Expensive Ink cartridges

[oldbutdumb]

I recently bought a Canon ip5200 printer thinking that Canon had bigger and cheaper refills than my old Lexmark. How wrong I was! The refills are only available from Canon and cost about 15 bucks each for a total of $65 for a complete refill. I thought the fact that the black came in two cartridges would help but even the larger one runs out plenty fast. I have read that they put some kind of detector into them so you can't refil them. What a crock. Let this be a warning to you if you are thinking about getting a new printer. I don't really care about the print quality that much; just the cost per page. Don't be influenced by reviewers that just concentrate on the quality.

 

[bendixG15]

I use my Canon ip5200 to print photos, after all, it is a photo printer.
And that "expensive" ink is supposed to last a 100 years, which is why I use it for my pics.
So quality is very important to me.

I got a laser printer for every day text.
Sounds to me that you bought the wrong printer if all you want is text printing.

 

[Lemon law]

To Oldbutdumb,

I do carefully research per page consumable ink questions---and when push comes to shove---OEM cartridges to OEM cartridges---the ip5200 beats any Lexmark by at least a factor of two adn probably three. In fact if you examine per page costs OEM cartridges to OEM cartridges---the ip5000 has the lowest per page costs of any currently produced non-canon inkjet printer--and only the HP1200 can give it a run for the money on text costs---but the ip5000 comes back to whomp the HP1200 on color costs---and run rings around the HP1200 on quality of output in color or in just black text.---yes $65. street costs can wack your wallet hard if you replace all five cartridges at once---which seldom happens---and you also don't have to replace all color cartridges when just one color runs out. And you are likely to find the CLI-8 photoblack hardly ever runs out.


But its a myth to say the ip5200 can't be refilled---just go to the nifty stuff forums and find out how---its somewhat more annoyance with a chipped Canon---but still easy. And many are doing it.

Of course with a non-chipped on generation back Canon ip5000 or ip4000----refilling is even easier---and I easily acheive per page costs that would shame a laser. For text printing, the cost of the paper is far higher than the cost of the ink for me.

 

[Zepper]

How about a link to the Nifty Stuff forums there L-L?

And I can agree with L-L on the fact that the iP5200 tanks can be refilled. There are a couple of companies out there with specially formulated ink for the new iP series. Unfortunately, the tanks are chipped, so the printer knows and records when a tank is refilled and will snitch on you if the printer ever needs factory service. Warranty is unaffected by refilling unless they can PROVE the problem was caused by refilling. And you can get a lot more out of your OEM ink tanks if you press the "Continue" button when it says they are low and stops printing the first time - you can even press "Continue" when it says a tank is empty. But it's on you to be sure you don't run the tank completely dry and endanger the print head.

The nice thing is that the tanks take a lot longer before they wear out, so you can get a lot more than 5 to 10 refill cycles out of them (about all you can expect from the integrated-head carts). And you can get cleaner solution to clean out the tanks and sponges every so often - sort of a rejuvenator. Helps keep the colors consistent. IDK what kind of low-ink warning you get if you refill the tanks, or if you get any warning at all. Refillers may just have to be on the ball.

.bh.

 

[Lemon law]

To Zepper,

In terms of an embeddable link--not sure how to do that.

But just google " nifty stuff forums " without the quotes to get there. Some great posters there.
I particularly like grandad35 on the research end.--who has done some great testing using scientific methadolgies.---so go there--lurk or register---you can spends days on end reading and learning.

But also can't argue with what Zepper said.---he greatly expanded on why refilling a chipped Canon is more annoying.

But after some further thought, I kinda wonder if oldbutdumb's problem may be that his ip5000 is wasting much of its ink doing cleaning cycles---which could imply a defective printer, a partially clogged printhead, or leaving the printer on switch on all the time. I simply turn my printer off at its on off switch when I am done printing---and don't turn it on until I am ready to print again.

Not a good practice for months on end---I always try to print something once every week or so. And when I print something I don't feel a sharp pain in my wallet.

 

[oldbutdumb]

I'm sure that I use all the ink up printing pages, not cleaning heads. All the cartridges have suggested replacement at least once since I purchased the printer. I download a lot of stuff that I want to study/record (such as receipts). The CLI 8BK has run out once and is currently reporting low. All the others but the black have been replaced when they reported they were out except I,m still using the black which is only reporting low. I don't find that these cartridges hold much ink. My old Lexmark had a mixed color cortridge but I could refill it. The black cartridge was larger than the CLI 8BK I believe. At least it lasted a lot longer. I think the Canon is using up ink faster per page if the color cartridges are so much larger. I have a perfectly good Lexmark on the floor of my office because I wanted cheap refills that I didn't have to bother with the mess on. I'm still really disappointed with my purchase based on my own experiences.

 

[Zepper]

I'm fairly sure that the people here recommend buying the original iP series (iP3000, iP4000, iP5000) for really low cost and hassle - the fact that they are almost unobtainable has pushed the price on the few remaining new ones very high. A good used one wouldn't be out of the question, but how does one tell which ones are good?..

Not our fault that you bought the new series. We warn repeatedly about the chipped and slightly smaller volume tanks in the new series - I know I've said that in every printer thread I've contributed to. And I seldom see anyone recommend the new series without the caveat. Sorry that you didn't heed the warnings. I guess handles have meanings...

I guess there's still a chance that someone may R-E the new tanks, but hope is getting dim. Some new models from Canon are coming soon, perhaps Canon will have tired of their experiment...

There is a NIB iP5000 on ebay for nearly $250. and darned well worth it for the ink savings alone! Two complete tank changes with top clone tanks will cover the diff between this and an iP5200. After that, it's all gravy.

.bh.

 

[Lemon law]

To oldbutdumb,

If you can sucessfully refill Lexmark cartridges---you sure are not dumb---I tried a few times on refilling a Lexmark and gave up---but refilling a Canon is real easy---sucess for me the first time and every time.

But if you want stats---your CLI-5 which should be being used for text printing contains 26 ml of ink and costs Canon list $16.25---and should last about 500 pages.---if you are not getting 500 pages something is wrong.---and in case you wonder---all your CLI-8 cartridges hold 13 ML each---for $14.25 each Canon list.

In your Lexmark---which may use a high capacity cartridge that contains up to 30 ML of ink---and those 30 ML of ink Lexmark lists for more than $30.00 depending on model.

But now I wonder if you are using the wrong Canon settings for text printing---such as a photoprinting setting---which will mix all colors to obtain black---and that would account for your poor results also.
And its a FACT--regardless of what you say--that every time you start a fresh printjob---it will be preceded by a cleaning cycle that wastes ink.---and you certainly should do a nozzle check to check for problems.---rather than assuming everything is all right.

But if you are experienced with refilling---do go to the nifty stuff forums and learn the in and outs of ip5200 refilling----but don't use ink intended for a Lexmark in a Canon----but you can get a top quality refill kit with plenty of Canon type ink for less than $20.00-----and you current rant may turn to love and economy----no doubt about it-----the ip5200 is a very good printer.

 

[13Gigatons]

Originally posted by: oldbutdumb
I recently bought a Canon ip5200 printer thinking that Canon had bigger and cheaper refills than my old Lexmark. How wrong I was! The refills are only available from Canon and cost about 15 bucks each for a total of $65 for a complete refill. I thought the fact that the black came in two cartridges would help but even the larger one runs out plenty fast. I have read that they put some kind of detector into them so you can't refil them. What a crock. Let this be a warning to you if you are thinking about getting a new printer. I don't really care about the print quality that much; just the cost per page. Don't be influenced by reviewers that just concentrate on the quality.

I also have a IP5200 and I recommend Hobbicolors ink that is sold on ebay. It's about a $1 per cart and can print 500 pages of text at standard settings and 1200 pages in draft mode. That's pretty cheap !!!!

Canon still allows refilling but the cart comes with a memory chip which is require so no third party carts have been produce although some have instructions to remove the
memory chip from Canon's cart and add it to their's, it seems these are only being sold in Germany so far.


Hobbicolors refill ink