p.1 #1 · Advice from Canon Pro-1100 (or Pro-1000) owners.
Hi!
I'd like to buy a Canon ImagePROGRAF PRO-1100 printer and I read a lot about it (including this forum of course) but I'm still a bit confused.
I hope someone who owns this printer or the previous PRO-1000 can shed some light.
1. I understand that using this printer for low print volumes lead to high percentage of ink used for cleaning cycles vs ink used for printing.
Is there someone printing roughly the equivalent of three A3 prints / week with acceptable ink usage?
2. I read all sort of advice to minimize ink consumption (run a minimal print test every day, disable auto power-off etc.).
I'm planning to leave auto power-off enabled and simply print at least 2-3 times/week.
Do you think it's reasonable?
3. Is there someone successfully using this printer on a wheeled table?
I've been suggested to avoid it but Canon's larger models have wheels so I guess it's just a metter of doing it right.
p.1 #2 · Advice from Canon Pro-1100 (or Pro-1000) owners.
My printing with the 1100 would be considered occasional. I've had mine a few months now. If I averaged it out it would be 1-2 prints a week although I print some big ones like 17 x 65" panoramas and there are days when I print 10 to 20 8x10 / 17x22 prints. For me, paper overshadows the total cost of printing, at least for the fine papers. I was very worried about ink costs but have decided to just accept that this is an expensive hobby and think happy thoughts. I'm still on the "starter" inks that came with the printer but they are running low. The starters load ink into internal printer reservoirs and it looks like much of the ink is gone but it is still in the printer. About a month ago I bought a full replacement ink set and maintenance cartridge that was a big chunk of change. It seems like the CO cart went down fastest, which makes sense. The others went down about even based on my usage.
I have my printer on a cart but it is a heavy cart that is pretty solid. I don't know what the problem with a wheeled cart might be unless it is top-heavy. I put a piece of plywood under my printer so I can move it around the house carefully.
IMPORTANT: There is a switch on the bottom of the printer that makes it go through a big cleaning cycle if lifted up.
IMPORTANT: I have a UPS on my printer and keep the printer on all the time with the auto power off disabled. I get power outages periodically and a hard outage will cause a big cleaning when it is powered back up. Based on youtube it consumes about 0.5% of your ink. I can't vouch for that number.
Keep an ink maintenance cartridge on hand. They have gone out of stock in the past and it would be inconvenient if it got full just when you were doing a big run.
I have Qimage and have the software print a test sheet every so often. This is great if you travel and the printer will be idle for a long time. Remembering to print periodically has proven difficult for me to remember to do in practice so Qimage helps with that problem.
I quite enjoy the printing process and am happy with my purchase. I'm retired and have the budget for it so I try not to worry about costs so much. If I had to guess, with my particular usage pattern, the cost of ink will be more or less $750/year and probably about the same, maybe more for paper. Time will tell. Cost-wise, if the decision was to outsource printing vs. do in-house I think that outsourcing low volumes would win out. But being able to dial in the right brightness for the different papers still takes me a couple of test prints before I print full sized. Doing that by mail order would likely cause me frustration and would not be as fun I think.
p.1 #3 · Advice from Canon Pro-1100 (or Pro-1000) owners.
Thank you, you gave me lots of very useful information, including the plywood trick!
I'm reluctant to disable auto power off because the printer manual says that a power loss "while the ON lamp is lit or flashing may cause drying or clogging of the print head and print quality may be reduced." (I prefer to avoid an UPS).
Did you notice extra cleaning cycles when turning it off and on?
p.1 #4 · Advice from Canon Pro-1100 (or Pro-1000) owners.
I've never turned it off. I think there are "small cleans" and "big cleans". I think the big clean happens when the printer power goes away abruptly. I think it does a small clean when you turn it off with the power button and turn it back on later.
