Ink drying up in printer

[TommyMM]

The problem here is HP lying.

From another post where a guy changed his cartridges after a few months of printer beeing idle, supposedly because the cartridges was dryed out.
The employee told this:

Spoiler

The printer will show that there is ink in the cartridges if it is not empty. If you do not use the printer for more than a month, the ink near the nozzles will dry up and block further flow of ink. Hence, it will not print.

Henceforth, if you are not using the printer for a month, then remove the cartridges and keep it in a zip lock bag or a plastic container and then install it when you are printing.

Feel free to ask your queries in future as this forum has some of the best people in the world available and ready to help.

You have a good day ahead.

Rainbow23
I am an HP Employee

But that is not true.
First of all, the printers closes for the cartridges so they don't dry out as fast.
Second, usually you do not have to replace them simply follow the guides to make them flow again.
Third, if nothing land on the paper, it is very unlikely that is is dry ink.

It is rather HP that detect you have not used the printer for a while and make it refuse to print.
I have an HP printer here. Used a few times and put away for 4 years.
Ink is coming out of cartridges, alot, but nothing hits the paper.
I replace with cartridges, not used but installed though, in another malfunctioning hp printer, that decided to never turn on again.
Again ink flows but never hit the paper. 
There can be only one explanation. HP does not allow the cartridge to print.

Do not say it is dry ink, when it can not possibly be the reason, when no ink hit the paper !
Especially if you have not adviced to try and make ink flow again, to see if it actually is the problem.

[Valsimot]

What is your printer model?

Ink dries in the printhead. 

Some printers have printhead on the ink cartridge, and some printers have ink cartridge separated from the printhead.

If you have a printer model that has separated ink cartridge from the printhead in that case ink flow from the ink cartridge doesn't help you much, you can replace 10 cartridges with the good flow if the ink is dried in the printhead.

Putting away an inkjet printer of any manufacturer for 4 years is not recommended. 

[TommyMM]

The employee say the ink will dry in less than a month.
If that is true, printers are simply build too lazy.
In my case, I had the ink flow from printhead, but actually it was dried too far in, to keep the flow running.
Still, when the printhead is wet, there should at least be a spot or stripe on the paper.
In the past, even dry ink made a spot on the paper, as long it was still on the printhead.

If a wet printhead can not leave a spot on the paper, how can the problem be dry ink.?

[Valsimot]

What is your printer model?

Ink dries when in contact with air, that's why ink ( thin layer) is dried within a few seconds when printed on paper.

[TommyMM]

I have a few.
The 4 year I got in from my neighbor, is a Deskjet 1050.
It clearly has air blockers on the printhead.
So ink is isolated from air whenever not printing.
Either that system is not good enough or the employee did not know of this, since he recommends to take out the cartridges and put them in a bag. even if only for a month untill next use.

In a plastik bag there will be air when closed. Så ink will dry quite a bit.
The air blockers in the printer should be able to block way more air out.

If you wish to see these blocker. Turn off your printer and open to the cartridges.

[TommyMM]

Mr. Valsimot does it matter what printer. ink dries the same. If it is HP ink or cheap ink. sitting in a HP printer or any other.
We are not talking about 1 printer here. We are talking about all printers with ink.
Do you take out cartridge to avoid it drying, and put it in a plastikbag.
Should it be nescessary to do that in a cartridge printer for a few months offline.

No it should not, actually it should be worse to do that.

[Valsimot · Accepted solution]

Different ink dries in a different time period. Better printers have a maintenance cycle to prevent ink drying.

Small home printers are protected with caps from drying for a few days of being unused, not several months.