Canon IPF8400 maintenance Tank Tip

[MarcTetreault]

Hi, I ended up removing the white absorber and replaced it with a stack of discardable paper towel, curving the stack as a cup might help maintain liquids within. Replacable in 2 minutes, for less than a 1$.

Hope Canon engineers can see this is better than their 100$ solution for a plastic bin filled with absorbers.

[David Eckels]

But did the printer "recognize" that you'd done this?

[MarcTetreault]

I think so. My printer is not operational (asking for printhead replacement) so I cannot check the reset I dit today. But in the past, yes it worked. Also, in Service manual, it shows W-Tank reset option.

[MarcTetreault]

I mean, if you open the waste tank, you see that there is only absorbing material, the chip is connected to nothing. The chip is maybe just an ID number. It has no way to see the psysical hack of the absorber.

[MarcTetreault]

But in fact, I forgot to mention another thing I did: I took a paper that has a layer of plastic on one side , but you can take any cooking paper (kind of waxed). I have cut a rectangle, cut in 4 places and folded and taped, so It makes an internal 'box' shape without a top.

I then added the towels inside.The great thing is that once in a while, you can turn off the printer (while taking out and back in the tank), and replace the towels with a new stack.

[DtEW]

I mean, if you open the waste tank, you see that there is only absorbing material, the chip is connected to nothing. The chip is maybe just an ID number. It has no way to see the psysical hack of the absorber.

Like the chip in each of the ink tanks... the chip in the maintenance tank is merely a counter that is written-to to mark the state of its consumption.  There is no sensing mechanism.

With the iPF6100, the maintenance tank chip's counter can be reset back to 100% in the service menu only if the counter does not drop below 20%.  Past (lower than) 20%, you're SOL.

The point of the shaped absorbent media in the maintenance tank is probably so that the tank doesn't foam over (and presumably into the printer, where it could do harm).  Suction of ink mixed with air is sure to produce bubbles, if not outright foam.  Foam is quickly dissipated by contact with highly-breathable media that breaks the surface tension of the bubbles.

Whereas I think the difference is probably limited between the engineered absorbent media and just wads of paper towels, I'm of the idea that short of Mfg-recommended replacement of the tank... the next best thing is probably to simply rinse out the media.  They clean-up much better than you might imagine.  They also dry very quickly (undoubtedly due to their highly-breathable nature) in a dryer rack (i.e. not tumbling) on medium heat.

[MarcTetreault]

One thing I am doing (so far just for experiment) with the previous tank is to stack eack absorbing layer with towels between each and a book on the top as a weight. With time it sucks the ink. But need to change it many times.

The problem is that I left it in the machine until it is not possible to reset it anymore.
I found somewhere in internet how to reset it, booting the printer with the other that works well.
Not shure I will find it again.
We need to turn the printer on with the one that is working, so we can enter service mode.
Then, swap in the tank that was not working, and reset it.
(would be good if somebody could confirm this procedure)

[Geraldo Garcia]

Ok, just to make it clear:
You CAN replace the absorbing material or wash and dry it and put it back in, but you also MUST reset the maintenance tank counter, otherwise the printer will still think it is full.