If you don’t often use your office printers, you will soon face the risk of your printer ink from drying out. Once you allow it to happen, the next time that you try to use your old cartridges for printing your important business documents, the printing output is going to be unclear or worse, impossible to read.
The good news is that there are several steps that you can take to ensure that your printer ink doesn’t become unusable anytime soon.
Keep Your Cartridges Active
A very simple way to ensure that your printer ink doesn’t dry out is to always use your ink cartridges. See to it that you print at least a few pages per week, even though it might just be a test page that you will discard afterwards.
In addition, ensure that the documents you print use all the colors in the ink cartridges. It will help make sure that the colors that are seldom used will not dry out and prevent your cartridges from being unusable. As you know, this can lead to headaches, especially if you are rushing to print some important documents.
Adjust the Temperature
Maintenance of modern temperature inside the office can definitely go a long way to keep your printer cartridges from turning dry. Printer ink tends to dry out faster if you expose it to excess cold or heat. Therefore, it is important to keep a comfortable temperature inside your office. Doing so will not only extend the life of printer cartridges, it will also make the work environment more comfortable for all your employees.
Moisten the Cartridges
Moistening your printer cartridges on a regular basis can help in extending their life further, especially if you don’t use them that often. To do this, start by putting on your protective gloves. Remove the printer cartridges and use a clean damp paper towel or cloth for gently wiping the top of every cartridge to get rid of any residual ink that might be stuck on the surface.
It can help in preventing the cartridges from getting clogged to ensure a continuous ink flow when doing your printing jobs. Dry your moistened cartridges first before you put them back into the printer.
Store the Cartridges Properly
If you have no plans to use your printer for a long period of time, the best thing you can do to preserve your ink cartridges is to remove them from your printer and store them separately. Once again, wear your gloves, take out the cartridges and use a damp paper towel or damp cloth to securely wrap them. Put the cartridges in an airtight plastic container or a sandwich bag, then store this in a place that is not exposed to extreme temperatures.
No one wants to be dealing with dried out printer ink. The good news is that with the help of the tips above, you can be sure that you can make the most out of your printer ink.