Canon Colorado 1650 FEEDBACK

[Morten CHristensen]

The Colorado 1650 sounds amazing, but i will never buy a printer where you are denied access to any form of self repair and service menues

 

[Chase]

The Colorado 1650 sounds amazing, but i will never buy a printer where you are denied access to any form of self repair and service menues

What are some printers that give you this flexibility?

 

[Morten CHristensen]

What are some printers that give you this flexibility?

HP latex to some extent, most of the HP Scitex range, older Rolands, and almost all Chinese brands!

 

[balstestrat]

HP latex to some extent, most of the HP Scitex range, older Rolands

You are also denied access on those unless you know or find the way in... I wouldn't that.

 

[Morten CHristensen]

You are also denied access on those unless you know or find the way in... I wouldn't that.

You are right, but on those Colorado printers and newer Rolands etc. it is totally "game over" i don't like that development. I bought it and should be able to access all menus for fault-finding adaption of new parts etc. Just my opinion

 

[edcooleyar]

You can do your own service on the 1650. You go to school and get certified then sign a self-maintenance contract. There is a yearly fee which gives you access to the tech help desk. We do all our 2380XTF and 1630.

 

[Pauly]

The Colorado 1650 sounds amazing, but i will never buy a printer where you are denied access to any form of self repair and service menues

If you complain about service access, then you simply cannot afford to own one.
A colorado isn't a toy printer. It's a production machine.

IF someone goes wrong with ours, i call Canon and they're here with in 2 days with replacement parts etc. We have our service contract for 5 years. If we keep it for longer, we'll renew the contract.

Why dont i just fix it myself if we could? We dont have time to mess around trying to make something work.

 

[Morten CHristensen]

If you complain about service access, then you simply cannot afford to own one.
A colorado isn't a toy printer. It's a production machine.

IF someone goes wrong with ours, i call Canon and they're here with in 2 days with replacement parts etc. We have our service contract for 5 years. If we keep it for longer, we'll renew the contract.

Why dont i just fix it myself if we could? We dont have time to mess around trying to make something work.

Pauly, I fully understand your view on this, but would say that it depends on business model.
And also remember service contracts ain't free.
Why not give the customer the potential to service the equipment themselves, should they choose to do so.

For me it is also a matter of "I bought the thing and I should be able to repair it going forward"

Maybe it is only toy printers for you, but currently we run 3 HP Latex 570 printers that are pretty busy, so I guess we would be right around the target audience for a Colorado 1650.

Imagine a car where you couldn't change your air filter unless you called a technician to do it.
You could easily change that airfilter yourself, but in order to get your car to accept the new filter, you would have to access a special menu, which only the technician have access to, crazy, right!?

 

[White Haus]

Why not give the customer the potential to service the equipment themselves, should they choose to do so.

I get what you're saying, but also get why they would lock out user access.

A) It's another revenue stream for them to sell service contracts and charge for repairs
B) They don't want Joe Blow pulling apart a complicated piece of equipment and breaking stuff, only to have to send a tech out to fix more parts and have to deal with them complaining about having broken stuff

I agree with you, and I love having the option to work on our printers when the need arises. I've worked on our Rolands, our Mimaki UCJV, and our Oce/Canon Arizona.

I don't know how they work the lockout (assuming you need a key to get into service mode) but if it's similar to the older Arizonas, you can still get under the hood and swap parts out when needed.

We're evaluating getting into a Colorado in the near future and I've gotta say, not having access to doing repairs myself isn't at the top of my list of considerations. I know it varies everywhere but Canon tech support and parts/consumables have been outstanding since we bought our Arizona 8 years ago, and they don't even have techs in our province. They're definitely a top notch company in my books and I can't wait to put another unit in our shop.

 

[victor bogdanov]

Imagine a car where you couldn't change your air filter unless you called a technician to do it.
You could easily change that airfilter yourself, but in order to get your car to accept the new filter, you would have to access a special menu, which only the technician have access to, crazy, right!?

You literally change the air filters yourself on the Colorado

 

[Pauly]

Pauly, I fully understand your view on this, but would say that it depends on business model.
And also remember service contracts ain't free.
Why not give the customer the potential to service the equipment themselves, should they choose to do so.

For me it is also a matter of "I bought the thing and I should be able to repair it going forward"

Maybe it is only toy printers for you, but currently we run 3 HP Latex 570 printers that are pretty busy, so I guess we would be right around the target audience for a Colorado 1650.

Imagine a car where you couldn't change your air filter unless you called a technician to do it.
You could easily change that airfilter yourself, but in order to get your car to accept the new filter, you would have to access a special menu, which only the technician have access to, crazy, right!?

If your business model cannot afford to pay for a service contract for the printer you're buying, You cannot afford the printer.
If you're running 3x 570's, then yeah you're in colorado territory. Then you should not complain about paying for a maintenance contract or you should re-evaluate your business model...

People who own these printers need them running. no one has time to sit there and figure out what is wrong because a sensor is throwing an error.
If mine throws an error, i do my basic checks, if not i'll call the tech. He'll walk me through other things to check, remote log in to have a look if. IF he cannot fix it, he's there in a few hours or next day (depending on the urgency level) and will fix it.

After your contract runs out (3-5 years) the printer should not only already be paid off, but you'll be looking to either replace it, upgrade it or get a 2nd one. Unless it's reliable enough to keep it for a few more years and renew the service contract.

our Arizona is off it's contract. But it still runs and it's not worth updating it yet. We maintain it ourselves. But when we need to do something that's locked down... Then yes i'll pay a tech to come do it. & people who know me well enough wouldn't even question my technical knowledge that if i could do it myself. But i still would pay a tech to do it even if i had the service key.

 

[Pauly]

You literally change the air filters yourself on the Colorado

you didn't remove yours to get the extra HP ?

 

[Morten CHristensen]

If your business model cannot afford to pay for a service contract for the printer you're buying, You cannot afford the printer.
If you're running 3x 570's, then yeah you're in colorado territory. Then you should not complain about paying for a maintenance contract or you should re-evaluate your business model...

People who own these printers need them running. no one has time to sit there and figure out what is wrong because a sensor is throwing an error.
If mine throws an error, i do my basic checks, if not i'll call the tech. He'll walk me through other things to check, remote log in to have a look if. IF he cannot fix it, he's there in a few hours or next day (depending on the urgency level) and will fix it.

After your contract runs out (3-5 years) the printer should not only already be paid off, but you'll be looking to either replace it, upgrade it or get a 2nd one. Unless it's reliable enough to keep it for a few more years and renew the service contract.

our Arizona is off it's contract. But it still runs and it's not worth updating it yet. We maintain it ourselves. But when we need to do something that's locked down... Then yes i'll pay a tech to come do it. & people who know me well enough wouldn't even question my technical knowledge that if i could do it myself. But i still would pay a tech to do it even if i had the service key.

That's your way of doing business. Things are a little bit different in Northern Europe and in our market specifically.
Prices on service contracts and competent technicians are out of this world. And the prices we printers get for our products and services in our markets are very very low, and I guess that I'am not smart enough to change that business model/enviroment

If we had one printer with a super utilization producing fine art prints every day, yes a service contract wouldn't be a problem, but we don't

You may run your business as you see fit, I am not attacking you or your business model, but i sense that you attack mine?
The only thing I am attacking is that more and more of the big companies are locking their devices down leaving us end-useres stranded if something goes wrong, whether we are able to afford a service contract or not!

 

[victor bogdanov]

That's your way of doing business. Things are a little bit different in Northern Europe and in our market specifically.
Prices on service contracts and competent technicians are out of this world. And the prices we printers get for our products and services in our markets are very very low, and I guess that I'am not smart enough to change that business model/enviroment

The Colorado would likely save you enough on ink compared to the HP printers to pay for the printer and service contract. How much do you spend on HP ink per month, Colorado would cut that in half. Plus Colorado is made in the Netherlands so very close to Northern Europe, should have some good technicians and pricing there

 

[Pauly]

That's your way of doing business. Things are a little bit different in Northern Europe and in our market specifically.
Prices on service contracts and competent technicians are out of this world. And the prices we printers get for our products and services in our markets are very very low, and I guess that I'am not smart enough to change that business model/enviroment

If we had one printer with a super utilization producing fine art prints every day, yes a service contract wouldn't be a problem, but we don't

You may run your business as you see fit, I am not attacking you or your business model, but i sense that you attack mine?
The only thing I am attacking is that more and more of the big companies are locking their devices down leaving us end-useres stranded if something goes wrong, whether we are able to afford a service contract or not!

Im not attacking your business model, dont get me wrong.

You cannot look at the printer as it is. You need to look at it as a package.

(This is how our colorado purchase went (the pricing is made up as i don't remember what i paid)
Printer costs: $80,000
Maintenance contract for 5 years: $20,000
Colorado comes with onyx, But i already have onyx, so a licence upgrade for an extra printer: $3000
New PC: $4000. (didn't need to but it was time)

That $80,000 turns into 107,000. so for me, the colorado costs $107,000 installed and operating.


And as Victor just mentioned and i'll add to it.

3 printers v 1
3x ink sets
3x consumables
3x maintenance (daily, weekly etc)
operator needs to run 3 printers vs 1

Running 1 printer will save you a lot of time vs 3. Time = money when you're paying someone.
It'll save you in consumables & ink.
Colorado will be saving you money in the long run.

 

[victor bogdanov]

I signed a service contract after the 1 year warranty ran out and while it is not cheap, one printed roll per month pays for the service contract and I have 0 worries about the printer breaking down.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I can afford to pay someone to fix any of our equipment but choose not to. It's not just money, it's timing and there are plenty of techs out there that are clueless.

 

[White Haus]

You cannot look at the printer as it is. You need to look at it as a package.

(This is how our colorado purchase went (the pricing is made up as i don't remember what i paid)
Printer costs: $80,000
Maintenance contract for 5 years: $20,000
Colorado comes with onyx, But i already have onyx, so a licence upgrade for an extra printer: $3000
New PC: $4000. (didn't need to but it was time)

That $80,000 turns into 107,000. so for me, the colorado costs $107,000 installed and operating.

This is good to know. I got a rough budget price of $95k CDN installed/trained so it's good to know what else to factor in.

I don't know if I'd opt for the service contract to be honest. I don't know if we got lucky or what but in 8 years we've probably spent under 5k in parts for our Arizona. (never upgraded our 1 or 2 year warranty) Keeping in mind it's only an 318gl and we obviously aren't pushing it super hard. But daily and weekly maintenance are religiously performed and annual preventative maintenance is done every year by a Canon tech.

 

[Pauly]

This is good to know. I got a rough budget price of $95k CDN installed/trained so it's good to know what else to factor in.

I don't know if I'd opt for the service contract to be honest. I don't know if we got lucky or what but in 8 years we've probably spent under 5k in parts for our Arizona. (never upgraded our 1 or 2 year warranty) Keeping in mind it's only an 318gl and we obviously aren't pushing it super hard. But daily and weekly maintenance are religiously performed and annual preventative maintenance is done every year by a Canon tech.

Service contract on the Colorado us much cheaper than the arizona. I'd get at least 1 year. If not get 2.
Basically acts like yout warranty.
Always expect something to happen.
Think about this.
It's been In transport from it's original assembly. Then it went to local storage. From there back on a truck to you.
You don't know what has moved etc in that time.

Also something to note, the Colorado is forever being developed on. They're always introducing better parts from customer feedback. So if something wears on yours and there's a new version, when it's tome to replace yours. You'll be getting the newer revision part.

 

[Pauly]

I can afford to pay someone to fix any of our equipment but choose not to. It's not just money, it's timing and there are plenty of techs out there that are clueless.

While this is true. (I can o my speak for Canon production printing aus )
The techs are dedicated to a handful of equipment. So they are always working on the same equipment. Canon also supply manuals on the correct procedure to replace every part, it's pretty neat.
But also the contract includes parts and labour. So if some part costs 5k. It's covered.