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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.

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4 Answers

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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.

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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. – TheLQ Oct 10 '10 at 23:56
TheLQ Aren't the cartridges much cheaper? – Pacerier May 17 at 23:00
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up vote 4 down vote

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.

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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... – sleske Oct 10 '10 at 23:14
@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". – AndrejaKo Oct 10 '10 at 23:17
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@AndrejaKo: Ah, good to know. So apparently it depends on the model. Still, a bad habit for a printer to have :-/. – sleske Oct 11 '10 at 8:46
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up vote 4 down vote

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?

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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! – Linker3000 Oct 11 '10 at 8:58
@Linker3000: Good point. I just meant something air-tight, so I guess "airtight" it the better word. Corrected. – sleske Oct 11 '10 at 9:00
@Linker3000 How on Earth do you even get a vacuum-sealed bag in the first place? – Pacerier May 17 at 23:02
@Pacerier: In just about any household supply store? Vacuum-sealed bags are commonly used for keeping food fresh, just google for it. – sleske May 18 at 7:01
@sleske Ic, so you meant a near-vacuum sealed bag and not an actual one. – Pacerier May 18 at 8:19
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up vote 2 down vote

I have found that Epson inkjet rinters need to be used often, or the heads dry up. They tend to have the best photo print quality. I've had two Epsons.

HP inkjet printers do not dry up nearly so easily. I think they produce the best crisp text and graphics. I have an HP DesignJet 450c large format printer, and I have had a couple of BubbleJet desktop models.

Canon inkjet printers produce very good text and photo quality, and my general purpose PiXMA iP4500 has never clogged up, even after not having been used for many weeks.

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Hmm... I have a cannon MX320 that probably uses the same cartridge design. All though I'm nervous about simply doing nothing. Thanks for the tip though – TheLQ Oct 10 '10 at 23:53
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Your model seems to have two cartridges, rather than individual ones, which is a situation that leads to more ink waste. I'd just keep it plugged in (does not need to be switched on). Maybe you could make a scheduled task to print a test page every week, or remind you to print something with it, if it something that concerns you. – paradroid Oct 11 '10 at 0:10
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