i550 frequent head cleaning?

[Magister66]

I have set up 2 Canon i550 printers in the last 3 weeks and have already needed to clean the black ink head twice on each. Is this normal or sound wierd? I never turn the printer off after use so could that be an issue? If anyone has better results with this model, please reply and include how you use your printer. ie. always lewave on, turn off when not in use, etc. Thanks in advance.

A7V266-E W/Athlon XP 1800+
Volcano 7 HSF
Seagate Barracuda IV 40GB 7200RPM
Viewsonic 19"
SoundBlaster Audigy

 

[M39shadow]

Several print manufacturers don't cap the ink cartridges very well. This allows air to reach the print head and start drying out the ink. Canon and Epson are guilty of this. If the printer sets any length of time the ink begins to dry and print quality is poor. When you view cost per page and ink usage information for products it is for continuous operation. Few people actually use a printer like this in real life. I think this is done somewhat on purpose because the ink cartridge cleaning process takes way more ink than printing. Therefore the products look good on ink usage tests but are fairly expensive to use on a day to day level because all the ink catridge cleaning sucks the tanks dry. But that is just my $.02