Why does my ink run out so quickly?

[AndymAndym]

I have a Pixma MP620.  I bought all new cartriges for it a couple of months ago, have printed only B&W word documents, and far fewer than 100 documents, yet my black is empty, and the magenta and cyan are dangerously low.  The yellow is at half.  I figure I've paid almost $1.00 per B&W page.

WTF?

[dontknowname]

I have the same problem on my MP980 and it always run out of ink quickly even i only print few papers. only the big black ink is still full

[grizzlyowl]

Did you get any resolution? 

[grizzlyowl]

It appears that Canon is designed to purposely drain your inks fast so you have to buy more of their inks. More inks, more profit for Canon. As to why inks are still expensive is just pure greed. The cartridges should be $5 or less. 

[sstevens]

Having the same problem and feel the same way, last Canon product for me.

[sstevens]

Having the same problem and feel the same way, last Canon product for me. And exactly what is a purge and how do you know when it happens. My machine makes a loud clicking noise all the time after I print. What is that?

[conklinb77]

I have an MB 2300.  I paid $100 for it through staples.  It cost me $79 to replace the ink in this printer.  I have called canon about the horrible ink usage on this printer twice and was kindly send a replacement set of ink.  I still have the same issue where even with the printer off between uses and following all of the previously mentioned suggestions.  It's just not cost affective to spend $80 only to have the printer suck the tanks empty before ever using the printer.  Yes you read that corrrectly.  I have put two complete sets of ink cartridges in my printer before ever printing anything.  I then printed BLACK only in coloring pages for my kids and now it's telling me to replace the color.

I'd love to purchase a printer that will print when I need something printed.  As I see it, I have spent enough in ink the last year I could have bought 3 more printers.

[s1am]

Same problem here. Our MX860 goes through color ink about every three weeks. It is used to print between 14 and 20 color pages each week. Nothing on photo paper, just basic draft quality color pages. Each ink tank is only getting about 60 pages max out of it. In my experience with this printer there is no difference in page count between Canon brand and off-brand ink.

The HP printer that the Canon replaced would get several hundred pages before needing new ink when printing the exact same type of documents. 

The problem seems to effect a lot of people and that really discourages me from buying another Canon.

[marlafaith0203]

I have a canon pixima MG 3022. I have it for three years and finally decided after two years of avoiding spending $40+ on ink I went and got some. I have only printed two things in color and a printed four class syllabi. which is only 5 pages tops each. and my printer is already telling me I am low on black ink! I am a canon camera fan. Love it. But i am seriously considering disowning there printers. becasue I am in college and I can't spend half of financial aid refunds on ink every few months! Either make ink cartirages with more freak'n ink in them or lower your ink prices because otherwise I am taking my buisness elsewhere and telling everyone to not get a canon printer and that its a scam. not worth the investment! because at the rate this thing proclaims to run low on ink I'd be broke with only 25 pages printed out and a few them only halfway done. Yes i have had my printer print something for me with only 50% black ink left and it only printed out half a page and left the others completely blank. Let me just say that I still have the same rim of paper that had when i bought this printer three years ago. so that should say something! had the same rim of paper when I bought the printer three years ago but have had to change the ink out twice should have changed it out three times but I refused to buy more ink because there was no way it should have ran out that fast!  What is the solution for this exact printer! not some other one. What is the solution for the Canon Pixima MG 3022? 

[BillS]

Hi marlafaith0203,

The amount of ink that the printer will use varies based on what is being printed, what print quality is selected, and what paper type is being used.

As a suggestion,  you can do these things to conserve the amount of ink that is used by the printer:

1.  Ensure that the paper type that you have the printer set to print to is set to PLAIN PAPER instead of a photo or other paper type.  Using another paper type distributes the ink on the page differently, and in some cases uses more ink.

2.  Ensure that the print quality is set to FAST or STANDARD.  The higher the print quality setting, the more ink the printer will use.

3.  If you find that you print more black and white documents than color documents, selecting the GRAYSCALE PRINTING option in the printer driver will use only the larger black ink tank in the unit to print, as long as PLAIN PAPER is sleected as the paper type, and single-sided printing is being performed.  When duplex (double-sided) printing is performed, or if another paper type than plain paper is selected, a combination of the color inks will be used to create the black text on the page, even if the grayscale option is selected.

4.  Keep the printer out of direct sun light and away from heating vents, as this can dry out the ink tanks.  

Hope this helps!

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[Layla97]

What if you do all of that - and it still runs out fast?  All of the people posting on here cannot be wrong.  The young college student that posted was right.  I believe these printers are a scam.  I don't really print a lot -but when it comes time to get a new printer - I will NOT buy a Canon - and I'll be sure to do my homework in advance to make sure any printer I buy does not consume all of the ink in just a few pages.