How to prevent Canon iP3000 from obsessively cleaning

[Callistemon]

The Canon iP3000 runs obsessive compulsive cleaning cycles whenever used after even just a few hours of inactivity. Although some of the colors are mixing, cleaning is not the solution, and often those colors are not even being used at such times. Even nozzle checks trigger obsessive cleaning. Sometimes opening the cover and closing it before use prevents the cleaning cycles, but often times it does not. Perhaps the cover needs to be open when the documents arrive, and then closed to resolve the cover-open error. Maybe the documents just need to be printed within 30 seconds of closing the cover. Is there any reliable procedure to prevent the obsessive cleaning that burns through brand new genuine cartridges for nothing?

 

[The Hat]

The Canon iP3000 runs obsessive compulsive cleaning cycles

The most important answer is no, you can’t do anything about cleaning cycles, the printer does them to protect your print head, yes it uses some ink but if your print head gets an electrical problem then its game over for the printer and all your spare OEM carts.

When your printer is purring and making funny sounds it’s not always running purge cycles it may seem that way to you but it’s not, the only way you can cut down on the amount of ink your printer wastes, is to change all the carts when one is showing low, not ideal if your using OEM inks.

When you change one low or empty cart, the printer will run a purge cycle on all of the carts, which in turn may empty another low cart, and it will keep doing that each time you change out a cart, it’s called the domino effect, and it does waste a lot of ink..

My advice is to treasure your current set of printers, because the newer printers are nowhere near as good, and their loss will be heavily felt..

 

[PeterBJ]

I guess the cleaning happens approximately a minute after finishing printing the page? Printing two or more pages might prevent this cleaning. It may look a bit strange but it might be normal Canon behaviour. See this thread.

 

[Callistemon]

It’s not after switching cartridges or after printing pages, but before printing pages when inactive for just a few hours or more. When I can manage to avoid a cleaning cycle, the nozzle check is perfect except for the mixing.

 

[The Hat]

the nozzle check is perfect except for the mixing.

Try flooding the purge station with Windex, and then wait a minute and close the lid again..