Review on Wireless Inkjet Photo All-in-One: Canon PIXMA MG5220 (Model 4502B017) by Sam Pullen

The printer crashed with error B200 (Printhead caught fire). I rarely print anything and when I print it's black and white, but this printer eats up all those very expensive color and black cartridges even when you're not using them. This is a big scam and Canon is not alone in this. I bought it for its scan and copy capabilities and sadly gave away my 10 year old HP inkjet printer which still worked perfectly. Now the printer is dead due to a very common and scary B200 error. What a picture! I will never buy a Canon printer again. Instead I will use Laserjet. Update 20141217: I googled and found a few procedures to reset error B200 and at least try some things to get the printer working again. First I followed these instructions: 1. Turn off the device2. Open the printhead tray (as if you are replacing the ink)3. Turn on the device4. Wait for the carriage to start moving to the left and release it halfway5. Before the carriage reaches the left side (but halfway), close the cover.6. Leave the printer on7. Ready. (You can do this twice in a row to bypass the error.) This allowed me to do a clean and a deep clean, but it didn't fix the problem and the B200 error came back a few times. Next I removed the print head and cleaned it by running it under hot water as described here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZheZf-vdho8. Another link describing this process says it needs to be flushed for at least 2 minutes. You can take a small container and let it sit for a few minutes to soften and soften thickened black pigment ink (this seems to be the main cause of problems with many Canon Pixma printers). Before reassembling, make sure the electrical contacts are good and dry. Error B200 is now gone and hasn't come back, but when I printed a nozzle check pattern from the maintenance menu, no grid pattern was printed coming from the PGBK cartridge. . I tried to print a few black and white documents from different applications and the sheets came out blank. After some searching I came across this link: http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/inkjet/68247 While not specifically about the MG5220 model, it describes what seems to be my main problem. The author went to great lengths to purchase a manual and disassemble his printer to try to unclog the possibly clogged "pigment ink drain hose of flushing unit". Apparently this is a very common problem with Pixma MG and MP printers. As for me, I'm done with this printer. I don't like throwing things away but it's just not worth paying for all the ink this thing uses with the possibility of this problem recurring in the future. I am thinking of buying a Brother DCPL2540DW wireless compact laser printer