I've been running 2 Canon Pro-10s for the last couple of years. Used OEM carts for the first year, and saved the empties. Beginning in year 2 I switched to Precision Colors pigment inks to put back onto the empty OEM carts, and cut my ink cost by ~90% (I print mostly B&W using the black and gray inks in the printer, but I assume I still lay down as many square inches of ink as if I printed color). I have gone as long as 6 months without printing anything on either printer, and except for an extended startup period where the printer shook the ink carriage back and forth, presumably to redistribute any pigments that had settled during the down time, everything worked normally. I have never had a hint of a nozzle clog after 2,000+ prints through the printers over the years, and have never run a maintenance cycle manually.