Canon maintenance cycles

[kholt]

I have owned Epson printers for 20 years but I am brand new to Canon products.  I just bought a Pro-2600 and so far I’m practically euphoric with how easy it has been.  “It just works”.  A description I would never use to describe any Epson printer I have owned other than a 3880 years ago.

For the Epsons, I ran Qimage to automatically schedule a daily 8x10” test image to minimize (not always successfully) clogging.

I understand Canon printers are much less prone to clogging, so perhaps this is no longer necessary for me.  There is a maintenance schedule that can be set to either “Normal” or “Short”.  I’m not exactly sure what that means because no details are provided.  My question is:  Is the normal automatic maintenance program sufficient to keep the heads clean or do I still need to do something like run a Qimage schedule to regularly exercise the printer with actual prints?

For background, I am a hobbyist.  I tend to go through periods of intense printing activity (usually after a big photo trip), and then let the printer sit unused for a period of weeks or months.  I also live at about 4000’ elevation in a rather arid, low humidity climate (central Oregon, U.S.).  So my environmental conditions are not ideal for keeping printer heads unclogged.

I’m curious what others do with their large format Canon printers that aren’t in a commercial shop where the printer gets daily use.  Do you run automatic print cycles in addition to whatever the printer does by itself?

[Ryan Mack]

As long as the printer remains powered on (I recommend a UPS) every few weeks it will clean itself. If you print more often than that it will automatically clean itself before a print.

[Czornyj]

Canon iPF PRO-2600 doesn't need any user intervention, and even doesn't need to be turned on. It maintains itself when needed, and absolutely never clogs - thermal heads are not prone to clogging, and protected in many clever ways against it. It can stay unused for ages, and then print instantly without any problems. I'm printing for 8 years on my PRO-4000, and before used to print a couple of years on iPF8300 and iPF6350 - never saw a clog on print, never did any maintanance nor nozzle check.

[dgberg]

I am having a little different experience. A lifelong Epson guy I recently purchased my first Canon, a 4600. Puts out a very nice print but it is just not an Epson.
Long time Epson guys know what that means. Getting proper papers and profiles set up has been a nightmare and the printer settings are lacking big time. Quality settings basically good better best, what the heck does that mean?
The ability to change your own heads on the Canon is a big plus as well as the two roll adapter. I hope I can get myself to use it more but for now I still go to my P8000 and s80600 for canvas. When I get some free time to work on some profiles I plan to set the Canon up for my 2 best selling paper prints. Hahnemuhle FAB and Canson Etching Rag. Not having to switch rolls all the time will be super nice.
To answer your question all we do is run a nozzle check before we run prints. That s80 solvent is a different story, we run nozzle checks every other day to keep it running it's best.