Canon Pro 100

[Ron Reefman]

I'm just starting with my printer and after a few photos and some 'newsletter' pages (mostly black print, my system warned me the black was running low. After some more newsletter pages (I wasn't paying attention but I'd guess 10 to 15 pages, the system told me I was out of black ink.

However, I continued to print figuring when I got a faded or blank page I could stop. But 20 pages later it's still printing 8.5" x 11" pages with perfect black ink.

1) What's up with saying I'm out when I'm not even close?
2) Do I run the risk of doing an damage if I do run out while printing a page?

I wouldn't do this if I were printing a photo, but a B&W newsletter page is no big loss.

Thanks for any help.

 

[jtoolman]

Yes you are talking a chance of damaging the print head! CANON heads are thermal and require ink to keep their resistors cool. Keep printing or squeezing a few more pages out and see what happens. Best to stop now and replace the cart with a new one or if you refill then it's more than time to refill that cart. Do not take a chance with a CANON print head.

Joe

 

[annel]

And if you are refilling you should watch this video by none other than above. (jtoolman)

https://youtu.be/n4MPl9VFjJY

 

[Ron Reefman]

OK, so I've watched some videos and now I'm considering ordering from Precision Color Inks. I have 3 questions.
1) How many times will a 2oz bottle refill a CLI-42 cartridge?
2) If I order a bigger bottle do I run the risk of the ink drying out in the bottle?
3) I'm thinking 8 syringes, but the 'squeezy' bottle looks interesting. Is it really better? Or more convenient?

 

[The Hat]

@Ron Reefman, welcome to the forum for the best and honest information around.

Now continuing to print on your Pro 100 when you have had the notice that you were out of ink is just plain stupid that said I do hope you haven’t ruined your print head.

When printing documents and you deliberately run out of ink, you don’t get any faded images, more like the image will change colour slightly because the printer is using most of the other colours to assist in the makeup of black.

If you intend to refill your cartridges at a later date, it’s not good practice to run any of your cartridges down to the red X, ideally you should refill or replace the cartridge when you see the low ink notice, that way the cartridge is sure to work as new once again.

To answer your questions.

1] The 2oz bottle will fill a cartridge 6 times approx...

2] Bigger bottles are far cheaper and more convenient because you’re less likely to run out of ink to early, and no the ink won’t dry out its good for 2 years or more.

3] Syringes work perfectly well for refilling, but squeeze bottles are far easier and are a lot cleaner, and you’re less likely to use the wrong colour to refill..

 

[annel]

I should know the answer to this but I don't. Do I need to use the chip resetter if I have not gotten any message from the printer yet saying that the ink is either low or out? If not, then would it make sense to just top off all my carts with ink on a regular basis and never bother with getting the low ink warning or letting the sponges become unsaturated? Would the concern be that I would be opening the unit too often and thus causing too much ink to be purged into the waste pads? I have the Pro-100.
Thanks!

 

[The Hat]

@annel, that’s a good question, but the best way to answer it is, wait till just one of your carts are showing the low ink notice, then that is the time to examine all of the other cartridges to see how much ink is left inside each of them.

Here is a typical view of the ink levels in my printer, if one of them, in this case its black is showing low ink, I would replace the black cartridge and not wait till it went empty, that’s false economy.

But as the rest of the cartridges are showing at least 30% used, I would take this opportunity to top up all of these cartridge or replace them at the same time too, but you must never forget to reset the chip first before refilling any of the cartridges, resetting the chip is a major part of proper refilling procedures..

This method of refilling will save you lots of ink and money and will prevent the huge waste of ink that occurs when you only change one cartridge at a time, so leave your cartridges alone till one is showing low on ink and then react to that and any other cartridge that is showing more than 30% usage.

Does this answer put your mind at rest..?

 

[annel]

Yes - thank-you Hat. I did it this way the first time. I guess I am used to refilling my PianoBook and never having to reset anything so I'm struggling to understand the concept of the resetter. I don't understand how the printer knows that I have topped off (added more ink) if the cart has not registered as low yet? Perhaps it is because eventually the printer would realize that this cartridge is never running out of ink?
Come to think of it I guess I did reset the Epson CISS but it was so simple - just turn the printer off and back on - that I soon forgot that the printer was in fact following some kind of method for knowing when it was time to change carts. My brain gets a bit muddled with all of the technical aspects of how this works. I would think if I kept topping it off the printer would just assume that there is always a full cartridge in the printer and never give a low ink warning. But that must be wrong.
Thanks for telling me the right way to do it.