[nicklovick]

I've just printed another six A4 prints at 600dpi with all my ink levels reading low. That brings the total up to around 20 A4 pages of full colour.

I found the same thing with my old epson and was woondering if anyone pays attention to their print monitor low ink warnings or just prints till they run out halfway through a print?

Inks are much more expensive than a sheet of A4 paper so I prefer to bin the half printed print than a cartridge that still has some ink left.

Is this a ploy by the printer manufacturers to get you to buy more ink?

[Steve]

What printer are you using Nick?

[Dabhand16]

My Canon i560 will go on for a long time between indicating low ink and the ink actually running out. Last time i changed the cartridges, the ink monitor declared 'the X cartridge has run out', or whatever it says. I just happened to have finished printing, so did not replace the cartridge. Needless to say, when i did some more printing, i had forgotton the message, and interestingly, the ink monitor had forgotten too!! I printed quite a lot more befroe eventually, it did run out.

From this you will have gathered that I run them into the ground before changing them, but I do get another set either just after I change them or as soon as the warning of low ink appears. Although my printer has four cartridges, they tend to run out fairly close together, so I always get a full set then replace them as necessary.

[Angela]

I always wait until they completely run out!

[Foxesbrew]

I have a yellow cartridge which has been showing low for some time,i think iwill follow your method Angela.it would be too easy to waste expensive ink.

[fionaB]

I wait until they run out, but the canon i9950 will not start a print unless there is enough ink in it to finish it. and with having 8 individual inks it means that i dont have to change a block just the individual cartiridge. i get all my inks from printerinks and the quality is superb as is the price and with free postage i cant grumble.

Fiona

[danpen]

I have an Epson RX620 (the multifunction version of the r300). I treat the ink low warning as a reminder to check I have a spare cartridge and buy one if necessary. I always print 'til it stops, the good thing is it stops halfway through a print, you replace the ink and it carries on.

[mattp94]

I have been wondering about this myself. I use an Epson R1800 which takes 8 cartridges. I have always played a guessing game and have never waited until they run out completely.
I am very impressed with the print quality but the big drawback with the Epson is that the print head is part of the printer and not the cartridge so if you get blockages or allow it to dry out then you have a costly fix.

The other thing that I always feel is a con is that when I replace one cartridge the printer charges all the other heads as well so if one cartridge is at 10% and another is nearly empty I tend to replace both to save the ink in the other cartrides from further charging cycles.

[stepheno]

That's why I use Canon printers

[mattp94]

Originally Posted by stepheno

That's why I use Canon printers

I'm afraid I couldn't bring my self to use something from the dark side

[danpen]

Originally Posted by mattp94

I am very impressed with the print quality but the big drawback with the Epson is that the print head is part of the printer and not the cartridge so if you get blockages or allow it to dry out then you have a costly fix.

That was a big problem with the earlier Epsons, I had a Stylus 800 that went that way and was always worried about the Stylus 1200 I bought to replace it. The quality back then was a fair bit better than the Canon and HP equivalents though.

Now all the big brands have excellent photo quality but I've just stayed with Epson, my 2400 and RX620 both spend weeks sometimes between prints and neither have ever shown any sign of a clog that couldn't be cleared with a couple of cleaning cycles.

[Steve]

My Canon printer has never had a nozzle blockage in the two years that I have owned it. Previously I had an HP printer but the cost of replacement ink cartridges was the killer there and before that, both my father and I had Epson printers. Both of them suffered from blocked nozzles with alarming regularity and we both wasted time and ink cleaning and clearing them only to find that the next time we wished to print anything the print heads were once again blocked. I am sure that they have improved somewhat since then but since I am totally happy with the quality from my Canon and it never suffers blockages I see no reason to change back to Epson, in fact if this printer now broke I would replace it with a more modern Canon one.

I think that’s the way it goes, if you are happy with whatever printer you use and it works, then should you wish to replace it you are probably likely to stick with the same manufacturer.