Time for a new printer. Is this any good for me?

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I have a Canon MG7150 printer that's approx 5 years old. Its circuitry sometimes throws a wobble and I have to leave it to churn away for several minutes at a time before I can use it. I've noticed that it is now starting to print false colours. A mono print from approx 4 months ago is now going red in the deepest black areas, and a google map I've printed today is showing purple where it should be blue. Think it's had it's day. I've been happy with it until it started going wrong.

I only print up to A4 and never enter competitions so just prints for domestic use which get changed when something takes my eye. Need Scanner & copier facilities too.

No idea what to replace it with so just Googled for a more or less direct replacement and came up with this....
https://www.johnlewis.com/canon-pixma-ts5051-all-in-one-wireless-wi-fi-printer-white/p3085254

I know absolutely nothing about techy stuff so can anyone find any fault with this? It isn't in use every day so won't get hammered. Just a small domestic printer is what I need.
If this is no good what are the options? I don't really have a budget but anything much over £125 will have to be absolutely phenomenal to get me buying it. Let's say £100 max?
 
Its a Pixma
It has wifi
It has separate ink tanks for the colours
It is a decent price (more so with £20 cashback)

Assuming you don't need to print over A4 size then it should fit your needs just fine Frank!
 
Thanks Stuart.
There's a separate discussion about this in the Scouse meet thread. @ChrisH is giving me some nozzle cleaner.
What does Pixma mean?
 
Pixma is just a type of Canon printer. my comment was more steering from the virtue that you can't really go wrong with a canon pixma printer of any cost/type.

Since i bought my first Canon printer moons ago they have always been Canon Pixmas thereafter and have never let me down for print quality and overall use.
 
Sorry @mickledore

Yes Pixma is a range of Canon printers.

The printer you linked to will do the job okay but it will never give you perfect prints for photography. It will however give you reasonable ones.

Pretty any combination printer / scanner will do what you need as long as it has 4 or more colours including black. My other half has the printer you linked to at her place and the results are pretty good.

The reason your old printer churns is probably down to it running cleaning cycles which eat ink at an alarming rate.

try the cleaning liquid I'll bring before you go further though it could just be crusty old dried ink on the printhead causing your problems.
 
Thanks @ChrisH . I'll try and find the print head! !!
Yes it could be dried ink given the relatively light use.
Feel I'm going to learn something new.
 
Run a print through once a week (colour, ideally full A4) and use genuine Canon inks and you'll be fine. More sporadic printing and cheap inks and you run the risk of blocked nozzles and weird colours as the inks fade. Ideally get a printer that takes separate carts for each colour since it's rare that you'll use all 3 (C, M & Y) at the same rate. Might be worth looking at HP printers since (IIRC) they have the print head built into the cartridge rather than as a separate entity so if they do get blocked, a cart change replaces the heads as well.

Printer ink is obscenely expensive BUT I have discovered a more expensive way to buy liquid... My eye drops come in 2.5 ml bottles and I get 2 at a time so a teaspoonful costs me £8.20... (When I got my 'scrips for free, they used to let me have 4 bottles at a time but now I pay for them, they've cut it to 2.)
 
Thanks Nod. I do have separate carts for each colour. Didn't know that about HP. I don't use Canon inks, mainly because of the price - false economy? I know I should run a print a week through, but keep forgetting. Old age again.

Paying for prescriptions? Do people still do that? How quaint!
 
Thanks @ChrisH
I've already seen that video but my machine doesn't have any lever to release. I trawled you tube but couldn't find anything relating to my exact machine. I eventually found one that was nearly the same and with some judicious tugging and pulling I managed to free it. Then I tried to replace it. Took me 15 minutes to work it out but I know now.
Ink all over my fingers, so I know to wear gloves next time!
See you Saturday.
 
Paying for prescriptions? Do people still do that? How quaint!


As a youngster (!), I have to pay for them. I used to get them free (was on Metformin for type II Diabetes a few years back so had an exemption certificate) but now pay. :( Hopefully, I'll be able to sweet talk the quack into letting me have 6 months' worth of the drops at a time in the future.

IME, cheap inks can be a false economy. I have some old ones that have never been framed or protected (genuine inks) and are still fine (slightly faded but at around 10+ years old, I'm not surprised!) while the few that I did with a 3rd party ink faded almost as they emerged from the out slot. The colour was also off from the start so I swapped the cheapo out for a genuine one rather than go through the whole calibration process to correct the cast. There may well be some good 3rd party inks available but I'll stick with genuines.
 
I've read somewhere (possibly here) that sitting the unmounted print head on an IPA soaked piece of kitchen roll can revive it. Might be possible (but probably not cost effective...) to get a new print head for the old printer but if it's being temperamental in other ways, it's probably just as good an idea to replace it. You MIGHT get lucky and find a new one that takes the same carts as the old one (but if you use 3rd party carts, is it worth it?)
 
I've got some IPA so it might be worth a try.
The machine spends what seems like an eternity everytime I switch it on or ask it to print, doing "something". I presume it's going through some form of cleaning cycle; that could fit in with the heads being clogged. Or it could just be knackered.
I've done one of those head print test runs and both blue and grey are faulty.
I'll see what a clean does. Might be able to get a new head but if I'm not careful I'll spend more than a new machine costs just trying to fettle this one.
 
IPA will do nothing for an ink based printer. Ink used in printers is generally water based so the only thing that will disolve and shift it is detergent based cleaners. I have 2 different ones next to my camera bag for tomorrow. Both should disolve old ink so at least one will work. IPA will only work on oil based inks and some dye based inks.
 
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Thanks Chris.
I've just looked at new print heads. £40 from Hong Kong with delivery in a month. That's not realistic.
 
Found them on eBay for £34 but to be honest if what I give you doesn't clear the head then I'd bin the printer and buy a new one. They sadly are throwaway items now.
 
I did give the caveat that a new head was unlikely to be cost effective!
 
My eye drops come in 2.5 ml bottles and I get 2 at a time so a teaspoonful costs me £8.20... (When I got my 'scrips for free, they used to let me have 4 bottles at a time but now I pay for them, they've cut it to 2.)

Can you get one of those pay in advance cards? Used to be £100 or so and then all prescriptions were free for the year. Presumably more expensive now if they still do them (£104 for a year apparently: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/help-nhs-prescription-costs/prescription-prepayment-certificates )
 
Prescriptions free in Wales, not sure its a good idea to have free prescriptions for all though. NHS isn't exactly flush with cash and maybe money could be spent better elsewhere, just IMHO.

Getting back on subject some manufacturers build print head into the cartridge., saw a list recently but of course can`t find it now
 
Well I used the cleaning regime supplied by @ChrisH. Pulled an awful lot of ink out. Reassembled and made sure all the inks were full!!! Did another print head test and there are still some lines missing, but it's a lot better than it was. I've run off a couple of test prints and so far they seem OK, but the major concern is that a mono print I ran off a few weeks ago was going red where it should be the deepest black. I've run off another and we'll see how this lasts.
 
Probably improve a little the more you use it now. There may be air in the system that will eventually purge out. If it doesn't at least you will get a breather while you choose another printer.
 
A printer that uses CM&Y to create black (and all greyscale tones) will almost inevitably suffer from some colour caste. Some printers use a few different shades of grey and are more convincing.
 
You might need to tell the printer to use only the black and grey carts for mono prints - they tend to default to using the colours as well.
 
You might need to tell the printer to use only the black and grey carts for mono prints - they tend to default to using the colours as well.
Ah. Now I didn't know that was possible.
You've set me a challenge.
 
It is with some. Not sure if you go via Wi-Fi or USB but IIRC, some Canons have a better control panel when connected via USB and the Use only Black and Grey for Monochrome option is buried somewhere in there. Of course, my memory isn't infallible (to say the least!) but I'm reasonably sure the option is there somewhere!
 
Just been having a play...I can tell it to print grayscale, but it warns me that clour inks may still be used!

I'm wired in.
 
Asda has a canon 2550 printer for sale only £23 ;)
 
Asda has a canon 2550 printer for sale only £23 ;)
Thanks, but that's very bottom end of the market even for me. One black and one colour cartridge are not what I'm after; even though I'm not after top of the range.
 
Well I used the cleaning regime supplied by @ChrisH. Pulled an awful lot of ink out. Reassembled and made sure all the inks were full!!! Did another print head test and there are still some lines missing, but it's a lot better than it was. I've run off a couple of test prints and so far they seem OK, but the major concern is that a mono print I ran off a few weeks ago was going red where it should be the deepest black. I've run off another and we'll see how this lasts.
ive found pics going red happens with cheap crap ink. are you using oem carts or cheap jobbys?
 
What I did when my printer/scanner/copier (a Canon mg6150) went caput a couple of years ago was buy an identical model secondhand on Ebay. The latter had various unused and part-used ink cartridges included which, if I had bought them new, would have cost what I paid for the printer. So, in effect I got a free printer, which has since worked faultlessly.

Then I discovered the original wasn't caput anyway; there was some paper jammed inside it which I managed to remove.

Re printing in monochrome only - that option is in the printer dialogue box. You have to tell your software (mine's Lightroom) to let the printer manage the colour (IIRC)

Running cleaning cycles does use a hell of a lot of ink and it seems to do it every time you start it up. So the answer is simple - never switch it off! (Well, it works for me.......)
 
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