They hold a lot of ink relatively far away from the printhead.

So even people who printed infrequently and flushed relatively often, usually broke the printer long before the reservoir filled up. Very little ink is needed to do a full flush. That's because in cartridge printers, the ink is right on top of the printhead - just millimeters away. In the past, this hardly ever came up as an issue. Of course, only a finite amount of ink can be absorbed. As you now know, it goes into a blotter or reservoir - something that has always been built into ink printers. Most people are aware that ink gets 'wasted' in this process - pigment that could be used on prints is instead thrown away and is a reason you might not get as many prints out of cartridges as otherwise hoped.īut, what most people don't think about is where does this wasted ink go? Obviously it's not leaving the printer, or you would have dripping mess. And the only available substance handy for flushing is the ink itself. (Toner doesn't have this problem.) The heads and lines have to be flushed of the clogs and gunk so everything can flow again. Fact of life as long as there have been ink printers. Ink drys when printers are unused, and if it dries in the printhead or lines it will clog. You are grappling with the symptoms, but you have to start by facing the underlying problem.