It has been claimed for a long time that overriding the chips on Canon desktop printers will cause the printer to consume as much as 10 times the ink it normally would use. Many accepted this claim to be valid and did not pay much attention to it because prior to this time, there were resetters for Canon desktop printers and the generally accepted practice was to use a resetter where there was one available. I was one of the ones who believed it as well but never lived it to determine the veracity of the claim.
Now that most current desktop machines no longer have resetters for them, the only method of refilling is to override the chips and disable ink monitoring when the chips had reached an empty level state. This would allow the printer to continue to print but any indication or estimated ink levels would no longer be available. So essentially the user will have to ensure that the printhead is being fed ink and if this were not be the case, risk of fatal printhead failure is real as a result of printing with no ink.
To test this out, I used two similar but NOT identical printers were used. The first was a TS5020 which has a pigment black cartrdige and 4 dye colors. Setup tanks were refilled, All chips reset to full and then I proceeded to print 100 of 3 different pages, A total of 300 pages on standard setting and plain copy paper. I would think that the printer would complete all maintenance cycles etc that it would need to use as preprogrammed over 300 pages.
The other printer used was an TS8220. This uses 280/281 ink tanks and there is no resetter available for it. The physical tanks are similar to the TS5020 but it also uses a PhotoBlue ink that appears to be used only in printing photos onto photo paper. An identical print load was used which was IDENTICAL to the TS5020 ( functioning chips). Since the printing was done concurrently on both printers all environmental conditions were identical. Again all maintenance cycles etc will have been borne by the printer over a course of 300 pages.
The procedure was weigh all the refilled tanks prior to resinstalling. Print a nozzle check. Print the 100 pages of 3 documents. All documents contained both color and text for a total of 300 pages.
Remove the tanks, weigh them. A straightforward and simple procedure.
REFILLED and RESET chips on TS5020. At start-end. PGBK 39.19 -28.33; Cyan 23.99 -22.11; Magenta 24.35-21.97; Yellow 24.16 -21.72; Black 22.99 -22.5 TOTAL ink consumption 18.05 grams
Overriden and disabled TS8220 At Start - end PGBK 39.50 - 29.11; Cyan 24.76 -22.88; Magenta 24.33 - 21.93; Yellow 24.10 -21.98; Black 23.3 -22.78; PhotoBlue 23.46 -23.25 TOTAL ink consumption 17.52 grams
So the functioning chips TS5020 consumed 18.05 grams over 300 pages and the TS8220 with overidden chips consumed 17.52 grams despite having an extra tank of PhotoBlue.
Within the bounds of accuracy and indeed this is but ONE test sample, all indications are that when chips are overridden that the desktop Canon printers will consume oodles more ink when the chips are overidden are FALSE. It appears that they likely consume a similar amount of ink.
To further determine ink consumption characteristics. I reset and refilled one tank of the TS5020. The PGBK pigment black one, then resinstalled all the other dye ones and then allowed the printer to settle and then proceeded to print one nozzle check, I then removed all tanks. Within the bounds of sampling error it appears that the PGBK consumes approx 0.9 grams of ink in a tank change, When this is done, the dye colors also experience a prime as well and it consumes a little less than 0.6 grams per tank.
I initiated the same with an Overridden chips TS8220 and near identical readings were observed 0.9 grams for the PGBK but only a little more than 0.5 grams per color tank.
Conclusion: When you override chips on the Canon 250/251/270/271 and 280/281 prints they DO NOT consume a ton more ink and fill up the waste ink pad several times faster than when using functioning chips. Yes, overriding is not the preferred course but in the future it may be the ONLY direction forward.
Obviously where a resetter is available one should use it and obtain low ink warnings etc. One interesting aspect of this is that one should easily see that for an astute user even overriding the OEM chips can lead to a more favorable situation than using aftermarket tanks that use Auto Resetting Chips. The key think to grasp is that each time you open the hood and mess with ONE tank, you are going to lose at a minimum 3.3ml of ink. With a resetter you can control that or minimize it by resetting and topping off all. Overriding the chip and topping off all you also control it. However when using ARC or Auto Reset Chips, you will be subject to losing a lot more ink....several times more than when using a resetter and when using OEM ink, you will be using a LOT as well. I won't do the calculation because it will shock many!
I welcome others to perform a similar test and report back on their findings with facts and figures.
Now that most current desktop machines no longer have resetters for them, the only method of refilling is to override the chips and disable ink monitoring when the chips had reached an empty level state. This would allow the printer to continue to print but any indication or estimated ink levels would no longer be available. So essentially the user will have to ensure that the printhead is being fed ink and if this were not be the case, risk of fatal printhead failure is real as a result of printing with no ink.
To test this out, I used two similar but NOT identical printers were used. The first was a TS5020 which has a pigment black cartrdige and 4 dye colors. Setup tanks were refilled, All chips reset to full and then I proceeded to print 100 of 3 different pages, A total of 300 pages on standard setting and plain copy paper. I would think that the printer would complete all maintenance cycles etc that it would need to use as preprogrammed over 300 pages.
The other printer used was an TS8220. This uses 280/281 ink tanks and there is no resetter available for it. The physical tanks are similar to the TS5020 but it also uses a PhotoBlue ink that appears to be used only in printing photos onto photo paper. An identical print load was used which was IDENTICAL to the TS5020 ( functioning chips). Since the printing was done concurrently on both printers all environmental conditions were identical. Again all maintenance cycles etc will have been borne by the printer over a course of 300 pages.
The procedure was weigh all the refilled tanks prior to resinstalling. Print a nozzle check. Print the 100 pages of 3 documents. All documents contained both color and text for a total of 300 pages.
Remove the tanks, weigh them. A straightforward and simple procedure.
REFILLED and RESET chips on TS5020. At start-end. PGBK 39.19 -28.33; Cyan 23.99 -22.11; Magenta 24.35-21.97; Yellow 24.16 -21.72; Black 22.99 -22.5 TOTAL ink consumption 18.05 grams
Overriden and disabled TS8220 At Start - end PGBK 39.50 - 29.11; Cyan 24.76 -22.88; Magenta 24.33 - 21.93; Yellow 24.10 -21.98; Black 23.3 -22.78; PhotoBlue 23.46 -23.25 TOTAL ink consumption 17.52 grams
So the functioning chips TS5020 consumed 18.05 grams over 300 pages and the TS8220 with overidden chips consumed 17.52 grams despite having an extra tank of PhotoBlue.
Within the bounds of accuracy and indeed this is but ONE test sample, all indications are that when chips are overridden that the desktop Canon printers will consume oodles more ink when the chips are overidden are FALSE. It appears that they likely consume a similar amount of ink.
To further determine ink consumption characteristics. I reset and refilled one tank of the TS5020. The PGBK pigment black one, then resinstalled all the other dye ones and then allowed the printer to settle and then proceeded to print one nozzle check, I then removed all tanks. Within the bounds of sampling error it appears that the PGBK consumes approx 0.9 grams of ink in a tank change, When this is done, the dye colors also experience a prime as well and it consumes a little less than 0.6 grams per tank.
I initiated the same with an Overridden chips TS8220 and near identical readings were observed 0.9 grams for the PGBK but only a little more than 0.5 grams per color tank.
Conclusion: When you override chips on the Canon 250/251/270/271 and 280/281 prints they DO NOT consume a ton more ink and fill up the waste ink pad several times faster than when using functioning chips. Yes, overriding is not the preferred course but in the future it may be the ONLY direction forward.
Obviously where a resetter is available one should use it and obtain low ink warnings etc. One interesting aspect of this is that one should easily see that for an astute user even overriding the OEM chips can lead to a more favorable situation than using aftermarket tanks that use Auto Resetting Chips. The key think to grasp is that each time you open the hood and mess with ONE tank, you are going to lose at a minimum 3.3ml of ink. With a resetter you can control that or minimize it by resetting and topping off all. Overriding the chip and topping off all you also control it. However when using ARC or Auto Reset Chips, you will be subject to losing a lot more ink....several times more than when using a resetter and when using OEM ink, you will be using a LOT as well. I won't do the calculation because it will shock many!
I welcome others to perform a similar test and report back on their findings with facts and figures.
