Can I disable the auto clean printhead on a Pro-1

[crwoo]

Hi, I have a Canon Pro-1 and when it's not being used for a week or so it will do a clean printhead and waste a LOT of ink. I want to do those cleanings myself only when needed.
I can get the printer in service mode and the Service tool to connect to the printer, there is an auto cleaning option that is unchecked. what is that for?
I appreciate any help.

 

[jtoolman]

OK. One of the reasons these printers remain so clog free even after several weeks of non use, other than because of their inherently different nozzle plate design, is that they DO run these short cleaning cycles when you have not used the printer for a week. Use it more often and they will not.
If it did not do this, you would very like have to run your own cleaning cycle to clear minor clogs, wasting more ink either way.
I refill, my PRO-100 so inks cost is basically insignificant and not much of an issue. So I am glad that all my Canon PRO printers DO run these short cleaning cycles for me between print runs so I can be assured of a perfectly cleared print head.

So far no one has a refill system for the PRO-1 so I feel your pain and concern.
One there is a reliable system of refilling, resetting and great inks available that should not longer be a problem.

You could click on that box and see what happens. As far as I know the PRO-100 which I own does not allow me to disable that function.

Joe

 

[crwoo]

i'm not a fan of third party inks. only reason i have the pro-1 is because it has the best output of any printer, bar none. that would change with third party inks.

if there is no way i can disable auto clean then i would like to know what the minimum usage would be per week so printer doesn't do a head cleaning. think one 4x6 would do? or maybe a test print?

 

[turbguy]

You will probably had to determine that yourself. Start with printing a nozzle check one/week, and see if a cleaning cycle precedes it. If it does, shorten by 1/2 the period (a binary search) until you find the "magic" time.

 

[Lucas28]

My Canon is disconnected from mains with a main switch. The main switch also disconnects the other equipment. I noticed that it keeps the printer from daily(!) cleaning. But I don't know if your Pro-1 can be fooled in the same way. Don't forget to switch the printer off in the regular way before you disconnect it from mains.

The usual way to prevent this cleaning is to print a nozzle check two or more times a week.
Nozzle checks use far less ink than cleaning cycles.

 

[The Hat]

The Pro 1 does use up a lot more ink than the average desktop printer but far less than any of other large format printers, it’s quite economical in fact !

The printer never ever clogs so you don’t waste any of your very expensive photo papers trying to get that great print from it so that has to be a very big plus in anyone’s cost calculations plus nozzle checks are mostly unnecessary.

However printing regularly does help reduce the amount of waste but only slightly and these cleaning cycles cannot be turned off, because there part of the vast built-in software routines and Service Mode can’t do it either.

When you hear the printer been turned on, you automatically assume it’s wasting your precious inks every time but it’s actually not, there are so many motors pumps and fans inside that it certainly gives that impression.

I have a waste ink tank fitted to my Pro 1 so I can see at a glance the exact amount of ink used up in each cleaning cycle and when you consider that there are 12 separate cartridges to maintain then the waste ink issue skinks into significance.

Turning it on or off makes no difference to the cleaning schedule because the printer has its own built in clock (Battery) and can remember the last time it printed and whether it needs to run another clean cycle or not so the more it’s used the less it cleans..

 

[crwoo]

Hi, Thanks for your replies.
I am still dealing with this, and because I keep printing pictures that I really don't need to keep it from wasting ink, I am wondering if anyone had the timer and ml usage for cleaning. I had those numbers for the 9500, found them somewhere from a service manual.

I have attached them for the 9500, can anyone help me with the pro-1? Have you figured out what the most efficient way is to keep the printer from wasting ink when you don't need it.
Will one print save it from doing a head cleaning? what about a nozzle check? ummm what about a more efficient printer with similar quality? I love the quality from the Pro-1!!

 

[Smile]

Good topic does anyone know what canon printers have the auto cleaning and how often it runs? Does printer need to be on or off?

My brother does this auto, and I'm very happy. My canon 6700D seems not to have this function?

 

[The Hat]

You don’t need to keep printing photos all the time on the Pro 1, that is as you know just wasting more good ink, just wait till you have something important to print, one suggestion I can make is to group all your photo printing together and don’t print just for one single photo.

With the Pro 1 there is no need to print anything at all if you don’t need to, so when you do print it consumes more ink naturally, the printer can be left idle for months without printing anything at all and it will still work perfectly when you turn it back on, that’s the nature of the beast and what your paying for. (Reliability)

Now the Pro 1 is completely different to the Pro 9500 so there are no figures available as to the amount of ink consumed during cleaning cycles (It’s not wasted ink it’s used for cleaning), the Service manual gives cleaning times and length but no ink usage. (It varies so much)

Each time it cleans it uses about 15 ml of ink in total and other times is uses less than 10 ml, sometime double that so it really depends on how much work you've given it, so it’s impossible to get an accrete amount for each separate time it cleans, but over six months mine used up about a 100 ml.

One of the best ways I found to save ink was to print in standard mode because the difference between High and standard quality was so little that it didn’t matter that much at all, just because you got a Ferrari doesn’t mean you have to run every red light.

Another way to save hundreds of $$$ is to use 3rd party inks, you don’t have to comprise on quality when using 3rd party inks at all, if you use 3rd party photo papers you must also profile OEM inks to match them, so you do the same when using the 3rd party inks !

 

[crwoo]

Hi, that all makes sense, but the last set of inks was used up with about 20 4x6 pictures. my printer holds about 400ml so an estimated 3% made it on paper.
throughout the 3 months I hardly ever printed more than one picture per week, sometimes not used for 3 weeks. after 3 weeks it cleaned for about 10 minutes.

My logic is if I would have used the printer twice a week it wont have used any ink cleaning it's self. The printer should print about 1500 4x6s. and if i would be able to get most of the ink on paper, i would be much cheaper off making sure the printer doesnt use ink cleaning.
am I right? i dont want to spend 15 bucks per pic on my next set inks too.

third party ink would make sense if i would print more, but i just want to be able to use the print I have. 25 cents per prints would be reasonable for me, even if i use every week. I would still use the pictures.