I have a 5 year old iPF6100 which has worked fine with light use. I had to replace the L print head a few years back and the R print head last March. I have to admit that I've been using this printer sparingly - sometimes going a few months without printing. I always kept the printer ON though. When I was printing a 24x36 print with a large dark blue sky the other day, the blue color shifted to a greenish cyan with some banding along the direction of print head movement during the transition. Nozzle check showed the blue pattern from the R-print head was completely missing. Head cleaning - A recovered the pattern (although with some imperfections) but the color of the patterns is grayish green instead of the correct purple. The blue ink tank is about 60% full. Some online searching revealed that this could be a problem with the purging mechanism where the head is sucking in waste ink. But the printer is giving no errors so not sure what the problem is. I called Canon support and they immediately told me that it must be a hardware issue, it's not a print head issue and that Canon service would fix the problem with a flat fee of $900 (which would include a new R-head and any parts that need replacing). At this point I'm debating whether to go this route or spend $1900 instead to get a brand new iPF6400. I'm not a professional and either will hurt the budget, but I'd like to do the smarter thing.
I know that I should print more often since these machines are built for that but I was thinking that this would only result in more often print head replacement due to nozzle clogging, not a hardware issue. Either way, I'm bummed. Don't know if I can try anything on my own to fix the unknown problem. Maybe head cleaning - B and reinstalling the R-head?
Thanks in advance for any feedback.