Canon InkTanks and the Notorious Air in tube issue

[brwinters]

Hence they reverted back to requiring a computer to perform service operations on the newer printers before finally moving to maintenance carts. They could just have made an access hatch for the waste ink pads and included the reset instructions in the manual.

I wonder if the Maxify GX3000/4000 units are less prone to air issues since the printhead design is more similar to the Pro-1000/Imageprograf in terms of the printhead securing mechanism and inkfeed than the regular megatanks. If they do one of my printer pipedreams is to have separate printheads for each color for lower printhead replacement costs (PGBK works fine on my B200 MG6270 if you taped the pins).

I've never had a problem with my Pro-2000. Granted I also do cleaning prints on that too. I think having a more robust transport would be a definite improvement for sure. I want a GX7021 but I can't justify the cost right now considering the G7020 does everything I need. I wonder if the GX has bigger print heads... That was the one positive note to the Epson machine, the full size heads for all colors make it blazing fast compared to my Canons, barring the P2K

 

[James Mike]

I've never had a problem with my Pro-2000. Granted I also do cleaning prints on that too. I think having a more robust transport would be a definite improvement for sure. I want a GX7021 but I can't justify the cost right now considering the G7020 does everything I need. I wonder if the GX has bigger print heads... That was the one positive note to the Epson machine, the full size heads for all colors make it blazing fast compared to my Canons, barring the P2K

its nozzle layout is closer individual cartridge printers (mg6270) than the pro-2000 although printing speed is rated to be over twice the gx7020.

 

[brwinters]

its nozzle layout is closer individual cartridge printers (mg6270) than the pro-2000 although printing speed is rated to be over twice the gx7020.

Looks pretty similar to my iP100/110s. That's proven really reliable for me so far. No drying out or air in the head or anything. But then, that's with cartridges. Whether it's the head design or the CISS itself is the question. I suspect that the glorified sponge cart approach is a measurable part of our problems with Canon CISS units. Maybe if it's using a proper head design it'd be a lot more reliable.

 

[echosend]

New user here. Only now finding out the pitfalls of ink tank printing when I only need occasional use.
Been through the whole Ink Flush thing. Only lasted a week and then found the tubes to be empty again. I Flushed again and unplugged the unit when it looked like the tubes got refilled. But this is ridiculous.
It is a Canon G6020 which I bought because it looked like I would NOT have to deal with ink drying problems when not printing often. I should have known this was not the investment I had hoped it would be.
So how often should I print a page and does anyone have a nice maintenance page that is good for this usage they can share?
Many thanks.

 

[James Mike]

New user here. Only now finding out the pitfalls of ink tank printing when I only need occasional use.
Been through the whole Ink Flush thing. Only lasted a week and then found the tubes to be empty again. I Flushed again and unplugged the unit when it looked like the tubes got refilled. But this is ridiculous.
It is a Canon G6020 which I bought because it looked like I would NOT have to deal with ink drying problems when not printing often. I should have known this was not the investment I had hoped it would be.
So how often should I print a page and does anyone have a nice maintenance page that is good for this usage they can share?
Many thanks.

The nozzle check page is probably a good place to start as it fires all nozzles when printed. Im not sure though whether it will move enough ink to stave off the air issue in the lines when printed on a daily basis.

 

[brwinters]

I Flushed again and unplugged the unit when it looked like the tubes got refilled. But this is ridiculous.

Be advised that when you unplug mid-flush -- while you don't actually spend the ink and waste tank space physically, from what I understand, the printer does the deductions on ink and waste usage immediately. So it will think the ink is lower and the waste tank is fuller than either are. Do this a few times and it adds up to premature failure in terms of the waste tank. I believe your model should allow you to reset the counter for the WT with a cryptic button combination so it's not a total end of the world, however you will need to replace the waste pads eventually and I cannot find replacements anywhere. I redirected the tubes out into a retrofit tank to get ahead of that issue.

The nozzle check page is probably a good place to start as it fires all nozzles when printed. Im not sure though whether it will move enough ink to stave off the air issue in the lines when printed on a daily basis.

This is my maintenance page for CMYK processes. Developed for a G7020 so it should work on a 6020 just the same.

 

[The Hat]

This is my maintenance page

That works as a great test print page, but it doesn’t exercise all of your nozzles, only a nozzle check can do that..

 

[brwinters]

That works as a great test print page, but it doesn’t exercise all of your nozzles, only a nozzle check can do that..

I suppose it wouldn't push every nozzle but then it doesn't exactly need to either. The main things are to keep air out of the nozzle and minimize clogs by running the printer thoroughly (a solid block of each primary color) on a daily basis. Hence doing a cleaning and nozzle check every week... To get the crevices that the regular prints don't. It has been working well on my G7020 (slip ups likely due to printing in standard mode) and perfectly on my G620 (lack of slip ups likely because that printer is set to always print in high quality photo mode by default... Though the black nozzle not being taller probably also has something to do with it).

 

[echosend]

Thanks guys.
I only Flushed a second time in less than a week because the lines were empty again. Is this supposed to happen that quickly?
It doesn't know which side the paper should be facing from the rear feeder. My Mac often doesn't see the printer the first time I turn it on. It needs to do a dance ritual when I turn it on. Until I turned off some detector warning it never seemed to know I was just using regular 8.5 x 11 paper. It has been far from a user-friendly experience since I got it a year ago.
Daily printings, waste tanks, weekly nozzle cleanings, secret reset functions, none of which is advertised or you are given warnings about, all to keep a type of (more expensive) printer going which I got in order to not have to worry about cheaper printers drying out the ink cartridges when not used for months at a time in the first place. Is there any printer system that doesn't leave you screwed?
Frustrated.

 

[brwinters]

Thanks guys.
I only Flushed a second time in less than a week because the lines were empty again. Is this supposed to happen that quickly?
It doesn't know which side the paper should be facing from the rear feeder. My Mac often doesn't see the printer the first time I turn it on. It needs to do a dance ritual when I turn it on. Until I turned off some detector warning it never seemed to know I was just using regular 8.5 x 11 paper. It has been far from a user-friendly experience since I got it a year ago.
Daily printings, waste tanks, weekly nozzle cleanings, secret reset functions, none of which is advertised or you are given warnings about, all to keep a type of (more expensive) printer going which I got in order to not have to worry about cheaper printers drying out the ink cartridges when not used for months at a time in the first place. Is there any printer system that doesn't leave you screwed?
Frustrated.

Laser.

But yes, ink tanks are a pain if you aren't prepared to maintain them very actively. If you are, they're very good machines. But if you aren't it can be a very counterproductive issue. Especially when that need for constant supervision isn't adequately disclosed to you, which is 100% a fault of Canon, as much of a Canon fanboy as I am.

Also, most printers I've used on macOS have been a far cry from Windows. The daily print is fully automatic on my network for all tank printers because they all run through a central print server which has scheduled tasks set up. My prep desk workstation is a Mac mini and I simply can't get it to connect to any of my network printers. And in the reverse, it has is a thermal label printer that nothing else can reliably talk to on the network, and a LaserJet from 2000 that only works well because it's such an old and generic machine that the generic drivers match up well to it.