Canon printing con?

seljon

I own a Canon Pixma MP610 multifunction printer. In general, it is a fantastic printer. However, I have been alarmed at how much it is costing me to run. I print nearly everything in fast grayscale. I only do the odd colour page printing. Yet, I am getting through colour cartridges at the same speed as black and white. I sent an email to Canon technical support and this is what they replied:

'With reference to your enquiry, I am sorry to advise that whilst using grayscale all other colours will still be used. Also, if you turn your machine on and off each time you use it, a cleaning process will be run which uses up a lot of ink, it is best to leave the printer on. Also running cleaning processes will use up ink.'

This seems to me completely counter intuitive and completely changes the economics of running an inkjet. My previous HP had a pure black and white print function and cost a fraction of what my Canon is costing me.

Is this a generally well-known issue with Canon - I can find little on the net about it?

spaceboy

So they're saying leave it on. How much electricity will that be using?!

Try buying non-official ink cartridges instead.

pcombo

I cant stand cannon stuff. Me my self love HP gear i have a HP laserJet 1020 and a HP multifunction cost me £34.99 lol works a treat.

spaceboy

Canon get some pretty good reviews these days for print quality. Their digital cameras always seem to hit the spot too, even their expensive SLR ones top the charts.

seljon

Like I say, it is a great printer but have you ever heard of a printer using colour to print in black and white? I thought because it has 5 separate ink cartridges it would be cheaper to run than the 2 cartridge HP - little did I know!

spaceboy

seljon wrote: »

Like I say, it is a great printer but have you ever heard of a printer using colour to print in black and white? I thought because it has 5 separate ink cartridges it would be cheaper to run than the 2 cartridge HP - little did I know!

Yeah this sort of thing sucks. This is why I suggest buying much cheaper third party cartridges.

Sucker_for_sweeties

pcombo wrote: »

I cant stand cannon stuff. Me my self love HP gear i have a HP laserJet 1020 and a HP multifunction cost me £34.99 lol works a treat.

I used to use a HP in my last job, I loved it , I got loads of B/W pages for a cartridge. Never had a problem running 500 min per month. Maybe 2 x 20.00 quid cartridges a year

Where can I get such a reliable beastie for a volunteer org? Never ever had to repair the last one, it just kept hammering out the pages, rarely jammed, and when it did I could clear it no problem.


I miss it

bribrian

I think i remember seeing somewhere that the new models of Canon like the op's even have less ink in the cartridges than the older models so a money making scheme there for Canon..........

Lakeuk

If you mostly doing B/W you're better of getting a cheaping 2nd hand laserjet printer of ebay and also stocking up of toners.

I've got a HP Laserjet 5, is a workhorse designed for a small office, you can get them of ebay for around £40, toners £20.

isofa

Is there not an option in the print preferences to use black cartridge only for draft/black?

I've always preferred HP Printers...

roddydogs

MP 210s are the same....even if i set the printing preferences to "Fast" thats why their so cheap to buy...the head is built into the cartridge, so you cant get "Cheap" refills.