June 21 2019
March 2019 I decided to give up on the Epson 7900 as the print head once again was clogged beyond any method of cleaning it including manual methods with windex etc. As this was its 3rd time it needed a new head at $3000 I decided to just give up on it.
I selected the Canon P-1000 because of its print resolution, wide range of ink gamut (colours) and that the printer seems to flush its heads better, hopefully keeping the head working.
After installing the ink into the a new P-1000 on March 20 2019, it flushed quite a lot of ink into the machine to charge it for the first time. I then used Qimage One to send a 8.5 x 11 Unclog pattern to the printer every day. I assume that the initial flush may have put ink into the Maintenance (tank) Cartridge MC-20 but I have no measurements of that.
I printed about 100 pages over the next 3 months – generally 8 x 10 printer proofs and some 11×17 final prints.
On June 21 2019 I performed a print head nozzle print head pattern (which was perfect as always) and the printer requested I change the Ink Maintenance Cartridge MC-20. So far I have not had a nozzle check problem at all and have never cleaned the nozzle manually. I believe the Qimage One is causing the printer to do keep the heads in good shape.
After the printer requested a new Mc-20 I weighted the it at 280 grams empty and the old tank at 555 grams full. This means there was 275 ml of ink in the maintenance cartridge or 3.4 ink tank cartridges over a period of 92 days. Thats 2.99 ml per day. In Canada, each cartridge costs $81.36 CAD (Including tax) therefore to keep the printer going costs about $244 for 3 months or $976 per year. I do buy the ink in bulk at a slightly cheaper price but still – WOW!
I use only OEM inks and maintenance cartridge.
I do acknowledge that the initial loading of the ink is a one time event that may have made the situation much worse. We will see how the next tank goes and so far I have not replaced any inks.
I will update this post with any results I have from the next MC-20 change.