OT Printer Cartidges

Hp21 and 22..

$$$ little suckers..and I don't use them all that much. But it is nice to be able to print documents.

Mine dry out over a short period of time. Read (from HP) that taking them out of the printer and storing in a plastic "Tupperware" container, set with the nozzles up and and a moist piece of cloth or paper within.

Anyone had success doing this?

Thank you..

I never had any luck with anything containing liquid ink of any sort. Bought a good Oki color laser about 4 years ago and been very pleased. I print about 2000 pages a year. Toner is cheap when bought in a bulk container. And there is no dry ink!

To keep them from drying out...
I have a Word document set up with a row of X's in each of these colors:
black, red, blue, green, yellow, purple and orange (only uses one sheet of paper and a small amount of ink).

I just print that page once per week (if I have not otherwise printed anything). This seems to work to keep them from drying out.

Just bought a new printer yesterday and told the salesman that I print that sheet once per week. He said that is a good idea to do that.

As far as taking them out after each use...I would think that would get old really fast. Also, when you put them back in they will align themselves and clean the heads which will use ink before you even go to print anything. If it's going to sit idle for a long time it might be worth it but it wouldn't work for me.

Also,you quickly exceed the cost of the printer in ink. In fact, the ink shipped with the printer is not even full so you will be buying ink soon after getting the printer. Also, every time the printer starts up after sitting a bit it "cleans" the heads which uses ink (or wastes ink however you look at it). Some ink jets will not let you reuse a cartridge once it has been removed even if it is still full of ink. Others won't even let you scan or fax (tasks that don't even use ink) if one of your cartridges is out of ink. I won't own another ink jet for these reasons. For my home I bought a HP laser all in one (not color) and it has saved me hundreds in printing cost (ink) so has more then payed for the extra I spent on the printer to start with. I use a HP LaserJet in my office (refilled toner is about $70) and it tells me I'm low on toner when it will still print 600 pages!

The liquid ink in printer cartridges is the most expensive thing on the planet by weight :roll:

I gave up on inkjet printers and switched to a Brother laser printer.

Put the cartridges in the Tupper Ware just like HP advised. It will work. I used to work on, in and around the earlier inkjet assembly lines and that is how they would store test pens. Yes the ink is expensive. I heard once that if HP were to give the printers away for free HP would still be making a mega-ton of money.

A laser printer is worth the price (not much more than an ink cartridge really) unless you really need color. HP has a scam where they tell you the cartridge is empty after a certain amount of time no matter how much ink was still in it.
Ink Expiration

Best thing we ever did was to hurl that inkjet printer into the trash. Replaced it with a four cartridge laser printer , just wish we had done it sooner.

HP LaserJet P1102W if you don't need color.
Printer

worked for me too.

The cost per page printed is much lower with a laser printer. Inkjets are a complete PITA. If you don't use them frequently, they gum up and don't print. If you use them frequently, they cost you a fortune in ink.

Get a color laser. You will be glad you did.

Warning: the next scam you are going to run into is toners. Here is how it works...
Printer is priced fairly modestly. Runs from about $200 or so to over $1000. A decent one will run in the $300 range.

The printer will come with what they call "starter" toners. They will print a predetermined number of pages and then give you a "low toner" or "out of toner" message. Printer may even refuse to print at that point. Cost of new toners from the store is prohibitive. Replacements for mine would have cost more than I paid for the printer.

BUT..... those "starter" toners are actually full and usable toners that have been "brain damaged" usually by the removal of a small timing gear (at least in the case of the Brother printer). This gear can be obtained on line for a small fraction of the cost of a toner. Aftermarket (third party) toners are also readily available on line. Refill kits that contain the missing parts to refill and convert the "starter" toners to full toners are also readily available. It took me about 5 years to use up my set of "starter" toners.

Once you have switched over to laser, your biggest cost per page will become the paper rather than the ink.