Like many home and professional users, I rely heavily on my printer for high-quality prints. Recently, I noticed some minor streaks appearing on my prints. Following standard maintenance, I ran the cleaning routine, which thankfully resolved the issue. Curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to inspect my printer more closely. Opening the top cover for the first time in a year, I was surprised to find the foam strip inside completely saturated with ink.
Concerned, I carefully removed the foam strip and began dabbing it with cloths to absorb the excess ink. I then used cotton swabs to clean the area beneath it. Considering I had printed over 1500 prints, mostly larger sizes like 13×19 and 17×22, and used around 60 ink cartridges in the past year alone, I was worried this ink saturation was a problem.
To ease my mind, I contacted a printer technician to inquire about the saturated foam strip. He informed me that the foam strip sits above the waste ink cartridge and that its saturation was completely normal. He explained that a cause for concern would only arise if streaks appeared on the back of printed pages.
He also mentioned that my efforts to blot the foam strip were unnecessary. According to the technician, a common mistake leading to excessive ink consumption is forgetting to adjust printer settings when switching between different paper types. Specifically, leaving the setting on ‘heavyweight art paper’ when printing on glossy paper is a significant error.
Interestingly, I shared an observation with him that he found new. I’ve noticed a tendency for the blue and cyan ink cartridges to clog more frequently than others. Typically, I need to clean these specific cartridges about every six weeks when I spot a faint streak on the right side of the print. Performing selective nozzle cleaning helps conserve ink.
Lastly, it’s worth noting that the CO (Cyan-Optimized or Composite Output, depending on the printer model) cartridge tends to deplete about twice as fast as the other color cartridges. I’ve learned to order these in pairs to avoid running out unexpectedly.
Hopefully, these insights based on my experience and the technician’s advice will be helpful for other printer users!
