I have been using the Purge Sheet option of QI Ultimate for a little over a week on my 3 week old Canon Pro-100S.
I originally set the schedule for 2 days using a half page pattern.
I was surprised when I sent a normal print job to the printer and a clean cycle was initiated before the print was processed.  I estimate this clean cycle was about 42 hours since the last purge sheet.
I changed the schedule to 24 hours and one again a clean cycle was initiated before a print was processed.  In this case I estimate there was about a 5 day period between the 2 clean cycles and that it was only about 6 hours since the last purge sheet.
Interestingly, 5 days is 120 hours, which is a figure mentioned in forums for some Canon printers if they are not used to print regularly.
I am forming an opinion that the Pro-100S has an algorithm to run clean cycles even if the printer is used regularly.
I have been sending prints to the printer on a regular basis in addition to the purge sheets.
Any thoughts?

Hi Fred,
I have to admit I am very happy with the print results.  I previously had a Pro9000 and was astonished at how quickly it used up ink.  I knew it was doing numerous clean cycles and it frustrated me that it was using my liquid gold to perform these cleans.  I eventually made the huge mistake of installing a CIS which damaged the printhead which I replaced and then made another mistake of using non Canon cartridges.  I got several years out of that printer before it damaged yet another printhead.  It was only when I saw one of Jose's Youtube videos that I realised that the Canon carts really are more sophisticated than the 3rd party ones.

I thought with all my newly gained information I could introduce a workflow that would allow me to continue using OEM carts.
I just did a tally of all the prints I have done since buying the printer and checked the ink levels.  I am now undecided whether I will be using 3rd party inks in reset canon carts.
The stats are as follows:
- ink levels range between 60% and 70% full across all 8 carts.
- I have printed 16 x A4 paper profile sheets.  They tend to have a lot of white space, so lets say equivalent to 12 sheets
- I have printed 14 x A4 photographs.  Some had quite wide borders, but since I also did a number of small passport size tests and wallet size tests and one 6in x 4in print, I think 14 is a fair total.
- I have printed 4 x A4 purge sheets, (actually 8 x 0.5 sheets). However, these apparently only use a very small amount of ink.  Lets say 1 sheet.
- Printer initialisation used about 3 sheets, but again very low levels of ink.

So in summary, about 35% of my ink was used to print just 27 x A4 photographs.   Hence a full set of inks is only going to print about 77 x A4s at a cost of about Aus$2.12 each. About  US$1.60.
I could probably handle that, but if I slow down at all the cleaning cycles could become more of an annoyance.
It would just be reassuring to know what the printer is doing.  Is there really any point in doing the purge sheets if the printer is going to run clean cycles anyway?
Bruce

I did not know the ink levels were measured by Qimage.  That's fantastic.  I will give it a try.
Bruce