subject: Lending Your Printer Cartridges Longer Life [print this page] We are all aware that ink cartridges don't come cheaply. It's often the cause of the greatest sticker shock, especially when you purchase a great printer extremely cheaply and then find out that you have to pay a fortune in order to get the ink cartridges for the printer! Thankfully now it's possible to purchase remanufactured ink cartridges, which are cartridges that are reused and refilled. These cartridges are less expensive than the brand name version, but work exactly the same way. Still, you will want to make sure that you take fairly good care of your ink cartridge so that you get the most life out of it.
Many people don't realize that you have to take good care of a cartridge in order to get a long life out of it. They might think an ink cartridge should be used until it's squeezed dry. This is true, but if you follow a few easy steps, you'll be able to get more ink out of the cartridge. To start, you need to ensure that your hands never come into contact with the copper plate on the ink cartridge's head. The copper plates will come with a plastic covering over them to protect them from static electricity, which could damage the ink cartridge head. This will ruin your cartridge for sure.
Another tip is to make sure that you keep a close eye on the papers that you're printing. You'll know it's time to clean the ink cartridge head if you start to get blurry prints with points and lines on them. Usually, printers will possess a cleaning option for addressing just this issue. Run the cleaning option on the cartridge to see if the blurriness clears up. To clean it entirely may require two or three runs of the clean cycle.
When you're using a tricolor cartridge, one color will run out before the others do. This is a heads-up for you to tell you that the ink cartridge is getting low on ink. You'll know when this happens because the ink cartridge will still yield prints but the colors will be off or skewed in some way. Don't continue to use the cartridge after a line has run out. It's also vital that you never let an ink cartridge completely run out of ink. It seems to make sense and you might want to try, but if you try to squeeze those last drops out of the cartridge, bad things may happen. If you try to print when there's no ink, the circuit head on the ink cartridge could burn out, which would cause serious damage to the printer.
Be sure to follow all instructional materials on or with the ink cartridge because many of them have different rules and protocols for installation. Also never leave the ink cartridge where it will be heated, like in a parked car, because the ink will expand and explode. If you care for your cartridge properly, you'll discover it'll last for longer.
