Ink Drowned my AIO Printer

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fine-tune
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Ink Drowned my AIO Printer

Post by fine-tune »

Many years ago I tried aftermarket ink cartridges. They were awful.

Friends would say, "why are you wasting your money on that expensive factory ink!" My experience with
so called "remanufactured" cartridges was terrible. Washed out colors, fractured or smeared print, etc.

About 12 months ago a friend said, "I know you don't trust aftermarket cartridges, but try 4inkjets.com."
They do have more positive reviews than the other guys, so I purchased a few cartridges. After printing
several sheets I was genuinely surprised. I really couldn't see the difference between factory and 4inkjets
cartridges.

Several days ago my home office Canon AIO went crazy. The paper feed was all screwed up. Sheets were
pulled into the rollers with a sudden jerk. After printing the rollers failed to fully eject the sheet, causing
a "jammed paper" message to appear. I have a PDF copy of the service manual. I tried the maintenence
procedures, but nothing worked.

I know what happened to my printer. An ocean of ink leaked out of those 4inkjets cartridges. It never crossed
my mind to blame the remanufactured cartridges, because I've been using them for an entire year with no
problems.

Ink is dripping out from every crack and crevice. It's so bad, I quickly shoved the printer into a plastic bag
so it wouldn't destroy my desk! Except for minor repairs, I have never dismantled a printer. Flushing out
all that ink seems like an impossible job.

I certainly don't blame my friends for this disaster. They were right about 4inkjets, until their cartridges
destroyed my printer. I suppose the best option is to buy a new printer.
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Janitor Tzap
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Re: Ink Drowned my AIO Printer

Post by Janitor Tzap »

Another victim of the great Ink Conspiracy......

Do yourself a favor, and just dump that Canon ink guzzler.

I had a Inkjet Canon years ago.
Even with the ink refill kits, it went through cartridges within a month or two.
Because the heads on the cartridges would just wear out after one or two refills.

I now have a {2007} Konica / Minolta Magicolor 2400W Color Laser Printer.
It is only now on its second set of toner cartridges, and is still going strong.
I've had a miner Paper feed problem, but that was easily fixed by adjusting a relay.

When I look at the cost of getting the Color Laser Printer,
VS the money I was spending just for Ink with the Canon Printer.
The Color Laser Printer has been cheaper to operate in the long run.

Now be aware, many companies include the toner cartridge(s) with the printer when you buy it.
But some companies don't give you a full toner cartridge(s), these toner cartridge(s) are only 1/4 full or less.
Which means you'll need to replace them after 150 or 250 printings.


I have purchased toner supplies from these two places, and have not had any problems with them.
https://www.ldproducts.com/
http://www.inktechnologies.com/


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haklesup
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Re: Ink Drowned my AIO Printer

Post by haklesup »

Most aftermarket ink comes in recycled cartridges that are refilled and even if they claim to clean them , they are still used and can't possibly work as well as a brand new ones. I have similar issues with infrequent printing. under those conditions the brand name ink is more likely to work months between sheets but I have mostly switched to B&W laser for home printing and avoid color printing. Most people want to look at photos electronically anyway these days. Best time to buy any printer is usually Christmas.
fine-tune
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Re: Ink Drowned my AIO Printer

Post by fine-tune »

I was happy with the Canon AIO in my home office because I don't use it a lot.

You've probably read those articles about the cost of factory ink. I can't remember the exact amount, but
if you purchased a gallon of factory ink it would cost thousands of dollars. There are several ink sellers
that will give you a printer for free, if you buy a certain number of factory cartridges.

Using those aftermarket cartridges was like playing Russian Roulette. Eventually, your luck runs out.
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Lenp
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Re: Ink Drowned my AIO Printer

Post by Lenp »

I gave up on inkjet technology and especially HP years ago. Even the big scale lab printers require a lot of maintenance. I print with black and color Brother laser printers. Both are networked and duplex and I never looked back. For the occasionsl quality print I send the file to a lab or even Walmart, and let them deal with the machine issues

Years ago l lusted for a wide format plotter, and when I was offered one for free I soon realized that its upkeep was more than it's worth. I could send the file to Staples for a quality, low cost and fast print.
Len

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a big pile of junk.” (T. Edison)
"I must be on the way to success since I already have the junk". (Me)
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jwax
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Re: Ink Drowned my AIO Printer

Post by jwax »

Sorry to hear of the inkjet troubles!
My ancient HP650C Plotter is still chugging along, as I do quite a bit of roll printing.
Cartridges for this 1990-era machine are the problem. Many, many suppliers sell old reman cartridges, or out of date originals, so finding ones that work is a constant search/headache.
Still looking for "Nozzle cleaning" instructions for this machine. Didn't find in the factory manual. Any ideas on that would be appreciated.
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haklesup
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Re: Ink Drowned my AIO Printer

Post by haklesup »

I sometimes wonder if the printer makers would write firmware to mess with unbranded cartridges and cause them to fail. I mean if VW can make fudge for emissions testing on diesel cars, why not put an ink cartridge in flush mode or alter the dispense parameters. They all clearly state in manuals that ONLY branded ink is guaranteed to work. Just a conspiracy theory, it would be darn hard to detect.
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Lenp
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Re: Ink Drowned my AIO Printer

Post by Lenp »

My many words on ink and toner...
Some printers, even laser printers, will flag a cartridge as bring empty based on page count not product left. There is often a toner bypass method that gives quite a bit of printing from the 'empty' cartridge. Also if a laser printer starts to print lightly, take out the cartridge and shake it. Sometimes the toner packs inside and does not feed. I always shake a new cartridge since the toner may have packed during storage or shiping.
Len

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a big pile of junk.” (T. Edison)
"I must be on the way to success since I already have the junk". (Me)
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Janitor Tzap
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Re: Ink Drowned my AIO Printer

Post by Janitor Tzap »

Shaking the toner cartridge to redistribute the toner in it has been known about since the HP LaserJet 2886A.

But do you know about this little trick that HP Inkjets do.

When you first apply power to the printer.
It will go through it's initialization process before it is ready to print.
In this process, the print heads will squirt ink into a sponge on the far right of the print carriage, beyond the printing area.
Then it will align itself to the far left of the print carriage, ready for the print job.
This means, that every time you turn on the printer, it is squirting ink.

I asked several ink suppliers about it.
They told me that it is done to keep the heads from clogging.
Only I had a SOB{(S)mall (O)ffice (B)usiness} that I did some IT work for.
They were complaining that the Inkjet printer was using a lot of ink carriages.

So, I told them the reason why it was going through so much ink in just a month.
Since they power on the printer every day with the computer, it would do its ink squirt every day.
Even if they didn't need to do any printing with that printer.

Well, to solve the excessive ink loss.
I set up each of they're computers with AC Power Control Console.
Image
Thus, they could turn on the computer without the printer, unless they needed it for a print job.
The Inkjet still went through ink faster than a Laserjet printer.
But now they were only replacing ink carriages every two three months. :roll:


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Lenp
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Re: Ink Drowned my AIO Printer

Post by Lenp »

And you would think that the printers that sit turned on for days without printing could be programmed to go through a quick dance routine every couple hundred hours if no printing was done to clear the nozzles. The cleaning cycle by printing lines on paper uses a lot of ink that probably could be saved.
But then...that interferes with their Gilette marketing concept.
Give the razor, then sell them the blades.
Len

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a big pile of junk.” (T. Edison)
"I must be on the way to success since I already have the junk". (Me)
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CeaSaR
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Re: Ink Drowned my AIO Printer

Post by CeaSaR »

Inkjets are the most expensive printing options out there, unless you get lucky. I'll expound.

Went from a 9 pin (don't remember the brand) to an Apollo (HP clone) that lasted only about a month. Then 2 Lexmark photo quality units (maybe 2 years out of each), then the kids school sent a HP 2200 for their use. Then after a few years they sent out a HP-4200 (?) all in one. Then I bought a Brother laser printer. (Len, I have yet to set up the color laser I got from you - need more room in the office for that! ;) )

Timeline out of the way, I can say that the 2 best units I've had or have, have been the HP-2200 and the Brother. The 2200 was a workhorse that ran for over 6 years of really hard use - 2 kids worth of a full day of school work each. Between a case and a half to 2 cases of paper per school year and I only used the Black cartridges once the color ran out. And I only needed to buy 1 or 2 a year, the rest of the time I refilled them with a kit I used to buy at Staples - (3) 60 ml bottles of ink and tools to fill the cartridges for under $20. And I could get by with 2 - 3 kits a year. Made sure I had at least 3 cartridges to work with. Switched them out so as to overwrite the cartridge codes stored in the printer that tell it the cartridge status. And of course since they were mostly text based prints, eco mode saves a lot of ink. Also kept it on all the time so cleaning cycles were seriously reduced. Before filling, I would clean the print nozzle area with alcohol, and clogs would be cleared with a alcohol soaked tissue/paper towel pressed against the nozzle until it came out rectangular and solid. Like I said, it was a workhorse until it wouldn't feed anymore.

The Brother uses store cartridges from my local Microcenter, which cost about $34 per hi-capacity unit. Very few problems with it so far, just a couple jams and a new drum.

At this point in my life, I don't think I'll ever go back to inkjet.

CeaSaR
Hey, what do I know?
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Janitor Tzap
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Re: Ink Drowned my AIO Printer

Post by Janitor Tzap »

jwax wrote:Sorry to hear of the inkjet troubles!
My ancient HP650C Plotter is still chugging along, as I do quite a bit of roll printing.
Cartridges for this 1990-era machine are the problem. Many, many suppliers sell old reman cartridges, or out of date originals, so finding ones that work is a constant search/headache.
Still looking for "Nozzle cleaning" instructions for this machine. Didn't find in the factory manual. Any ideas on that would be appreciated.
I found the manual: https://www.manualslib.com/manual/72355 ... tml#manual


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jwax
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Re: Ink Drowned my AIO Printer

Post by jwax »

Thanks, but still cannot find in the manual any hints at "Cleaning the cartridge nozzles". :(
Have used hot water after removing the cartridge from the machine, or even isopropyl alcohol. But, the old cartridges are stubbornly clogged.
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haklesup
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Re: Ink Drowned my AIO Printer

Post by haklesup »

the ink is usually water soluble so soapy water is probably the right solvent but just soaking will not work, you need to force fluid through the nozzle which are capillary thin. I suspect that the proper procedure is to flush the head under pressure using more ink. How to do that I am not sure. Have you tried ultrasonic cleaning?

There are lots of procedures online and in you tube on how to clear mildly clogged heads, often by soaking and flushing by absorbing ink into a pad, same as the printer does.

https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/09/h ... artridges/
HP seems to think unbranded ink is a Security problem, Bah, security of their Securities (stocks) maybe. I couldn't find a firmware hack for any printer, if they use encrypted protocols to authenticate the chip, then reversing that is hopeless, I doubt they do, nobody has hacked the data stream to the head as far as I know, no need for an arms race. Just have to hope the head cleaning button in the software really does do all that can be done without excessive waste.
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Janitor Tzap
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Re: Ink Drowned my AIO Printer

Post by Janitor Tzap »

jwax wrote:Thanks, but still cannot find in the manual any hints at "Cleaning the cartridge nozzles". :(
Have used hot water after removing the cartridge from the machine, or even isopropyl alcohol. But, the old cartridges are stubbornly clogged.
Do you have access to a ultrasonic cleaner?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMVpt1JuyV8

Here's also some idea's for unclogging print heads cartridges.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0tm8dNeE2A


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