How to Verify Ink Left in Cartridges

**mbauer** · #1 06-28-2010, 12:48 PM

Hi,

Just ran out of a tri-color ink cartridge. Replaced it and at the same time decided to check how much was left in the black.

Surefire way to determine? Weigh the ink cartridge when it is new. Then weigh it again when it is empty.

Also mark the cartridge with the date you installed it.

The above steps help troubleshoot, if the ink stops flowing. It can save you big Dollars!

Lets say you installed a black ink cartridge 3-months ago. All of a sudden it stops printing. You check the date and know that it should last another two-months. So, after weighing you determine it still has ink in it.

At this stage I usually soak th ecartridge overnite in water. If this doesn't work, don't throw it away!!!!

Install a new cartridge and when it is empty transfer the ink from the non-working one to the one that does.

This can be done with the tri-color cartridges that run out of one color, but the other two still have levels...

Hope this helps with future printing issues...!

Best regards,
Mike Bauer

**Kaz** · #2 06-28-2010, 02:17 PM

good tip there.
One more that I was taught many moons ago...
If you have a blocked printer head, DONT do a nozzle clean, this just uses all the colour inks and is very wasteful.
What you need to do is do the head pattern test, decide which colour is not printing, aand write a paragraph document in that colour either Red Yellow Cyan or Black, and print it IN BEST QUALITY, this makes smaller droplets which will force out the blockage! This keeps all the other colours unused. Worked for me nearly every time

**NimitzFan** · #3 06-28-2010, 02:25 PM

Personally, I just use the Printer's message that it is out of ink to ensure that I have a spare cartridge. I never replace any ink cartridge until it starts printing badly. There have been cases where I had more than a month's ink remaining.

**hancocp** · #4 06-28-2010, 03:45 PM

Don't forget that most carts contain a chip that dictates how much ink has been used. Cheap replacements ask you to re-use the chip, good quality ones have a new chip onboard. The same chips are used in laptop batteries for charge/discharge cycle counting. A failed chip can stop the printer using the cart no matter how full it is.

bagpiper · #5 06-28-2010, 04:48 PM

Nice tip Mike. Sadly I am the sort who would lose the weight or forget to check it. I tend to go with keeping it until the print out starts looking bad before replacing the cartridge. But your tips are great money savers for sure.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers
Jim

**Kaz** · #6 06-28-2010, 11:54 PM

For those of you who are lucky/unlucky to have an Epson printer look here SSC Service Utility for Epson Stylus Printer.
A wonderful tool to reset your printer counter to zero, so you dont have to stop printing when the 'drip tray' is full, just make sure you have replaced it! And how to reset the chip on the cartridge to allow you to use the remains of the ink Epson doesn't want you to use

**mbauer** · #7 06-29-2010, 12:36 AM

Wow, Thank Kaz!

Never thought of doing the paragraph and color cleaning. DId notice that if it seems to be drying up that the best mode would clear things up, now I know why!

Thank you to all for the interest/comments.!

Best regards,
Mike Bauer

**NimitzFan** · #8 06-29-2010, 01:06 PM

When I change print cartridges - the first thing I do is a Print Test. On my HP's, that gives you a page count. Then I label it with the date and the mfg of the new cartridge and throw the page into a folder. That helps me track usage. I suppose I could use a spreadsheet, but that is too much like work. Still I was greatly surprised to find that some refills are absolutely terrible with respect to how long they last.

**altomentis** · #9 08-06-2010, 11:28 AM

One of the reasons we chose our Canon printer is that there are separate ink cartridges for each color, that way we don't have to replace all the colors when we run out of magenta.

Christine

**mbauer** · #10 08-15-2010, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaz

good tip there.
One more that I was taught many moons ago...
If you have a blocked printer head, DONT do a nozzle clean, this just uses all the colour inks and is very wasteful.
What you need to do is do the head pattern test, decide which colour is not printing, aand write a paragraph document in that colour either Red Yellow Cyan or Black, and print it IN BEST QUALITY, this makes smaller droplets which will force out the blockage! This keeps all the other colours unused. Worked for me nearly every time

Hi Kaz,

Just had to use your tip today! It really works great!

Thank you for saving my day! Cyan went south and the new cartridge refused to print cyan or yellow. Took two pages but got them going!

I buy old original ink cartridges off of eBay. The one I had to use this technique on was dated 1998, 12-years old and it works great! It sure didn't at first though.

Thank you! Thank you! Now back to model building.

Best regards,
Mike Bauer