Cartridge Care 101

Taking care of your printer ink cartridge is simple and easy and by taking care of the cartridge(s) it can save you more money.

The majority of printer ink cartridges are designed for one-time use. This means the original equipment manufacturers have designed the cartridges for one-time use even if in most cases cartridges can be re-used / re-filled a few times after the original use. There are some tricks to maximizing the number of times a cartridge can be re-filled.

#1 Stop printing before your cartridge runs dry, it’s the same as a car running out of oil. You can burn it out. Once you notice the cartridge not printing well chances are the cartridge is running low on ink. Run a printhead cleaning or two to check if the cartridge empty or note. If the printing does not improve then remove the cartridge from the printer.

#2 Place your cartridge in a zip-top baggie with a small piece of moist (but not too wet) paper towel for transport or storage. Just make sure that the paper towel does not touch the print-head (where the ink comes out): this can cause cross-contamination between colours and ruin your cartridge.

#3 Bring it to Printer Refillers and have it refilled sooner than later. The longer a cartridge sits without ink in it the dryer the cartridge becomes. The remaining ink can turn into a tar-like substance and can make it difficult and/or impossible to be refilled.

What Not To Do:
– Do not damage the copper contacts or electronic chips
– Do not put your cartridge in the fridge or freezer
– Do not put tape over the print-head.
– Never let your cartridge run completely dry or empty
– Do not let your empty cartridges sit without ink for too long.