Head Clog Prevention Protocol for Canon Pro 2000?

[uintaangler]

I am in the process of replacing my Epson 4900 with a Canon Pro 2000
I print a Nozzle Check on a cut sheet on the 4900 every day as a way to keep ink flowing through the print head because I am a sporadic print maker
This Canon is my first 24" printer and my first Canon Wide Format
What would you recommend as a preventive protocol to prevent head clogging on my new printer?
Thanks

[Abdo]

These new Canon are sensational.
I have more than 1 year.
Print only every 3 days a nozzle check if you print for long periods.
I traveled twice, the shortest 15 days and the longest 22 days .. no problem. !

[Mark D Segal]

If this is like the Pro-1000 in this respect, don't turn off the printer, in order to avoid maintenance cleanings that can consume 50ml of ink per episode. This Pro line of Canon printers is quite trouble free from clogging, but in order to maintain this condition, it does clean itself according to various parameters built into the firmware and you cannot alter those. This keeps printing just about trouble-free.

[uintaangler]

If this is like the Pro-1000 in this respect, don't turn off the printer, in order to avoid maintenance cleanings that can consume 50ml of ink per episode. This Pro line of Canon printers is quite trouble free from clogging, but in order to maintain this condition, it does clean itself according to various parameters built into the firmware and you cannot alter those. This keeps printing just about trouble-free.

Uh-oh! So you are saying keep the power on 24/7 every day?

[Mark D Segal]

Canon tech support recommended this to me for the Pro-1000, so if the Pro-2000 works similarly in this regard it may be useful to try that recommendation. He advised at the same time that leaving it on consumes very little electricity.

[Dan Wells]

My Pro-2000 turns itself "off" after an hour or so without a print (I'm not sure how long it takes - it never does it in the middle of a print session while I'm editing images, but it does overnight). It's off enough that I have to hit the power button to wake it up, rather than just touching the screen or sending it a print. I'm not sure if this is "all the way off" or just "sound asleep" - would it be more deeply off if I had shut it down from the power button myself, or if I had shut it down from the power button and then turned the power strip off? I can't imagine it wakes itself up from that state to run maintenance if it can't wake itself up when it hears a print coming over the Ethernet.

Is this something where I should change the behavior in the menus? I haven't dived in to change anything, so mine is default behavior for Firmware 1.17.

Dan

[Mark D Segal]

I don't have the printer any longer so I can't check, but if I remember correctly, it is something one sets in one of the menus.

[Ryan Mack]

Yes, the power-off setting is buried in the menus somewhere. I changed it to keep mine on all the time. It's typically silent and doesn't use enough power to show up on the graph on the UPS.

[Abdo]

I always left my printer on ... (UPS) !!!!

[virojarvi]

I have Pro-4000 and print only infrequently. I have set it to sleep after an idle period, but never to shut down. Still I have never noticed it to do any cleaning while sleeping, so I'm not convinced this is necessary. When powering up it sometimes does quite extensive cleaning, but I have no data if it depends on the length of sleep period, nor how much ink is used. In six months I have had no problems with clogging or with anything else either.

[Mark D Segal]

I have Pro-4000 and print only infrequently. I have set it to sleep after an idle period, but never to shut down. Still I have never noticed it to do any cleaning while sleeping, so I'm not convinced this is necessary. When powering up it sometimes does quite extensive cleaning, but I have no data if it depends on the length of sleep period, nor how much ink is used. In six months I have had no problems with clogging or with anything else either.

It would partly depend on the length of the sleep period and the throughput, and it can use a little or quite a bit of ink - depending. You can keep track of the ink usage for maintenance through the cycle of usage-sleep-usage by weighing the maintenance tank just after the last print job and just when the printer is ready to print the next print job. My experience with the Pro-1000 suggests that you are correct - one does not experience clogs with these machines, but there is definitely a variable cost of under-the-hood maintenance to keep it that way. This is to be expected for a pigment ink printer whether Epson or Canon.

[mscherlacher]

For all you infrequent printers out there that are running windows as well, pick up a copy of Qimage. It has a nice maintenance feature that can take the place of daily cleanings and uses less ink as well (so they say), plus it's a pretty good printing program.
In my experience with Canon printers, a daily print will extend the life of the heads. Just load a roll of cheap bond paper and set the schedule, Qimage will wake up the printer, do a quick print and hopefully keep you running clog free for years.

[BillK]

Yes, leave it on in sleep mode. If it shuts itself off, you can disable that in the printers menu.

If you have a PC I would use Qimage to print a page every couple days.  If you have a Mac I would use this utility
I found a couple years ago called inkjet Plumber,   https://github.com/jt70471/InkjetPlumber/releases

I leave a roll of cheap bond paper in the printer and set inkjet plumber to print a page every 48 hours.
Works for me.  You will need to leave the computer driving the printer in sleep mode also.

I have a IPF 8300 and a IPF 8400  both wake up once a day and agitate the ink cartridges. Not sure if the 2000 does this.

The only time I turn it off and unplug it is if there are thunder storms threatening.