Best Practices - Storing Ink, Printer, & Printheads

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  • cutmoney
    Technician
    • Dec 2016
    • 19
    #1

    [Misc] Best Practices - Storing Ink, Printer, & Printheads

    I was just wondering if anyone had input on storing a printer for later parts or repair use. I have two imagePROGRAF iPF8100 printers, one has some sort of hardware issue which I can't currently fix (which I've posted about on another thread). So, I'm going to retire one for use as a parts unit or possible to repair later. I was wonder what the best procedure is for storing a printer for potentially a long period of time. There are two parts that I'm most concerned about--the printhead and the ink cartridges.

    There are two good printheads and I'd like to either remove and store those for future use, or potentially sell them for someone else's use. Would I run a change head function so that the ink drains from the heads in order to store them, or just keep them full of ink? As far as the ink cartridges, I have a full 12 ink set of 700ml cartridges, should those be removed and stored with the holes upright? And do I need to seal the caps in any way to prevent the ink from drying? Last question, should I perform a Level 3 move function on the printer to drain all of the ink from the lines, or is that unnecessary?

    Thanks for any help!
    Tags: None
    • blackcat4866
      Master Of The Obvious

      Site Contributor
      10,000+ Posts
      • Jul 2007
      • 22999
      #2
      Re: Best Practices - Storing Ink, Printer, & Printheads

      You are right to be concerned that the ink will harden up in the cartridges, in the lines, in the printhead(s), in the service station, in the maintenance cartridge. In as little as two weeks the whole think might be a brick.

      The bad news is that I know of no way of preserving these items even in the short term, certainly not long term.

      The new ink cartridges come from the manufacturer sealed airtight. When you install them in the printer it breaks the seal. I have no idea how the manufacturer evacuates the air from the cartridges in production, and seals them.

      There is a very expensive device designed to clean ink dried in printhead(s). It uses sonic vibrations to loosen the ink. AFAIK the device costs far more that the cost of you used printhead(s).


      The lines and service station can be cleaned certainly, it's just a very dirty job, and labor intensive. The maintenance cartridge can just be tossed.

      You can just assume that anything with ink in it is going to harden up and be unusable. =^..^=
      If you'd like a serious answer to your request:
      1) demonstrate that you've read the manual
      2) demonstrate that you made some attempt to fix it.
      3) if you're going to ask about jams include the jam code.
      4) if you're going to ask about an error code include the error code.
      5) You are the person onsite. Only you can make observations.

      blackcat: Master Of The Obvious =^..^=

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        • JPiek
          Trusted Tech

          250+ Posts
          • Oct 2014
          • 435
          #3
          Re: Best Practices - Storing Ink, Printer, & Printheads

          There's only one correct way to save printer, printheads and cartridges : DON'T STORE them.

          Put them in a corner of your workspace and print a color document useing all colors from time to time. In the end it will cost you some cartridges, but it'll save your printheads and printer.

          This goes for ALL Inktjet bases printers, i never saw a used inktjet not dry up and ready for the bin after a couple of weeks. For private persons useing inktjets to litte it's the no.1 printer issue...
          Johan

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