New Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 owner Newbie Questions

[nyprinterguy]

Hi, everyone,

I am glad I found this forum. It is my desire to be a constructive contributor here

I bought a brand new Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 in October and ordered a second one today. I have not opened my first yet since I travel often and don’t have an extended amount of time to get to know these amazing printers. I am a 20 year Epson guy who recently also acquired two brand new Epson Stylus pro 3800’s and two 3880s

My first question is this: Is the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 discontinued since the 1100 is now out and all the remains are inventory by suppliers, or, are the 1000 and 1100 still on assembly lines?

Since I do travel a lot, I am concerned with leaving the printer in a dormant power on state. I read that there is a program that can print out an 8.5 x11 sheet everyday to keep the pipes flowing. What would that program cost and its name?

Another, question centers around disabling ink cartridge monitoring. Can this be done by a color by color basis or it must be all of them at once?

If disabled, can cart(s) be re-enabled or once it’s disabled that’s it?

I have read of people harvesting ink from 700ml Canon OEM carts and refilling their 80ml younger siblings; if anyone is familiar with this, I’d like to learn more

Finally I'd like to future proof my investments by stocking up on extra Print heads even though I have a 4 year warranty on each printer

I have two Part numbers for the PF-10 print head   0861C003AA and 

QY6-1800-000

Where is a reliable source to purchase these? I have seen prices close to the cost of the printer whereas online I have seen prices claiming PF-10 for $400

Finally, if an item needs to be sent for repair do I remove my carts and printhead before shipping? I heard that they don't send ink back

Thank you in advance to anyone reading through all my questions

[rsilber]

Congratulations on the purchase of, in my opinion, a wonderful printer. Years ago I had an Epson 3800, and ran it until the black ink switch went bad.

I can help you with a few answers.

Don't turn off the printer unless necessary to avoid unnecessary ink usage. However, if you're traveling, I have left mine off for 30 days with no excessive ink use at startup. Worse, don't unplug it for the same reason; the internal clock loses track of maintenance and will consume a lot of ink at restart. Rather, use a UPS to guard for power outages and surges. The app you're referencing is Qimage. You don't mention your OS, but it's available for Mac and windows. Set it to run a purge sheet every 23 hours and you'll avoid heavy self-cleaning. Qimage is a wonderful print manager that, once you familiarize yourself with it, is far away better that other options. Get the lifetime license. You can also optimize/reduce self-cleanings in the printer settings.

As far as ink carts and related, check out Jose Rodriguez on YouTube who has a plethora of videos on the matter. He's sort of a Pro 1000 guru and his page has a wealth of information. 

I can't help you with a source for print heads.

Good luck!