Is there a risk of ink drying if the printer is not used regularly?

[tsu3000]

Hi

I am not a heavy user and print about 2 x A4 full glossy photos per week at the moment. I am concerned that if I don't use the printer often enough the ink may start to dry and cause clogging. Should I be concerned about this? How often should I use my printer to avoid ink drying up and clogging the print head?

I plan to not use the printer for a couple weeks whilst I go on holiday. Are there any proper ways to store the cartridges whilst I'm away? I have the IP4500 with OEM inks.

Thanks.

 

[Smile]

You need to perform at least nozzle test print once per week to make you printer work

Nozzle tests do not use large amounts of ink.

 

[Grandad35]

Do NOT remove the carts from the printer. I often leave my i9900 sit with the power off for two weeks, and the cleaning cycle that automatically runs after that much time has elapsed has always given clean prints with no further action on my part.

I have not used this program, but if you want to have something print while you are away you can have a printout scheduled every day to prevent clogging.
http://www.inksupply.com/cobra.cfm#ap

 

[stratman]

I have left my Canon MP830 powered off for 3 weeks without any problems in printing. This was with OEM inks and no nozzle checks. Of course when I powered on (or when I sent the first print job), the printer did a cleaning cycle on its own.

Don't recommend doing that, just that it is possible to be OK if you don't print something for a couple of weeks.

Other than that, whatever Grandad35 says is probably dead-on accurate. In this forum, we listen to our elders! ;-)

 

[Tin Ho]

I have seen an ip4000 getting a clog on BCI-6bk channel because it is pretty much used exclusively for text printing with very little color coverage on plain paper. The BCI-6bk ink cartridge was almost never used as a result. Eventually it got a clog that was very tough to deal with. It was used the least but it was the only one to get a clog. So I think infrequent use of inkjet printers is a bad thing to the printers. But I did have an old i960 in storgae for more than 3 months and it came out to work just fine after the lengthy storage.

 

[websnail]

As a rule the Canon printers don't suffer from this problem nearly as much as Epson printers do... I've left Canons sitting for a month and then printed and only had a marginal block which soon cleared. Epson printers on the other hand (especially the C86's etc) need to print at least every 3 days or they clog silly.

Of course this does depend somewhat on your ink too so making sure you don't have a duff supplier is important... As always YMMV.

 

[panos]

I had left my Canon for 2 and a half months during summer (in Greece) in a dusty environment. My first print after that came out without a single blocked nozzle.

Also, I rarely turn off my printer. Sometimes it doesn't print anything for a full week (while on standby), then a large batch is printed -- again without a single problem.

Bad ink, bad cartridges and bad refilling are the causes of problems in these printers. Nothing else.

 

[Simon R.]

I think 2 prints per week is ok for a common user. Printers are not designed for heavy users only! You should be ok, the ink should not dry out.

 

[KnightCrawler]

I bought a MP160 just for the scanner and have gone 6 months without printing anything and then printed a few documents and it works fine.

I also leave it plugged in and turned on as well, don't have to wait around for the initial start up stuff to occur.