Canon printer ink replacement

[spiffy]

Hi everyone,

I have never own an inkjet printer until now, so apologies in advance if this is a stupid question. But I now own a Canon IP4000. Am I supposed to replace the ink cart when the message pops up that particular ink is running low, or can I still achieve the same print output until I actually get the message that the ink has ran out? I waited until the Cyan and the Yellow carts to have totally ran out of ink before replacing them; but because this particular model has two black carts, I am still not getting the message that the black ink is empty, even though the low ink message has been on for a couple of weeks now. I'd like to get all the ink out before I need to replace the cartridge, but I don't want the print quality to suffer (even though for now I don't really see a discernable difference.)

If any Canon Pixma owners can shed some light on this for me, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks in advance!

Spiffy

[meridklt]

Even though your getting 'Ink low message', you will still achieve quality results untill any out of ink message appears.
It's pretty usual for the smaller black ink cartridge to take quite some time before becoming empty. I have now renewed 7 colour cartridges and still the small black is not empty.

[thecoalman]

Just to add, it will probably have ink left in it when it states that it is fully run out. I had a old lexmark printer that you could continue printing with even if the ink completeley ran out.

Not something you want to do if it's completeley empty but if the printed documents started to get faint you could let it sit there for a while then fire it back up in a few hours to get a few more pages out of it. It would last for weeks like that if I only printed a few pages per day. Just couldn't print a large batch of material at once.

[spiffy]

Actually it's the big black tank (3e) that's getting the low-ink message -- the status indicator showing the small black tank as grey, so I can't tell if it's empty or if it's even being used at all. I am a bit leery about taking the tank out to see if there's any ink left because I don't know if that will screw up the ink monitor's readings.

Fortunately if any of the tanks is really out of ink, the IP4000 won't go through with the print job.

[JSB1]

http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=117&modelid=10239

Canon Think Tank System™.
To help reduce printing costs4, this efficient system has five individual ink tanks that let you replace only the color that runs out, rather than an entire cartridge containing unused ink. Plus, a unique low-ink sensor alerts you when ink levels are low, so you are prepared to just drop in a new tank as needed.

I know on my S900, I get a message when an ink is low. And when an ink is empty, I get a message AND the printer will NOT print. But every time I have had to replace a Canon ink cartridge, it is BONE dry!

JSB