Canon Pixma Pro 100 idle for 3 months

[Casual Printer]

I will be having to leave my Pro 100 idle for about three months and am concerned with ink drying and clogging. It seems that I have seen people report that they leave the Pro 100 for a month with no prevention technique and it works fine. Others seem to suggest a Qimage scheduled weekly print job. Others say put a bowl of water inside a plastic tent over the printer.

All this leaves me wondering which is the best approach. Would like to hear from anyone who has left their Pro 100 idle for over a couple of months.

Thanks!

 

[mikling]

OK, no one wants to take blame if something goes wrong. So the usual disclosure. Anything can go wrong and predicting the future is not perfect.

Both statements are correct. However, let's put some logic into this.

First, before you leave, whether you going to leave it idle or use Qimage, make sure the carts are not empty. Ideally, you need to top off ALL of them. The reason is that the more empty space inside the cartridge, the more breathing of the cartridge will occur and less breathing is required.

Qimage needs ink to work, so make sure there is enough ink and paper for the required cycles. Downside of using Qimage, well, think about this. You know as soon as a nozzle check is not perfect, printing should cease. What if the nozzle check is not perfect in the first week? Will Qimage fix this or will cause the printhead to burn itself out? Think about that.

Myself I have left my Pro-100 idle for months at a time with no ill effects. The only time I was inflicted with a problem was when I assumed the tanks were full and they were not. So lesson learnt.

You're the one to make the decision but nobody knows exactly what will happen. My guess is as good as the author of Qimage's guess. It is a random thing really.

 

[SkedAddled]

If the printer is in a very dry environment, and such is the reason for idle time
concerns, I'd probably just remove the carts and chuck 'em into storage clips
for the duration. Likewise, removing the print head and rinsing with Windex
then water and leaving in a safe place to dry.

Seems to me that these steps would eliminate any guesswork in the matter.

I'd be leery of containing humidity within a plastic tent, as the moisture certainly
has potential to introduce corrosive reactions in metal and electronic assemblies.

Like @mikling, mine sits idle for a month or more between uses, and I've yet
to experience any adverse issues.

 

[mikling]

Removing carts can be problematic. If you don't rinse out ALL the prior ink, it can dry out internally. Once the internals are dry, then getting liquid in there requires liquid with high creep factors and will take time.
The reason for full carts is that if there is sufficient ink in the carts it will keep the ink in the printhead properly hydrated even though it will get more concentrated, the first head clean will remove it.

The worst thing is to store it with a cart that is low already or near empty where the printer has been drawing from the sponge. Once there is no liquid in the reservoir, and the sponge portion is used up, the printer expects that the sponge will pull the ink inside the printhead BACK up the path and if it dries the nozzles, you have problems. Hence why overriding chips always invokes more cleaning cycles...hence ink waste. Because the printer has to pull the ink back down to make sure the nozzles have ink.

 

[Casual Printer]

Thanks, good points, I think I will install new Canon cartridges right before I leave and let it go at that. Since I live in Denver (low humidity) I might do the bowl of water and tent as well. Again, thanks!

 

[Casual Printer]

Thanks!

 

[shpitz461]

I live in GA and also print maybe once a month or two (either an actual photo or run a test print via batch file), so far didn't have any issues, prints and test pattern always come out perfect. Still using original Canon carts that came with my Pro-100. I will switch to PC inks at some point....

 

[Casual Printer]

I live in GA and also print maybe once a month or two (either an actual photo or run a test print via batch file), so far didn't have any issues, prints and test pattern always come out perfect. Still using original Canon carts that came with my Pro-100. I will switch to PC inks at some point....

Thanks, I wonder if third-party inks are more or less prone to dryout and clogging.

 

[The Hat]

Thanks, I wonder if third-party inks are more or less prone to dryout and clogging.

Nope…

 

[mikling]

If you consider the Chromalife 100 yellow, I'd tick the OEM higher as most would just use water to try and revive and oops. A lot has to do with whether the properties of the aftermarket ink are suitable for the sponge type cartridge. Like I said, id the ink is too "thick" it will create a situation where the sponge will pull the ink back from the nozzles and head back towards the sponge and the ink remaing in the nozzles will dry and then clog.

So, the answer is in general when ALL aftermarket ink is considered the average will come to being higher risk simply because there are good and bad ones grouped together. If you separate the good from the bad, I'd say it is even as Hat has indicated.

Just understand ink is not ink is not ink.