Pixma Pro-100 Questions

[Undervalued]

I have recently bought an immaculate Pro-100 secondhand, which seems to work perfectly, but I would be grateful for some advice about keeping it in good condition with very intermittent use. As far as I know it hasn't had a great deal of use and has always had genuine Canon inks.

How often does it need to be used to avoid requiring wasteful head cleaning? Is it more economical to say print a 6 x 4in photo once a week or is it best only to power up the printer when I have a lot to do.

Five of the inks have reached the "Running low - prepare new ink tank" level. Three were like that when I got it and today two more are now saying the same. The other three show at about half.

Any idea how long before they reach the next level (when I assume it will insist on the cartridge being replaced)?

Does replacing an individual cartridge then waste ink in the others? If so, at what level is it more economical to change other low(ish) cartridges at the same time?

Any other words of wisdom would be much appreciated including about possibly, long term, using third party inks?

Many thanks

Chris

 

[The Hat]

You’ve got quite a few questions, so I’ll try and answer some of them.

Just use your new printer as you normally would, and print when you got more than one images to do, your printer will only do head cleans when it’s necessary, and set the printer to power off after 30 minutes of use.

Now on your inks..? You have a big problem there, you’re going to need to get new cartridges quite soon or start to refill the existing ones you got now.

I would not recommend you change any of the carts for now, because if you do then you’ll hit the domino factor, i.e. once you change one then another will need changing till all of them have been replaced in turn, resulting in (8 cleaning cycles !) wait till you’ve got a full set, then replace..

Try OctoInkjet for all your refilling paraphernalia, including good inks..

 

[stratman]

If you use only OEM or 3rd party pre-filled cartridges then you will lose more ink over time than if you refill. The reason, as you suspect, is that when you replace a cartridge with another then the printer initiates a new cartridge ink purge to make sure the new cartridge nozzles are primed. This purging occurs with all other cartridge colors at the same time. So, the already installed cartridges lose ink every time, too, a new cartridge is inserted into the print head.

With my Maxify, I replaced the set up cartridges with new OEM XL cartridges. I did not refill. Immediately following the new cartridge ink purge for the first cartridge to be marked Empty (Cyan), a previously marked Low cartridge (Magenta) became Empty, so I replaced that, and another new cartridge ink purge occurred. A short time later the Yellow cartridge became Empty and that was replaced, and another new ink cartridge ink purge occurred.

Each time I replaced a cartridge, the printer performed a new ink cartridge purge on all the cartridges.

When removing the first cartridge for replacement, I could have removed the other two and weighed them to see if it would be more economical to change them at the same time as the Empty Cyan, since changing the Magenta and Yellow sequentiually after being marked Empty caused 2 "extra" purges on the Cyan (first replaced)) cartridge and one "extra" on the Magenta (second replaced) that wouldn't have wasted ink if all three were changed at the same time.

All of that "extra" purged ink wasting could have been avoided if refilling.

Refilling helps avoid ink loss if you replace all cartridges at the same time. then, just one new cartridge ink purge happens to all cartridges instead of sequential purges as happened in my case. Having a second set of refilled cartridges ready to go really helps smooth the process. Swap all out at the same time and only one "new cartridge purge" happens instead of more than once to the other cartridges remaining in the print head.

 

[Undervalued]

Thank you both.

Yes, that was my concern. What I am still not sure about is at what level (and in how many cartridges) does it become more economical to discard and install a complete set? I note from Canon's website that the estimated page yield varies from colour to colour. Obviously subject matter must affect that too but if their averages are correct then some colours will run out before the others.

What about the black and two shades of grey? Are they purged too when the colours are replaced?

If the printer stops because, say, the cyan has run out is it still possible to print monochrome photos?

When I got the printer the black plus the pale cyan and pale magenta were at the "Low ink prepare cartridge" point. The other five were showing half full. After printing one nozzle check and four 6 x 4 inch photos two more colours had dropped to "Low ink" which seems surprising? However it is still happy to print at the moment but I have no idea if it will manage one more 6 x 4 or a dozen 10 x 8! If it stops with say 3 cartridges still showing half full would you change all eight or just the five that are at the Low point?

I will investigate Octoinkjet. Any other possibilities?

Many thanks again.

 

[stratman]

What I am still not sure about is at what level (and in how many cartridges) does it become more economical to discard and install a complete set?

Both refilling and store bought cartridge situations have been discussed. The forum consensus is to swap out a refilled cartridge when it is marked a Low, and not Empty, for the Pro 100.

When a cartridge is marked as Low it means that the spongeless side of the cartridge is depleted. Forum member mikling found that letting ink be depleted from the sponged side causes drying of the sponge exposed to air. After several refills and attendant exposures of the sponge to air may eventually cause poor flow of ink through the sponge with eventual ink starvation and the potential to burn our nozzles permanently from lack of the cooling effects of liquid ink.

So, replace the refilled cartridge when it is marked Low. Replacing all the refilled cartridges at the same time decreases the number of new cartridge purges and slows the time till your waste ink diaper/pads are marked Full as well. (a whole other topic).

When using single use only OEM or prefilled-aftermarket cartridges, replace when Empty. As for the other cartridges in the print head, unless you want to calculate how much ink is left in each cartridge, then figure out at what weight you beat the bean counters at Canon by throwing away ink instead of letting it be purged to the waste pads, then use your best judgement knowing that no matter what you do you will be losing ink and money by not refilling. In other words, accept the loss.

If the printer stops because, say, the cyan has run out is it still possible to print monochrome photos?

In general, no Canon inkjet continues to function with a cartridge missing or marked as Empty. You can bypass ink level monitoring, or, reset the chip with a resetter to fool the printer there is ink when there is not. Running a printer without the cooling effects of liquid ink will cause nozzles to burnout irreparably. You'll need a new print head then. $$$

 

[Undervalued]

OK, thanks again for your time.

Rightly or wrongly I have already bought new Canon cartridges for the three that were showing low ink on arrival. Also one other cartridge came with the printer. So, I think I will buy the remaining four and install the whole set of eight when the printer refuses to print. Does that make sense? During the life of that full set I can assess how much I am likely to use it and decide if I go down the Octoinkjet route for the future.

Are the average page yield figures Canon quote anything like realistic? If so I would imagine a full set of cartridges would last me many months assuming I only turn it on when I have several photos to print?

If I don't want the hassle of refilling are there and decent off the shelf cartridges you would recommend that give a worthwhile saving? The best I can find for genuine Canon is about £85 for a full set.

 

[stratman]

Are the average page yield figures Canon quote anything like realistic?

For Canon they are. For you, it depends on what you print. Outdoor scenes with lots of blue sky or fields of green grass will use more of certain colors than indoor portraits of grandma with the kids. Your cartridge usage patterns will become evident over time to you.

If you want to maximize the use of the ink in your cartridges then refill. You can add ink to fill the cartridge that still has ink left in it. The caveat, and it is a big one, is that the Yellow OEM CLI-42 ink reacts badly with refill ink, any refill ink AFAIK, to form Yello Gello after several refills. Either obtain a fully flushed Yellow CLI-42 cartridge (Octoinkjet?), flush your Yellow CLI-42 cartridge with a couple rounds of ammonia containing glass cleaner like Windex original followed by water flushes, or use a flushed CLI-8 cartridge and swap your CLI-42 Yellow chip onto the CLI-8 cartridge.

 

[peter D]

I have recently bought an immaculate Pro-100 secondhand, which seems to work perfectly, but I would be grateful for some advice about keeping it in good condition with very intermittent use. As far as I know it hasn't had a great deal of use and has always had genuine Canon inks.

How often does it need to be used to avoid requiring wasteful head cleaning? Is it more economical to say print a 6 x 4in photo once a week or is it best only to power up the printer when I have a lot to do.

Five of the inks have reached the "Running low - prepare new ink tank" level. Three were like that when I got it and today two more are now saying the same. The other three show at about half.

Any idea how long before they reach the next level (when I assume it will insist on the cartridge being replaced)?

Does replacing an individual cartridge then waste ink in the others? If so, at what level is it more economical to change other low(ish) cartridges at the same time?

Any other words of wisdom would be much appreciated including about possibly, long term, using third party inks?

Many thanks

Chris

I been using a Canon Pro-100 for photographic printing for many years now and I can confirm that the advice you have received from the members of this forum is excellent.
One point not raised here concerns the question of just how long you expect your prints to last without fading. This is a subject has been discussed on this forum in the past and if you have concerns about this topic I'd advise researching those older articles because fading is an issue to be considered when changing from OEM inks to refill inks when using a dye ink printer like the Pro 100.

The high cost Canon OEM ink especially developed by Canon to get longer print life from dye inks is justified if that is what you require from a print made on the range of photographic papers available from Canon not to mention the ink/paper profiles that are key to getting a colour match close to what you see on a calibrated monitor.
To get longer fade free performance from other than Canon's OEM inks it is necessary to use older style "swellable" inkjet paper that is getting very difficult to obtain.

I wish you well with your Canon Pro 100 which is an excellent printer and a joy to use.

 

[Undervalued]

Thanks for the recent replies and sorry for the delay in replying.

I have managed to buy a job lot of genuine Canon cartridges at a good price on eBay from a private seller. I assume their printer must have packed up?

Unfortunately though the majority of them are the colours for which Canon quote a higher page yield! That aspect still bothers me and any further advice will be welcome.....

Canon's figures for an "average" 6 x 4inch print vary wildly from, for example....

Pale Magenta 169
Cyan 600
Black 900

Obviously I realise those figures will change a lot if I print significant numbers of photos where one colour predominates. However the average subject idea was how the colour correction was done in traditional wet process photographic printing machines, all be it with some manual offset in more professional labs. So, I assume Canon must be basing these figures on something sensible for average use?

A very rough assessment of my "job lot" tends to equate with Canon's figures!

So, if they are even vaguely right a user will need at least four pale magenta cartridges for every three cyan and one black cartridge!

So this brings me back to the question of at what level is it more economic to throw away cartridges with a significant amount remaining when the first one runs out?

I suppose to work that out we need to know what percentage of each cartridge is primed / wasted when a new cartridge is inserted. Does anybody have any figures for that?

The printer is only going to get limited use and within reason my priority is quality and convenience over economy. For that reason I am reluctant to go down the refilling route at the moment.

I spent most of my life working in professional photography in a scientific field, although I have been out of it for the last ten years. In the past I have done a lot of colour printing in darkrooms but far less by computer. Hopefully my colour correction skills will come back and translate to the digital world!

Thanks again

Chris

 

[stratman]

So, if they are even vaguely right a user will need at least four pale magenta cartridges for every three cyan and one black cartridge!

See above post for an answer. Forget Canon stats. It all depends on what you print and can change if your printed subject matter changes. You'll see your usage patterns as you print.

at what level is it more economic to throw away cartridges with a significant amount remaining when the first one runs out?

This is highly subjective and has been covered in this thread, though you will get differing opinions from others I am sure. You will figure out what is best for you as you print.