Can I just use Black Cartridge in Canon Printer and leave empty Colour Cartridge in ?

joe565

Hello

I've a Canon MG3650 printer and only print in black.  I need to order more ink and wondering can I just put in new black cartridge and leave empty colour cartridge in?  Or would this do any damage to the printer keeping empty colour cartridge in?

Joe

interstellaflyer

Yes but bear a couple of things in mind, once the machine tells you the cartridge is empty you need to disable the ink monitor for that cartridge,  plenty on youtube regarding this but basically when instructed you just hold the cancel button down for about 10 seconds and the machine will come back to life.  The second thing is although the cartridge will function electronically for a period of time but not show ink levels, it will die eventually.   You won't do any damage to the machine, the worst thing that can happen is it will kill the print head on the empty colour cartridge.
Obviously you need to make sure you set the print options to Black and White.

ballyblack

Obviously you need to make sure you set the print options to Black and White.

or greyscale as Canon calls it

Shimrod

joe565 said:

Hello

I've a Canon MG3650 printer and only print in black.  I need to order more ink and wondering can I just put in new black cartridge and leave empty colour cartridge in?  Or would this do any damage to the printer keeping empty colour cartridge in?

Joe

If you never want to print colour again you should be fine, but on a Canon printer the print head is separate to the cartridge. Running a Canon printer with no ink will eventually burnout the print head. Even though you are only printing B&W, the printer will still try and use colour - for example on automatic cleaning cycles when you turn the printer on. I would buy a cheap, compatible cartridge if you are concerned about cost - I've been using office world cartridges from Amazon in my MG5150 for years - the last batch I bought were only about £1 per cartridge.

Alter_ego

Would it be useful to put black cartridges in the colour slots?

interstellaflyer

Shimrod said:

joe565 said:

Hello

I've a Canon MG3650 printer and only print in black.  I need to order more ink and wondering can I just put in new black cartridge and leave empty colour cartridge in?  Or would this do any damage to the printer keeping empty colour cartridge in?

Joe

If you never want to print colour again you should be fine, but on a Canon printer the print head is separate to the cartridge. Running a Canon printer with no ink will eventually burnout the print head. Even though you are only printing B&W, the printer will still try and use colour - for example on automatic cleaning cycles when you turn the printer on. I would buy a cheap, compatible cartridge if you are concerned about cost - I've been using office world cartridges from Amazon in my MG5150 for years - the last batch I bought were only about £1 per cartridge.

Wrong, on this particular printer the print head is part of the cartridge, both Canon and HP make printers that either have separate printheads or printheads that are part of the printer cartridge depending on machine, your MG5150 takes individual ink tanks and has a printhead as a separate item, this is not the case for the ops printer so most of what you say is irrelevant.

Shimrod

interstellaflyer said:

Shimrod said:

joe565 said:

Hello

I've a Canon MG3650 printer and only print in black.  I need to order more ink and wondering can I just put in new black cartridge and leave empty colour cartridge in?  Or would this do any damage to the printer keeping empty colour cartridge in?

Joe

If you never want to print colour again you should be fine, but on a Canon printer the print head is separate to the cartridge. Running a Canon printer with no ink will eventually burnout the print head. Even though you are only printing B&W, the printer will still try and use colour - for example on automatic cleaning cycles when you turn the printer on. I would buy a cheap, compatible cartridge if you are concerned about cost - I've been using office world cartridges from Amazon in my MG5150 for years - the last batch I bought were only about £1 per cartridge.

Wrong, on this particular printer the print head is part of the cartridge, both Canon and HP make printers that either have separate printheads or printheads that are part of the printer cartridge depending on machine, your MG5150 takes individual ink tanks and has a printhead as a separate item, this is not the case for the ops printer so most of what you say is irrelevant.

You are right, I looked at the shape of the printer and the MG prefix and made an incorrect assumption on cartridges. It is worth noting that Canon do not advise running the printer with an empty cartridge regardless.

interstellaflyer

Shimrod said:

interstellaflyer said:

Shimrod said:

joe565 said:

Hello

I've a Canon MG3650 printer and only print in black.  I need to order more ink and wondering can I just put in new black cartridge and leave empty colour cartridge in?  Or would this do any damage to the printer keeping empty colour cartridge in?

Joe

If you never want to print colour again you should be fine, but on a Canon printer the print head is separate to the cartridge. Running a Canon printer with no ink will eventually burnout the print head. Even though you are only printing B&W, the printer will still try and use colour - for example on automatic cleaning cycles when you turn the printer on. I would buy a cheap, compatible cartridge if you are concerned about cost - I've been using office world cartridges from Amazon in my MG5150 for years - the last batch I bought were only about £1 per cartridge.

Wrong, on this particular printer the print head is part of the cartridge, both Canon and HP make printers that either have separate printheads or printheads that are part of the printer cartridge depending on machine, your MG5150 takes individual ink tanks and has a printhead as a separate item, this is not the case for the ops printer so most of what you say is irrelevant.

 It is worth noting that Canon do not advise running the printer with an empty cartridge regardless.

Of coarse they do, they want you to buy cartridges, on this machine the worse that will happen is you will eventually kill the printhead on the cartridge so no big deal, fit another empty or occasionally buy a new colour cartridge.