From Canon: their ink should last indefinitely w/no expiration concern

[l_d_allan]

I sent the following to Canon Support, and their reply may be of interest:

I recently purchased several Canon OEM cartridges for my Pro 9000-2 from Office Depot. They were the last ones on their shelves, and I would appreciate finding out how old the cartridges are, and the expiration date.

blah, blah blah

My understanding is that CLI-8 cartridges have a shelf life of 2 years, and should be used within 6 months of opening and installing in the printer. Is this correct?

I received the following back from Canon Support:

Our ink tanks do not have expiration dates or expire as ink tanks from other manufacturers may do.

The information you have mentioned is a 'lot' number that is used to track where the tank was made.

As long as the tanks are sealed or are not stored outside the recommended 32 to 104 F temperature range, the tanks should last indefinitely.

My direct concern was with Red and Green carts that don't get used nearly as much as other colors, especially PM and PC.

Does this sound reasonable? Consistent with your own personal experience?

It wasn't clear to me if a cart that has been unsealed, had the orange outlet cap twisted off, and put into service would still have an indefinite life with no expiration date concerns. To me, the ink in the cart is still sealed and then it would seem it would also last indefinitely, but that might be "wishful thinking" on my part. I did a follow-up reply back to Canon support, and asked about that specifically.

Note ... this info can't be extrapolated / applied / generalized to non-oem ink from OCP, HobbiColors, Precision-Colors, etc.

 

[jackson]

That's interesting news.
I have four new in boxes (4300 and 4500) and was wondering about the ink.