How long do Ink cartridges last?

[DiggerBrian]

I have a Photosmart premium 309 g-m printer that is trying to tell me that my ink cartriges are near empty even though they have had very little use. I bought genuine HP cartridges, fitted them, all worked well at first but now several months later - empty! What is going on here, no way have I USED that ink. The same happened with the set that came with the printer. I even put a 364XL black in and that has now failed completely. Does not using the printer much at all over several months result in the ink evaporating, drying out leaking out or what?

When I put the 364XL black in I left the old standard 364 black out altogether but the printer gave error messages so I fitted the old one back in thinking it would use the new XL version - is there any way of checking this? Gratefull for any help here.

[Ciara_B]

Hi DiggerBrian

There's some info in the link below that may help. You could try using the Fastdraft option in the print settings.

Ink usage in inkjet printers

When you say the printer gave you error messages, what were they? FYI, there's info in the link below re. the change to the 364xl Black.

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02750681

Hope this helps

Ciara

[DiggerBrian]

Hi Ciara, Thanks for your reply and the links. I thought I was joking when I suggested the ink evaporates but according to the first link - it does! This together with the ink used in servicing the heads and cleaning the heads and the extra used for these things with infrequent use of the printer  might go some way to explain the apparent 'disappearance' of the ink from my cartridges after printing so few sheets over several months. I still find this amazingly bad value for money. It would be interesting to see how long the cartridges last with little or no use compared with heavy use, I guess about six months in both cases which represents a sort of built in timed obsolescence.

many Thanks for your help, I'll keep working on this until I'm absulutely sure neither my use of the printer or the printer iteslf are defective.

Brian.

[DiggerBrian]

Sorry Ciara, missed the bit about the error messages - basically if I remove the standard 364 black cartridge (which is the original one that came with the printer and is probably empty now) I get a message telling me it is either broken or missing and nothing prints until I replace it. After I'd replaced the original cartridges with new ones (except the standard black which I thought I would not need using the 364 XL instead) everything was fine to start with, I just assumed the printer was using the XL black and just wanted the standard (empty) black for comfort!?

I'm a bit confused now as to what to buy - 4 standard cartridges alone or with a XL black as well. I don't see the point of the XL if I have to use a standard black anyway to get the printer to work at all, especially as they are all going to run out after 6 months whether I use them or not.

Thanks again for your help so far, Brian.

[stokley]

I have been using inkjet printers ever since they come out and have had the same problem. My cartridges go dry on average about every six months regardless of how much I use it. I have tried the cheapest and the best and there is no difference. The price that they charge for the ink, I do not know why they do not give the printers away. My present print has 1 black and 3 color. I never use color, but after using 2 black it quit printing because it was out of color.