Epson ink about to expire

[Pindy]

I've read older threads here that seem to indicate that expiring ink is fine to use, sometimes with a little agitation. I have a complete set of 3880 ink that says best before 5/12 that likely won't get installed till summer sometime. Is this still the conventional wisdom?

[BarbaraArmstrong]

I would agitate every cartridge before installing.  I shake mine 12 times vertically and 12 times horizontally before installing them.  It's just a little routine that makes sure they're agitated.  I have some 3880 cartridges that will expire soon because I bought them after the Japanese quake a year ago, not feeling certain about a continuity of supply,  and I'm not worried about them.  --Barbara

[Schewe]

Even friends at Epson explain that as long as nothing "unusual" have happened to the ink carts (extreme heat or deep freeze count as unusual) unopened ink carts are fine past their "expiration date". The thing that is sorta important however is once opened and installed, you don't want to go too far past 6-8 months once installed.

In either case, gentle (no hard shaking) is suggested...

[wheatcraft]

Jeff -

When you say "don't go far past 6-8 months after installing", do you mean 6-8 months past expiration, or 6-8 months after installation?

Steve Wheatcraft

[Schewe]

When you say "don't go far past 6-8 months after installing", do you mean 6-8 months past expiration, or 6-8 months after installation?

No...I'm saying that once installed into the printer (regardless of the ink's expiration date) you should try to use up the ink in 6-8 months. It's the act of installing the ink that sets a clock in motion...an uninstalled ink cart in the original packaging can last a lot longer and past the expiration date.

[wheatcraft]

Jeff -
Thanks, this is really useful information. I had suspected this, as I had a bunch of old (pretty far past expiration) carts that had been in the printer for a very long time (much more than 6-8 months). I was getting a lot of clogging issues. And so I bit the bullet and replaced them ALL at the same time with new carts. And now clogging issues have been greatly reduced.

Steve Wheatcraft

[BarbaraArmstrong]

I would appreciate hearing a knowledgeable commentary (Jeff, please, maybe, or someone else) on the difference and benefits of gentle versus vigorous.  These carts are so small that gentle would be pretty lackadaisical.  Coming from a cooking background (and other experiences -- I'm not that limited), I use gentle to put air into a souffle.  More vigorous for pretty much everything else.  So, if there is no air in the cartridges, what are we doing?  If, as I would imagine, we are trying to achieve an even distribution and suspension of particulates in a liquid base, how is it that gentle accomplishes that?  I would enjoy being enlightened.  Thanks in advance. --Barbara

[Schewe]

A gental rocking motion back and forth is preferred...what you don't want to do is shake the carts to the point the ink gets bubbles of foam.

[BarbaraArmstrong]

Jeff, thanks for the reply. --Barb

[AFairley]

Jeff, any insight as to the reason to use up carts within 6 to 8 months of installing?  I had thought the collective non-Epson opinion was that a year or year and a half was fine.  Just curious if you have any inside information from Epson.

[Farmer]

It's hugely environment and usage dependant, so there's really no single answer, which is why you get the conservative numbers from the manufacturer and those who are speaking in general terms.

[Schewe]

...which is why you get the conservative numbers from the manufacturer and those who are speaking in general terms.

Correct...as shown in wheatcraft's post above, using old carts can cause a variety of issues...once a cart is installed, it's no longer hermetically sealed. Old ink sitting in a printer for a long time without use and consumption only gets worse over time–never better. I really don't worry about the expiration date on ink carts, but I do (usually) right down the date I install the ink on the side of a cart. Over time I've found that really old carts tend to cause more clogging that newer carts. Note, when I get a nozzle clog I remove the ink cart and check the date. I'll also gently rock the ink cart back and forth before returning it to the print and doing a nozzle check and cleaning. If the date of installation is getting "long in the tooth" I tend to replace it...but that's just me. It's one reason that bigger ink carts aren't better...that's why I get 150ml carts for most colors but get 350ml for the colors I go through more quickly–Photo K. LK and M–but that's for the 9900. I don't worry too much on the 4900.

[chrismurphy]

I'm actually not even sure why there's an expiration date on the ink cartridge packaging. The materials are not volatile. While printing ink isn't water (it is however mostly water), note that enough states mandate expiration dates on consumables, that we have such things as bottled water with expiration dates on them. So I'm kinda curious/suspicious that this might be some regulatory consequence than anything else.

[John Nollendorfs]

Having been in the ink business for a few years, I would like to clear up some misconceptions in this thread. Dye inks could conceivably last a long time, whether in the printer, or in the sealed package. Pigmented inks, like we are discussing, however are a totally different animal. Yes, they are mostly water, and the pigment loading is about 5 to 9%, depending on the color. But these pigments need to stay in suspension to give consistent and predicable results. The major brands (Epson, HP, Canon) strive in their formulations to keep the pigments suspended through their propriety formulations of glycols and co-solvents. But pigments do tend to coalesce forming  clumps or longer chains. These clumps can not be broken up just by shaking the cartridge. These clumps can cause nozzle clogging.

Aside from the coalescing of the pigments, you also face the problem of the pigments settling. This problem manifests itself when you notice inconsistencies in color balance. This settling can take place if the cartridges have not been agitated periodically. HP printers do an agitation cycle in the printer--one of the reasons HP recommends leaving the printer on all the time. I'm not sure if current Epson or Canon models have this capability also. Current Epson cartridges allow easy removal and re-insertion. If you have not made many prints, you should agitate your carts periodically. The ink can also settle in the print lines. These can hold 20-30 ml of ink each which is the equivalent of several 16x20 prints.

So yes, you need to be careful about using outdated ink carts, whether they are in a sealed package, or sitting in the printer. It is not a good plan to use ink much past it's expiration date. If your printer is capable of using different sizes of carts, you should pick the size that results in changing every 6-8 months or so, regardless of expiration date.

Ink jet printers like to be used. They don't respond well to long periods of sitting. Today's pigmented inks, have become a pretty mature product. But yes, there is a reason for that expiration date. Those inks need to go through a very "tuned" system of delivery, dealing with precision droplet delivery  1.5-10 pico liters in size. When those pigments settle, you will see problems of color consistency in printing. When the pigments coalesce, you can end up with clogged nozzles. (But this is not the only cause of nozzle clogs)

Bottom line, out dated ink, is outdated! whether in a sealed package, or in the printer. User beware. The longer outdated, the more likely you will end up damaging your print heads. Agitating the cartridge will only help with settling ink, not coalescing pigment particles.

[chrismurphy]

Shy of empirical data either way, it's speculation. Any anecdote is not a scientific sample, however, I've tested a wide range of inkjet printers and if anything, a new printer with new cartridges has more nozzle problems than after a "break in" period (let's say months). I've run with old ink well outside of 8 months post installation and over a year past expiration, including pigment inks, with no additional nozzle problems beyond what I consider expected. And I think I've measured a few color charts, such that if the deviation were that remarkable, I'd probably notice. But this is not a scientific sample. It's not particularly useful information, other than, I'm suspicious of the efficacy of an expiration date on any ink cartridge.

Granted, I've overwhelmingly tested Epson printers. And I do know that not all pigment inks are are constructed the same way molecularly. And the solvent varies as well, because of course the print head technologies differ rather radically, and that may be a contributing factor.

Buyer beware is very reasonable. I have here the PDF user manual for an Epson SP 7900, and the word "expiration" occurs twice in 238 pages, in the "solving problems" section, there is one solution to two problems: "colors incorrect or missing" and "print has gaps or appears faint." The solution is "Check the expiration date printed on each of the ink cartridges. If the cartridge is too old, replaced it as described on page XXX."

If we take this literally, we can't actually make a decision at all without assumption. However, funny enough, if one assumes the the user manual contains complete advice concerning the normal operation of the printer, including instances which users are likely to encounter, it seems quite OK to install an expired ink cartridge into a printer and continue to use it so long as you don't experience one of the problems listed. No where does it say, don't install expired ink cartridges. Or to remove them once expired. Only that if you're having a problem, and a cartridge is expired, one possible (of many) solutions is to replace expired cartridges.

Anyway, I find it to be sufficiently vague advise as to be almost meaningless.

Another note says "for best results, use up a cartridge with six months of opening the package." Accounting for the small typo, "with" exchanged for "within" it doesn't sound too dire.

I do have customers who keep some of their printers near windows and heat vents. They have more nozzle problems than I consider average. The temperature issue is also mentioned in the manual. Wait three hours minimum, when bringing an ink cartridge inside from a cold storage site. Curious wording, but I think it's reasonable that it has to do with temperature rather than temperature and internal or external location.