Keeping printer ink cartridges good

Do your taxes online.

+1 for laser

Give up the inkjet printers and get a laser printer. Black laser printers are cheap, the media never dries out, they print much faster than inkjet, and the toner cartridges last a pretty long time. Although they now make them smaller so you have to buy more frequently, but our last one has lasted several years of relatively infrequent use.

Dump the inkjet.

DC&MC wrote:
We are full time and are still in the Yuma area. I just bought new ink cartridges to do my taxes at the end of February. Today I tried to print and the black cartridge is barely printing. It’s not that hot in here cause we do run the air. How can I keep ink so I don’t have to buy a new one every time I try to print something. Anyway to rejuvenate this one?

Look at HP printers with "instant ink plan". All ink cartridges are free and they automatically send you new cartridges before you run out. They 3 plans to choose from, each plan cost a little more based on the number of pages you print.

DC&MC wrote:
We are full time and are still in the Yuma area. I just bought new ink cartridges to do my taxes at the end of February. Today I tried to print and the black cartridge is barely printing. It’s not that hot in here cause we do run the air. How can I keep ink so I don’t have to buy a new one every time I try to print something. Anyway to rejuvenate this one?

There is nothing you can do to "save" inkjet carts, once the seal has been removed the timer is running, they will dry out and clog.

Now, it may be possible to "rejuvenate" as long as the ink has not dried to far into the print head.

Pull the cart, take a damp paper towel (water only please) and gently pat the print head surface. You do not want to push the dried ink into the head.

The water will loosen up the dried ink that may be on the print head surface. May need to repeat a couple of times.

You can leave the print head sit on the damp paper towel for a few minutes at a time then put back into the printer and try again..

Don't feel bad, I was trying to print some color items toady and my $50 color cart was dried out.. Was able to get it to print again by using the above method.

Ink carts do not take kindly to long periods of non use, must use them at least once every week or risk them clogging.

For very low printing quantities, I would highly recommend buying a laser printer.. Toner does not go bad and can sit for years with no problems..

Non color lasers now days are inexpensive, look at Brother laser printers, they use a separate toner cart from the drum so the replacement toners are less than lasers that have the drum integrated with the toner.

I use a printer infrequently enough that i gave up on ink jet and replaced it with a laser printer. Mine is black & white, and I used the first cartridge for 7 years, printing around 100 pages per year. While the quality of color laser printers is improving, they won't match a good ink jet, so it color is important you are going to have to constantly replace cartridges.

Mine dry out too quickly as well. Grrr. And now the newer ones cannot be refilled easily.

How long since the last time you printed anything? Ink cartridges themselves don't go bad - the ink dries in the nozzles of the print head and clogs them up. Inkjet printers need to be used more frequently in order to keep this from happening. (Some printers have the nozzles integrated in the cartridges while in others the head/nozzles are separate from the cartridges.)

Rob

If you're not using the printer regularly, this can happen . . . but not usually this fast. Try running the "clean" cycle on your printer. Check the manual for details. Since the clean cycle can use quite a bit of ink, you might want to print a page every week or so to keep the cartridge from drying out.