The 60-hour Myth on Canon printers (Not Here-say)

[stratman]

...the printer had been idle for more than 2000 hours, and that’s a darn sight more than 60 hours.

Is this 60-hour massive ink waste thing a Myth or is it real

I applaud your testing spirit. Now we know what happens after 2000 hours in your specific situation. What I don't know is whether the amount of ink purged is due to something other than the 60-hour parameter?

As I recall, there are other times a printer will purge ink other than at 60 hours since last use. Some of these are much longer than 60 hours. Could it be the amount purged in your example was the amount dictated by a time frame longer than the 60-hour mark and is therefore a different amount? Could it be the Quality Maintenance and/or nozzle check caused a different than expected purge pattern?

Is it also possible that by unplugging your printer from the power source caused a different type of purge parameter?

The bottom line is you may have introduced variables that skewed your test.

To actually test your hypothesis then plug your printer back in, print something to start the 60 hour clock fresh, power off or keep on the printer, then wait 61-70 hours since the last print and try another print job. Measure printer potty effluent.

Documentation from Canon on purge patterns might provide sufficient a more complete "picture" of events. However, if the printer's firmware has ever been updated then all bets are off.

 

[palombian]

I got a chance to print a lot of work on my 9500 mk2 printer today, it hasn’t been on for more than 3 months and I want to see how much ink it would waste after such a long period of idleness. (Un plugged from the wall)

I turned it on and nothing happened, no purge, I then ran the Ink Quality Maintenance to start (Agitation) followed by a nozzle check and finally it did it's first ink purge. (Nozzle check perfect)
View attachment 7668 click to enlarge.

I had several different types of printing to do and on the 2nd and 4th print the printer ran two other ink purges, I must have printed more than two dozen sheets in two hours and when I was finished I used the Power Off Utility in the Printer Maintenance panel, and the printer ended with another purge.

When I got the chance, I emptied the Printer Potty and weight the waste ink that had accumulated from all the ten cartridges over the two hours, in all the time the printer was powered on it did 4 ink purges and 1 vacuum purge.

The total waste came to 9.5 grams, so to put that into plain English, the printer wasted 1ml of ink for each cartridge, now if that doesn’t convince the sceptics I don’t know what will, because the printer had been idle for more than 2000 hours, and that’s a darn sight more than 60 hours.

Is this 60-hour massive ink waste thing a Myth or is it real, because I can’t reproduce it if it is, and I spent the whole time carefully scrutinising my printer from start to finish and recorded everything it did...
Thanks to the Printer Potty...

I use my PRO 9500II more often but mostly for a few photos every 2 weeks or so.
I print also occasional A3 office work to keep it busy (most is done in A4 on the Maxify).

At this moment I am printing the annual family reunion photo book (50 pages A4) and I changed all carts since 3 of them were almost empty. Others needed only 5 or 6 ml to top up.
This is only the 3th time this year I change the carts and the total amount of ink is much less than 14x10 ml.

So even when switched on every week to print 5-10 A4 and A3's a set of carts keeps 2-3 months before the first ones are empty. Let's say 70-80 ml is needed for topping up, I use 500 ml over the year for having a printer available all the time including the prints.
Agree, most of it will be purged, but last time I paid € 53.48 for 16 oz at Precision Colors shipping included.

Let's add another 500 ml for large jobs, that makes 1 l (32 oz) of ink a year (it was more when I used the C,M,Y,PBK and MBK also in the MX7600).

 

[The Hat]

This is exactly what I was saying, the more you use a printer the more it will purge the ink and when you don’t use the printer you save on ink, my printer likes to purge ink during and after printing, but very little before.

The only advise I can give is use your printer sparingly, hold you print jobs till you get enough for an hour or two of work and then turn it on, the amount of ink purged is far less than if you used the printer on a daily basics.

Whether you choose to leave the printer on all the time or just power it off with the On/Off button, is your decision but will make any difference I don’t know, I did try leaving my Pro 1 on 24/7 for a couple of weeks and the Feckin thing drank ink.

When I used my printers on a daily basics I never once checked on the amounts of ink waisted, because that was all part of owning and running these printers, it was an acceptable fact that ink purges happen.

When you own a printer, you decide how often you want to use it, but if your someone who’s Conscious of wasting ink especially OEM ink then you must decide whether it’s worth having an inkjet printer at home at all.

For Instance: - Daily use like 1 to 2 purges x 30 days = 60 purges more or less (Approximately) BUT used only once or twice in the same time period and that will equate to only 4 to 6 purges, again (Volume dependant ) now that’s a considerable saving in any man’s book.

The only real saving you can make yourself if your refilling, is to change all the carts when one is showing low ink, after that you’re in the lap of the print Gods...

The is no real answer to the purge question, so cut your coat according to your cloth...
In other words, Happy Printing

 

[palombian]

To add to the math, after 40 A4's the GY was empty.
Since, except for PM, all other carts still showed full (meaning less than 20% emptied), I broke the "First law of @The Hat" and changed only the GY .
The empty cart still weighed 22,86 g, so I needed only 9 ml to top up (this early empty declaration must be a side effect of the resetter, new Canon carts weigh about 17 g when empty, giving the 14 ml declared).

PS: I switch my PRO 9500 II off when not in use (but keep it on the mains).

 

[The Hat]

If all the other carts were near enough to full then why bother changing them, refilling is an art not a science YET, but the 9500 mk2 is such a beautiful and likable printer to work with...

 

[palombian]

If all the other carts were near enough to full then why bother changing them, refilling is an art not a science YET, but the 9500 mk2 is such a beautiful and likable printer to work with...

Yep,

It still serves me well.

Considering I used 40 ml ink for 50 A4's, that's less than € 5, plus € 6 for a pack of Aldi paper (available in BELGIUM this saturday 28/07/2018 !) plus one spiral bind for a photo book of 50 pages.

But sloooow …, took me the best part of the day (and the remaining if I should glue the sheets recto-verso, which I don't).

I understand why people order photo books online.

 

[stratman]

recto-verso

Looked that up. Fulfilled my "learn something new every day" quotient. Thanks.

 

[stratman]

Daily use like 1 to 2 purges x 30 days = 60 purges more or less (Approximately)

Are you saying the 9500 purges ink at least 1-2 times a day every day you use it? Is that from watching your Printer Potty?

PS - Did I miss your response to my post on your purge observations?

 

[The Hat]

Are you saying the 9500 purges ink at least 1-2 times a day every day you use it? Is that from watching your Printer Potty?

Yes, it does, whenever you use it, a purge will take place every so often, and it maybe even more than two, there was a time when I had it running for days on end, just filling it with paper and replacing the carts in bulk, it sometimes ran for 72 hours non-stop, and I never once checked it for the purge cycles. (3 plus pages an Hour)

The problem I have now is I don’t do enough printing to give a good answer on the purges amounts, how much ink in volume it uses or how many times in a day it carries out these cleaning procedures, and I probably won’t be printing for another 4 or 5 months, (With this machine) unless I get lucky...

- Did I miss your response to my post on your purge observations?

If and when I get to use the printer again, I’ll first have to replace all the cart before I start (Currently below 75%) and I’ll need to setup a regime where I can monitor everything thoroughly, (If I remember) and my Printer Potty is in plain sight to observe when the printer goes into any purge mode...

 

[palombian]

Looked that up. Fulfilled my "learn something new every day" quotient. Thanks.

It is used in English too.

Some photo book producers glue the pages together too.
I once considered double side photo paper, but this is a nightmare loading the paper.

I believe, with some bookbinding skills, it is possible to make nice looking photo books yourself.
Instead of plastic ring binders I use in my € 10 second hand machine I could let them wire bind too.