Waste ink: To anyone who resets and pretends it's disappeared

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Perhaps it's because I'm tired... Perhaps it's just that I want to insult all and sundry... Or perhaps it's just that I'm hacked off with cheap, lazy clone kit wannabees who can't be bothered to write their own documentation...

Either way... I've written something of a rant, albeit with a hint of humour about the now common practice of resetting printers waste ink counter and then forgetting the waste ink actually exists.

Doubtless some will be offended, others will think their printer is immortal, while yet more decide that watching daytime television is more fun and wander off to their brainless existence (and good luck to you)...

... Whatever the reason, it's out there in the wild...

http://www.wasteink.co.uk/reset-printer-then-forget/


Enjoy... and if I wake up in 24 hours and regret it, ah well... I'll be muttering the mantra of "No such thing as bad publicity" while I try to pretend it's actually true ;)
 

leo8088

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Fortunately my ip4300 has never gotten that something is nearly FULL message since I acquired it about 5 years ago. I do use the printer a lot. A lot more than most people use their printers. Under normal conditions I believe Canon has done the calculation that it should never be filled up before the printer dies. But not if you keep on doing the cleaning cycles yourself. If you need to do a lot of cleaning cycles you should switch the ink that you are using. It's bad ink that causes the need of doing a lot of cleaning cycles.
 

ghwellsjr

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You talkin' 'bout me? One of the stupid people? I thought so.

Here's my story: I have had an MP760 all-in-one since mid 2005. I also have supplied Inktec ink for many of my friends that had the similar MP780. When I discovered that the purge systems on all of these printers were clogging, I started using copious amounts of Windex on my purge pads and doing a lot of head cleanings to avoid the problem on my printer.

Then one day, I got the waste ink almost full message. I read on the forum that someone said you could reset the ink counter 3 or 4 times before it would cause a problem so I did it.

A few months later, I was attempting to unclog a bunch of print heads from some of my friend's defective printers and using my MP760 to test them. One of them that I had not properly dried burned itself out and burned out my printer. So I removed my printer to take it to the repair shop. There was a small puddle of ink where my printer had been. I guess I was fortunate, because if I had not burned out my printer, I would not have moved it or noticed the growing puddle for a long time later.

Later on, I took the bad printer apart and saw completely saturated waste ink pads:
1315_mp760_saturated_waste_pads_under_purge_pump.jpg


I have since taken apart several of the MP780's and none of them were as bad as mine, in fact most of them were only messy in the vicinity of the purge pump. I have concluded that all the Windex that I put on my purge pads diluted the ink in the vicinity of the purge pump and allowed it to wick up into the other portions of the waste ink pads.

So now, I recommend replacing the waste ink pads whenever the counter says that it is near 100 percent full.
 

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ghwellsjr said:
You talkin' 'bout me? One of the stupid people? I thought so.
Is it that obvious... *note to self: try to be more subtle next time* ;)


So now, I recommend replacing the waste ink pads whenever the counter says that it is near 100 percent full.
Yeah... I need to differentiate between Canon and Epson don't I.... Canons are a lot more forgiving than Epsons... I'm currently running at reports of:
- 3 ruined desks
- 2 carpets (one near divorce related)
- 1 laminate flooring warp

... Oh, and my own repaint job... :rolleyes:
 

johnwarfin

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Yeah... inquiring minds want to know.

I has a "black puddle' issue with one of my Epson R200 but it was due to screwing around with refills back when I had no clue what I was doing.

It's been so long since I took one apart I forgot what they look like inside. Do they have purge pumps that are like the Canons? Similar pads? I don't recall seeing that stuff.
 

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To clarify... Canon inkjets up until the iP4500 (the newer ones are apprently more wasteful) have wasted very little ink in comparison to Epson inkjets which waste somewhere in the region of three to four times more depending on the number of cartridges, etc...

When you've seen what an Epson shoves out compared to a Canon you tend to gawp a little...

As to the pads, you can usually get away with at least one reset in a Canon (or could)... Epsons aren't nearly as capacious
 
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