General Chat

Most printer cartridge ink is water soluable. To prove this, wet your finger and rub it across a page you have printed which can be wasted. If the printing smears, the ink is obviously water soluable. The top of printer cartriges generally has a makers paper lable attached that covers tiny holes through which the ink was injected into the cartridge during manufacture. Each of the ink chambers contains a tiny plastic foam sponge which holds a very small quantity of ink. When the ink "Runs Out" it is only the water content that is missing.There is still plenty of ocher left in the sponge. Suck up about 3ml of clean tap water into a syringe and probe the paper lable until you locate the filling holes and inject about 3mm the water into each sponge. Note the black cartridge only has one sponge but may have many filling holes so don't over fill it. You can ignore warnings that the ink is low until you notice the quality of your printing is suffering. This method just about doubles the life of a cartridge and doesn't appear to damage the printer.

Maxwell I think this is for ink jet printers or whatever they are called. Laser printer labels/printed paper does not smudge. Thanks for the tip anything that extends the life of a cartridge has to be good.

please be careful
when getting the ink on your hands as some inks
are carcinogenic

always wash your hands after touching the cartridges
just to be on the safe side

Thanks for the tip. And thanks Joy, I didn't know that about inks being carcogenic.

you might be able to clear a blocked cartridge/nozzle, by injecting it with a few ml of cartridge flush, which IS designed for cartridge uses..


but tap water..........ouch!!

tap water wont remove ink from your hands without extra help, but cartridge flush, will.


Bob

One tip for inkjets - I find it perfectly adequate to use the preference setting for "fast" - it is quite clear and legible and I find my cartridges do last much longer. I don't think it would have worked with the first printer I ever had, which was entry level! but this one is only one price-level up.

I do switch to High when copying census returns - some of the early ones need all the help you can get!

The tap water has worked just fine for the last two years and I am only using an el cheapo Lexmark X2650 all in one that cost $65.oo AUD at my local supermarket so it isn't a hugh expense it it does die. By all means use filtered water if that is available.