FOR ALL THE QUESTIONS PLEASE READ THIS. I LOVE PRINTERS AS MUCH AS INFORMING PEOPLE. 1.) All other inkjet printers be it Epson, HP, have foam or sponges. Someway or the other all these inkjet printers will also show this absorber error issues. It is impossible for an inkjet to have no absorber foam/sponge. 2.) Mind you that ink tank printers are designed for use not just for seasonal use. Trust me, here people have been doing third party ink tanks since the 2008's and even factory OEM ink tanks like this Canon Pixma ink tank are prone to air presence (contamination) in the tube line because of ink backflow to the tank because of lack of usage. You should print FULL PAGE COLORED at least once a week to avoid this. 3.)Due to this absorber foam/sponge issue, CANON has released a new and improved ink tank printers lineup that overcomes this issues. These sponges/foam are now user replaceable in a form of a long cartridge, they call it now "Maintenance Cartridge." Users can just buy this in their local computer stores or online where it may be available and maybe buy bulk just to have some spare, who knows. -With the improved canon ink tank printers, users can just screw to remove with a penny the old maintenance cartridge (foam/sponge) and replace it with the new one. Right after that you can continue printing right away, no codes, no reset, no other software needed, no hassle. This new maintenance cartridge have microchips that get detected by the printer once replaced/installed so again no codes, no reset needed. -Printers that have this user replaceable cartridge are (variety of model codes depends on where you live) Canon Pixma G1020 G2020 G2060 G2260(usa) G3020 G3060 G3060 G3260(usa) G500 series, G520(usa) G540 G550 G570 G600 series, G620(usa) G640 G650 G670 and other models that has identical body style and design and other latter Canon ink tank models that are designed and released after 2020. 4.) On the other hand, I still do not recommend Epson because it has a BUILT-IN print heads as oppose to Canon that has REPLACEABLE print heads. When your prints have lines or missing colors even though you run a lot of head cleaning or deep clean then that is a sign that the print heads needs replacing. The only way to acquire a genuine brand new Epson print heads is only via service centers and it is very expensive, trust me I've been there. Unlike canon, just type the code of your print head or printer model online it is available everywhere and replace it yourself. PLUS canon has better photo print output! Note: 1.)This Maintenance Cartridge and Replaceable Print heads are advertised by Canon themselves, Here is the video of the advertisement (Asia model name is shown, it may just vary depends on where you live) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e5nmAJND6W4.html 2.)Replacement of Maintenance Cartridge and Print heads are other maintenance are well explained in this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2Di-_NLMwvQ.html I'm in no way affiliated to any printer brands whatsoever. I just like informing people.
Very helpful information. I am glad to hear that Canon printers released since 2020 have a user-replaceable sponge. Canon should advertise this feature and remove all prior models off the market.
"This new maintenance cartridge have microchips that get detected by the printer once replaced/installed so again no codes, no reset needed." It's another scam. Damn Canon and their stupid chips. They should just switch to a waste ink tank than a sponge. A tank is easier to empty like those modded printers. How much do those maintenance cartridge cost again?
You have to consult with Canon to get print heads for some of their printers. I'm not sure which ones but I know the g6020 is only available through customer service BY PHONE! If the printers require weekly full page printing, the printers should be programmed to print weekly on their own if they haven't been used. I hate this printer so much
Props to you for having enough integrity to walk back and criticise something that you previously endorsed. Not everyone can do that. Thank you for this informative PSA
You're welcome! This was easy because I bought the Canon at retail. Once you have a relationship with a company, well, you can guess how this type of video would go over. But I'm still considering doing one like that for another product I've reviewed previously that has been a total bomb from a long term perspective.
@@TheTechBuyersGuru If you know that a product is behaving differently over long term, whether good or bad, you should actually do an updated review, or at least a PSA, like this video.
absorber problem fixing by reflashing the rom... and taking out the drain into some bottle... The bigger problem of this series is lifetime & cost of the printheads!!! a much better lifetime have the HP tanks, but the absorber problem is a way more dissaster!! Epson only one is good to go (end Brother maybe, didn`t try, but it must be similar to Epson
@@robertbodnar8745 : How long will these Laser Printer cartridges last? i too have the Cannon 3200 Tanker I had it for a while and printed too many to count unlike the HP cartridge only printed 30-40 if lucky prints no Photo regular prints. But I don't like the idea that I have to use my printer to keep it in working condition.
After many years of many inkjets I came to the conclusion there is no such thing as a good inkjet. As someone who rarely needs colour anyway, I binned my last inkjet and bought a black laser. Sending something to print and just have it print without 5 minutes of whirring and without splodges or lines or a complete failure to print is a great feeling.
Same here, I bought a 39 dollar Pantum wireless black laser printer 8 years ago and it still works fine ... on the original toner cart too! Granted we don't use it daily, or sometimes weeks go by but when we turn it on to use it it works every time. Inkjets are dead to me. If I need a photo or color print I'll go to Walgreens.
@@Ass_Burgers_Syndrome same. I have had a cheap Brother A4 laser printer for 12 years. Put one new toner cartridge in it in that time. Colour prints I send out to a print shop. Cheaper in the end, better paper, and better results.
Added bonus: If you run some kind of home (automation) server using a non-windows OS, support for laser printers tends to be a lot better than for inkjet printers.
If you do your research and get a high end head and ink system in an affordable model, it is far better and more capable than any laser, and at much lower cost. I got 10 epson wf-5190 on an offer for 100 euro each. 3200 nozzles. 10 pages in normal quality duplex. Catridges stay fixed. Pigment inks. If you print a page every month it stays clean. I use them for different things, but the ones I have used all work fine. They are OK after many years in storage also. They are compatible with large refillable cartridges if you want to do that. The only way to get nozzle problems is to leave it off for many many months but that shouldn't be very hard to fix with the right liquid, and no, clean cycles do not reqlly clean nozzles .You can find tests for this class of injets that test paper feeding in heavy usage. Color lasers below 1000 euro are low quality high cost garbage and even business models are designed to scam businesses that cannot calculate total cost of ownership. Kyocera is a good brand if you want low cost mono and color, but only the expensive models.
@@aristotle_4532 no one was talking about colour laser printers and you are still saying I have to print once a month or risk having to clean heads. I rarely print anything, but when I do I need it to work reliably. Which a laser will always do. As for "better" I'll always take a black laser print over a black ink jet print. And cost? I think my printer cost me about AUD $60. And replacement toner cartridges are perhaps $40 (which I've used one of in 12 years). Inkjets are great if you need colour and print regularly, otherwise they are a waste of time and money.
Absolutely!! This should be criminal. Look they are shutting down our energy because of Global Warming, but then it’s ok for all these corporations to flood the United States wait planned obsolescence junk.
I think the best way to handle this problem (and when you use the printer not so often) is buy a black laser printer for basic prints at home and print your photos at a printingstation (higher quality) in supermarket or so.
but you must have luck with printer, accepting third party toner cartridges without chips, which is scarce now, so dont throw your Canon LBP 2900 or HP 1018 for lack of wifi, duplex, or other modern features, maybe its USB only, but it works since 2012, and with every toner you change drum (part responsible to print quality) too. I have them both in my repair shop, lending them as spare printers free of charge, until repair/replace customers original one.
@@lukaswolf3012 just don't go with hp canon or epson. why would you got for brand that are known to eb scammer for inkect printer? why wouldn't they scam you on laser printer ? I juts use brother and i am not disapointed for now . but i'm sure other brand works fine
All the inkjet scam was the reason i gave up on them... Got me a good colour laser printer for efficient and economical normal printing. And when I need a good photo print, i simply go out and pay for it - pay per print... It's much easier and i don't have to hate myself for making a poor buying decisions over time 🙂
You could even get one of those dedicated photo printers, the paper isn't cheap but they make damn nice prints and it's still probably cheaper than a printing service (and photo printing services are disappearing)
Just posted something similar and then saw your comment, spot on, colour laser all the way. But even then, you have to get the right one, have been using Kyocera ecosys units for a couple of decades now, they really are great and cheap to run.
@@Jdbye well, with such printer you are stuck with the given paper dimensions. And i don’t print my photos so often that I’d have usage for such a dedicated device.
@@ledsalesoz i got my HP some years ago, one of the first with AirPrint support. And pretty happy with it since than… one just have to ignore the low toner message for a while and gets to print many pages with that :)
Thank you for publishing this. All computer hardware related youtubers should publish videos like this. Maybe printer manufacturers will stop wasting our money (and environment with broken printers).
I've been wary of these kinds of issues with ink printers - so I went with a Brother colour laser all-in-one *because* of how little printing I do. Sure, it's more expensive - but my reasons were two-fold: 1: Toner doesn't "dry out", and 2: It has good Linux support. 🙂
Canon G3260 megatank has replacable maintenance cartridge now for $10, perhaps in part due to videos like this. Good job, I think you have made a difference!
Indeet that's a very good solution. Unfortunately this series of printers doesn't support recto-verso-printing. And those, who do, do not have the maintenance cartridge. It's a shame.
You still have to stop the continuous error message telling you the waste ink absorber is full. You can only do this by reprogramming the eeprom (firmware.) The web explains this is done by pressing the on/off button and the Ready button in a sequence that only works on your particular model, but this completely erases the eeprom and "bricks" the printer. Believe me I found this the hard way 😩
Let me share my experience about this printer: I rarely print anything, so printheads are regularly clogged up once I get to print something. Last time it was so bad as I couldn't unclog it with any maintenance option available, not even deep clean. I took out the printheads, got a syringe with warm water, and pushed the water through the printheads until it was just pure water coming out. Sucked out/drained the remaining water, put back the printheads, initiated a deep clean (or some kind of clean) and all colors started to work flawlessly. I don't remember the exact steps as I did it like a year ago. Just as an FYI, that you can unclog your printer this way as well, but if you do it this way, you must accept that you are doing it on your own risk.
I wash the printer heads under running hot water, forget the syringe. Run it till it is almost clear out of each port, tap dry then use a paper towel to dry the rest. Done this many times.
The only thing I miss from working at an office is that I could just use their printer that one time every year I need to print something. Luckily I've learned that I can print at my local library for just a few bucks so that's what I do now. It's gonna take me a decade at least to rack up the cost of a single set of toner cartridges.
I think its a lot more economical to go to anywhere that allows you to pay money to print / photocopy. Even if copying with color costs more, its still a lot better than buying a new printer / copier that starts to play up and becomes unusable. Many thanks for the video, you have saved me a lot of money.
I've paid $179 for the G7020 from Canon and it is their flagship for the ecotank printers. All the needed features and technologies included and it works great so far (1 year old now).
I'm at two years and nothing but problems with the same printer and the new heads are back ordered and you can't get them and the Canadian price is almost $500.00 for this junk.
@@dashcam3098 Me too. Nothing but problems. Not to mention that when the waste ink pad is full, you can't replace it. You need to pay several hundred dollars for service!
That’s the one I have. My wife recently retired, so the printer goes weeks without use, and now the black doesn’t print even after trying every cleaning method. Make sure you use it regularly or you will have the same issue.
as others mentioned, if you own a color printer, you pretty much have to print a color page every week to keep the nozzle from drying up. The longer it sits, the more cleaning it will require. If it sits for a few months it may be too far dried and it won't come out the nozzle at all.
My office inkjet printer, if no print in 1 week or more, sure will need initiate print head cleaning… But my canon maxify, I left it with out ink in the box for 2 year I think, after few flushing, can use again, but the ink expensive..
@@Tom-ku8bu Yep, I have a small Xerox Phaser color printer that's well over 10 years old and only paid $199 for it. I've replaced the inks a few times with a 3rd party and it kept on printing without issues. Even I haven't used the printer for months it still works without going through the cleaning nonsense.
As someone who used to do large format printing professionally, the printers I used had a “waste tank” that basically looked like another ink cartridge. Those stupid things were expensive.
It's not a fail. It all works as intended. You're supposed to hand the printer in for an expensive service or buy a new printer. (Most likely the latter) It is by design. It is how the manufacturer makes money. My tip: Never *ever* buy any kind of liquid/ink based printers. Go for laser/toner printers. They last a lot longer and don't clog up.
I just have a black and white laser printer. It always fires right up and ive not even used all of the included toner. 10/10. For photos that actually matter, you can always go to a print shop.
i have one too, has lasted 5 Years so far and the Printer lately mentoined the Cartridge might be empty soon, so we have a replacement at hand when that happens :D but this might be another year or two away, no idea. Also doesnt matter since the Powder doesnt dry up.
I love the Ecotank series. I have two. One is a 6 color model dedicated for photography. Color output quality is unbeatable; print cost is lower than high volume monochrome laser. 1. Your printer must be an older model than mine. I have a ET-7550 that I've been using heavily for about 5 years now. On this printer, there's a removable exhaust ink box. It's good for maybe 20 thousand pages. I've replaced that maybe four or five times. It's ~$10 direct from Epson; Amazon prices are much higher. 2. The print head does plug - no matter how regularly you print. The key thing to recognize is that the built in cleaning procedure just doesn't work well. Effective cleaning means a more manual (and undocumented) process. For my usage pattern, this manual deep clean is necessary maybe once every 5 reams of paper. That's around 2500 sheets. Okay, here's how to clean: 1. Start printing something; the nozzle check is fine. The point is to pull power when the print head is near middle of the print carriage. 2. Take a sheet of kitchen paper towel. Roll that into a strip of around 1.5in wide. Saturate it with Windex. 3. Slip the strip under the print head. Hold both ends of the strip. Lift until you feel tension against the print head. Pull the strip back and forth along its length. You'll see thick blotches of ink bleed onto the towel strip. You're literally wiping dried ink off the print head. 4. Repeat step 3 another once or twice more. Shove the print head back toward the right edge of the printer. Plug it back in. 5. That's it. The print head is now cleared for another 2500 sheets.
@@FrozenHaxor not sure its still the case, but Canon printers 20 years ago used Epson printheads, they were the first that I recall which didn't replace the head with the cartridge
@@FrozenHaxor Yeah, seems like it. Nevertheless I would recommend to take a look at Epson’s line up. They have replaceable ink dumps if I remember correctly
@@mchenri9683 I have their L310 printer, the diaper is largely non-replaceable but if you don't run cleaning and purging cycles all the time like a lunatic, they won't get soaked. Head clogged? Use proper chemical to clean it. Works for 5 years now.
Most inkjets have always had a sponge for this, it’s just really hard to print enough to fill it up. Saying that, every time you switch it on there’s a cleaning cycle which wastes ink (and puts it in the sponge). Some printers (Epson PictureMate) have the sponge built into the cartridge. So you can expire a cartridge just by switching the printer on and off to print one photo at a time, long before the actual ink runs out!
@@Ussurin It isn't "literal sponge" it's more like dense cotton fibre that has some kind of gel in it to lock the ink in. I tried washing one out previously, what a mess!
They don't need to sell replacements, the ink is literally dumped into the pad through a tube. As the guy even mentions in the video you can just connect that tube up to a tub and get presto you've got yourself all the wasted ink dumped into a tub that you can then just dump back into your black ink every so often. The printers like the that have ink tanks really should have also done this design change and had the waste ink be dumped right back into the black by default, that way the cleaning process does what it needs to by paying ink through the head, and the ink just goes around in a cycle. Or at the very least just have a waste pot people can empty. The real scam in this is that the printers still are locked down in the firmware to basically stop working after a set number of cleaning a cycles. When it thinks the pad is "full", even if its not. This problem even means a scanner printer will stop letting people scan anything. There should be a way to tell the printer that the spine was cleaned or the tank was emptied. They should never be locked down like they still are, but it seems even when trying to claim they're not going to scam people on ink they still scam people in other ways
I literally just ditched my old Canon Pixma because it threw up the ink absorber error - I can’t believe I’d never heard of this before! And your description of it as a ‘diaper’ was exactly how I was describing it. I tried to full the printer apart to see if I could fix it, but the process was so convoluted and messy I gave up, dumped the whole thing at a recycling centre and came home with a cheap little laser. No mess, no fuss, and it prints like a dream
When my Pixma showed the absorber error code I just set the printer in a small boot tray and decided to let it leak if it should overflow. Then I reset the error code. Now after two years, it's still running fine and still no leakage. Talk about crying wolf! And yes, replacing the absorber pads is ridiculously complicated.
@@johncoenraads9681 I gave up - the Pixma was getting elderly and cantankerous, and tbh we print so rarely it was using more ink to prime the nozzles than was being used to actually print. It was very cathartic to pull apart, though
My prints looked exactly like yours. The green ones that is. This printer worked great for a couple of years but now I'm done with it. For people that only make 4x6 prints I recommend the Canon Selphy, It's a dye-sub printer. . . no ink. I used one for years in my photo studio for passport photos. It never failed. For large prints I switched from Epson to Canon because the heads were always needing cleaning. The cleaning worked good but the ink useage was excessive. It used 8 tanks at a cost of $100 each. The Canon printers needed cleaning as well but a lot less than the Epson. Love the concept of refillable ink tanks but there's always a hitch, isn't there! I hope you find a reliable home photo printer soon and pass it on.
I had a similar experience at one point. I had to run the deep clean through multiple cycles and it finally came clear. After that experience, I learned to use my printer often. I never use just black as I want to exercise all colors/lines. I have not experienced the same issue since and I have purchased this printer at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. Even with that experience, I still suggest this printer to others. I have the G7020.
Canon and Epson went through the route of the refillable ink tanks that were popular from gray market ink vendors since the 90s. The technology is very old. I remembered getting a pre-configured epson R200 printer with the ink tank kit for about $200. Printed over 10,000 pages for the next 5 years so it is worth the investment. Since you got the printer since 2017, it gave about 5 years of use. Unfortunately you only use it for 50 photos. Give you props for the courage to go back on your previous review.
The G3260 has a replaceable maintenance cartridge with a sensor that determines when the cartridge needs to be replaced. It costs about $20.00, and the replacement procedure is easy. Our G3260 is now on month ten and so far no message the maintenance cartridge needs replacing.
The actuall required components of that cartridge for proper functioning cost less than dollar if you go to hardware store, you know? Paying 20 dollars every time you change a sponge is pretty huge scam.
This is why i always recommend to get laserprinters, especially for people who rarely need to print. These issues what you describe were hidden away from the consumer for decades. But in Large Format Printing this is no new thing. The sponges are not always used in this way. Depending on print technology (latex, inkjet, solvent ect) mostly use a waste tank, that is basically a empty can that recieves all the ink, that gets flushed through the printheads to get all the nozzles open again. Problem is, inkheads are easy (in some printers) to replace. But these consumer things; they require to be taken apart entirely. And we all know, getting that junk together is not really realistic. I once owned a 'office' grade Lexmark, which occasionally did it's flushes... ran out of a full set of cardridges in a few months, without making a single print myself :)
Depends on the printer design and age. Epson's Ecotanks had the same problems in the early models. Now it is a user-servicable part that just needs a screw driver and a ten buck replacement part. Same for newer Canon's, I think.
Laser printers have their own planned obsolescence thing. There's a powder salvage tank in every laser printer that is often impossible to remove and / or disassemble to empty it out because it's sealed. A IR laser beams to a sensor, when the powder blocks the light hitting the sensor, the printer stop working. It's possible to make it work again but ultimately the error will reappear and one day you will not be able to get rid of this without buying an off brand powder salvage tank if you can find it.
@Ryokath Irrelevant (but interesting nevertheless). Today, few people print more than a few pages per week -- and many print a few pages *a decade*. For this audience, the only thing that matters is that the mere passage of time won't damage the printer, and that's what a laser printer gives you. Buy the printer, buy a full set off toner cartridges, and the odds that the printer will work when you *need* to print a form a decade from now is good. With an ink jet printer, the odds of it working are close to zero -- even if you invested in a spare set of ink tanks.
@@RyokathI wonder how common this powder salvage thing is? I've not run into a problem with my 2012 Xerox yet. Still works fine for the occasional print job
I've encountered many of those issues in approx. 15 years of inkjet printer use. When I finally was fed up and came up with the following solution: Buy a Color Laser Printer for 300 Euros and have my photos printed by a print service. OK, I want less than 50 photos to be printed out in 4 years, but this solution has perfectly worked out for me. No toner change in 5 years, no hassle, no scam.
I’ve basically given up with printers. I had an old Samsung laser printer I spent hours trying to get to print with no success. I Decided to buy the cheapest I can get especially since I print very little. I dislike that this will probably create more ewaste even though I will recycle at end of life. I wonder if the right to repair movement will have a positive effect on printers as well
Never buy HP or Canon for basic printing. If you really need a printer buy Epson or Brother inktank printer. If you don't use your printer regularly, never shut down your printer. It will allow the printer to clean it's head when required. You also need a resetting software, which you can get from online for free. If everything goes wrong you still can physically clean the head. Just unscrew the head and flash mild warm water inside the head and reattach it after drying. I got more than one lakh colour prints from my Epson with 3rd party ink.
This "feature" has been around for a long time. One of my clients had a little Canon bubblejet printer (probably close to 20 years ago now) and I remember her contacting me saying she couldn't print anything any more, even with new ink installed. When she contacted Canon here in Australia she was told the ink absorber was full and that was the end of its operational life. She had printed a lot with it, and was told to purchase a larger model with a higher rated print yield. I guess some things never change!
Exactly. Theres no reason these printers couldn't have had a waste ink tank built in, with an accurate full measurement sensor that means the printer never disables itself forever with nothing the users can do except hack the firmware.
@@ge2719 There is no reason Canon can't make the ink counter easily resettable. They won't even tell consumers how to do it, and none of the procedures recommended on line work on mine. I can get it into service mode easily enough (hold down Stop, turn on Power, then flash Stop 5 times with Power held on), but then what???
@@johne6081 i had to buy a seeingoy dodge poeceof software for resetting a specific printer i had. Tested it in a locked off virtual machine and it didnt doathing malocious and the i ran it on a mini pc with a fresh windows with no network access, then reinstaled windows, just incase. It reset it fine. I cant remember the name of it though. Let me see if i can find it again.
My color laser printer came with cartridges and the first color said it was empty 150 pages ago, yet it prints fine. Right now 3 out of 4 cartriges say they are empty yet it prints fine. Not sure if Canon is saying its empty when 25% is actually left or something... annoying to have to tell the printer to keep printing every reboot etc.
This is an excellent printer IF you use it (almost) daily. If you don't, some of the ink will fall back because of gravity. This problem already existed 20 years ago with those large format inkjet printer. On the lastest Canon printer driver, already have "ink flush" feature in Printer Maintenance to address empty tube problem. They'll just need to add "reset absorber". But on the otherhand if user start to abuse "reset absorber" without changing the absorber, one day ink will leaks out.
I almost pulled the trigger on buying this printer. Glad I found your video. In the past, I would only print one or two times per year. My ink cartridges were all dried up by then. So, I switch to a separate B&W printer that use toner and another portable printer that printed color photos using heat transfer film. I now have a couple kids in elementary and am printing more often, but still not often enough. I guess I will stay put with my current two printer solution.
Having a laser printer is actually one of the best possible choices as the ink doesn't dry up so it won't matter if you don't print often but also the cartriges are less of a scam than inkjet ones. Plus it prints faster and to me the hot and dry sheets coming out of a laser printer feel nicer than the ones coming out of a inkjet printer, it's only personal preference though. One of the few cons however is the fact it can't print good quality photos, unlike the dye sumbliation aka heat transfer film printers, again a good choice for you as it's literally the best way to print digital photos you can possibly get.
That is nice to know. I checked and Canon states that the absorber is non-user replaceable. They state that the G3200 printer needs to go to a service center where they will charge to replace the absorber. My Epson ET-3750 uses a user replaceable maintenance tank. I am going on four years of ownership with no problems and only two head cleanings. It came with two free sets of ink bottles, and I am halfway through the second set of ink.
This was exactly the reason that made me make a choice of never buying a home printer unless I absolutely am forced to. I was also excited about the refillable inkjets, but that feeling came crashing down when I learned about the software locked absorber counter. I was a day away from buying this exact printer. I will utilize the printers at work and if needed, printing services. Much better value.
If you do not print enough to *need* a printer at home, you are much better off with a laser. Stick it away in a closet for a year or two if you want to, and it still works when you need it.
I got 99800+ total prints from this printer and still working. During this time I had to replace only once the print head for black colour. Regarding the ink not coming, you have to open the ink tank lid during ink flush to let out the air and pressure that is stuck in the ink pipe. For the waste ink you have to use an external tank to prevent the waste pad full. You have to understand the basic functionality for each printer. Each printer is designed differently.
I have a Brother AIO that cost me about $100 maybe 6 years ago. I buy generic ink cartridges online pretty cheaply. I have had to clean the heads once but otherwise it's been fine for me. I also appreciate that I can print from MacOS and Linux easily as well.
A Brother user over here as well. I cant really understand why its the only brand that haven't been problematic so far. Or at least less problematic. Earlier on I had two HP printers, one had this rather cool ability to print on printable discs, which has been a huge help with my first business, but sadly the ink was deadly expensive. I tried to refill the cartridges, and while black worked out well, the color one did not, and it printed weird colors. And not to mention it broke after some time, it was probably around 2010 or so. The second one I got for free from my mobile operator after signing a new deal, and it worked a small bit longer. It was a combo, had the scanner on top (tbh all of the later printers I got had those built in scanners). But again had that annoyance in form of expensive inks. Not to mention it used a very weird kind of PSU, and after moving out I lost one, so now its basically a piece of junk. In the meantime my grandfather bought himself a Brother printer. It was in around 2007 I believe so. He still uses it like... once over 3 months? And it works like a charm. And so I went for buying Epson printer. It had those cool features like Wi-Fi printing, fax, and so on. Had a normal 8-style power cord, and it wasnt HP. Ink wasnt cheapest, but still better than HP. It worked for like 2 years. Still got it, but I dont really know why I keep this. Probably just to give away to someone who'd want a free scanner. Sadly this carried on. Around 2019 my father wanted to buy a printer for himself, and chose HP, after all I went through. I told him "dont buy this junk, you'd only lose money", but he insisted that he has to own a printer, because he has to have ability to print something when he needs to. Yep. He maybe used it like once or twice, and it stopped working. He is not used to print anything if he doesnt need to. It was a real annoyance that I couldn't print anything at home, and had to go visit my buddy who worked at the office. Until one day he asked me "hey, wouldnt you want a printer?". After I saw that its a Brother, I happily agreeded. The only reason he gave it away for me was the fact that it's "too slow", and his customers had to wait like 30 seconds for their documents, and he has to give it to them in lesser time. It was already used heavily, because he printed documents every day, and not to mention its already probably 10 years old. But it prints! And since I got it in 2020 I'm printing as much as I want. In colour and b&w. The only problem I have got now is where to get a cheap paper. This leaves a question. Why should I bother printing a page weekly if I dont need to, when my current printer works even if I leave it for a month or two? Even the OG inks for the Brother printer are cheap, and the third party ones now costs less than a pack of 500 sheet copy paper. The only problem I had with the printer recently was the fact, that the transparent ribbon inside got splashed with ink. After I cleaned it, it works again. Couldnt repair a similiar issue in my first HP. Sure - the print quality isnt the best one I had ever seen. But I can turn a blind eye on it, because it pays off with the reliability. It has almost zero impact when printing documents anyway. And what's best - printing has become affordable again. I'm not the kind of person who likes to praise big companies, but when it comes to printers I just can't stay silent, because this is a real difference. HP printers had this magnet for clients of being cheap, but then you had to spend more on inks, and the company earned their money anyway. Its probably a similiar story with Canon and Epson. I'm not sure how does Brother products hold up now, but Im sure that Im not going to change my printer anytime soon.
The best investment I ever made was for a second hand colour laser printer. It always works and never needs cleaning. The toner cartridges are good for 1000's if not 10000's of prints. I've had it now for 6 years and I'm still on the original toner cartridges which are still at 50%. I only paid £200 for it.
I'm looking to switch over to laser because I'm just done with inkjet printers all together. I'm hoping that the laser printer will work well with making bookmarks on cardstock and can pick up texture and print as close to what's on the screen as possible
@@LunarNoire Did you buy yet? Be sure to research any printer you're considering, because laser printers don't generally do heavy cardstock well. It bonds toner to paper with heat, and if the cardstock is too thick for the printer it will flake off. That said, I LOVE my color laser printer, but def buy after-market toner or it's like paying for ink cartridges. Good luck!
@@imadish5356 I ended up getting a laser printer, but I want to get this one too to replace my ecotank since I'm using both for different purposes. So far the laser printer that I have has been pretty good with heavy cardstock. I'm going to try cover cardstock next to see if it will go through and pray I don't break the the printer lolz. The colors came out really nice and accurate so I am pleased with the laser printer thus far, but still want an inkjet as well. I got the Canon ImageCLASS MF644Cdw
@@LunarNoire Congrats! That looks like a really nice printer. I'm jealous.😉I have (old!!) HP M251nw. Have done up to 271 gsm/100 lb. It made it through, but toner "just" sticks -can flake it off in places. Depending on project, I sticky laminate or spray w/Crystal Clear. Page curl is a major prob for me --my printer can't load from the back. PLEASE let me know how it goes with your new Canon! I'm shopping -this poor old thing is gonna quit soon. Good luck!
For those who just do occasional printings at home, I would suggest the Brother MFCL3750CDW, coloured print, Auto 1-travel-2-side ADF, auto 2-side printing, laser printer. The only downside is: genuine Brother toner cartridges and drumps are not cheap (but 3rd party cartridges are available and not rejected by the machine)
Yeah, this is basically why I went with color laser a couple printers ago, they don’t have the same picture quality but make up for it in not having any issues with being used infrequently. I’m surprised there hasn’t been more development of home digital photographic paper prints, I’m sure anyone really dedicated to the true top quality wouldn’t mind loading some photo chemicals instead of ink... I was always impressed by the prints I obtained from my local electronics shop, that tech just needs to get desktop sized and mass produced, and black and white would be even simpler to implement.
So glad I found this video!! These tanks printers sound too good to be true. I own an HP Envy 4500 that I got for $45 in 2015 and it’s still working like a beast! I’ve printed almost 10500 pages so far. The only reason I’m looking into a better printer is because I started a small business that requires me to produce quality readable labels on just about every type of paper (textured, matte, glossy, clear). I tried Epson EcoTank but I was honestly not amazed with the print quality. The colors were dull and despite letting it dry for days, the black ink on a clear label kept smudging. Also the updates became toooo frequent and annoying my god! And it won’t even accept a card stock paper no matter the settings. So I’m still using that HP inkjet but I have to be prepared when it starts breaking down.
I have a G3060 - and after just over a year of minimal use - the cyan ran out. I added more ink but it was still not printing correctly. After two hours on hold with Canon, he suggested a print flush. It did the trick - the printing resumed. However, after your video on the saturated sponge, I ordered and replaced the cartridge - easy. Cost $9.99 on the Canon site. Back to loving this inkjet. Another thing I like is the low price per colour bottle compared to $$$ Epson.
I had the same feeling as yours but was gladly seeing a lot of RU-vid videos teaching us how to fix the problems you mentioned in your video. But there is a lot of work that you couldn't do it without making your hands dirty. I fully agree that all the printer manufacturers have collectively decided to design some maintenance-heavy printers or ink cartridges so that you would regularly replace the cartridges or the printers itself.
If you print seasonally, a color laser printer is your best bet. There's no ink to worry about drying up. Yes they might be more expensive initially, but you won't run into the maintenance hassle
I have never had an inkjet printer remotely come close to the photo/label quality of my Kyocera colour laser printer. The only reason I keep my shitheap Canon around is because of the ADF scanner
@@prathamshenoy9840 sure but you won't ever have to worry about print heads clogging up because the ink dried. And most of those bins are user serviceable
This! I had an inkjet 11 years ago but I was printing half a dozen documents or photos a year and having to replace the ink every time. Got a Canon MF634C a few years ago. Scans, prints, never have any problems.
Brother printers using the 900 series ink have been my go to recommendation for years. Ink lasts 1k-2k pages, is cheaper than other company's ink in general.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm always wary of new products nowadays. I admit that I still have the urge to buy impulsively because they sell it so good. However, lately I think twice before buying anything since we are still living in a throwaway culture and companies take advantage of that. Laser printers have stood the test of time, I guess I'll look into that.
Great video. I’ve given up on printers. I mostly use it for scanning and printing a form once a month. For photos I go to a store and pay 10c per print.
I wish I came across this video sooner. 15 months later and my printer has the exact same issue. I will never buy one again. Thank you for making this video and not being afraid to go back and revise your review. I now want to know what I should buy.
Sir Here is ur solution for canon printer it just needs a conbination of keys on printer to clear code and change the ink pad which are availble for under 5$ ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jHprxt8ghYk.htmlsi=7kjMFo9n5KqNsApV
Thanks a lot! This is clearly planned obsolescence! Now I understand what the "Maintenance Cartridge" is on Newer models (Pixma G15/25/35xx and Maxify GX5050, 6050...) : it's a sponge in a plastic tray, with a chip so you can only use the original one! In France we have a law against planned obsolescence, it's typically a case where it could apply.
Those chips are relatively easy to reset, apparently, by copying one that has a low use count, then writing it every time it gets full. Of course you need to manually clean the sponge so it doesn't overflow.
You can get rid of the error, there are plenty of tutorials on RU-vid. Done it a couple of times. Also, you can buy ink absorbing pads, and they are not expensive.
I've got this same printer, or pretty close. I've printed so much, and have used off-brand ink. The printer is so economical, but I have had to do the deep clean twice.
Seems this guy has no clue what he is recommending on his youtube channel or even on national television, just recommends whatever he happened to have bought... You recommend a printer you don't even have looked at, haven't even read up on the limitations and requirements (frequent printing is required for inkt jet, especially with little tubes such as these). Then he doesn't even apologize/take responsibility and just fully blames Cannon for his own mistake of buying a heavy-use printer for occasional use...
I don't have this printer but we had an Epson Etank we got when they 1st came out and it lasted years for us and finally had to replace it because my son dropped something on it and cracked one of the tanks
I considered buying one of these tank printers, but ended up buying a color laser printer instead. That was over 10 years ago and it is still going! No problems! I only had to replace the black toner cartridge once not too long ago; the other colors are still good. It was mad expensive, but it was the best printer purchase I ever made, and saved me a ton of munny in the long run!
An inkjet printer has tiny inkjets, so tiny they are prone to clog if you don't use the printer regularly, so my advice is: if you don't print at least once a day you're better off with a laser printer, period.
Yup, I have a Samsung laser printer that I bought sometime around 2010 still on its original toner cartridge. I print on average 1-2x per year and whenever I turn it on it just works, every time.
the reason most invest in inkjet are to print photos at home, using high grade photo papers. Laser cant do that , still far behind for photo printing quality.
This! Although photos won't be as good. I did this and my laser finally started leaking toner all over the page as it prints. But that was maybe after 15 years.
My Brother 3290 laser is a horrible printer. I’ve always loved Brother laser printers, but this model has streaks that their tech support could never resolve. It works ok as long as it is a white background, but colored backgrounds streak. It was under warranty, but Brother was not very helpful despite hours on the phone with them.
I've had an Epson L110 some years ago, bought from new, printed everyday with it. It had required some 'upgrades' in 4 years and some software available on the internet. But I managed to print 700,000 a4 pages and when I quit my job the printer was still working. I paid for it only 100 euros at that time. Had the same problem with the sponges but they were available on Aliexpress. Good equipment.
I agree with most of your points. I wish the ink absorber was openly available for consumers to replace. I was able to clean the absorbers and reset the error on my g3200 a while back, but it was obviously not encourage on a consumer level. I just ordered a new absorber from China because I doubt my old sponges will make it through another cleaning. Also my on screen options have 3 levels of cleaning. I’ve had to use the “System Cleaning” option at least three times now. It takes about ten minutes and you really see the ink levels drain while the ink is purged.
@@johne6081 After everything is cleaned and closed up, I used this manual reset code: -press stop and hold power -push stop 5 times -release power Next -press stop 5 times, then push power (a page prints) -press stop 3 times, then push power (a test page prints) (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Zu_vONAEM4A.html)
After various colour inkjet printers from Canon and Epson, I gave up on ink jet printing a long, long time ago due to the ridiculous cost of replacement inks, the generally inferior quality of third party inks, firmware updates that rejected third party cartridges, shamefully low print counts per cartridge, etc. We now have a moderately priced, high quality (in our experience) Brother mono-laser that accepts third party toner cartridges, for all our general printing needs. Any colour printing we use either a retail store or there are now quite a few online stores that print and ship prints at a very low cost ... and all with superior results to what the inkjet printers ever gave me even at their best. Your video is very on point, and I would go further to suggest that everyone should simply, and permanently, shun inkjet printers marketed for home use, so as to cease rewarding manufacturers in their shameful inkjet cartridge cost 'scams'. Third party printing services, that use higher quality machines than the home user could afford, while printing at a lower cost per page than the home user could achieve, are the way to go!
The reason I'm here is that I need a document with personal info on it printed immediately and my printer isn't working. They know they can do whatever they want
This could have easily been solved by canon making the ink absorber a replaceable module with a self contained monitoring chip. I think that this particular printer was designed for high workflow environments where a lot of printing occurs. For most home environments I'm concerned about ink solidifying in the tanks and getting sucked in the lines. Most of your purges/cleanings are focused on making sure that the nozzle is clean enough that it sprays properly.
If it is a sponge, couldn't it be simply rinsed out and put back in? Or design it as a tank can be wiped clean with alcohol. If we need a replacement cartridge with a microchip, then we are back to the old situation with expensive consumable parts.
@@j7ndominica051 as far as rinsing it out, some inks become insoluble to water when dried. A tank seems like a good idea but so little ink is used each time that it would be dried out before you think to clean it. All I'm thinking for the monitoring chip is that it holds the counter not the equipment. I'm not talking about serious DRM on a replaceable component that could easily be manufactured by a third party.
I have been using this printer for about 5 years without running into any problem. Sometimes i dont use it for months and everything is working good. It’s an awesome printer. Haven’t buy an ink bottle since i bought it 😅
I recommend the Ecotank series for my consumer customers. The ink maintenance boxes are cheap (10-25$) and they aren't hard to manually flush if you absolutely must. I just recommend that my clients print at least 1 page a week in full color to keep the ink flowing properly.
Ditto. I can fully recommend the Epson EcoTank series. I've had the ET-2500 for 7 years now and not had a problem. All the ink tanks have only been re-filled once in that time.
Absolutely. I say the same thing for my customers. The issue he was experiencing is just a head clog due to inactivity. Isopropyl alcohol usually fixes it. Of course if he runs cleaning after cleaning he’ll saturate the sponge. That’s what it’s designed for. Running a print once a week prevents all of this.
I have an Epson 2400 less than a year old that printed regularly and still stopped all color printing except black. Called Epson and installed new drivers and did a power cleaning and it works well now and I print a color print every week til the sponges fill up and then probably dump the machine and go back to cartridges and it is a shame. More expensive Epsons have user replaceable sponges but I don't want to pay $500 for a printer I rarely use as I am retired 12 years and love every minute of it.@@ryan_9620
I have an Epson EcoTank L6170 all-in-one printer that has a removable maintenance box that an end user can do it without the hassle, and the maintenance box is fairly cheap. It may be a premium-priced printer, but it was worth the money for a hassle-free user experience. As for the budget oriented EcoTank models (ex. L121) though, the waste tank isn't "user installable/replaceable" as Epson states and must be serviced by authorized Epson service centers. But it doesn't mean it can't be possible for a user to install/replace with a 3rd party ink pad (in fact, it's stupid easy and you can find video tutorials on how to do it on youtube). And there's a free 3rd party utility app to reset the waste ink counter.
first of all those are all valid problems, but when I purchased my printers, I bought from Canon's physical store and I was told these things: 1. This printer is only suitable for people that prints a lot of picture, like 1 full photo at least once a week. Considering the cost of the ink, i don't mind running a maintenance photo once a week, but I print mostly document. 2. you need to buy a printer maintenance box thing, which I understand now is the potty sponge. But this applies to all self cleaning printers. Hope this helps anyone to clear things up.
Thank you, you came up with this! Can absolutely feel your disappointment. I bought the same printer. In my case he likes to chew the sheets… error 1300 So that’s the way we go nowadays 😊
@@nrich5127 hey thank you! That’s a good tip, to pay attention to a humidity 👍. Would never think about, that printer over 300€ would strike because of slight humidity changes. (No offence on you! 🍀) Storing my paper in my table. The humidity is the same as in the whole appartement.
I have a 10-year old (or so) Epson printer, and while the ink clogs up a lot, and I have to do cleaning cycles all the time, it's still cheap and worth the hassle because I buy 3rd party cartridges from eBay for like 1 euro... The sponge has probably "expired" physically a long time ago, but it doesn't seem there's any "digital expiration" on it.
Same thing happened to me a couple years back with this same machine when I used it. I cracked and ended up paying for the $10 key that reset the sponge, and I was actually surprised that it worked. I decided I wasn't going to keep it enough for real problems to start so I just left the sponges dirty. It's just super annoying that the sponges aren't at the very least, a consumable product. Lost opportunity and respect for Cannon with that one. Still, I love their printers when they are at their peek. Great video, thank you for posting!
Epson Ecotank absorber sponges are easily replaceable. They are the only high capacity inkjet line that has such a feature. The ink is slightly more expensive than both Canon and HP at about $40-$50 for a 4 color set of refills instead of $20-$30, but the tanks are overall larger and the printer itself tends to provide better performance and more consistent prints.
Thank you Glenn! I also have an Epson Ecotank ET-4850 that I spent nearly $500 on in January 2022. I saw this video and was concerned that the Epson would have the same flaw as Canon. I spent the extra $ on the Ecotank in the hopes it would be better engineered vs cheaper inkjet printers. It’s relieving to know Epson took the time to implement a solution for this issue.
@@edubbs3528 Oh, that’s interesting. Perhaps there are variance in the models. Like more expensive models have more maintenance features built-in, whereas less expensive models have things non-user replaceable sponges. That would be a crappy thing for Epson to do though. Getting good reviews on the fancy models, misleading people to think all of them have the same robustness.
@@edubbs3528 Maybe you had to just cut out the tube to the sponge and put it somewhere to drain the ink from the very new state. But it would work if we know, that the "full sponge" detected by some "wet sensor". And I don't know, whether there is a moisture sensor at all. Maybe there is just a counter...
My family and I have been using Epson Eco Tank printers for quite some time now. And we absolutely swear by them. Sure, you pay more upfront, but you get a decent page yield out of the ink bottles. Print quality is also good just as long as you know how to adjust the printer’s print quality settings. And yes, it does indeed come with an easy to replace ink absorption pad that they call a “maintenance box”. This comes out easily with one screw and can be replaced when the need be. Epson Eco Tank printers are the only inkjet printers I’d recommend. Trust me, they’re worth it.
I've been using a Brother MFC-6490CDW for the past ~13 years and have been pretty happy with it, not just for its reliability and interoperability with modern devices, but also relatively low cost per page, if using the larger cartridges. Although a Minolta Magicolor 2350 DL I have works well for color photos.
Your mistake is to do ink flush. I bought a cleaning kit with a 500ml liquid bottle then i clean each color and/or the black, then i print full page of each cyan magenta and yellow. It requires multiple pages for each color. I don’t do any ink flush. Ink jet are sensible to temp difference, humidity. You should print one time a week at least. Fill the tank to the max to prevent ink dry as possible. Ink is not expensive. 16$cdn$ each and i can print hundreds of puctures. The only thing to be careful is not fully load the ink absorber. So i don’t print borderless. I always keep a white frame and i don’t do ink flush. Cleaning and deep cleaning are useless when the print head is clogged. The last time i had to clean the printer the magenta was like a solid gel. These modes could not solve that. But the printing kit does. The only cons it takes prints to recover full saturation of color. But i am always happy i recover my G6070 as i like it a lot. I have become a Canon surgeon now…nearly. After 3 years no ink absorber pad error..i have done one ink flush when i didn’t know well the technology. Never anymore. I am not worry of print head cleaning now.
What you are telling is true to the tiniest detail, thank you for informing other people as well.. I have a Canon PIXMA printer (E414), even though it doesn't have a tank to hold ink , I had the same problem . I have been refilling my cartridges for a while now and I thought I struck gold because my ink cost was cheap and the cartridges didn't mind getting refilled. But then I faced the same error, cleaned the absorber but couldn't reset the absorber counter( by using 3rd party service Software) and now it's literally dead. If anyone has a solution or work around this problem ,i appreciate the help .
What I did already years ago: - Bought a Canon Selphy Printer for everything that is "photo stuff" -> it uses thermotransfer, therefore the "ink" is made of foil -> you can even choose "matte" or "glossy" -> awesome! - Bought an upper middle-class Laser printer with scanner, color, for everything else Since then: Silencio! Never came into any trouble again.
I have a slightly fancier version of this same generation of printer, I print about 100 pages a month, only had to run the deep cleaning once or twice. Works pretty great still. Ink jets do require regular use, the nature of crystals [print heads] that clog. That being said, an ink sponge maintenance kit and reset option should absolutely be available from the manufacturer.
That's why Epson has so called "maintenance box" in their higher level EcoTank printers. It's basically box with sponges that can be changed, it is equiped with chip so it knows it was changed and it costs about 10€ in store as it is user replaceable part.
I've not had my Epson long enough yet, but the maintenance box was a key requirement. You can buy a chip resetter for it from China if you plan to self-reload it a lot, or just get a bunch of chips for a few bucks. It would be nice if you could reset in-the-printer instead, but if you don't empty the ink, you will destroy the printer... so I don't blame them for chipifying it. Some of their earlier budget Ecotanks didn't have a maintenance box, but mine did, yeah. I had to replace the Canon print head on my old ink jet a dozen times, so I am worried about that on the Epson - most important thing to do there is to not leave the printer unplugged and to print once a week or so. Maybe have your computer setup to auto-printer the weekly calendar for you.
I used to use an Ink Jet printer (2) but I stopped making daily prints. I used to do 50 a day or more, I went to use the printer after a week or so. ERROR "tanks sponges were dry, required overhaul by qualified expert. BAH. I started using Toner and Laser Printers FINE. I might not use it for extended periods, FINE. New problem is Microsoft "Updating the OS" . Lost the use of two 500USD (bought on sale down from 1,000USD) Not supported by OS, so much Xerox, and OKI, now using a cheap HP colour laser. I really like the cumbersome OKI, too.
@@Brisco_County_Jr the pad maintenance cassette that for one apparently is not stocked at canon and second printer lineup double the price? The printhead in a maxify alone is $165.
@@Brisco_County_Jr does it have a chip and just inserting it reset the counter? This is all confusing because I'm reading ebayers selling that cartridge, the sponge and chips plus resetter for more than if I was just to buy that cartridge. I don't understand why people would go through the trouble unless they have an abundance of sponge and feel like paying $12 for chips
@@Brisco_County_Jr so now I either get a 620 to avoid this pad issue but pay double to triple for ink of that of the 6020, or get a 3260 which got lower reviews and no network connection. Ugh why can't canon just deliver a 6020 or 7020 upgrade with maintenance pad without having to pay $700 for a maxify. Or I'll just get the 6020 and bestbuy 4 yr warranty and let them deal with any codes
I went through so many inkjet printers in the last 15 years it isn't funny. I finally gave up and bought an HP ColorLaserJet for my office work, and I send my photos out to a printing service.
@@TheTechBuyersGuru so, there's 2 ways to reset ink abosrber count: 1. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4FJ-R0tSmks.html doing exact same things as this russian youtuber. Translation of video: 1. Turn power off on the printer, and wait until all light indicators are disabled. 0:30-0:39 on video 2. Turn Service Mode: Hold "Stop Button", Hold "Power Button", Release "Stop Button", after press "Stop Button" 5 Times and release "Power Button", wait until power led turns off. 0:40-1:00 on video 3. Ink Absorber reset actions: Press 5 times "Stop Button" and then press "Power Button", then printer should print information about Ink Absorber Count reset. 1:00-1:21 on video 4. Print Settings info: Press 3 times "Stop Button" and then press "Power Button". Settings info should print out. 1:22-1:34 on video 5. Leave Service Mode: Just turn off and turn on the printer. 1:35-1:50 2nd way. using reset service tool from Canon: bloggerseoscience .us/2020/07/ free-download-canon-resetter-service .html (no space) mediafire. com/file/67av8xztuplzzee/ Canon-Service-Tool-v5103.zip /file (no space) but check for viruses yourself, at your own risk. I've downloaded it, Windows Defender reported no viruses. I recommend trying Russian RU-vidr's method first.
@@WENEVERLEFT WARNING! First method can completely brick printer sometimes. And it will be need to buy new mainboard or soldering 2 new clear chips from gray market or desolder old chip to flash it on programmer with gray market firmware.
If its any consolation, have one of these for home office use and in a year and a half or so i have put multiple thousands of papers through it with only minor issues here and there. Still works like a charm
Great video.I agree with you .Could it be another scam? A sponge to soak up ink doesn't look like a design at all.Perhaps they should have another tank connected where after flushing the ink could go .My printer made me so mad .I spend over $400.00 on it and it worked for just 4/5 months .Used tons of paper .Can't print colour anymore .My black printer is green now.I given up this cheap manufacturing crap.I decide I just will you it n the B/W ak Green mode HR
epson L series has a compartment where the sponges are located and its just a screw to be able to open it and replace/clean the sponges. that being said it still has a virtual hard limit and you can only bypass it if you download a service program to reset the counter (the said program is malicious though, according to antivirus at least)
Thanks for that info. I knew Epson also used a sponge. The hard limit that needs a reset via shady software is just like Canon. If they were serious about delivering a good product, epson and canon would sell legitimate maintenance kits that didn't require hacks.
@@TheTechBuyersGuru i think (for epson at least) that you are able to bring them to service, but i find it scummy to pay whatever price for replacing few sponges and pressing a button on a service menu.. plus they force me to waste time going to a service center for something i could do in 10 minutes at my home.
@@f1_ock i dont have any reliable link, you must risk it :/ which model you have? mine is L3150 and has the inkpads in a compartment that you can access from the back of the printer ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pf-D1UePGKM.html
It's not malicious. It needs hardware access to the printer and it's not signed because epson might sue them for reverse engineering. I have it myself and does what it says.
G Chatz I have a Canon Pixma G4210 which was expensive for me. At around 11 months, I began to get an error message and I would have to power down the printer then start it back up in order for it to print. Extremely frustrating! At that moment I should have picked up the phone and called Canon to get it fixed. I thought I had purchased the extended warranty when I purchased it at Best Buy. Nope! One month after the warranty was up, Unbeknownst to me, I was screwed. Canon told me it was a chip inside the printer and was not able to be fixed. Seemed like a bunch of BS to me, but I was at the mercy of Canon. I need a multi-function printer and I don’t want to buy cartridges all the time. You seem like you know what you are talking about so, any recommendations? I have a iPad, iPhone and MacBook. Help!
Honestly i miss the old way, ive had the same $35 printer for almost 10 years now and i just go on amazon and get an offbrand ink cartridge, works perfectly the same.
I have used brother and epson ink tank printers... the epsons are good and can be hacked to continue working but the brothers are mostly uncompromising workhorses. We've had a brother at work in a semi harsh environment for about 2 years and its is going great. Also I am pretty sure the brother printers do not have hard coded limits like the epsons and cannon printers.
I watched this a while ago, as I have the same printer, bought at the same time, with the same issue. I was SO MAD! I immediately sourced out the sponges and had them delivered in anticipation for the error message. The "System Cleaning" is the key to this scam. It will literally dump 1/3 of your ink and you can't make it stop! NEVER USE IT! I thought, well at least I have the other half of the ink bottles from when I purchased the printer. WRONG! I had them fully sealed inside a large ziplock bag.... All bottles had one tiny drop in them, no sign of leakage in the ziplock whatsoever! It's like they gave us "disappearing" ink. It just vanished! The ink inside the tubes that supply the ink to the print head like to just disappear also. Open up the top, wait for the carriage to move to centre, and you will probably see air in the tubes. You can use the "Deep clean" several times if you need. After each clean, open the top and check the movement of the air in the tubes. When you don't see the air in the tubes anymore, print your test pattern. NEVER USE THE SYSTEM CLEAN!!
Takes a big person to admit a major pivot on a tech review. I do think you've hit on something with the necessary repetition required to keep the printer operating optimally. I too have a Canon G2000 series printer and if idle too long, the print head cleaning feature has to be utilized. I've seen the sponge replacement videos on YT as well. Seems counter-intuitive to say the least. Of course the aside is Canon is possibly counting on people to frustrate themselves into buying a brand new printer.
Sorry if I talk with different brand, but I will said, Epson ECOTank that we use in the office is working perfectly fine (320K+ pages), but we do had replace the ink absorber as well. Epson told on the manual and you need replaced as it use cotton sponges, not standard sponges. i tried to wash it but like you said, it take few days to dry (must bone dry) and they will compacted and not as dense as before. And now for the newer model, the maintenance box had chip on it, so you cannot replace as easy as the older models. now For the missing color, Epson technician who service my printer told me, there is 2 reason: either the printhead is clogged if you rarely use it, or pump failure. If you rarely print, like your printer idle for few weeks, then you had chance that ink clogged the printhead and you don't need to replace, unless if the printhead is damage. Epson technician recommended you flush/deep cleaning several times then try to use the printer everyday. this is no.1 common problem that epson service center had. While my office printer is actually had PUMP Failure, and the technician said is actually very common if your printer already print 320K pages within 4-5 years, and the pump sparepart is quite afforable too when I service it on epson service center. but again , the technician always (what i seen), he always told me, NO MATTER THE BRAND IS, most tank based printer he seen can had long life as long you do this: 1. Print everyday if you can, at least 2 pages of mixed text & images. the longer idle duration of the printer, the higher chance your ink will clogged the printhead. 2. Use same ink, whether official ones or off brand ones, always stick to that brand. Never try to change brand every single refills. 3. save some money on fresh maintenance box, if you use older models then stock some fresh sponges. this one is rarely need to be done, but when the notification is showed, then it is the time to replace it. that why when I pickup the printer after he service it, he pointed out to some customer why my office printer can last 4+ year, but they don't. And that tips also said by some print station nearby my uni as well, and that's why their printer can print thousand of pages every day without any troubled.
I think this problem has been resolved in the canon GX series. All of those printers have a maintenance tray for the spent ink. A display graph shows how full it is. You get a warning before it’s completely full. It is very accessible and replaceable. I’m about to get the GX5020. I’ll let you know.
@@macavalli2619 Did you reply to the wrong comment? It says Canon now allows users to replace the part that was mentioned in this video as making the printer useable.
I’ve been using Epson’s version the Ecotank 4760 for several years and it has been working great for me. I’ve printed nearly 4000 pages without a single problem and only recently had to refill the black ink. The colors all still have ink in them.
OMG, I had this same Canon Inkjet printer. The issues you had demonstrated in this video was exactly what I became absolutely so flustered about. The tubes kept drying up and I kept performing a deep cleaning, which drain the ink. It became unusable afterwards because no printouts came out without streaks or missing lines. I didn't go as far as checking the back for the sponge and eventually replaced it with a new Epson all-in-one printer.
The only inkjet-type printers I've seen that have actual replaceable waste fluid containers are the Pagewide machines offered by HP. I hear they're being discontinued though, and they were kind of a higher-end product with even Enterprise models available (see: PageWide E776 series)
Printers have gotten so hopelessly bad that I never print at home anymore. I always pay for gas, parking... to print at a local university instead. The big printing companies have gotten in such a habit of ripping people off with overpriced ink that personal printing isn't worth the convenience.
Thank you for this video! OMG I have exactly the same model & it’s a total nightmare. Glad u put the rising of my blood pressure to a stop, trying to fix this junk. Canon should have more integrity in producing gd reliable economic products. Shame.
I always recommended color laser printers. They have become so cheap these days, are really robust, the toner cardridges don't dry out if you dont use the printer for a while and last much longer then ink
Good idea. This might work best for charts, reports and some posters. However, and please correct me anyone if I am wrong, this will not work for printing photographs at home using photo paper.
You are absolutely right. Inkjet printers can print higher quality photos provided you use the right photo ink and photo paper. However, I would only prefer an inkjet printer if you really print a lot of photos at home. If it is only occasionally, then I would rather have my photos printed by an online provider (e.g. as a photo book) or go to one of the photo machines that are in all large supermarkets. Both options produce even better photo quality than an inkjet printer could, at a lower cost and with fewer hassles.@@AmmarHabjouqa
The total cost of ownership of a color laser printer (e.g. over 5 years) is much lower than that of an inkjet printer. Only the acquisition costs are higher because the purchase price is not subsidized by the ink.@@offspringfan89
As other people have said, if you don’t use a ink printer a lot the ink will start to dry up and cause quality issues. I print at least 1-2x per week and still have to do print head cleanings in my Epson Ecotank printers a few times a year. As to the sponge, Epson Ecotank printers have replaceable “maintenance boxes” that cost around $10 each and take 5 minutes to swap out. I think the newer Canon models do this now too, but always double check if the printer you’re getting lets you replace the sponge/maintenance box/whatever.
The biggest con job in the world after used cars is actually the ink jet printer business! This has been going on for as long as folks have been shelling out money for owning a printer. Good information on that here.
Good video and rant. I'm a tech professional, now retired, who has been in this personal tech world since before PCs. It sure seems that ALL of the ink-jet printers are trash. I am so disgusted by it that I have just given up. Now thinking my next personal printer will be a laserjet. BTW, your comment that Canon now has a replacement sponge is irrelevant to the fact that your printer STILL had non-functional print heads.
I'm so proud of you MR. T.B.G to stand up for all the customers like us around the World. Like Muhammad Ali, great people make great actions, like you just did, man you are a lifesaver for many of us. Thank you so much in the name of innocent hard workers against these bad companies and enemies. Again, thanks to you all that stood up to share your thoughts and knowledge. (Collectivity is powerful for real)!
