No matter what your print habits are, there are simple steps you can take to prevent printer ink drying up. We suggest using your printer regularly so that its ink cartridges do not dry out.
People are using the printer less and the less the cartridges are used, which causes laser printers to run out of ink faster than their recommended times. This not only causes problems to your toner cartridge drying out, it also causes problems for your printer as not using something for long makes the thing not useful. Using your printer less makes the printer run in a bad way, as well as, your toner cartridges begin to dry out, and eventually, once it has been used a long time, the toner would be dried out and you would need to get new ones for your printer.
Unfortunately, poor maintenance and storage causes your inkjet cartridges to quickly dry out — this is a situation that is wasteful of money and could cause you to have to buy new printer cartridges too frequently. Infrequent use of your inkjet cartridges could result in the ink within them drying out, creating a clog between the ink and the tip of the printhead. The sad fact is, inkjet cartridges do dry out over time, and if you are not careful, yours may be drying out well before you print as many pages as the manufacturer says you will.
In fact, it does not matter whether you are using a high-end printer or not, the stock cartridges start to dry out after only a few weeks. Once installed in the printer, the ink may start drying as fast as 3-4 weeks if left unused in the printer. Printer ink begins to dry out after sitting in the printer for only a few weeks, so be aware of that.
Replace cartridges as soon as you need them, rather than hoarding unspent ink on shelves that could be drying out before you need to use it. Of course, the ink is designed for printing jobs, so do not be afraid to pop a cartridge if you need one.
It would cost you around $540 to print 6 of these using an inkjet printer — that is, assuming you are not going to wind up throwing out the ink cartridges that are drying up on you. Another difference between an inkjet and laser printer is that with an inkjet printer, you just need the ink cartridges to print, whereas for a laser printer, you need the toner cartridges and the drum assembly. The biggest difference between ink and toner is likely that each works with a different kind of printer.
Cartridges for a laser printer will print thousands of pages before you run out of toner, while an ink tank printer has larger reservoirs of ink, so can print far more pages than standard inkjets. For Epson and Canon ink tank printers, you use refills from an ink bottle rather than a cartridge, and a single refill from an ink bottle can print around 6,000 pages. Even those laser printers that can manage the highest-quality colors for photo printing need special photo paper designed specifically for the laser printer in order to accomplish this, making it far less convenient than using regular photo paper in an inkjet.
With the prices and sizes of laser printers right now, I would suggest no one buys an Inkjet again ever (budget-wise, obviously, these are still slightly pricier short-term). Laser printers are more expensive up front compared to inkjets, and they use pricey toner cartridges, but in the long term, they are still the more economical choice due to their generally lower per-page costs, faster printing speeds. When buying a toner cartridge, then try and ensure that you are using it before it expires and if storing it, try and ensure you are storing it correctly, this will extend the life of the laser printers ink.