How do I keep my Lexmark printer cartridges from drying up? -

I don t use my printer everyday. The ink dries up and I have to buy new ones. I have tried to hydrate them, but it does not work. This is getting very expensive.

Lexmark, Dell (made by Lexmark), and Epson printers have a lot of trouble with their ink. If your ink waste is getting to much, it may be cheaper in the long run to purchase an HP.

hi, I am also using lexmark 4200 series and facing the same problem earlier. now what i did. i take 1 b/w and 1 color print ever 4th day. i take printouts just to save cartridegs.

its why lexmark printers are so inexpensive. cheep printers . but you have to buy the ink Laser printers are much cheaper in the long run

Run a print head cleaning once every three weeks as a preventative measure.. This will use a small amount of ink, however prevent dryness so it is well worth it in the long run. This not only goes for Lexmark, but all inkjet printers. Cartridges drying out is inevitable if you don t use your printer.

Lexmark and Epson are notorious for this. I had an Epson and got rid of it. Go with an HP. They are high quality and you can shop around and get a good value. I bought a B/W and Color printer which is also a scanner and a copier for $99 at Best Buy. It has been great!!

It s recommended that you use in the printer in some way at least once a month, whether that s a head cleaning or just printing something. Using the printer regularly is the only way to prevent them from drying out - there really isn t any tricks that will help you. What do you mean when you say you tried to hydrate them? If it is just a matter of them getting dried out, then you should be able to solve that problem by soaking the cartridges. If they are only a little dried out, you can put the print head (the copper part) on a wet paper towel for a few seconds. If they are more than a little dried out, you can soak the bottom portion in a tiny bit of water until you see ink flowing out.

If you live in dry conditions (low humidity) that can dry the cartidges up. Or not using or running the cleaning cycle for 2 weeks or more can dry them up. Printing 1000 flyers will dry them up (My Epson Stylus 800 used almost 6 cartridges for 5,000 color flyers for a missing son, for this couple. Luckily they paid for the ink and made enough to pay off the printer in one day.) For preventative measures, I will wrap the cartridge in aluminum foil and place it in my refridgerator. If you leave them in for more than 24 hours, give it about an hour to quot;thawquot; out since the ink has the consistency of maple syrup when first taken out. But it works. However, HP is far superior to Lexmark. Even my HP 630c printer (which was $30 at KMart) lasted 3 years of heavy use before it crapped out on me. On the slow months, never had an issue with ink drying up.

I don t know if this would work or not, but try wrapping it in a medium sized plastic trash bag and put a wet sponge in with it and keep it sealed when not in use. This will keep the air inside slightly moisturized and could prevent the ink from drying out. Simply pull the bag down around the printer when using it and re-wrap when done. Re wet the sponge as needed.