Pro-100 and ink use

[monkey44]

I print a lot of proofs at home on a Pro-100 ... I notice some ink levels drop or empty faster than others. In particular the Lt Gray, and maybe the Gray tanks indicate empty much quicker than others.

In fact, the other day I installed new ink tanks and printed only four photos and the Lt Gray was empty. I contacted Adorama and it sent a replacement ... but it still empties quicker.

For any that have this setup, is it normal to have these two tanks empty so quickly under normal printing conditions? I'm wondering if one of the print settings might account for this ... although I don't see any way to control it anywhere.

I bought extra Gray and Black to counter this, but it makes little sense to continuously buy extra. Seems Canon would address this with two Lt Gray tanks in the ink bank if it is common in color printing.

<puzzled>

 

[kaihp]

Are you printing pictures with a lot of light gray in it? - or colors where light gray ink needs to be added to get to specific "major" color?

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I have a Epson 3880, and it uses light black and light light black much faster than other colors, its normal. When you get a new printer, it takes a lot of ink to initially charge the system. Canon printers ship with special starter cartridges which are just intended to get you going so you can buy more ink.

Do not leave your printer on, it will require more head cleaning, and your ink will all end up as waste turn it off when you are not using it.

 

[monkey44]

Thanks - I kinda thought maybe those two colors combine on images more often. It makes sense that it uses more, but just want to check. My tech knowledge ain't the best.

And, I agree - I never leave any tech equipment on when no in use ... BD

 

[Alastair Norcross]

Yes, I'm pretty sure grey and light grey go down faster on mine too, but perhaps not quite as fast as yours (4 prints to empty!). I now refill my cartridges with bulk inks. It's a lot cheaper, and just as good. The trick is to have two sets of cartridges, which you keep filled up. As soon as you need to replace one cartridge, replace them all, and refill all the cartridges, even the ones which are mostly full (so you're just topping up several cartridges). The reason for this is that, whenever you replace any cartridge, even just one, the printer uses a certain amount of ink in all the cartridges to charge them. So, if you replace just one or two cartridges at a time, you are wasting an awful lot of ink.