canons just over a year, I believe. He told me the canon techs have told him the heads should be replaced every 2-3 years. Otherwise when they fail, they take out first the carriage electronics and then the motherboard. He also suggested monitoring the heads by doing a nozzle check and then looking with a loupe. Any double line or unsharp edges are cause for replacement before ruining any electronics.

I haven't heard any advice like this before anywhere, but this guy is pretty sharp and definitely getting his info from Canon technical staff. Take from it what you want...

Stuart

[stamper]

Take from it what you want...

Somebody wanting to make money?

[BrianWJH]

Take from it what you want...

Somebody wanting to make money?

But wouldn't they make more money replacing circuit boards plus the printhead(s), maybe it's just experienced advice freely given.

Brian.

[stamper]

I think if the circuit boards were burnt out after 2-3 years I would be looking for a different printer from another manufacturer? However in the UK if a design fault - and you can prove it - leads to problems within 6 years you have the right to free repairs. The information in the original posters post would put off anyone buying Canon?

[smjphoto]

I certainly am not saying it is a good thing to have to replace heads every 3 years. I still feel its better than replacing heads and carriage assembly and mother board in 4 or 5 years. I also prefer to plan on $300/yr for consumable heads than spend a lot of my time doing nozzle checks and head cleanings and wasting money on ink on purges and cleanings. Its also a lot cheaper than an extended warranty contract. I also tend to take it in stride a bit easier as the printer new only cost as much as a set of inks.
YMMV

Stuart

[Czornyj]

I saw a few cases of defected PF-05 heads with "devils" (doubled lines on nozzle check), but none of these heads didn't damage any carriage electronics nor motherboard, even when users were printing with such heads for a long period of time (well over a year or so).  

I also don't think any PF-05 will last longer than 2-3 years...

[Scott Martin]

...the canon techs have told him the heads should be replaced every 2-3 years. Otherwise when they fail, they take out first the carriage electronics and then the motherboard.

That's ridiculous, IMO. If there was a vacuum or ink line problem that could cause the carriage and motherboards to fail but the heads aren't going to unleash a ferocious electronic monster that eats everything it can find. There was a bad batch of PF-05 heads made in China when the Japan plant got hit by the earthquake and those heads should be found and replaced (which they do for free regardless of usage) but let's not otherwise blame all Canon print heads.

It's also crazy to talk about head life without also including usage. If a print head is heavily utilized it will eventually fail. Of course most head failure happens because of under utilization and ink drying out over extended periods of time. But when used regularly (the sweet spot), these heads have been known to last 6+ years. I know of a few x000 printers in town that are still on their original PF-01 heads.

[Some Guy]

Our local dealer retired a two-year old Epson wide-format printer when the heads clogged badly over a weekend.  Wasted half the ink power cleaning the thing with no luck.  Suspects bad ink that did it, but he cannot prove it.  Got mad and leased a large Canon ipf8400 (Ridiculous lease too that amounts to $11,000 with low monthly payments which is all he saw.).  Even had to tear down a wall to get it into the lab (Canon was a lot larger.).

New owner wants out of the high lease of the Canon and is fixing the Epson instead.  Epson repair seems to be escalating the bill: Some $400 pump.  A board for $500.  And now $1,500 for the head and whatever else in labor.  He's sort of worried it will be over $3,000 for a used printer as the bill is climbing every time they call on it.  Been out to them for about 5 weeks now.  Leasing company is unwilling to renegotiate on the $11K Canon lease so he seems stuck with the Epson.

Only reason I found this out as I was going to offer to buy the used Epson, but seems these things (Maybe Epson more so since the heads aren't user changeable?) are pretty much toast once they go bad.  Might take a lot of printing to even pay for one every 2-3 years if their longevity is factored in.

SG

[Tariq]

He told me the canon techs have told him the heads should be replaced every 2-3 years. Otherwise when they fail, they take out first the carriage electronics and then the motherboard. He also suggested monitoring the heads by doing a nozzle check and then looking with a loupe. Any double line or unsharp edges are cause for replacement before ruining any electronics.

I haven't heard any advice like this before anywhere, but this guy is pretty sharp and definitely getting his info from Canon technical staff. Take from it what you want...

Stuart

Unfortunately for me, this is exactly what happened to my IPF 8300 in less than 2 years of ownership.  No indication of any issue beforehand - perfect prints.  After about three weeks of non use, this scenario occurred.  Called Canon and all they would do for me was send a tech out at $180/hr to diagnose the issue.  Tech could not find the issue so he called Canon who instructed him the fix was to replace the carriage, heads and ribbon cable and then if that did not fix it, the motherboard - ALL at my expense!  I said, no thanks.  I told the tech, for the price of that fix, I'll just buy another printer.  So, now I'm left with a huge boat anchor paperweight in my studio.  Does anyone want it?  Just come get it and it's yours! 

I have to say, until this incident, I was completely sold on the IPF 8300.  But a catastrophic breakdown like this with absolutely no warning signs within 2 years...and then with Canon offering no help?  No thanks.  I ran an Epson 9600 for about a decade prior (which is still going strong for the person I sold it to) and the worst I ever dealt with was clogging now and then and finally replacement of the dampers when I sold it.  From what I have read, the Canon's are reliable if they are used constantly, so in a high production environment, I doubt the above would occur.  For someone doing printing every few weeks or so, I would not recommend Canon after this experience and lack of Canon customer support (I thought the Canon would be better in that use scenario than my Epson's but boy was I wrong).

[mcpix]

I just replaced the left head in my Canon 8300 after 3 years and 3 months. I just started printing again, and so far everything is great.

I have read where some users got the replace print head warning and after multiple heavy cleanings may have fried some other electronics. I tried the heavy cleaning one time and then ordered a new head. I'm wondering if the advice to preeemptively replace the heads is because some users were frying their machines with too many head cleanings?