Canon iP4000 waste ink cartridge

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (More info?)

Found this in the manual.

When the waste ink cartridge is full you will need to send the printer to an
engineer.
WHAT!

I have known cartridges for waste toner in laser printers, but not in inkjet
printers.
Surely the end-user can do this themselves without paying through the nose
for an engineer to do it.
As far as I can see, the waste ink goes out at the left of the platten, and
goes to a large soakaway sponge underneath... I cannot see any tank as such.
Being a new printer, I am not going to open the guts of the printer to find
this tank. However I would like to know if anyone else has come across this
waste tank, and if so, how often is it likely to require maintenance?

 

[Tony]

Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (More info?)

"ngreplies" <ngreplies@tdrd.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>Found this in the manual.
>
>When the waste ink cartridge is full you will need to send the printer to an
>engineer.
>WHAT!
>
>I have known cartridges for waste toner in laser printers, but not in inkjet
>printers.
>Surely the end-user can do this themselves without paying through the nose
>for an engineer to do it.
>As far as I can see, the waste ink goes out at the left of the platten, and
>goes to a large soakaway sponge underneath... I cannot see any tank as such.
>Being a new printer, I am not going to open the guts of the printer to find
>this tank. However I would like to know if anyone else has come across this
>waste tank, and if so, how often is it likely to require maintenance?

Except for some very new printers (HP and maybe others) all inkjet printers
have to store waste ink somewhere. Some use a sort of tank and some use a
sponge or diaper. Your printer will tell you when the job needs doing (this
varies enormously from printer to printer and how much work you do) and if you
can get a copy of the service manual it should give the instructions on how to
replace the sponge and reset the message (reset codes are also available on the
net). There are alternatives like diverting the waste ink to an external
bottle, you will need to be aware of warranty implications if you do this of
course. BTW you *should* be able to reset the message once before you change
the sponge but again this varies from printer to printer so be careful to avoid
an overflow, unpleasant to say the least.
Tony