One of our regular very happy customers called today for some advice. Her colour ink cartridge was empty in her Epson printer, but she didn’t need to print for a while so she had taken the empty cartridge out of the machine and thrown it in the bin. She was asking if it was OK to leave the printer without the cartridge for a couple of weeks. Our advice is pretty well standard on this every time…
This is a no-no on Epson printers!
Removing your old empty cartridge and not replacing it with a new cartridge immediatly runs the risk of nozzle blockage. Because inks dry with contact with air, any remaining ink in the print head area may dry out and cause a blockage. This will result in one or more colours not printing out when you do finally replace the cartridge, a banding or streaking effect may appear on the printed page. The common mistake is to think the new cartridge is faulty. 9 times out 10 a simple print head clean will fix the problem, however your printhead may be permanentely blocked.
Always have a new cartridge to hand ready to put into your Epson printer when the old one runs out. This will keep your printhead from drying out or clogging.