MP990 refurbished installed

[mrelmo]

ok just installed the refurbished mp990, install had a minor glitch or 2, first off an error came up that the inner door (cd tray) was open when it was not i could not remove the error until the printer was powered off, it skipped the choice of language, no big deal only an observation, wireless connection was flawless, but when i print OMG this printer goes through what sounds like several steps, i am hoping that the printer isn't going though i small cleaning cycle prior to printing. my personal perference since i print daily is not to power down a printer to avoid the purge cycle upon power up. the refurb has a 90 days warranty, i have had refurbs before without any problems and i am hoping none show on this printer as i am looking for this printer to be my work horse. my 4200 is going to pasture it served me well i just needed to go wireless, after the warranty is up i will reprogram for a euro code to print on to dvds, oh by the way canon has sold out of the mp990 refurbs

 

[mrelmo]

wondering if i made a mistake with this printer i printed 4 or 5 small documents and the magenta, cyan and gray are 30% low already i don't think the print head alignment used that much ink and if it did all colors except pigment black should have a lower ink level

 

[The Hat]

mrelmo
Does the heavy ink usage really matter that much if youre intending to use bulk inks anyway.
Every Canon printer Ive ever had has being a right boozer of inks so there nothing new in that.

But the latest I heard is that all the Canon printers using these new cartridges (525s)
onwards do have a higher drink problem than their much older brothers..

 

[mrelmo]

i understand that the 221 cartridges have a smaller volume than the clis but who wants to refill weekly, i will run it and see what happens, hopefully it was the initial setup that drank the ink

 

[Redbrickman]

Refilling weekly shouldn't be a chore.

Once you get into a routine it should not take up much time at all.

 

[mrelmo]

ok the printer has been installed for all of 5 days. i have printed a printhead alignment 3 pages, 6 4x6 photos, 2 pages of google map directions and 4 less than half page documents. the color cartridges are all down to about 25 to 30 percent. i have contacted canon and they are sending me a new set of cartridges, but i explained that i believe that there is an issue with this printer. it appears every time i print the head goes through a cleaning cycle and also when the print is complete it goes through another cleaning cycle. i was instructed to take the printer to a local authorized repair center, where i dropped it off today. i was not able to speak with a tech hopefully they will call me to discuss the printer. i really feel this ink usage is excessive, anyone else who has recently received a refurbished mp990 have noticed an abnormal amount of ink being used. it is great that canon has sent me another set of cartridges but that is not addressing the ink usage, if this is a normal amount of ink usage on the mp990 i think i may go back to my 4200 i used to print over half a ream of paper before i was filling the cartridges

 

[stratman]

Maybe your printer is guzzling more than it should. Maybe not. It depends on whether you fussed with the print head and or cartridges - taking them out and putting them back in, for instance.

A new machine may dump well over 2 grams of each color ink per first three cleaning cycle. Then there are ink dumps for every time you take a cartridge or the print head out which can be well over a gram of each color ink per time. Maybe the printer recognizes it's the same print head or cartridge and won't do these cleaning cycles as it surely does for new print heads and cartridges, but maybe it doesn't matter and the cleaning cycles occur anytime you remove something. You may also get an ink dump if you power off the machine with the print head not parked over the purge pads - the "not capped" position (???). Then there are other potential timed cleaning cycles which may fall into your 5 day time frame.

A Service Manual for your printer will give you estimates of ink lost for these and more specific reasons.

 

[mrelmo]

that is why i do not power down a printer unless i go on vacation or leave for extended periods, cartridges were only removed to confirm what the monitor showed, my main concern is when the printhead go to the park position after printing it sounds like it is purging or flushing the cartridges however there is no way that i can confirm that, hopefully the tech will be able to find out why this machine was refurbished, that would be of interest, but there are other people who have bought the mp990 and i would like to hear from them on how much ink they are using maybe this is normal for this printer, i sure hope not because any person who does not refill would be replacing the dye cartridges at least monthly

 

[inkadinkado]

Stratman

I'm sorry to ask such a silly question, but where does the ink go when the machine dumps ink as it performs an automatic cleaning?

 

[stratman]

Stratman

I'm sorry to ask such a silly question, but where does the ink go when the machine dumps ink as it performs an automatic cleaning?

Good question. The ink initially goes onto and through the purge pads typically seen to the far right of the inside as you look at the front of the printer. The print head parks over the purge pads when not printing (or the cover lifted up). The ink then goes through tubes or a passageway to cloth/synthetic pads that act to soak up the waste ink somewhere on the bottom of the printer. On Epsons, this pad was called, appropriately, a "diaper".

When the printer counts a certain number of the various maintenance cycles, an error message is displayed to the user for service to be done - to replace the waste ink pads. Continuing to print will eventually result in ink leaking from the bottom of the printer. Replacement of the pads is a convoluted, multi-step process - because the printers were probably constructed by Machiavelli (joke) - and require diligence and time, or the user can spend a lot of money to have a service center do the job. The other option is to use a different printer. Additionally, websnail (I think) recently posted a thread about creating a diversion for the waste ink in order to bypass the pads and allow the printer to be used indefinitely (as far as filled up waste ink pads are concerned). Of not, the waste ink diversion is a simple procedure on Epsons, at least in past models. Canons are a real PITA to fix it yourself.