Saving colour ink on Canon PIXMA MP500?

[xxx73]

I noticed that even when not printing the colour ink indicators go down
for some reason. Any ideas why and is a way to save colour ink when
printing only black and white?

 

[Tony]

I noticed that even when not printing the colour ink indicators go down
for some reason. Any ideas why and is a way to save colour ink when
printing only black and white?

Your printer has to clean its heads on a regular basis and it uses ink to do
that. If it didn't the heads would dry up. So the printer will use all colours
whether you print in monochrome or colour. This is true for all inkjet printers
although some use more ink than others and some HP printers recycle the ink
back into the cartridge. There is no way around this with your printer model.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging

 

[Burt]

I noticed that even when not printing the colour ink indicators go down
for some reason. Any ideas why and is a way to save colour ink when
printing only black and white?

The only savings you might consider would be to refill your cartridges with
bulk aftermarket inks from a decent vendor. In the US this ink is available
from Hobbicolors, MIS, and Alotofthings (Formulabs inks). Unfortunately,
the new chipped cartridges are designed to discourage refilling. When they
register empty and you refill them the printer recognizes them as empty and
gives you dire warnings. You can bypass these warnings but you will then
lose the ink monitoring system and will have to rely on visual checking of
the ink levels to avoid running a cartridge dry and ruining your printhead.
For more information look up the Nifty Stuff Forum.
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Pretty much all inkjet printers need to do head cleaning every so often
to keep the heads from clogging as the ink dries on them.

This cleaning process usually consists of expelling some ink, or having
some ink pulled from the nozzles. Unfortunately, even if you never use
the color cartridges, they will eventually run out of ink from this
process. On some printers, every time you replace any cartridge, all of
the cartridges go through a more intensive purging process.

This can make the printer rather costly for black and white use only,
since most require all the cartridges be installed to work.

I believe some HP inkjet printers allow you to reduce waste by allowing
you to use just the black cartridge. The other alternative is to
consider a low cost monochrome laser printer.

Art

 

[Arthur Entlich]

You raise an interesting point which leads to another solution
(literally and figuratively).

There is nothing that requires the fluid in the cartridge to be ink,
which is costly. Basically you only need to fill them with something
you can see and monitor so they do not run out and burn out the head (on
thermal printer heads like Canons). You could also fill them with
water with a bit of ink for color to be able to see how much is in there.

A better mix would probably be a mixture of water and maybe 10-20%
glycol (probably ethylene or propylene). This slows the evaporation a
bit, helps to lubricate the head, and raises the boiling point.

But, as Burt states, since the chip monitor will have run down on the
cartridge chip, you will need to manually watch the cartridges and make
sure they are kept with fluid in them so the heads do not clog or burn
out. Of course, this also means you can't use the printer for color
work unless you replace or at least refill the color cartridges with ink
again.

Art

 

[mike.j.harvey]

The only savings you might consider would be to refill your cartridges with
bulk aftermarket inks from a decent vendor. In the US this ink is available
from Hobbicolors, MIS, and Alotofthings (Formulabs inks).

When discussing after market inks, you run a severe risk of getting
trolled by a guy called Measekite (sp?) on here, old hands will know he
has Aspergers and is fixated on the topic. He can be alarming for
newcomers however.

 

[Michael Johnson, PE]

The only savings you might consider would be to refill your cartridges with
bulk aftermarket inks from a decent vendor. In the US this ink is available
from Hobbicolors, MIS, and Alotofthings (Formulabs inks). Unfortunately,
the new chipped cartridges are designed to discourage refilling. When they
register empty and you refill them the printer recognizes them as empty and
gives you dire warnings. You can bypass these warnings but you will then
lose the ink monitoring system and will have to rely on visual checking of
the ink levels to avoid running a cartridge dry and ruining your printhead.
For more information look up the Nifty Stuff Forum.
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/

Are the new chipped cartridges clear like the BCI-6 carts so ink levels
can be monitored visually?

 

[Burt]

When discussing after market inks, you run a severe risk of getting
trolled by a guy called Measekite (sp?) on here, old hands will know he
has Aspergers and is fixated on the topic. He can be alarming for
newcomers however.

Mike raises an important alarm for newcomers - Measekite has no experience
with aftermarket inks but has ranted for two years about the "evils" of
these products and the vendors who sell them. Most of us have killfiled him
to avoid seeing his nonsense.

 

[Burt]

Are the new chipped cartridges clear like the BCI-6 carts so ink levels
can be monitored visually?

Yes. For those who refill these carts I would suggest that you check ink
levels before any large printing project and also check during a large print
run. It takes less than a minute to check all of the carts visually. When
you refill carts with these printers you will get a nag message that
continueing to use a cart that registers as empty (refilled or not) will
void the warranty. When you consider that an ip4200 or ip4300 comes with a
new set of carts and costs just a little more than the carts alone, you risk
nothing in using refilled carts. After the second refill you have already
saved the price of a new printer! If you refill, try to find a friend whose
printer uses the same carts and have them save their empties for you. You
will have a spare set to refill and use when one is low on ink in the
printer.

 

[measekite]

Tony wrote:

[email protected] wrote:



I noticed that even when not printing the colour ink indicators go down for some reason. Any ideas why and is a way to save colour ink when printing only black and white?



Your printer has to clean its heads on a regular basis


if you use generic ink


and it uses ink to do that. If it didn't the heads would dry up. So the printer will use all colours whether you print in monochrome or colour. This is true for all inkjet printers although some use more ink than others and some HP printers recycle the ink back into the cartridge. There is no way around this with your printer model. Tony MS MVP Printing/Imaging

 

[mike.j.harvey]

Tony wrote:
(e-mail address removed) wrote:


I noticed that even when not printing the colour ink indicators go down
for some reason. Any ideas why and is a way to save colour ink when
printing only black and white?



Your printer has to clean its heads on a regular basis

if you use generic ink

and it uses ink to do
that. If it didn't the heads would dry up. So the printer will use all colours
whether you print in monochrome or colour. This is true for all inkjet printers
although some use more ink than others and some HP printers recycle the ink
back into the cartridge. There is no way around this with your printer model.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging

I was wrong about you having Aspergers. You don't. You're just crazy.

 

[Frank]

I was wrong about you having Aspergers. You don't. You're just crazy.

Meashershithead is a permanent passenger on the good ship Denial. This
idiot actually wants us to believe that his one and only printer, a
canon ip4000 has never, ever gone thru a scheduled print head cleaning.
He also wants us to believe that he is an expert on aftermarket inks
although he has never, ever used any of them. He's also a wannabe
photographer. LOL!
He's a mentally deranged pathological liar.
Kill file him.
Frank

 

[Gary Tait]

Are the new chipped cartridges clear like the BCI-6 carts so ink levels
can be monitored visually?

I am rather sure they are.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Some very smart and successful people have Aspergers.

However, beyond that, just what part of Tony's message implies to you
that he is "Crazy"?

Art

 

[mike.j.harvey]

Some very smart and successful people have Aspergers.

Some annoying bastards as well. That's why it is sometimes called
Assburgers.

However, beyond that, just what part of Tony's message implies to you
that he is "Crazy"?

This part.

 

[Michael Johnson, PE]

Yes. For those who refill these carts I would suggest that you check ink
levels before any large printing project and also check during a large print
run. It takes less than a minute to check all of the carts visually. When
you refill carts with these printers you will get a nag message that
continueing to use a cart that registers as empty (refilled or not) will
void the warranty. When you consider that an ip4200 or ip4300 comes with a
new set of carts and costs just a little more than the carts alone, you risk
nothing in using refilled carts. After the second refill you have already
saved the price of a new printer! If you refill, try to find a friend whose
printer uses the same carts and have them save their empties for you. You
will have a spare set to refill and use when one is low on ink in the
printer.

Thanks for the reply. It looks like there are a couple of compatible
ink options coming to market for the CLI cartridges next month. If they
work as advertised maybe I'll try a new printer. In a pinch, it looks
like refilling them is possible with a few quirks.

 

[Tony]

Some annoying bastards as well. That's why it is sometimes called
Assburgers.


This part.

Assuming you are referring to " if you use generic ink ", you seem to be
attributing that to me. In fact it was another poster that modified my post,
something he does from time to time. If you check the sequence of posts you
will see that this is the case.
If you are referring to "Your printer has to clean its heads on a regular
basis" this happens to be simply correct.
In either event I don't believe I am crazy, merely experienced in things
printer.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging

 

[mike.j.harvey]

attributing that to me. In fact it was another poster that modified my post,
something he does from time to time. If you check the sequence of posts you
will see that this is the case.

Sorry, Tony, I was aware that it was Measkite the ink troll who was
responsible. I somehow slipped up in my quoting. Sorry again.

 

[Tony]

Sorry, Tony, I was aware that it was Measkite the ink troll who was
responsible. I somehow slipped up in my quoting. Sorry again.

OK Mike
No problem.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging

 

[Arthur Entlich]

While you are at it you might want to be careful about attributing
syndromes to people you don't even know, as well.

Art