Time to replace ink Carts?

and that's when you replace the cartridge and hit the print button again. There's no need to replace it when the ink is just low but, rather, I'd consider the warning as a need to stop by and pick up a new cartridge and have it handy. Much will depend on how many pages you print over time or if you print in large batches occasionally. I'd never stock up on cartridges just because the office supply store is giving a few bucks off on weekend special. You may end up with your printer dying and be stuck with several cartridges you've paid for but cannot use. Just keep one spare. If you print enough to use a cartridge monthly, go get a new one right after replacing the old.

I guess running a cart dry won't harm the printer. Thanks for the help, guys.

~Dave

Continued firing of a empty inkjet nozzle will damage it. The ink cart becomes useless or simply truly disposable. If you're still using the ink cart, missing ink dots will appear and/or dropout or lessen merging of inks for best outcome. Modern inkjet printers are no longer true monochrome when placed into that mode. The color side still outputs just to keep those ink pathways, "freshen" otherwise non-use maybe clogged or repeated cleaning cycles be done.

As for replacement, you have time to run out and get other ink carts. As you noticed you still get some ink output for sometime, but don't expect this to last. Frankly, you've been warned of pending low ink status. You won't damage the printer, its the ink cart(HP and others) that gets effected. I suggest, if you use the photo-printer for alot of photos don't push it during this low ink status as you may find you'll be out of ink before its finished. Photo output places the most demand and usually gobbles ink like crazy.

tada -----Willy

....has 5 cartridges. Two black, one of them photo black. (Don't know the difference.) Then the other 3 are magenta, cyan, and yellow. I'm not really concerned with harming the carts, I just don't want to harm the printer. My main question was about the timeliness of the low ink warning. It seems to be very early, seemingly to stampede one into replacing the cart ASAP. But, maybe I'm just too paranoid. LOL!

Another peeve of mine with this printer is that anytime the printer is shut completely down, it has to print an alignment page when it is powered up again.

On the positive side, it is completely wireless. It has to be operated through my wireless router. And this thing works perfectly. I really like using this printer.

Thanks very much,

~Dave

You have a photo printer thus the need for alignment. You'll see the difference if it was out of alignment and a waste of ink to boot. The two blacks, probably one is more "archival" for photo demands. The other more text output or simpler black output, IMHO.

Since, inkjets offer color that's their main selling point plus being at your local desktop. Understand, in the days of the 1st inkjet the HP100, it was simple, black only(10mm), slow but offered to provide output locally and "quietly" fairly quickly when compared to a dot matrix popular at the time. Now, newer inkjets are fast, photo quality, great color, great ink quantity, different papers, and overall still cheap to buy maybe not operate. adios -----Willy

It's an HP - any damage caused by the ink "drying out" is dumped in the bin when the new cart and print head is installed.
With Epson printers - I'd try to avoid running them completely dry to avoid the endless purging to get ink back to the heads, which wastes all the other colours as it purges them all. But with HP - I just let it run dry. The most you'll loose is a sheet of paper when it fails to print properly. Unless you are printing lots of sheets at a time, the "replace" warning is probably time enough to order a new cartridge.

Like jrep, I wait until I see broken lines, characters or missing colors to replace my cartridges. I have a Canon F20 printer, and before that had another Canon and an HP. With all, the low ink warning happens way before these symptoms appear with plenty of time to get a new cartridge, and I don't think there is any harm done to the printer in waiting until you see poor print quality. But at that point, replace the cartridge promptly.

Cartridges have limited shelf life even sealed in their packages, so you don't want to buy them too far ahead of time before you'll use them. Six months is a good rule of thumb, but of course this depends on how much printing you do and the age of the cartridge when you buy it.

Ink-jet printers seem so inexpensive considering all they do. I suspect the printer manufacturers make a whole lot more $$ on the cartridges, kind of like the razor manufacturers do. Cheap nice razor, and they make the main money on replacement blades. I don't blame them and I am certainly not bashing Canon or HP or for that matter, Gillette. Smart business models, although not always good for the consumer.

I think the printer manufacturers err on the side of telling people to "replace your cartridge" sooner rather than later. A lot of people probably do that, even when the cartridge is still good for a bunch of prints.