Storing Expensive Printers

[leon]

Hi Guys, as you know we are moving, storing stuff, and the general house thing, could some one please advise me on how to store printers.

Dose one take out the ink, or leave it in, and how sensitive are they and the ink pads to changing temps.

We would have to store a couple of our printers for a lenghty time.

Would these machine dry up in time, the pads and the cartariges that is.

Many thanks.

Leon

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

In all, after use the printer cannot be easily stored, either removing the ink or not will dry up. Mostly though it will dry up in the ink head. You might be able to store it for a short time but for how long not sure.

I have a printer that I have left sitting for a while now and I intend to see if I can resurrect it in the next few days and will see if I can report how well it did.

I always use refill ink as it saves an enormous cost on ink.

[leon]

Thanks Malcolm, yea mate i'm not sure on this sort of stuff either, and can see, if left to long in storage and different temps, especially Summer time it would eventually stuff up the ink.

Thank You.
Leon

[Octane (Humayun)]

Hi Leon,

I'm no expert, but, I don't think the ink will dry up.

However, the print heads may require a deep clean (usually quite easy to do from within the printing software). This process usually empties a bit of the cartridge and will ensure proper ink flow to the heads.

H

[Jaybee (John)]

Leon
The ink WILL dry up in the print head if the printer is stored for a period of time. You may notice that if you haven't printed for a while, you will have to do a head clean. This is because the microscopic holes in the head have crusty lumps of dry ink in them. Leave it for long enough, and those crusty bits will extend through the whole print head and into the delivery chamber.
At this point it is highly unlikely you will clear it with a Head clean.
The only way to safely store the printer is to remove the cartridges, place some sellotape over the exit hole (Wipe it clean first), and also over the breather hole on top of the cartridge. Then seal it in a glad(or similar) zip lock bag. Then you need a Wetting Solution (May be available from an ink reseller) Using a syringe with a thin plastic tube, place the tube over the pointy ink inlet (This is the thing that punctures the exit hole of the ink Cartridge) VERY gently push the wetting solution through the heads until it runs clear. Forgot to mention, you will need to have the heads in the middle of the printer, (Unlocked) and a sheet of plastic under the heads, with something to soak up the solution as it runs down the plastic.
You will need to repeat this with each head. I.E. if its a 4 colour printer, you will need to do it 4 times, 6 colours, 6 times, etc. Once done slide the head back to its normal park position, Cover the printer and your done.
You can now safely store it for a long time. When you fire it back up, you will have to do a couple of head cleans to prime the heads again. Don't forget to take the sellotape of the cartridges.
The other option is give the printer to a family member who can run it once a week for you (even if its just a nozzle check) to keep the heads wet. This is what I would do, because the other option can get real messy. I have to do this to my industrial printer when we close down over christmas, but I have the advantage that I can raise the heads up to 100mm above the platen, so I just put a tray under the heads and flush them out, so not as messy.

Hope you have a great time touring!

[leon]

Thanks Guys, for your imput, Like your idea John, and will give it a try.

Leon

[acropolite (Phil)]

Leon it would be worth checking the manual, they often have storage instructions inside, although a better alternative may be to sell and buy again when you need a printer.

[leon]

Not such a silly idea Phil, I did consider that actually.

Leon

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

I have resurected a few printers with badly dried up heads by standing the heads in a bowl of cleaning solution for a day or two and squirting a little into the cartridge area. Windex has been known to work too at a push for ones which are not so bad, but steer clear of metho, etc, can do nasty things to the plastic as my mate found out to his cost.