The ink currently in my printer is almost four years old but is printing fine with no clogs. I recently bought new ink. Should I just refill the cartridges as needed or should I drain all of the cartridges and refill empty cartridges?
The best practice is not to print with outdated inks. The best practice is to drain and refill empty cartridges.
Sometimes with very old inks that have not been printed in a long time (like 4 years), the printer is mainly printing very thin viscosity of ink. If you were to shake the inks and run 3-4 power cleans to bring freshly shaken ink to the print head, your experience may change. Possibly, the pigment that has fallen in long ink lines can suddenly foul the dampers when the printer is put back into use.
The best practice of all with printers that have been sitting for a few years is to PiezoFlush them out.
[QUOTE=jon;10094]The best practice is not to print with outdated inks. The best practice is to drain and refill empty cartridges.
Sometimes with very old inks that have not been printed in a long time (like 4 years), the printer is mainly printing very thin viscosity of ink. If you were to shake the inks and run 3-4 power cleans to bring freshly shaken ink to the print head, your experience may change. Possibly, the pigment that has fallen in long ink lines can suddenly foul the dampers when the printer is put back into use.
The best practice of all with printers that have been sitting for a few years is to PiezoFlush them out.[/QUOTE]
No. The printer has been used continuously, quite a bit over the last four years. I periodically shake the cartridges and have shaken the bottles before I have refilled the cartridges. The prints have been coming out fine. The printer hardly ever develops a clog and it is easily remedied by doing an auto nozzle check (3880 printer). I have never had a difficult clog.
I just bought a large quantity of ink four years ago and have not gone through it all yet. I tossed the remaining ink from four years ago since I now have a new stock.
Sounds like I should just drain and refill empty cartridges even though the old ink seems to be working fine.
We have a two year shelf life and I am glad that you are getting more. Whatever you are doing sounds like it is working for you. Were it mine - I would go fresh.
Were it mine, after four years and with fresh bottles of ink in hand I’d also put in fresh cartridges.
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