9h ago

Is it worth trying to fix a home printer?

I got a canon pixma tr4520 from a technologically challenged relative, who told me they couldn't get it to print and it was mine to try and fix. I worked out that it didn't have an ink cartridge in it (not even an empty), bought a replacement, and got it printing. But now it has vertical alignment issues and paper jams. I can't afford a new printer right now, and I would love to fix this one. My fear is that I'll sink half the cost of a new one into it between the ink I already bought and replacement parts, just for it to come out not working anyway. Is it worth my time to try and fix or should I cut my losses and start saving for a new unit?

9 comments

If you need a printer now, I'd just make the best of it while saving for a good laser printer. The vertical alignment may be able to be fixed with a calibration (check the manual to see if there's a procedure). Not sure about the jams, but usually a good cleaning will fix that.
Ink-jet printers are money pits. Laser printers are superior in just about every way. They cost a little more upfront, but the long-term costs are much, much less than any inkjet. If you only need black and white, you can get a decent laser printer for $100-150. I bought mine in 2014, use it infrequently, and am still on the toner that came with it. Paid $100 for it, and it's printed every time I've needed it for over a decade and going.
If you need to print color (or photos), color lasers are a bit more expensive but not by much (maybe double the cost of a B&W one). Honestly, though, unless you print pictures all the time, it's cheaper and easier to just take them somewhere to be printed (or use an online service and have the prints mailed to you).

I would tinker for a bit but definitely not spend any more money on it as it's not worth the money. Where im from you can often find cheap B&W laser printers on facebook marketplace or another second-hand platform for free or for very cheap.
Laser printers will be much cheaper in the long run so I strongly recommend one. Unfortunately a good colour one is very expensive but old B&W ones like the Brother HL2130 are still great.
Facebook marketplace does suck but sometimes it's the only/best option, still steals your info tho

It's rarely worth fixing an inkjet. There's a host of issues that could be in play, but if shit is out of register and paper isn't feeding in an environment of reasonable humidity, this is going to be more expensive than just getting a new one. Sadly, this is the state of our economy.
What I will suggest, whether you go laser or inkjet, is Brother. They've not yet, to my knowledge, instituted chip limitations and other such lock-in crap. Granted, this was before the pandemic, but I was able to get five-packs (CMYKK) of third-party ink for $10, and toner for the laser good for 3,000 pages at 5% coverage for $30.
- I just replaced the Magenta in one of mine and it would NOT take it. I’m leaning towards an issue with this one cartridge, but while debugging I saw some people mentioning the override menu was recently disabled in an update.
  So I scraped the chip off the old one and stuck it on the new one and it worked just fine 🤷
  
  There's reset chips you can buy online. They're about 6 euros and reusable. Hold it against the toner chip for a bit and poof
  
  Is this a Brother or Canon?

If you have the spare time, it's worth a shot. I've repaired countless electronics over the years just by disassembly, careful cleaning, and reassembly.
I definitely wouldn't start throwing parts at an inkjet tho; they were made to be disposable loss leaders whose purpose was to sell ink.

9 comments