I Very Rarely Use My Printer, So.....

Factual Questions
1

…how come the ink dries out so fast and what can I do to save my ink cartridge? (other than taking it out, I mean) It is an Epson Color 777.

Thanks

Q

2

Erk! Epson printers do things differently to everyone else; the print heads are not integrated with the cartridge, so taking the cartridge out could actually make things worse as it may result in a big chunk of dried ink right the way through the print nozzles, rather than a ‘skin’ of dried ink just at the bottom.

Also removing the cartridge may cause it to leak or may admit air into the tubes at the bottom.

3

Turning it on once a week might keep it going longer.

4

I have the same printer, and I have had it dry up quite a bit in the past year. I just clean the print heads 2 or 3 times. It uses up ink, but not as much as would be wasted if I just chucked the cartirdge into the trash. Just make sure you aren’t in a hurry to print something, because cleaning it to a sufficient level can take a bit of time (as I found out while trying to print a lab report that was already an hour or so late!) The occasional print test might help too - just print out that little squiggly-lined black-red-blue-yelllow test sheet every couple of weeks. At the least, you’ll know when it needs to be cleaned again!

5

Exactly.

** mnemosyne ** is correct also.

handy turning it on or leaving it on won`t help. You must run ink through the heads occasionally.

This is all from experience and info from an Epson rep.

6

So I’m losing my ink by not using my printer? :smiley:

Jesus, what a racket, huh?

Thanks, y’all.

Q

7

Actually, that’s why I’ll never buy another Epson printer again.

8
      • As far as I have heard, all cheap consumer-grade injet printers are like that–after some period of time (about 8 months or so for my Lexmark Z42) the print heads dry out and you have to buy new ones. I figured out last time one of mine went south that on a 12-month average, I was probably paying ~$90 to print perhaps 30 pages of material–the cost of keeping the printer in ink, so I can use it whenever. I don’t remember ever actually emptying a cartridge–they just dry out, still 3/4 full.
  • Laser printers don’t dry out, but they cost a lot more: single-color only (black) is like $400, full color is up around $1000… >:/
    ~
9

“Laser printers don’t dry out, but they cost a lot more”

You can get a nice one for around $129.00 wen they have a sale, these are listed at fatwallet.com or techbargains.com I don’t notice any right at the moment. I have 4 laser printers, 3 in the closet :-0

10
      • Ehhh, the cheapest color laser printer I found when I was looking was $900, a few at $1000… Find me a $129 color laser printer, anyone?
        ~
11

Generally speaking, laser printer afficionados seem to regard colour printing as frivolous.

12

I’m with ya, although this is only one of the reasons I’ll never buy Epson again; other reasons being:
The Lengthy Unannounced Head Cleaning Dance
and
The Attempt To Feed 30 Pages All At Once.

13

That annoys the HELL out of me! You have to turn the printer on about 30 minutes (ok, that’s a tad exaggerated) in advance. I swear its a mating call or something.

14

Ah, the 30 page feed. I hate when that happens.

Did you find that your printer was set to “envelope thickness” when this occured?

15

Hahaha! you actually believe that little lever does something don’t you?

16

It’s worse than that; some models just stop in the middle of a print run and do the dance (often just before printing the very last page).

17

I see someone`s been doing their sit-ups under parked cars again.

18

“Find me a $129 color laser printer, anyone?”

Maybe, but remember color laser printers use a few toner carts, like 3 or 4 & each cart is about $125-150= $600 for carts.

19

I recently saw someone saying a hacker had gained access to her computer and, among other things, had stolen the ink from her printer because she hardly prints and the ink was gone. As ridiculous as it sounds it is happening to me too. My ink disappears. I only print in Black and yet my color cartridges empty quite fast. I am thinking it is all that head cleaning just dumping ink in the inside cupboards of the printer in an attempt to drown it in sticky ink and get me to buy a new printer.

20

We did this in another thread once. Some printers use color when printing black. Even when “black only” is checked.