With their attractive price tag, inkjet printers are becoming increasingly the more popular choice among consumers. Often purchased for occasional home or small office use, these printers can be perfect for getting vibrant colorful prints on a smaller scale. Whether you use your inkjet printer daily or once every few months, it is important to take proper care of this high tech machine to ensure that it won’t fail you in your moment of need.
Your inkjet printer will use ink in a number of ways throughout the printing process. Generally ink is used for printing documents and photographs; however, some ink must be used to maintain the health of the print head/s while some ink will become residual or evaporate over time. This is common to all inkjet printer manufacturers. The amount of ink you will have available depends primarily on your printing habits and how the printing systems uses ink both to print pages and maintain a reliable performance. Meaning, how often you print and how well you maintain your inkjet printer will have a direct impact on the yield you will receive from each cartridge.
Unbelievably, the less you print, the shorter the life span of your ink cartridges and inkjet printer. Regular use keeps the ink from drying and clogging the print head nozzles, allowing the ink to flow freely and with the least defects. If you print just occasionally, it is essential to run regular maintenance on your printer to avoid future problems. Even though these cleaning processes will consume some of the available ink, it will prevent the cartridge and other printer parts from getting damaged and eventually becoming useless. Refer to the Owner’s Manual for your printer for the instructions on how to run nozzle checks and cleaning processes for your particular machine. When not printing documents regularly, you will want to perform these maintenance tasks minimally once a month to ensure your inkjet printer will be functioning properly with each use.
To ensure that you get the most out of each cartridge, store your replacements in a cool, dark place where they will not be subjected to extreme temperature changes. Also, keep your printer someplace similar and away from windows and/or direct sunlight which can overheat mechanical components and dry out your inkjet cartridges as well as warp paper stored in the tray. Additionally, cover printers that are seldom used to prevent dust build up while not in use.