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When is it time to change an ink cartridge on a PRO 1000 printer>?

RKBerta
Contributor

I have a new CANON Pro 1000 printer. I got the message one of my ink cartridges is low (photo black). Should I change it out now or continue to use the printer until it gives another message such as "Ink out and needs to be replaced". Will it stop mid print if it needs ink replaced or will it continue to finish the print minus that one ink?  I want to avoid prematurely replacing a cartidge when it still has ink.

2 ACCEPTED SOLUTIONS

jrhoffman75
Legend
Legend

Here is the strategy I use with my Pro-100.

1. I wait until I get the Ink has Run Out alert.

2. Then I replace that cartridge and any other cartridges showing an exclamation mark.

Reason being that my printer will run a purge cycle on all cartridges after even one is replaced. Depending on the level in an exclamation cartridge that could run out during the purge, requiring replacement and a whole new purge cycle. Some folks call this the domino effect.

If the Pro-1000 doesn't do a gang purge that might not be an issue.

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, LR Classic

View solution in original post

RKBerta
Contributor

I did some extensive testing with my new PRO 1000 (all updates installed and it is now about a month old). i earlier had changed my PBK and Grey cartridges as they both had been showing low ink with the exclamation point for some time. After a lot more use most of the remaining inks show low supply and that has been showing for a long time with lots of additional prints through the machine. I finally decided to do some more testing so removed the Y cartridge which has been the one showing the low ink warning for the longest  time but still not an out of ink warning.

I weighed a new yellow cartridge, the old yellow and the photo black I had previously replaced. I have an extremely accurate scale for this purpose.

New cartridge unused is 115 grams

Used yellow is 56 grams but still printing fine although had the low ink warning.

Used grey is 61 grams

I also note that when I removed, weighed, and reinserted just the Yellow original cartridge it did NOT go through any purge cycle of the yellow or any of the other inks that still showed the low ink warning.... and a couple of prints I ran through with heavy usage of yellow ink did not show any additional purging or change the low ink warning and the bar graph on the printer stayed the same as it was before. I remember when I changed the PBk and Gray cartridge before, the printer did not do any purging either....I was immediately able to print just as before the ink change.

Perhaps Canon changed the latest updates to not require those needless ink purges when only one tank is replaced. Luckily I saved that old Grey tank and am thinking I might reinsert it to use up more of that ink. It looks like that low ink warning comes on around 25% remaining so might be a better idea to just keep on using i until it gets the ink out warning. The one caveat though is that IF an out of ink out warning comes up it may trigger a purging of all tanks which would be a waste of ink. To avoid that it might be worthwhile to weigh the tanks a few times after that low ink warning comes up and try to replace the tank BEFORE it actually runs out of ink.

The other trick I have learned from others is to turn off the option in the setup menu so it won't turn the printer off automatically after a preset number of hours. The energy it uses when not in use is miniscule...most likely the LED on the on/off button. Also as others have mentioned....print a small item every couple of days if not going to be used for a larger print job....any small print will hopefully prevent it from going through a needless head cleaning.

Bottom line....it looks like either Canon changed the PRO 1000 purging, etc routine cycles..or we can defeat much of that ink wasting through some changes in our use of the machine. The one thing that seems to be great is that there is no need to change out a bunch of low ink alert cartridges prematurely to avoid purging. Whether same steps would be correct for the PRO 100 is a question since I don't have that printer.

Other than the ink shaking occasionally as noted on the display, I am not seeing any excessive ink purging. 

The one thing to still be determined is just how low can the ink go before triggering an out of ink warning. When i finally have a drained tank I plan on weighing it to see what that target point is. Perhaps having a target weight just over that amount would be the point to change the tanks.

View solution in original post

7 REPLIES 7

jrhoffman75
Legend
Legend

Here is the strategy I use with my Pro-100.

1. I wait until I get the Ink has Run Out alert.

2. Then I replace that cartridge and any other cartridges showing an exclamation mark.

Reason being that my printer will run a purge cycle on all cartridges after even one is replaced. Depending on the level in an exclamation cartridge that could run out during the purge, requiring replacement and a whole new purge cycle. Some folks call this the domino effect.

If the Pro-1000 doesn't do a gang purge that might not be an issue.

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, LR Classic

Thanks for answering! I would suspect the PRO 1000 works the same way but will see. I usually print every day and set my printer to never turn off. That seems to be a good way to prevent needless purging of $$$ ink. That is a great idea about replacing other low inks with exclamation point at the same time as the last thing I want is needless purging of ink tanks. I had a PRO Epson before (3880) and while it lasted a long time....it needed constant head cleaning and went through ink very quickly as a result. That plus I couldn't replace the head like is possible on the Canon when they get worn out. Print quality on both printers is excellent but the Canon seems to be a much better design. Thus far it has been flawless in performance and resuilts. 

jrhoffman75
Legend
Legend

Printing every day or two, even if its just a nozzle check, is a good practice. I know the Pro-100 has various built in timers that vary in “intensity” depending on how long between printing events. I have read they are 60, 120 and 240 hrs. 

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, LR Classic

RKBerta
Contributor

My first photo black cartridge was replaced before it got the notice that it ran out of ink although it was a long time after the ink low message. Since my grey tank alert was also showing I decided to replace both tanks thinking the printer might go through a purge cycle of all the tanks. I had been printing for a couple of hours that day so replaced the tanks. I was surprised it didn't go through any purge cycle which I was expecting. I did turn off the auto off option as I heard that if it shuts down automatically after so many hours....or you shut it down manually,....it will also go through purging all the tanks. I have had the printer about 3 weeks now and a lot of prints through it. If I don't plan on using it for more than a couple of days I print a very simple 4x6 print or a head check print. Thus far those two tips seems to have prevented all those needless ink purges. My printer is brand new with the latest firmware updates so perhaps Canon decided to change how the printer purges or doesn't purge. In any case I have been surprised that it doesn't use anywhere as much ink as I previously read in reviews. I have a yellow and red tank now showing the alarm for low ink so will let it go longer this time to see how many more prints I can get. Thus far it looks like that warning comes on at around 20 mil of ink left so if you changed it at that point it would be a huge waste of ink. I have seen no advantage in having the printer auto shut down. The only energy it is using while idle is powering a LED which is far less expensive than needless ink purges. One issue is power outages so not certain how it would deal with that. We have very reliable power but there are the occasional outages a couple of times a year. I was wondering if it would be worthwhile to get an uninterruptable power supply to keep it from shutting down?

From what I have learned from various articles 1. The printer does not have an ink level detection system. The bar graph of ink is estimated based on the amount of printing that has been performed. 2. The ink out alert is initiated by light signal. The prism at the bottom of the cartridge transmits light differently when the chamber is empty.

That’s why removing a partially empty cartridge and replacing it perhaps didn’t initiate a purge. Did you notice if the ink level in the graph changed.

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, LR Classic

RKBerta
Contributor

I did some extensive testing with my new PRO 1000 (all updates installed and it is now about a month old). i earlier had changed my PBK and Grey cartridges as they both had been showing low ink with the exclamation point for some time. After a lot more use most of the remaining inks show low supply and that has been showing for a long time with lots of additional prints through the machine. I finally decided to do some more testing so removed the Y cartridge which has been the one showing the low ink warning for the longest  time but still not an out of ink warning.

I weighed a new yellow cartridge, the old yellow and the photo black I had previously replaced. I have an extremely accurate scale for this purpose.

New cartridge unused is 115 grams

Used yellow is 56 grams but still printing fine although had the low ink warning.

Used grey is 61 grams

I also note that when I removed, weighed, and reinserted just the Yellow original cartridge it did NOT go through any purge cycle of the yellow or any of the other inks that still showed the low ink warning.... and a couple of prints I ran through with heavy usage of yellow ink did not show any additional purging or change the low ink warning and the bar graph on the printer stayed the same as it was before. I remember when I changed the PBk and Gray cartridge before, the printer did not do any purging either....I was immediately able to print just as before the ink change.

Perhaps Canon changed the latest updates to not require those needless ink purges when only one tank is replaced. Luckily I saved that old Grey tank and am thinking I might reinsert it to use up more of that ink. It looks like that low ink warning comes on around 25% remaining so might be a better idea to just keep on using i until it gets the ink out warning. The one caveat though is that IF an out of ink out warning comes up it may trigger a purging of all tanks which would be a waste of ink. To avoid that it might be worthwhile to weigh the tanks a few times after that low ink warning comes up and try to replace the tank BEFORE it actually runs out of ink.

The other trick I have learned from others is to turn off the option in the setup menu so it won't turn the printer off automatically after a preset number of hours. The energy it uses when not in use is miniscule...most likely the LED on the on/off button. Also as others have mentioned....print a small item every couple of days if not going to be used for a larger print job....any small print will hopefully prevent it from going through a needless head cleaning.

Bottom line....it looks like either Canon changed the PRO 1000 purging, etc routine cycles..or we can defeat much of that ink wasting through some changes in our use of the machine. The one thing that seems to be great is that there is no need to change out a bunch of low ink alert cartridges prematurely to avoid purging. Whether same steps would be correct for the PRO 100 is a question since I don't have that printer.

Other than the ink shaking occasionally as noted on the display, I am not seeing any excessive ink purging. 

The one thing to still be determined is just how low can the ink go before triggering an out of ink warning. When i finally have a drained tank I plan on weighing it to see what that target point is. Perhaps having a target weight just over that amount would be the point to change the tanks.

Tiz been about 9 months and wondering what you have found?    I'm still on my first set of tanks but expect to get a message indicating out of ink any day.  

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