PacificInk has a very interesting article about a problem that shows up sometimes when refilling cartridges. People call us up and say that they just refilled their cartridge and installed it and already it’s giving them white lines. This doesn’t mean that something went wrong in the refilling process; it just means that the full amount of ink isn’t coming out like it should.

A common cause of this problem is people refilling old cartridges. If you take an ink cartridge out of printer and leave it out for more than a few days, it’s going to start to dry out. If you leave it out for a couple of weeks or months, it’s definitely going to dry out. So then if you refill one of these cartridges, you are going to be getting prints like you would if the cartridge was running out of ink. Since you just refilled it, obviously the problem isn’t because there’s no ink in there, it’s because the ink that is in there can’t get through the nozzles. For this problem, we usually recommend soaking the cartridge.

The other thing that could be causing white lines or streaks in your prints from a refilled cartridge is the condition of that cartridge. All cartridges wear out eventually, and when they do, they start performing like empty cartridges. A lot of inkjet cartridges can be refilled up to 10 times, but on average it is more like three or four refills per cartridge. The print head of the cartridge is very fragile, and eventually it will either get scratched or worn out. Otherwise, another part of the cartridge like the nozzles will wear out and your prints will deteriorate. While it’s unfortunate that you can’t just keep refilling cartridges forever, if you take care of them and if you don’t let them get dried out, they should last you a pretty long time.

Via PacificInk.