A little over a year ago, I decided that it was time to get a multifinction printer—printer, copier, scanner, FAX. After reading a number of reviews, I decided on the Canon PIXMA MP830. Prints were nice, and the scanner worked well. The only problem I had with it was that it drank ink like beer at a frat party.

A few days ago, it "ate" a sheet of paper and gave me a "6A00" error message on the display. After a bit of research, I moved the print head, and sure enough, there was a tiny piece of paper still in the unit. After that, it worked again for about one sheet. I called the local Canon repair center, and the tech said that even though it is out of warranty, Canon would still probably pay for the repairs.

Today, the tech called me and confirmed that Canon was in fact covering the repairs. Not only was the feed unit on the printer bad, so was the logic board, so I guess it just "took a dump" all at once. The tech also confirmed that even though I set the printer to grayscale, it still used a combination of inks to get various shades of gray. Oh well—at least I won't have a doorstop.

[EDIT]

After some more research, I found out why the printer was using so much ink—when set to print in duplex (double sided) mode, the printer uses a mix of inks instead of pure black to prevent bleed-through. I guess I'll have to waste paper instead....