PRO-100 Idle Management

[mmcmusnret]

Isn't that a confusing title?

My trusty iP8500 recently died so I jumped on the Adorama deal for a couple of PRO-100's at $98 each...yes, I just saw the price drop to $34 . I had my 8500 and MP780 on an MIS Autoprint schedule to print every 48 hours, the common wisdom (gained here years ago) being that less ink was used printing "Neil and his Balls" than letting the machines go into their timed purge cycle and, even if more ink was used printing than purging, it wasn't going into the waste ink pads but rather onto paper one could discard.

So what's the common wisdom for managing an idle PRO-100? I don't have the maintenance manual so I don't know if it automatically purges to prevent print head clogs or, if it does, what the periodicity is. What's the best strategy to prevent a clogged print head in this machine when it is used very little (if at all) during these glorious summer months in the Central Mountains of Idaho, USA?

Thanks in advance for the community's wisdom.

 

[The Hat]

My advice would be for you to do a weekly nozzle check and that is all that’s needed to keep the machine happy, plus there will be no need to leave it powered on all the time either.

You can use schedule to run a batch file of the nozzle check so that way you don’t have to be present to run it, your MIS Auto-print should still work with the new printer also !

 

[mmcmusnret]

Thanks, The Hat. Yes, I've got it set up to, from a power off condition, power on when the MIS Autoprint task is triggered and run a purge print then power off after 15 minutes.

Per the Service Manual, my iP8500 would initiate a normal cleaning cycle before beginning a print task when "120 to 480 hours have elapsed since the previous cleaning till the start of the next printing". Now that I've broken out the manual to quote it precisely and re-read it I'm left to wonder if printing every 48 hours really keeps the machine from purging...at any rate, MIS Autoprint set to print before that 120 hour trigger supposedly would reset the timer so the machine would never go into a cleaning cycle, the advantages of which were in my initial post. I don't have a Service Manual for the PRO-100 (anyone know of a source? Nothing popped on web search) so I don't know if Canon uses the same cleaning scheme as spelled out for my iP8500. Does anyone?

I do know that my PRO-100 had been down for a week and appeared to go into a cleaning cycle when I initiated a nozzle check today.

Just trying to use the least amount of ink, minimize ink loading of the purge pads, and avoid clogs.

 

[The Hat]

When it comes to purging and cleaning, your printer will do its own thing, so trying to prevent the printer from doing this can only reduce the quality of output and can lead to the damage of its expensive print head.

The Pro 100 is a Pro printer so it will run a clean cycle every time it’s appropriate, so when you decide to print something it’s will always be ready to give you that 100% of quality you come to expect.

When your Pro 100 printer starts up and makes all sorts of noises it doesn’t mean it’s actually running a clean cycle, it could be just wiping the print head or test firing the nozzles after it has been unused for a while.

Your new printer is less lightly to clog than your older iP8500 model did, but there is an easy way to reduce the amount of ink used in one of the printers’ own maintenance routine cleaning cycles.

You can do this without interfering or compromising with your print quality in any way and reduce the amount of waste by as much as 700% simply by changing all your cartridges when only one cartridge needs replacing.

So if say the Cyan cartridge is showing low ink then replace it and the other 7 colours at the same time with a complete full set, that way your printer will only do 1 cleaning cycle for all the cartridges and not 1 for each time your replace the cartridges singly. (This actually works !)

I have an external waste ink tank (Printer Potty) on two on my Pro printers and they work great at keeping my purge pads at zero (Never need changing) but they also serve another benefit in that I can visually see every time the printer does a routine cleaning cycle.

There are Service manuals available for the Pro 100 printer on the web but you’ll have to pay about $25 for the privilege of owning one, that’s probably why there’re not freely accessible.

The best way of keeping your ink usage to a minimum while using as little ink as possible to do a test print which fires all of the print nozzles is just a plain old nozzle checks, there is no better print routine than that, (Weekly) !

 

[mmcmusnret]

That's certainly more than I paid for my iP8500 manual, but it still might make for a good read. I'd really like to know the actual technical specifications for when a cleaning cycle is called for by the firmware. I'll keep searching for a source...a quick search didn't produce one for sale, let alone for free.

I've already committed to the "swap 'em all" strategy...makes a lot of sense.

It's good to know these newer printers are less likely to clog. Is that due to changes in ink properties or head design?

Thanks for your insight.

 

[stratman]

The Yellow ink for the Pro-100 can react with aftermarket Yellow ink to form a "Yellow Gello", as The Hat puts it, that can clog a print head. I don't know if this issue is for every aftermarket Yellow but it does occur with IS inks from Precision Colors, an ink many use for its excellent characteristics.

For more info see http://precisioncolors.com/IMPORTANT NEW INFORMATION ON REFILLING CANON CLI-42Y CARTRIDGES.pdf

Also, consider purchasing a spare print head (or two) directly from Canon to have as backup. Canon makes print heads for a specific model for ~5 years from release. The Pro-100 may last you longer than that. The value of the spare print head will increase when they are no longer manufactured and be easily sold if you no longer need it.

Thank you for your service in the Navy!

 

[PeterBJ]

I also tried searching for the service manual, but found none. This site has some technical info about the Pro 100.

 

[mmcmusnret]

Thanks, stratman and PeterBJ. I purchased two PRO-100"s a month ago from Adorama and wish I printed enough volume to justify grabbing more now that they've dropped to $34. Two heads, two sets of ink for $196...score! Wish I had done that with my iP8500 because I really loved that machine, so I've got at least one more head on my wish list as further insurance. Anyway, before jumping on the PRO-100's I made sure refill ink was available so I've been all over Mikling's website...I'm aware of the yellow-jello issue, but I'm feeling the challenge to successfully flush the yellow cart rather than default to a CLI-8 ( is my OCD kicking in here? Worth a try, at least). He'll be getting my business this coming winter when I load my second set of carts, squeezy bottles and all.

PeterBJ - I visited that address a few weeks ago to collect the service tool in case I needed it in the future. Thanks for trying though...maybe as the PRO-100 ages the service manual will become more readily available, even at a price. If anyone comes up with a source please let me know.

Stratman - You're welcome...27 years operating submarine nuclear power plants. Criminy, the decisions one makes when they're 18!

 

[mmcmusnret]

Any PRO-100 owners come up with a source for a service manual yet? Inquiring minds (mine,at least) would still like to know the automatic head cleaning scheme.

The Hat, you mentioned availability for a price. Do you have a link? I'm coming up blank no matter what search terms I use.

 

[The Hat]

There still doesn’t seem to be a Pro 100 Service Manual available just yet but if and when one become available then @PeterBJ is your man, he’ll have it first guaranteed.

I have a Service Manual for the Pro 9000 and Pro 9500 (Compliments of @PeterBJ) so if that’s any help to you, these two machines are fairly similar and I imagine the same information relating to Automatic head cleaning would also be the same..