Hi All,
Help! our printer is using up all our ink by just not being used....
We bought an unused canon ipf 8400 demo model (with rebate and one year warranty from an authorized Canon retailer.) We were deciding between an Epson and a Canon and decided to go with the Canon because of the Epson print head issues I read about, since I was not planning to use the printer a lot, just once a week or so, and I understood the Epson needs to be used every day for these print head issues not to occur.
The regional sales rep that was visiting the store, as well as the sales person in the store, told us we could just keep the printer in sleeping mode in their shop until we would move the printer (in 5 months time), and that this would not use ink if it would be kept in sleeping mode, while shutting it down and restarting would use ink according to them. Originally we were told we would receive a full ink set to go with the printer (on top of the ink already in the printer) and that this would compensate for having to drain the ink lines when moving the printer, since we needed to move the printer up some stairs. We bought the printer because of the additional full ink set, even though we could not move the printer right away, because it was such a great deal this way. Unfortunately the sales person did not keep their promise of an additional ink set, and on top of that in the period of 5 months with very little use (one calibration and some test prints) most of the ink cartridges are almost empty or have already been replaced several times. We ended up making just a few prints (confirmed by the log on the printer) in fact less than 80 square feet and we will need to buy new ink cartridges just to be able to move the printer (according to Canon support that I just talked about, because of a move procedure that needs to be carried out when moving the printer, and the printer can not be moved without this procedure according to him, he even said the supply lines need to be drained for the move, even though the sales rep said this is not needed for just moving the printer on a less than 30% angle since we now plan to move it to a location without stairs). The sales person replaced 4 colored ink cartridges and also charged us for this without telling us beforehand, as well as 4 black cartridges for free, so now when we move the printer we need to pay for the new cartridges before we can move the printer.
So, my question is: is this a normal ink usage for the Canon ipf 8400? Apparently, as we just found out, when not used the printer does regular once a week print head cleanings when in sleeping mode, and according to the sales person this is what caused all the ink usage and this is normal. This is contrary to what he said before we bought the printer, and we would not have bought the printer if he would have told us this beforehand. Still, to me this seems a really excessive use of ink, so I would like to hear what anyone else's experience is re this. Canon support is not giving me the info needed to determine if this is normal ink usage, like how much ink is used each week if the printer is in sleeping mode.
Additionally we would be traveling for a few weeks at the time, do we switch of the printer during this time (which would result in printhead clogging according to the sales person, again we were not told this when we bought the printer) or should we send automated prints to the printer every few days or so during the time we are away?
Also since the printer is still in warranty, if it is faulty, Canon can send someone out to repair the printer, but according to Canon who I just spoke to, they require for me to buy enough ink for their tests etc. and otherwise they will not be able to repair it. They also said that if the printer is faulty, and for example uses up a lot of the ink of the new cartridges during the repair/testing etc they will not refund the ink costs, even though the ink would have been used solely for the repair process. I am hesitant to spend several hundred dollars on new ink, knowing how much ink the printer uses, since most of this ink could possibly be used up by the printer in the repair process. I almost feel like simply not moving or repairing the printer and depose of it, and buy an Epson or HP printer instead, since this might be a cheaper option than to keep buying new ink. They will not replace the printer under the warranty, just repair it.
Attached the image of the ink tanks, four of these were replaced a few days ago and according to the store sales person 4 black ink cartridges were already replaced, and the tank that catches the ink was replaced 4 times as well??? We do not know if this is true, this is what he told us... The sales person feels we are complaining about nothing, and this is how the printer functions, and that we should be lucky to have bought the printer for $200 less than the normal sale price of this printer (again, we bought it there because of the promised additional ink set, which promise turned out to be false). Canon support needs the logs which I will get to them, but requires us to buy additional ink to do the tests needed to see if anything is wrong with the print heads or so, which is what could cause the extra ink usage. I've heard so many contradicting things from the regional sales rep, the in store sales person, the tech support at Canon, and then the supervisor at Canon who contradicted many of the things the tech support said, and they have me pretty much convinced that the Canon ipf 8400 uses this much ink in 5 months by simply being asleep, to recap, it used: 4 full color cartridges, 4 new black cartridges, 3 or 4 new ink wastage tanks (not sure what the official name for this is) and this is the screenshot of how it looks today after the replacement cartridges, with again some ink cartridges almost empty.
Any help or advise?
Thanks!
