There is one salient point that has been missed so far and could be semantics. However, do note that for the generation of printers AFTER the CLI-8s, each time you open the body cover or initiate a change cartridge instruction, the printer will proceed to reprime the printhead before printing. This will occur whether or not you actually change the cartridge or "just checking". You are invoking something that you do not like.
The question is why is this necessary? You will need to put on your thinking cap here and if you are missing one. well what can one do?
Why would one open the cover? ...for a regular user, to change the cartridge. What else? Normal users don't study the ink levels, they simply change when the printer tells them. Well, if a new cartridge is inserted, then what must the printer do? It must make sure that the ink is drawn down to the printhead nozzles.... Most would say this is cleaning. Well whatever you may wish to call it, the SINGLE pump to the printhead nozzle bank will draw down the ink to make sure the ink is brought to the nozzles. This is mandatory to preserve and make sure the printhead is well serviced with ink. If you think otherwise, then perhaps you don't understand how a printhead works and what it needs.
Now let's suppose you only wanted to check the ink level and see if it matches the indicator. Well for starters, the physical level in the tank and what the indicator says will likely not match. Canon accommodates some of the ink in the sponge as part of the ink level. This appears more so with the post CLI-8 carts. So you will likely see the ink level in the tank drop faster than the ink level indicator. ( Especially with the smaller carts)
As an aside, it could be that this aspect possibly nudged them more towards removing the window as possibly there were many complaints issues when people kept checking ink levels and saw that they didn't quite match and to make matters worse for themselves, each time they checked, they initiated another clean.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The desire to be ink sensitive, caused more ink wastage in the end.
What other reason would one open the cover? If there was a paper jam? this is very seldom. I can't think of any other reason really.
Now if the printer could remember that the same cartridge was inserted as was before and after the cover was opened and the user was "just checking", then the printer should forego the clean cycle as it was not necessary. What are the implications of this though? That would mean that the cartridge would have a unique ID. However, we want to be able to reset the cartridges and we can on the CL-221. If we reset, and the same ID is retained, then after resetting the printer would KNOW we are using the same cartridge but it doesn't. Thus I can infer that there is no unique ID on the chip, so the printer must rely on another aspect to determine if a cartridge has changed... the simplest is to record whether the cover has been opened or not.
Now let's suppose that Canon DID put an ID on the chip, then that would really mess up resetting as the printer would simply remember the last ID and then refuse cartridges that came back with the same ID and different level. We wouldn't want that would we?
Please remember that in engineering a printer, they give NO consideration to refillers but strictly for normal useage and that involves buying new cartridges.
We can be as critical as we wish to be about this but that is reality.
Also keep in mind that more nozzles and wider nozzle patterns means that EACH time ink is drawn to refresh the nozzles, more nozzles need to be refreshed AND this means more ink wastage. There is simply no way around this. Hard to understand? think about it this way. We have ten mouths that eventually get dry and parched, and we must occasionally quench those parched mouths. Now let's double the amount of mouths to twenty. We will need twice the amount of liquid to quench that thirst. If we have more people in a party, we need more drinks, simple enough?
So you see folks, it ain't always as clear as it might always appear to be. We want MORE nozzles and plenty of them for superior printing. We want faster print speeds. However, there is always a price to be paid somewhere. Guess where?
To make matters even more complicated and possibly hilarious. I explained to a customer why the ink levels are wonky on a BCI-6 machine when it is refilled before empty. To which he replied I WANT chips so that I can know what the ink levels are!!!!!!! Did you hear that right?
Heaven help us!
