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I just ordered a CANON i850 printer.....I work at a computer store and I'll be leaving for college in a couple months. I can get the Generic ink from there at SUPER cheap ($3.99 CANADIAN) thats only $1.75US.....per cartridge.

So I would love to stock up......now hear comes my question

If i bought bulk ink and lets say some of them i never got to using until 2-3 years from now.....is there any safe way to store it so the ink wont dry out for that long???? Remember these will all be UN-OPENED....they have expiry dates and its only good for a year and a half...but i've heard if you put them in a glad bag in a freezer or something...i dunno....that they'll last longer....can someone help??????

I dunno, putting em in a frerezer? I'd think thered be enough ink in em to make em freeze, expand, and blow up the cartridge. But usual long-term storage of things like that probably apply, cool dark places.

I would not recommend stocking ink. Most ink only has a shelf life 6 months or so, and you never know how long it's been sitting in the store.

It's even worse with Canon printers because unlike HP the inkjets aren't replaced when you replace the cartridges (one reason I recommend HP - makes their carts slightly more expensive, but in the long haul you're better off replacing the inkjets each time you buy a cart). Once ink starts going bad it starts clotting up in the ink jet channels. If they get clogged real good on a printer with non-replaceable ink jets, you might as well throw the whole printer away.

Darn, this is the first time I think I disagree with FP on something

First of course the quality of the ink probably has something to do with how well it stores.
Years ago I bought Half quart bottles of each color, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. I am still using it today! At that time I was using a cannon Bj4100 printer, it had the 3 in one color tanks plus black. They fit into a removable cartrig which held the print head. Was $20 for the cannon color cartrig and $15 for the cannon black, or buy the new print head carrier and get both cartriges with it for $50. That was a cost of about $15 for the printhead. I replaced it about 4 or 5 times over the years, had the printer since about 1995 or 96. Printed many THOUSANDS of pages!!!

Today I still have some black ink left, almost half another and over half of two other colors. My cost for the ink was about $100 with tax at the time. I was spending that much in generic ink cartriges every 2 months or so, or per month when I had to buy Cannons!

Today I have refilled my cannon I850 quite a few times with the same ink! No problems as yet and the quality of the prints are as good as the original cartriges that came with the I850.

I have also refilled a Xerox (M750 I think it was) and several HP printers with the same ink including the kids Hp656c. This ink I bought was supposed to be for Cannon printers, not really generic, course that's what I was told but I realy don't know what it is or where it came from. Just a little Paper label on it like a diskette label. But it works great!

I lost the link, but a year or so ago I was e-mailing a ink dealer about buying bulk ink. I had the density of the inks for various printers he supplied me with. Seams there is a difference for various brands. The cannon inks are the same for a couple colors as the HP and pretty close to the other two in density. I can't tell the diffence using it though.

As for storage, now that you know the history of my INK
I have those large plastic bottles, a milky white plastic (not clear) and they sit in a small box on the floor where they won't be kicked over. Thats it! Nothing specail! As for refilling, I just open the bottle and take out the ink every time I refill, so it has been exposed to the air ALOT also. I am sure it would be better with such large bottles to fill smaller ones to refill from and just refill those when low. But I haven't done that, luckily so far I have not tipped one over

As for temps for storage. it is cold in the winter and HOT in the summer! I don't use air conditioning if I don't have too. It has been over 100f in the house many times, espicailly when we are traveling in the summer. The ink is cold sitting on the floor in a seldom used room durring the winter also. SO it has been CYCLED well temp wise. DON'T put it in a freezer or oven though! Ink is mostly water, or so it seems. Just keep the bottles closed when not in use and put them where they won't get knocked over. If your using cartriges, then don't open them till needed of course and if the factory sealed them properly you should not have any problems. Of course store away from direct sunlight also.

I haven't looked for a new print head for the I850 yet, but I am sure it comes out and can be replaced if you ever need too replace it. Just a little snap in carrier for the ink tanks with a print head built in I think, but haven't actually checked it. Haven't needed to worry about it yet, and I bought a second I850 for a spare I haven't opened yet. I DO ALOT OF PRINTING!

Any more I don't worry about the cost of a printer as long as it works great! What I look at is how easy I can refill the tanks with bulk ink! For me the cost of a printer is nothing compared to the cost of ink if I have to buy cartriges. Most people only go through a few cartriges a year supposedly looking at hardware hanks reviews and cost of lifetime operation figures supplied by the manufactorers. I do that much in a month or so!

As for HP, I had more problems with HP not working right than any other brand of printers I ever owned, including the old dot matrix 9 and 24 pin printers. I don't think I'd ever own another one myself.
Course these were the cheap Wallmart $50 Hp's, but still no reason for all the problems.

The cannon's seldom feed more than one sheet of paper, the Hp656 I gave my kid does it often! I can't even print a two sided manual because about 4 pages and then feed 2 or 3 sheets and they are out of order. Rarely have that problem with the cannon's. I use the same papers in both printers. Normally Great White. My HP632 jsut stopped working, even with a new HP cartrig. I can get it to print about 2 pages then it goes nuts and prints a line of code on every sheet of paper till I shut it off or it runs out of paper. Any version of windows or computer I have and new drivers, Hp still goes nuts.

I do buy cartriges ocasionally like when I get a new printer I will buy a spare or two for something to use till I refill the empties if it uses a different type than I already have.

The I850 is extremely easy to refill the tanks. Drill small hole in top, squirt ink the ink with a syringe, fill drilled hole with a dab of hot glue to seal well! Also cap off the bottom durring refilling so ink doesn't drip out. I use the break off caps the cartiges come with, just tape them back on tightly while I refill or hold in place with thumb. Check for drips before installing, if it drips you didn't seal it well and colors can bleed together, like blue into the red tank, like water seaking it's own level. If it happens sometime, just drian the ink out the bottom, or pull the glue out the hole you drilled and let it drip into a old cup. Or carefully blot with clean paper towel. I only had that problem with the first two I refilled. I used tape on those to seal and it did not work, but the hot lue does!!

Thanks for the posts.....

I still dont have a answer i'm looking for yet.....remember i'm trying to store CARTRIDGES....NOT bottled ink!!!!!

We disagree on more than one thing... I don't believe in refilling carts either

I go by my experiences. I have a lot of clients that have stored carts long term, and had problems with clogged jets.

Ink HAS gotten better in the past years, and it has a longer shelf life than it used to. Problem is sometimes that crap sits in a warehouse for a year before it gets sold.

WARNING: The previous statement is My Opinion. My Opinion is considered by some to be "full of hot air". In a small percentage of cases My Opinion has been known to cause mild side effects such as difficulty breathing, loss of appetite and stroke. In a very small percentage of men (less than 3 percent), My Opinion has been shown in the laboratory to cause loss of sex drive and hair loss. Pregnant women should avoid My Opinion because of the risk of a certain type of birth defect. Remember My Opinion is not a cure, but if used regularly it can alleviate most of the symptoms...

Personal experience with various brands, I think you can safely store them. But how long you gonna use that printer anyway??

Cartriges might be a bit different than bottled ink, but I refilled old cartriges too. If you know of people that had problems it could be the type of cartrig? I think the HPs I broke open and refilled used a packed cotton type packing to hold the ink. The 4100 cannon used more of a packed felt I think, then had a hard felt tip at the bottom of the cartrig to let the ink out, sort of like a filter.
Xerox M750 and I850 Cannon have the ink in a side of the cartrig in bulk liqiud, then it flows through a foam packing type material. Sort of like foamrubber.

The HP black tanks don't seem to have an actual packing inside, the ink is in liquid volume, when empty the tank is clear and you can see inside.

I think all the above is correct, though I haven't been refilling anything other than the Cannon I850 much lattely. Using it for almost everything now.

Perhaps durring storage the packing materials breakdown on some cartriges?? Maybe the foam rubber or cotton will lose fine particales as it ages or something and cause the jets to clog? I never had that problem myself though. Only time I have had any problems with print head clogging up is when an open cartrig sits for a long time unused. The ink dries out, but nearly always I soak the printhead in distilled alcohaul for while and the clog disolves and the head works like new. I don't use rubbing alcohaul, I use distilled pharmacy $6 a bottle alcohaul! i use it to manually clean the VCR heads also, especialy on the Beta VCR.

Otherwise I have used my old cartriges though for what seems like forever, just keep replacing the ink. I also try not to run them dry, I think that can burn out the heads.

I think the oldest HP cartrig is about 1 1/2 years old and still works ok. The Xerox printer died in less than a year and the I850 I only had a few months, so I cannot truely say how long or well those tanks store for real long times. The Xerox problem is a printer problem not ink or printhead related. Bad internal cable and needs to be RMA'd, just can't find the receipt. (should have registered that one)

The cannon 4100 I had for many years never had clogged jet problems either, and some of those cartriges were really old! Print heads would burn out over time it seamed, sometimes I would turn on the printer and it just beep and flash error message with the LEDS. Pop in new head and all was well.
Sometimes I would get banding on that printer, but I got that even when I was first buying real Cannon cartiges brand new as they were needed! It did not get any worse after I started refilling the empties forever!

One thing I should say though is when I say I never had problems, I mean nothing I don't have with a brand new cartrig! Any cartrig or print head in all the printers I have had will clog a jet after it sits unused for awhile, then I get banding till I clean it. But that happens with all of them. Buy a cartrig at Wallmart and install today, don't print again till next friday and I'll get few few little bands and have to clean the head. The 3 HP printers I have had have been the worst for that! A 632, and 2 656C Hp printers, all use the same cartrig number and all clog alittle if you go a week or two with no printing, even when using brand new HP cartriges! Manytimes just running the clean head printer utility works, sometimes I clean them manaully.

So based on my personal experince over many years and several brands, I would have to say it's as safe to store "most" cartriges for long periods as it is to buy new ones as needed

May I borrow your disclaimer FP? Just my opion.

Another thought to think is the printer life! How long you gonna use this printer?? Will the next one use the same catriges? My Xerox died in just a few months, it is no longer available to buy. If I had stored up lots of cartriges (I did a few) then I am stuck with stuff I can't use now! Because I do the refilling and like to travel durring the summer, I bought 3 or 4 of each cartirg for the Xerox last year that still are not opened. Just so the wife would have plenty of ink while I was gone. Now I have those and no use for them! I refilled the old ones and used them, never opened the spares. About $75 just sitting there!

Cost of printers are dropping! That's what I look at too. These 2 I850s I bought at Sams club for about $150 each just a month or 2 ago. Prices already dropped $20-$30. NOWHERE else could I find them for less than the $200 suggested retail then, now Bestbuy has them like $170 last I was there.
So if your planning to store cartriges for 2 years or more, will you actually use them?

Looks like I'm gonna lose my butt on the spare I850 I bought. By the time I actually use it I will probably be able to buy it for $100.

FP, another reason I recomend to all my freinds to refill instead of buying cartriges is the cost of printers! Most everyone I know personally has a cheapo lexmark or HP $50 or less Wallmart Printer.
Everyone worries about damaging the printers. But really, how many times do you refill before you can buy a new printer and still come out ahead?? Locally we either have to refill or buy HP $30 -$40 cartriges at Wally World. Mail order generics or factory refilled for about $12-$15. So if you refill 5 times then had to buy a new printer you still saved $8 or a heck of alot more! If you refilled only Twice then had to buy a new printer you still saved $10-$20 over the cost of buying new HP cartriges, plus you get the new cartrig that comes with a new printer! So far none of us have had to buy new printers because of any problems refilling, but that is something to think about!
Now when we are talking these Cannon I850 $170 printers, that's a bit different

I truely do consider a $50 printer to be a throw away when you look at cartrig costs (even generics) compared to nearly free refills!!

Yes.....I do plan to use them in 2 years.....I'm planning on using this printer for at LEAST 5 years.....

Now...I still need a answer to my question. Are there any long term storing TECHNIQUES to storing cartridges!!!!!

Thanks to anyone to replied!

toss em in a shoe box un-opened and put them in the closet

or hermedically seal them in mayonaise jars and bury in the back yard :laugh


Don't freeze them, don't bake them, don't boil them, and don't mircowave them. Don't drive over them with your car and don't eat them for breakfest. That's probably all the specail care they need.

Of course don't let an over sized :chicken dance on them either
. ......................................... ink cartriges ........................................

I would store them in the same postion they would sit on a shelf in a store or hang from the rack. Might be better than laying on thier side or upside down.
You could put them in a zip lock bag and close it. Would prevent air circulation and drafts that could contribute to them drying out if not sealed well, but I dought it is needed or would help much.

You cannot vacume pack them as you would end up sucking out the ink. And the little packets that absorb moisture are not a good idea either because ink is mostly moisture and you would be drying it out if not sealed well. SO you really can't do anything special to store them I can think of.

Just put them in a box in the closet si about the best you can do.

The only way to know for sure if they will store that long is to do it, or find someone who has stored these type for that long. I dought your gonna find anyone that has stored this cartrig for 2 years or more. So it is a geusing game.


Looking at what I have said about refilling, it would seem that the ink will last many years itself. Mine has been exposed to the air a ton due to opening the bottles durring refillings, yours will be sealed in a cartrig away from the air!
Some of the 4100cannon cartirges I was refilling were many years old and refilled many times, also the HP type cartriges are about 1 1/2 years old and refilled many times, so that kinda shows the cartriges of those types last for long periods of time and many uses. Yours won't be used and still sealed!
So putting the two together one might conclude an un-opened un-used factory sealed cartrig should last several years. It should last longer than those I have used and abused for so long anyway!


How many cartriges you thinking about buying anyway??