Canon & Waste Ink

[jackson]

I was looking at the thread where the cleaning of the waste ink tank was covered.
It strikes me as strange that the ink (90% water?) simply doesn't evaporate instead of accumulating in this pad.
And how much of a problem does this pose for the average user over the printers life?

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=308&p=2

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

Not enough airflow combined with the glycols in the ink makes it evaporate too slowly.

It'll thicken, but won't completely dry. It's like a bottle of glycerin. For the average user who prints a recipe or picture every so often, it's not really an issue (though Epsons seem to hit full waste tank VERY quickly), but if you're printing many documents daily or doing huge print runs of brochures and flyers (hopefully you're using refills or you're better off going to Kinkos), the printer can lock up fairly quickly unless you're using one designed for this, like the HP K550 or 1200d. HPs don't seem to have as much of a waste tank issue, though I've heard it /can/ happen.

 

[Dan@blue-optix]

From my experience with HP's they just leave it in the bottom of the printer untill it cloggs everything up! Not that most HP's last that long!