Change of the remaining ink tank in the Canon Pixma

The waste ink tank - temporary storage for your ink waste

The bottom part of the printer Canon Pixma is fully covered with sponges and forms the so-called waste ink tank. Each time you clean the printheads on your inkjet printer, ink is sucked out of the printer's print nozzles and out of the cartridges, and into the sponges on the bottom of the printer via one or more hoses.

Throughout the life of the printer, all excess ink is introduced into the sponges at the bottom of the printer. The sponges are referred to as a tank because they absorb the liquid ink in a figurative sense like a tank. They are also referred to as waste ink tank, fleece or ink felt, in English as Waste Ink or Ink Absorber.

The tank of the Canon Pixma has a very large capacity, so that the need to change the tank, occurs quite rarely. However, once the tank is saturated with ink, the printer will report an error and stop printing.

When the tank of the Canon Pixma is full

The replacement of the waste ink tank is necessary only after a very high frequency of use of the printer and after frequent cleaning of the printheads. The filling of the residual ink tank is subject to various criteria, which are dependent on the pressure behavior of the user. Under normal pressure conditions, tank emptying is unlikely to occur during the life of the printer, whereas high-volume printing, more than 30,000 pages or extremely frequent printhead cleaning may require replacement of the sponges.

The printer uses a metering system to count the ink dropped into the tank and, after a certain frequency, indicates that the tank is full. The Canon Pixma iP3000, iP4000, iP4000R, iP5000, iP6000D, and iP8500 inkjet printer models, as well as older Canon models, report a full tank with a flashing signal on the device and a message in the input window that appears on the computer during a print job.

The pressure unit reports the almost full tank by repeatedly shining the orange control lamp eight times and the green lamp once in succession. Although the printer can continue to print after this message, you should already be concerned about draining the tank. Pressing the Resume button will stop the printer blinking and release the pressure for a while.

If the flashing signal alternately flashes the orange and green lamp seven times and then the green lamp once, then the tank is finally full and must be emptied. In this case, the printer will no longer execute a print job.

How to check the tank level of your printer

If you would like to check the level of fueling of your Canon Pixma yourself, to make sure that you are prompted to replace the sponges with a flashing signal from your printer, or if you have a high volume of print and you are not sure whether you will have the next print run without interruption print, the service mode of your printer will continue to help. To enter your printer's service mode, turn off the printer and press the Resume button, which you hold down. Now press the power button at the same time, keep it pressed and release the resume button immediately afterwards.

Then click the Resume button twice, then release both buttons. Now you are in service mode and access the information pages that inform you about the various properties and parameters of your printer. To access the first information page, press the resume button once and then press the power button once. This page gives you similar information about your printer, such as a nozzle check.

Now press the resume button twice and then the power button again. In the first line of the now opened second information page you will find a measurand with the letter "D =" and behind it a three-digit number sequence with a decimal place. This number indicates the level of the residual ink tank in percent. The display D = 100,0 means that the tank is full.

Two basic tasks must be carried out during the exchange

When replacing the waste ink tank, the old, saturated sponge at the bottom of the printer is removed and replaced with a new sponge. After replacing the tank, the counter must also be reset to zero, since this is the sensor for the printer, which measures the tank level and blocks printing at full percentage. With the wrong count, the printer will not print despite the tank is empty.

The printer must receive the print release signal via a reset meter reading. However, it is advisable to note that the meter reading may not be reset unless the tank is emptied and the sponges replaced. Although you can continue to print thanks to a reset meter reading, but the tank will overflow in the foreseeable future, so that ink from the printer and also in the interior of the housing exits and a major overhaul of the device is necessary.

Whoever lends a hand does not have a warranty claim

The manufacturer foresees that Canon workshops will be entrusted with the replacement of the tank in order to carry out the technical requirements of tank emptying correctly and to avoid damage to the printer. However, anyone who dares to do so can replace it himself and save on maintenance costs, even though the warranty claim for the device is lost in this case. However, since the replacement of the remainder of the ink tank is expected only after several years of printer operation and thus after the expiry of the warranty, the loss of warranty is not relevant, the cost savings, however, quite attractive.

The possibilities to change the residual ink tank

To empty the waste ink tank, various options can be considered. The most cost effective way of emptying the tank is to clean the old sponges, which are re-inserted into the bottom of the printer after drying. To save work and dirt on the printer, we recommend the purchase of new sponges. For the printer Canon Pixma can also be purchased a complete new floor unit with new sponges contained therein, which then replaces the old floor plate including sponges.

An important note - the red screws

Once you have decided on one of the three variants, the printer is disassembled, the old sponges are removed and replaced with new ones, and then the printer is assembled again.

Please note the note that no red screws may be loosened on your printer. The printer can be disassembled into its component parts without loosening red screws to change the tank.

How to disassemble your printer step by step

The cover of your printer's housing is removed by first opening the side panels by the arrow markings. Using a flat-head screwdriver, press into the slots on the arrows and remove the side panels. On the right exposed side, you will see a large gear that you turn to the right, releasing the printhead latch, and then lifting the top. Remove all other small lid parts until the printing unit is completely clear.

Inside the printer you will now see the power supply with a plug that you pull out. The power supply is then removed from the two clips on the floor, then pushed out of the printer. Now loosen the four screws that screw the printing unit to the floor and lift it out of the housing. The now exposed sponges on the bottom of the printer can easily be removed to replace them with new sponges.

Now you can reassemble the printer by reassembling the components in reverse order. When lifting out the printing unit, two black levers have fallen out, which you must reinsert before removing the printing unit.

To set the counter to zero

The counter for measuring the ink level in the remaining tank is set in the service mode of the printer. To do this, go to the information page, which states the tank level in a percentage, as described above. Then press the Resume button four times and immediately afterwards the Power button to zero the counter. Then turn off the printer to exit service mode and save your entry.

Now you can resume printing normally.