Canon 9000 Inhaling Ink

[jgpa]

Just recently usage has gone WAY WAY up. I don't have an exact page count, I just dumped the memory and have a starting page count so I can compare when it runs out again.

No photo printing has been done. Most printing is basic text with a modest amount of powerpoint type stuff printed. All drivers are set to plain paper and the lowest quality setting.

The odd thing is that the carts all about run out together. I wonder if it is doing a bunch of cleaning cycles for some reason?

Just guessing but I think the carts are running out < 1 pack of paper.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

I think you're running out of ink because you're using an inkjet printer. You need to refill it yourself.

 

[stratman]

Any changes in what is being printed can affect ink usage. The more "stuff" on the printed page (coverage on the page) will require more ink to be printed. That said, your ink usage per "pack" of paper - ream of 500 sheets? - does not sound extraordinary for a CLI-8 cartridge depending on coverage of the page. But I do agree that all the cartridges running out of ink at the same time is unusual, at least in my experience. You must be a well adjusted an balanced person to have such even results!

The Canon Pro9000 variants are all dye-based inks designed for image printing more so than text printing. Printers designed for high quality text printing will have a pigment black ink cartridge that is used essentially exclusively for text, especially on plain paper as you are using. Because there is no pigment black ink cartridge in your printer, it may use any, all or a combination of the various inks you do have to make black and every other color and shade on your printed page. Additionally, you printer has a schedule of maintenance purges and cleanings that can drain a cartridge even if you print little in order to prevent print head clogs. Some of these timed maintenance cleanings/purgings waste more ink than most other of these cycles. Maybe you hit on one or more of these bigger purges. Too frequent power off and on cycles may waste more ink as the printer cleans and primes itself for duty. All that noise you hear when you turn on your printer may sometimes be the sound of wasting ink.

If all you are printing is B&W text then consider a laser printer. If you need color then an inkjet printer that has a pigment black ink cartridge would be prudent. Getting a Canon that you can refill easily at home is even more cost efficient, even when using high quality aftermarket inks.

 

[rodbam]

The pro 9000 is made for printing photos & not for printing text so it would be cheaper for you to buy a a smaller printer as they all seem to have a black pigment ink cartridge just for printing text.

 

[The Hat]

First off the Pro9000 is an inkjet printer that said it prints photos and text documents extremely well.
I would agree if you need text that is highlighter proof then the Pro 9000 falls down in just that one area only.

The facts are that jgpa inks ran out all together means that he was getting
very good value out of all of his inks not just out of one cartridge.

If he had only one pigment black cartridge installed then it would have run out
many times over with the amount of printing that he did.

Because the Pro 9000 was using all of the cartridges to produce his documents it was able to print far more by a factor of 8 or slightly less.
and how many times have we heard that the light magenta and light cyan always run out the fastest on some printers.

Whether you use one cartridge to print a single document or several cartridges it stands to reason
that the latter will always print far more because the inks are shared out equally for better coverage.

I use an i9950 8 cartridge printer just like the Pro 9000 and it too has no pigment black but it is extremely economical when printing text
and graphics by the simple fact again that it is using all of its cartridges and not just a couple of individual ones.

The same applies when printing duplex documents on a printer with a dedicated pigment cartridge but all of the
cartridges are used and practically none if any of the pigment is used at all in my opinion.

Producing text only documents with only pigment ink has a slight advantage in finer quality lettering output and being highlighter proof
that is all but its no more economical than doing the same document using the multi coloured dye inks instead of the dedicated black cartridge.

The same argument is also put forward when using only three colours to produce photos in that they are of poor quality
and dont look real against a four or five colour printer doing the same photo.

There is an awful lot of misconceptions about how inkjet printers actually work,
they are in fact little minor miracles that can producing the most amazing variety of colours ever imagined

from just three simple colour cartridges and it can all done by the experts and
everyday ordinary people with the same touch of that little button on the front.

I say lets all enjoy it and have as many Happy Printing days as we like can..

 

[jgpa]

I've had the printer for about 2 years or so. It *main* purpose is to print photos, and I have gotten superb results in that mode. But it also doubles up as a run-of-the-mill household inkjet. I refill with Hobbicolors.

What is getting me is that this text consumption has exploded. I don't have any hard #'s (I do with photo but not text) but I know for certain that it always lasted way longer and that some tanks ran out before others - the red & green ones, even with text, were slow to go.

The wife has been using it for printing her college course materials (the Powerpoints) and has been realtively constant over the last two years, more or less. While I understand that there are variations, etc., the ink usage has been so amazingly dramatic lately, it is quite noticeable, there has to be something else going on.

As Stratman stated, I am wondering if the logic of the printer has it for some reason doing a bunch of 'cleanings' to the dump tank. I leave it powered all the time for this very reason.

I made a dump of memory hoping that there are some counters there about when it does this (I don't know what is in the list except there is a total page count) I can get a count for comparison.

6 of the 8 carts are from when I bought the printer and have been refilled many many times. The other two are new, one just had its first refill. New and old carts ran out basically together.

When they run out again I will have a page count and will post that info. It might be a month or so.

There isn't any place for the ink to go except paper and the dump tank. I don't have any pools of ink anywhere. I have now just done my fourth refill of what is this new period of high consumption.

Thanks.

 

[carpboy]

jgpa here, for some reason couldn't login or do 'forgot password' on that account.

I have again exhausted almost all the ink in the printer and it was almost exactly 1000 pages.

The page content was very general; text, basic web pages, just everyday stuff. There was minimal Powerpoint slides printed, no photos at all. All the carts were empty except for red which was 1/8 remaining and PM which was about 1/2 empty. Can anyone correlate this usage to their own experiences?

On another note, the Y cart had become contaminated with red ink. I have no idea how this happened. It is the second time I have seen this. Can anyone offer an explanation as to why this happened?

Thanks.

Here are the two printer dumps, first from when refilled last and the second just now. Please view:

fatdrunkandstupid.org/pg1.pdf
fatdrunkandstupid.org/pg2.pdf