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?

[thedbarz]

My printer seems to  do a printhead cleaning before every print job.  i never print color but the cartridges are the first to go.  Two questions:

1)  Is there a way to inhibit the incessant print head nozzle cleaning function.  Not only is it wasteful, it slows everything down.

2)  Where does all this ink go.  I swear there must be a reservoir of wasted ink in the printer somewhere that must amount to 5-8 ounces of ink!

So, far Canon's standard answers are really not acceptable.  Once the current batch of ink runs out, I'm buying the new printers that have the big refillable bottles of ink.  

Rather poos customer service for a consumer products company.

[Mike]

Hi thedbarz,

The ink cartridges are not on timers, but the printer is. It's programmed to perform periodic cleanings or "purges" to prevent clogs from forming in the nozzles. Without these "purges" the clogs that could form in the nozzles could permanently damage the print heads leading to even costier repairs. These purges do use a small amount of ink, and enough of them will eventually empty the cartridge. 

To prevent this, turn the printer off during long periods of disuse (more than a week or two.)  A purge will only be performed when the printer is powered on.

Also, only turn the printer off using the power button.  If you turn the printer by disconnecting the power, either from a wall switch or power strip, a purge will occur every time you turn it on.

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[NotHappy88]

I have a Canon MG6320. Recently I purchased brand new, Canon brand, unopened, 251 C, M, Y and Grey Inks. I installed all four into my printer and print exactly one, singe paged, black and white receipt. All four brand new inks, dropped from 4 bars of capacity, to three. Bewildered, I printed one more, single paged, black and white receipt, and again, all four brand new inks, dropped from three bars of capacity, to half full at two bars. I turned my printer off, and unplugged it and spent a week researching the issue. I have not found any explanations or solutions. I plugged in and turned my printer back on today to see if my inks were still at half capacity, and the four in question are now at one bar. 

Again, these were brand new, Canon brand, unopened inks. Used to print two single paged black and white documents. The printer has been off and unplugged since. Yet the inks have gone down in capacity every print, and even when turned off and unpugged. I am furious. That's literally $50 completely wasted. 

[thedbarz]

I've had my MX870 for over 10 years.  It's weird in that I don't recall the cartridges draining when I first bought it.  It seems to have been a relatively recent problem.  Canon's support has only posted templated responses and don't address the issue.  I bought a bunch of 3rd party cartridges recently (work great and cost a fraction of the Canon products) and when they're done, well I'm done with Canon, too.  I'll probably buy one of the Epson refillable tank printers like this one (link removed as per forum guidelines).  I like the document feeder with the MX870 and occasionally do duplex printing so will miss those options.  But really, it's all about the printing costs; I'd rather pay upfront for the printer and avoid the hassle of constantly buying Canon cartridges.

So, unless Canon support comes up with a true fix to stop the constant nozzle cleaning, I'm out.

Dan

[servant38]

Here the same issue. I bought the canon Pixma 8750 printer about a year ago and i sell my artworks to customers so i thought this printer would be the best if you look at the printer price and quality. But the cartridges.... pfff. I just did the calculation and it appears i can only print about 30 color prints with full cartridges so it's about 2 euro/photo print which is insane... I'm just throwing away my money by buying cartridges all the time. I already tried all solutions, hang on the phone with canon but they always come with the same solutions: keep out of the sunlight, don't plug out, try cleaning the nozzles, use the right settings, ... but i just use the Canon Print app with default photo settings. I'm tired of searching for solutions and throwing away my money like this so i'm gonna look for an alternative.

[davidbrown14]

I've had the same problem. 10 glossy colour prints and my cartridges are running low. Cost about $4 an A4 print.

[servant38]

VERY frustrating... did you find a solution or just bought another printer?

[thedbarz]

Nothing new from Canon.  It's clearly a business imperative to sell cartridges, even at the expense of repeat customers dumping them and buying a different brand.  I still have some cartridges but will buy a new printer when they are gone.  (Probably soon!)  I've changed my thoughts on this after seeing the bad reviews for Epson paper handling (which reinforced a bad experience I had with an Epson printer 20 years ago), so I'm thinking of a Brother printer now.  

I guess with Canon's camera business on the decline due to the ever improving cameras in smartphones, they are desperate for cash.   I'm a Nikon person in regards to SLR's but have a Canon camcorder; rarely use it nowadays.  They seem to be following the Kodak business model straight into the camera/copier/printer graveyard.

[smodking]

In the community, there are MANY complaints about excessive ink usage. I share this concern with the community. The answer was for users to turn off their printer when periods of long nonuse occur. This rather negates printing from the cloud when offsite and isn't a solution, but a workaround an issue that Cannon should address with a firmware update.

The correct response would be to have the developers/engineers release a firmware update to stop the "purge" of ink for the sole purpose to keep the nozzles from clogging. Will they not clog powered off?

My mother passed away Aug 2019 and she owned a Cannon MG5520. I placed the printer in the trunk of her car and then stored the car for nearly a year. The temperature went below zero and above 90 as the car sat outside. The printer remained in the trunk during this time.

Upon retrieving the car and the printer, I turned on the printer expecting bad ink, clogged nozzles, or possibly a DOA machine. The printer fired up and printed perfectly and a nozzle check confirmed this as well.

Given the adverse conditions the hardware and the ink experienced, I'd say the "purge" to keep nozzles clear is a bunch of crap. Additionally, as a Cannon Support Rep pointed out, turning off the printer conserves ink, then that too indicates a purge is unnecessary when the printer is on standby.

So, how about a firmware update addressing the ink purge and becoming a member of a conscience society of not wasting nor excessively charging customers for supplies.

[CanonInkGuzzler]

I know I'm late to this discussion, but I'm here because my Canon Pixma MX922 guzzles ink by running through a cleaning cycle EVERY SINGLE TIME I go to print something, even if those prints are a couple minutes apart. 
The Canon Reps here, going on about clogged nozzles and programmed purges, are utterly unhelpful.

Yeah, if the printer sits for a while unused, it should probably run a cleaning cycle, BUT, that should be up to the user, not an automated, every-single-time-you-print "feature" that can not be turned off. It's ar cheaper to print a test page, and, if cleaning is needed, run a cycle. If not, you've used a whole lot less ink printing a test page than running an unneeded cleaning cycle.

"It has to do that, or the nozzles wil clog." Nonsense. Not buying it. 

As others have pointed out, this i simply a money grab from Canon. Ink cartridges are FAR too expensive, and FAR too half-full to be anything other than a cash grab. Ever notice that the "High Yield" cartridges are the same size as the standard yield (mostly empty) cartridges? They have to be, or they wouldn't fit the machine. SO, Canon, (and Epson, and HP, and everyone else) -- here's a thought..... FILL THE FREAKING CARTRIDGES, all the way, and sell them for the price of a "standard" cartridge. Your profit margins will still be 5,000%. And, update your printer firmware to stop the INTENTIONAL waste of ink.

A someone else pointed out, maybe it's time to start being part of the solution, instead of part of the problem.