If you own a printer at home, you know that at some point, you will have to replace your ink cartridge. If the printer is an important appliance in your home office, then it is crucial that you know when to replace it with a cheap ink cartridges. Here are some tips that can help you determine whether you need it replaced or not.
Check Ink Levels on Printer’s Display
If you are not sure, you can always check the printer cartridge levels on the machines’ monitoring screen. You can go to the ‘maintenance’ section on its display screen. Most printers these days have a monitoring system on the display screen that will help you track the ink or toner levels. If you see that a particular color is running low, then you can proceed to the next step.
Run A Test Print
The print quality will break down the ink levels of each of the cartridges. So when you will run a print test, your printer will be printing a color sample for each cartridge. And with this, you will be able to tell which one needs to be replaced. To start the test, you can find it under the ‘maintenance’ selection of the printer display. If you do not have that, you can also access this through the software you downloaded when you installed the printer.
Run Printhead Cleaning (Inkjet Printer)
If you have an inkjet printer, you can run a printhead cleaning. Sometimes if you have not printed for a while, the ink just needs to be primed and this can be fixed with a printhead cleaning. If you have not done this before, you can check your manual for the exact process. It will only take a couple of minutes and once it’s complete, then you can try to print again. To avoid using so much of the ink, just do the printhead cleaning once or twice.
Prime Laser Printer Cartridge
If you own a laser printer, priming it is a different process from the inkjet printers. It does not usually have an option to run a cleaning through the display screen because these machines use toner instead of ink. So if you have not been using your printer for some time now, remove the cartridge from the printer and give it a gentle shake a couple of times. This will redistribute the toner powder inside. Make sure to do this over a trashcan to avoid some toner powder splatter. Then reinstall the cartridge and start printing again. This will usually fix the problem for laser printers.
You have to remember that every printer is different. Some printers will warn you in advance if the toner or ink is low with its flashing light. And there are others who will not give you any warning. If you are not sure which printer you have, check your users’ manual. This way, you can be assured that you know when to check if the printer is running out of ink or if you need to replace the cartridge soon.
