Carts repeatedly lost to mold (?). What to do?

[elenhil]

Try giving the purge unit a good clean and flood it with window cleaner to finish..

Okay, I belatedly followed out your recommendation (and replaced the carts;. the old ones were probably - can't tell for the darker colours - beyond hope anyway). Will monitor the results.

However, the purge unit was a bit too deep down there to easily reach, so I used a syringe to flood it. Thing is, the needle had a notched edge and I inadvertently 'caught' one of the sponges on top of the purge unit.

I was surprised to find it, well, not very spongy. Seem like either the leftover ink (or my window cleaner) hardened to a glaze. Is that normal? Should I remove the sponges and give them a good manual clean to remove whatever makes them hard?

 

[PeterBJ]

The purge pads are made from a hard and porous plastic or ceramic material. You can read more about these pads in this post.

 

[elenhil]

The purge pads are made from a hard and porous plastic or ceramic material. You can read more about these pads in this post.

Oh! Very insightful, thank you! Now I will lose my sleep thinking whether I inserted the square 'sponge' proper side up (or, indeed, the cut corner facing top-left)...