Waste ink kit/tank for Canon Pixma Pro 9000 MII ?

[marceltho]

I have a Pixma Pro 9000 MII and I print 400 brochures borderless, two sides, so around 800 prints letter format a year, next to that some private pictures, that would make it a 1000 prints. I was wondering how long it will take for the pads to be full, and if it is easy to clean or replace these pads myself. Next to that, the printer will probably give some sort of code that needs to be reset ? Is there software around to give that reset myself ?

Had an Epson 1280 and built in a waste tank myself, but I am not sure if it is really necessary or even possible to do that with this one?

Anyone any ideas about the above ? **Txs**

 

[tony22]

I've actually been wondering the same thing.

 

[websnail]

Bearing in mind that I've never seen a Pro 9000 MkII directly you need to take this with a pinch of salt but based on what I've seen of other Pixma models, Canon don't differentiate hugely in their approach to waste ink.

The cleaning station/pump has two tubes (possibly more with this printer as it has more cartridges) and these are very short and dump pretty much, straight down into a sort of well that is surrounded by the absorbent padding common to all inkjet printers. The process seems to rely on the paddings ability to absorb the ink into it and balance out the load to padding throughout the printer so a semi-balance is reached. This balancing process obviously takes time which is why George has been so hot on inks that dry too quickly (see MP760 waste ink research) as quick drying means clogged pads and potential build up of waste under the printhead.

Anyway, in terms of an external waste pad, I've toyed with the idea of producing one for Canon printers but realised it's really only something for those with a very good technical background, a lot of patience and a fair amount of problem solving skill.

The parts required are a couple of barbed elbows around the 3/32" ID mark, a drill, 3/32" tubing and of course the external tank... You could use straight barbed pieces but that would require drilling down into the base of the case and then you'd have a potential for ink to pop the connectors off and flood out through the hole if the worst happened.

"The worst" in this case is that you get ink that dries up in the connectors or tubes and creates a lot of back pressure that blows the connectors off.. I had it happen in an iP4000 I modified and had sit for a few months before re-using. It wasn't pretty...

In all honesty, given the reduced amount of waste on a Canon vs' the Epson (which is a waste ink hog!) it's probably as easy to learn how to disassemble the printer efficiently, wash out the pads and replace them, rather than fitting an external tank...

But if you are going to fit an external tank, my advice would be locate a low profile tank (box) to drill a big hole (1-1.5" diameter under the waste pump and then figure a way to put the tank under this hole to collect any waste (either raise the printer or create a hole in the printer desk and a cradle for the tank underneath it.

Using tubes, etc... is, IMHO asking for potential trouble and ultimately creating a lot of work for yourself...

But, just my opinion... Hope it's of some use.

 

[marceltho]

websnail wrote:

In all honesty, given the reduced amount of waste on a Canon vs' the Epson (which is a waste ink hog!) it's probably as easy to learn how to disassemble the printer efficiently, wash out the pads and replace them, rather than fitting an external tank...

In my own experience it is true Epson being a waste ink hog......when I placed an external wast ink tank on the side of my Epson 1280, I could see the waste ink shots go into the transparent bottle, with each cycle, I was happy I installed the tank, AND that I used cheap 3rd party ink .....
I never printed borderless in the past, and with past experiences still in my head, I was just wondering how much of a bigger waste there was with borderless printing versus not borderless. If it means cleaning the pads only once each 2 years, it is not a big deal, as I just will clean the pads, as I am able to do that I am sure.

Remains a possible " full waste pads " message, and the reset to fix that......anyone knows someting about that ?

 

[ghwellsjr]

You can read about my bad experience with an external waste ink tank here. The main problem was, as websnail pointed out, ink drying in the tubing and clogging the works.

 

[ghwellsjr]

... The process seems to rely on the paddings ability to absorb the ink into it and balance out the load to padding throughout the printer so a semi-balance is reached. This balancing process obviously takes time which is why George has been so hot on inks that dry too quickly (see MP760 waste ink research) as quick drying means clogged pads and potential build up of waste under the printhead...

I actually have not specified a failure mechanism such as the ink drying too quickly, I really don't know. All I know is that certain pigment black inks clog the waste pads (and the foam in the cartridges) while others don't.

 

[websnail]

... The process seems to rely on the paddings ability to absorb the ink into it and balance out the load to padding throughout the printer so a semi-balance is reached. This balancing process obviously takes time which is why George has been so hot on inks that dry too quickly (see MP760 waste ink research) as quick drying means clogged pads and potential build up of waste under the printhead...

I actually have not specified a failure mechanism such as the ink drying too quickly, I really don't know. All I know is that certain pigment black inks clog the waste pads (and the foam in the cartridges) while others don't.

My bad... I didn't intend to mis-quote but it would seem likely that whatever the cause the clogging data you've developed is something to consider with any external waste tank.

 

[marceltho]

Thank you for your input guys, but I don't want to go off-topic too much.

My question was : does anyone know how fast the ink pads will be full with 1000+ letter format borderless printing , and if a re-set code is necessary if pads would be full.
I brought up the idea of an external waste tank BECAUSE it is a dye-ink printer, just as a precausion.....if I have to open the printer and clean the pads eventually, why not do it now to prevent the messy work later.

 

[websnail]

My question was : does anyone know how fast the ink pads will be full with 1000+ letter format borderless printing , and if a re-set code is necessary if pads would be full.

The borderless printing side of things shouldn't add too much volume but it really is an open question at this point as I'll admit I haven't done any specific testing on that front.

The fact that the ink is primarily water based, hot (thanks to the inkjet system) and is sprayed into a pads that are very exposed to the air would increase the likelihood and speed of any evaporation. Cleaning and priming routines are dumped straight to the pads cold and without much air contact so an educated guess would indicate considerably lower waste but it is only an educated guess.

I brought up the idea of an external waste tank BECAUSE it is a dye-ink printer, just as a precausion.....if I have to open the printer and clean the pads eventually, why not do it now to prevent the messy work later.

It would certainly make sense but as with other attempts in the past I'd opt for a KISS approach and go down through the base of the printer (directly under the waste pump/tubes), rather than out front or side at an angle.

As I've got some more iP4200's cluttering up the place I may take a drill to one and get some pictures on how it could be done along with things to watch out for, but it's something for the New Year I suspect.

 

[marceltho]

websnail wrote:
As I've got some more iP4200's cluttering up the place I may take a drill to one and get some pictures on how it could be done along with things to watch out for, but it's something for the New Year I suspect.

My questions concerned my Pixma Pro 9000 MKII

Anyone knows if this printer will give a " waste inkpad full " warning ?