Canon PIXMA MG6220 Wireless Inkjet Photo All-in-One Printer

Canon PIXMA MG6220 Wireless Inkjet Photo All-in-One Printer
Customer Ratings: 4 stars
List Price: $199.99
Sale Price: $130.48
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The MG6200 is a lot of printer (and scanner, and copier...) for the purchase price.

On features and quality, I'd give it 5 stars. The scan and print quality are excellent, and the included applications for scanning/printing are adequate. It can connect via USB, wired network, or wireless network (and I've tried all three).

There is no automatic document feeder (ADF), even as an optional accessory, so keep that in mind if you have lots of multi-page documents to scan. Paper handling is great, especially the automatic duplexing.

It also supports Apple Airprint flawlessly, so printing from iPhone and iPad is wireless and quick. I did have to download and upgrade the printer firmware to get this working, but I assume shipping units will come with the updated firmware very soon.

Now, for my big complaint, and why it gets 3 stars instead of 5. If you let this printer set for a day, then initiate a print, it automatically executes a cleaning cycle EVERY TIME. Not only does this process delay printing by a couple minutes (which seems like forever), it wastes a HUGE amount of ink. Like most every inkjet, the ink cartridges are small and expensive -but this printer exacerbates that by wasting ink on unneeded cleaning cycles EVERY DAY. So even though I've used the printer VERY lightly over the last 3 weeks, and printed less than 50 pages (and only two photos) total, the ink cartridges are over half empty. That amounts to about $35 worth of ink for 50 pages! At 70 cents per page, this is one expensive printer.

My previous inkjet (Canon Pixma ip5000) only executed a cleaning cycle if it had been powered off, or if you manual requested it. I had to clean it perhaps once or twice per year -not 365 times per year, which is essentially what the MG6220 is doing. At first I thought it might be due to the "auto power off" setting, but I set this to "Never" so the printer would never power itself off (and it is on a UPS, so no power interruptions). Nevertheless, it still executes a cleaning cycle at least once per day and I can hear the sound of a cash register every time it does so. (*** See 11/28/11 update, below ***)

The second gripe is driver support. For WindowsXP, the driver does not properly support network scanning via TWAIN/WIA interfaces. The included Canon scanning software works, but any third party software (like the check scanning service my bank offers) will only work if you plug the MG6220 directly into the USB port. And on Vista, while you can get TWAIN/WIA to function over network, it requires manual installation steps (buried in the user's manual) that should be automated by Canon's driver installer. I wish Canon would hire some driver developers from Brother, because the drivers with my Brother MFC-8890DW Laser supported all of this, including network scanning on XP, completely automatically on XP, Vista, and Windows7.

I guess I can forgive the driver issues on XP, because XP is getting pretty long in the tooth and I can accept that Canon doesn't want to spend the extra software development time. As well, the manual steps on Vista are pretty minor (although many consumers will have a hard time with it). But the effective cost-per-page, due to the daily cleaning cycle (***), will make cost-of-ownership for this printer unaffordable for many.

*** 11/28/11 Update ***

I have printed less than 50 pages (most black and white text), and the printer is complaining that two of the ink cartridges -Cyan and Gray -are almost empty. However, I did find a solution to the daily (or more) ink-wasting cleaning cycles mentioned above.

The automatic cleaning cycle appears to be triggered by either of two things: If the printer itself has lost power (not just turned off, but unplugged / power outage), *OR* if the USB-attached computer has been rebooted or power cycled. After either of those events, the printer will execute a cleaning cycle the next time a print job is sent to it.

I disconnected the USB cable and setup that computer to print via wireless network a few days ago. I haven't seen the automatic cleaning occur since. Hopefully this will slow the ink usage somewhat.

*** 8/19/12 Update ***

Keeping the printer "powered" and on wireless reduces the cleaning cycles, but does not eliminate them. I have not pinned down the exact pattern, but it seems it throws in a cleaning cycle any time you haven't printed for a few days, and sometimes just seems to throw one in at random. It is possible these cycles are actually needed for print quality to get rid of partially dried ink on the head -so I can't fault Canon for doing the cleanings, but they sure do use up the ink! Quality is still excellent, but cost-per-page is pretty high.

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