Two printer questions - remaining ink and cartridge detection.

that

JohnB47 wrote: »

Curious. Can you describe the location of the ink window?

Full


VS empty


From https://support.brother.ca/app/answers/detail/a_id/84512/~/how-do-i-clear-the-message-replace-ink---cannot-print-from-my-brother

JohnB47

Sorry to resurrect this slightly old thread but I'm now thinking I need to change the magenta cart now.

So my current question is this - do I wait for my printer to say 'XXX ink empty, replace cartridge now' or some such message or do I replace it now that I'm getting a 'printer ink low' message (on my PC) when I print something? The 'low' message doesn't specify a colour of ink but if I check the ink level on the printer it shows magenta as empty.

The on - line help says (the highlight is mine):

"Your Brother machine is equipped with an ink dot counter. The ink dot counter automatically monitors the level of ink in each of the four cartridges. When the machine detects an ink cartridge is running out of ink, the machine will display a message.

The LCD displays which ink cartridge is low or needs replacing. Be sure to follow the LCD prompts to replace the ink cartridges in the correct order.

Even though the machine tells you to replace an ink cartridge, there will be a small amount of ink left in the ink cartridge. It is necessary to keep some ink in the ink cartridge to prevent air from drying out and damaging the print head assembly."

It also says:

"DO NOT take out ink cartridges if you do not need to replace them; this may reduce the ink quantity and the machine will not know the quantity of ink left in the cartridge."

Should I be waiting for the machine to "display a message".

that

it is the kind of question you get to know by using the printer, and the type or work you do.

if you think you have enough ink and can pint a page, then keep the inks in. if you think the ink will run a partial way though, and you will be wasting the other inks on that partial page, then makes sense to change it beforehand.

Most likely every time you remove the ink, it will perform a prime cycle which in some cases claims to use 25% of the ink in the cartridge. In this case it is better not to pull it out

JohnB47

that wrote: »

it is the kind of question you get to know by using the printer, and the type or work you do.

if you think you have enough ink and can pint a page, then keep the inks in. if you think the ink will run a partial way though, and you will be wasting the other inks on that partial page, then makes sense to change it beforehand.

Most likely every time you remove the ink, it will perform a prime cycle which in some cases claims to use 25% of the ink in the cartridge. In this case it is better not to pull it out

Thanks.

I was just wondering if anyone had the same printer or similar as mine (Brother DCP-J4120DW) and can say whether the printer will actually produce a message telling me to change the cartridge.

Or, as you say just wait 'till it starts missing bits on the printout - which seems the wrong way to go. Firstly, I could be throwing away ink and secondly, I could be letting the heads go dry and waste ink running cleaning cycles.

So the question remains - will my printer tell me that a certain cart needs changing - and maybe even stop printing until it is changed?

Neil_Jones

Ink Low basically means prepare to change it.
Printers will not print anything when a cartridge is totally empty (a handful can try to be clever and use the other cartridge(s) as a stopgap solution but the success of this depends on what you're printing).

JohnB47

Well, I'm answering my own question now. Since doing nothing after getting the 'ink level low' message, today I saw the printer showing a red X and saying 'replace yellow toner'. So the printer does say when to change the ink.

Having said that, the replacement went fine - no message as before saying 'did you replace the yellow ink cartridge?' and actually the old cartridge is still half full! What a blooming con.

The next time I need to change yellow, I might cover the little window mentioned in an earlier post - although the cart is not the same design as shown.