Best way to save ink in inkjet printer when rarely used?

Question

I have a semi-nice printer that I use occasionally (say once every 1-4 weeks), with times where I won't touch it for a while then one day print a bunch of pictures or just documents. The use though is so infrequent that previous inkjet printers have had their ink dry up and become useless. There's not much return on investment there.

Is their any way to extend the life of an ink cartridge that's not used often? Please give details if you can.

Solution 1

All I can suggest is to print a test page on the weeks you don't use it to keep the nozzles clean.

The ink in the cartridge does not dry up, usually the nozzles get clogged with dried ink from non use.

Other than that go with a color laser printer.

Here is an article from HP on the subject.

EDIT HP article is no longer available, but there is an Internet archive of the original.

Also it has similar advice in this document (scroll down to step 3)

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Solution 2

Additionally to Moab's answer, I suggest to not unplug the printer's power cable.
Most devices will do a self-test, wasting lots of ink, when the power was interrupted.
The cost of the power consumption in stand-by mode, is nothing compared to the cost of the ink that's wasted during avoidable self-tests.

I read this some time ago in the German "c't" magazine.

Solution 3

Modern inkjets have become better about clogging. It will depend on the model, environment etc, but in general a modern inkjet can happily sit for a week or two without clogging (I also have a rarely-used printer).

In principle you could take out the cartridges/print heads when not in use and put them into a vacuum airtight bag/box or similar; that should prevent clogging. However, this is probably much more work than just printing a page every two to three weeks, so this seems the best way to go.

You can just set yourself a reminder to print a test page every start of the month or so. No need to even hook up a computer - most printers will print a test page if you hold the "paper feed" button when switching it on (or some similar combination, check manual).

Doing this once a month should generally be enough.

If you really encounter clogging:

Light clogging is usually easy to remove by wiping the nozzles with alcohol. I've used that to revive a printer that had sat unused for almost a year. Also see e.g.

How to revive an inkjet printer — partially clogged/dried up?

Solution 4

Most people really don't need color pictures and would be best served by putting an ax through the one they currently own, then driving a stake through it to remind themselves that $8000 a gallon is way too much to pay for ink.

Go out and purchase a good low-end monochrome laser printer.

Use the local picture printing kiosk for any color pictures you need. It's cheaper than filling the spent ink tray every time the printer starts up and clears its heads.

Basically, if you're stubbornly going to keep going the inkjet route and not use it to print at least ten pages a week, buy one that has the print head built into the cartridge and buy a new set of cartridges every time you intend on printing. Do not buy a printer with separate print heads if you do not intend on using it! The print heads sediment up, and since most people are not buying industrial strength ink printers with replaceable print heads, the only way of fixing it is to throw the printer away, extremely wasteful of money and resources when you find out your multifunction scanner/fax/printer is useless because of this.

And don't even begin to consider a color laser printer. The damn things are even worse about wasting toner on doing recalibrates and will send you to the poor house buying toner cartridges for just spinning over doing registry checks.

Solution 5

Here is a solution/suggestion based on the type of printing you do. If your needs are "primarily" those of printing text, drawing, and other black & white material, you might get by with an older printer that uses/used ribbons—either the one time film style or the multi-use fabric type. These "older" printer ribbons almost never dry out if stored in cool dry areas. When you need something with colors then fire-up the newer ink monster to handle that project!

Having been in the office supply business for many years, I can tell you not all of those printers and ribbons are in land fills! Finding an old printer may pose a problem, but also, locating the ribbons is a worthwhile & money-saving effort!

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Comments

[sleske]

Well, my printer (HP Deskjet) does not do this, nor have I ever seen an inkjet do this. So there may be many models which do it, but "most" might not be true. Just try it...

[user3660103]

@sleske On the other hand, I've seen Hewlett-Packard printer/scanner which will print a page every time it's started and then ask user to scan it for "calibration purposes".

[HiFi]

Well a test page requires me remembering to do it (not going to happen) and can also burn through ink with enough time. And a laser printer is way overkill for what I'm doing. Plus its horribly expensive to get a color laser printer. Sure I won't have to replace it for the next 5 years, but its hard to pay several hundred dollars up front for a good laser printer with good photo quality. And the cartridges themselves are really expensive too.

[sleske]

@AndrejaKo: Ah, good to know. So apparently it depends on the model. Still, a bad habit for a printer to have :-/.

[Linker3000]

Putting the cartridges into a vacuum-sealed bag will most likely draw the ink out through the nozzles as the vacuum is formed. I forsee a bag full of ink!

[sleske]

@Linker3000: Good point. I just meant something air-tight, so I guess "airtight" it the better word. Corrected.

[Pacerier]

TheLQ Aren't the cartridges much cheaper?

[sleske]

@Pacerier: In just about any household supply store? Vacuum-sealed bags are commonly used for keeping food fresh, just google for it.

[Pacerier]

@sleske Ic, so you meant a near-vacuum sealed bag and not an actual one.

[Fiasco Labs]

In order to keep nozzles clear, you have to burn through ink, that's the whole point of the recharge cycle the printer performs. It clears semi-dry ink out of the nozzles. At $8000 a gallon, the manufacturer knows you will be using it one way or the other, either you use it usefully and put it on paper (even though its a test page) or you put it in the waste ink discharge tray. You have no choice. It's why the printers are so cheap now. Like gaming consoles, they don't make the money by selling the equipment, but the supplies.

[Fiasco Labs]

Color laser printers have a recalibration cycle for registration checks. They're just as efficient at wasting toner as ink jets are at getting you to buy ink. Color printing is highly overrated and has very low ROI.

[Fiasco Labs]

This used to be a "Feature" on Epson inkjets, especially if you took it brand new out of the box and didn't let it complete its first calibration cycle before powering it down. Not so sure it's relevant anymore. Any time you turn the printer on and hear it running, you're listing to a peristaltic pump vacuuming ink out of the cartridges to dump it into the ink waste tray.

[user541686]

I've found HP to be much less ink-wasting than Epson, if that's any use.

[Fiasco Labs]

Yep, most people email pictures and view them on computers. They've mostly dispensed with printing. The best printer I bought was an Epson 800 which lasted till a piece snapped some 8 years later. Nothing lasted after that. Despite frequent use, Epsons that use pigment inks will clog the pipe that goes into the waste tray, rendering the printer useless. So I converted to HP only to have two of those die. Realizing I'd spent $1200 minus ink cost trying to replace the 800, I ditched the whole process. Due to my profession, the sole remaining ink printer is a Designjet 130.

[Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007]

Hi Nancy, welcome to SU! How is this any different than the accepted answer from 3 years ago?

[jvriesem]

@TheLQ: Part of owning something is remembering to perform periodic maintenance on it. The same goes for a computer, a car, and even a house. . . . . I often forget things, too, however, so I see myself in your comment. Perhaps you could set up some automatic reminder system to help you remember.

[Barmar]

The article link doesn't work any more. Got an update?

[Moab]

@Barmar Fixed..