Ink Cartridges dry up on seldom used printer, any ideas?

[ricardobrooks]

Hello,

I have a HP Deskjet printer for home use. It is the kind that uses the very small printer cartridges. I seldom print anything but since this is tax time I decided to print copies of my tax forms. As usual, the cartridge was dried up. Obviously it makes no sense to buy new cartridges each time I need to print something, yet I still feel I should have a printer. Any way to keep the cartridges from drying out? Are there some types of printers that have cartridges that don't dry out so easily?

Any help will be apprecited.

I didn't find the right solution from the Internet.

References:
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=160898
IT asset management software video

Thank you.

[patio]

They dry out cause it's seldom used...i take all ny print jobs to Big boc PC shops now via a USB stik...

[Term_ite]

If you own a car you change the oil every 6 Mos. or every 5000 miles. It's called preventive maintenance. Print a test page every week or 2. Same idea.

[Mark.]

I use Brother printers and around every 12hrs they do some sort of maintenance 'thing', they click and clunk for about 20secs then go back to sleep.
the one in my son's room has been idle for 18mths (he's overseas now) but I had to use it about 2 weeks ago and it printed just fine.

so +1 with you have to spin them up every now and then to keep it all fresh.
I read somewhere once that the rate at which an ink cartridge dries out is about the same as if you actually were printing a page a day, or week, or some such figure.

[patio]

It's actually faster i read...cause the ink is static and not moving....