Does Ink Expire?

[bdazzleddesigns]

I had a question about ink. I have several, near-full pints of universal dye ink that sat in the dark for years. I recently filtered all the inks through a coffee filter, color is good, no sludge or mold, has a noticeable alcohol smell though. Is it still safe to use it? I bought micro-filter syringes to filter the ink through before putting it in refillable cartridges, and the cartridges have a filter in them too. Maybe I shouldn't have bought so much but I did use the ink in a Xerox, Canon BubbleJet, and Brother MFC-420CN with success. The only ink that clogged the printhead on the Brother was the Magenta but it has since been filtered and I can micro filter it if I have to, or toss it. The Cyan and Yellow never clogged. I got these inks at oddparts.com

 

[3dogs]

I had a question about ink. I have several, near-full pints of universal dye ink that sat in the dark for years. I recently filtered all the inks through a coffee filter, color is good, no sludge or mold, has a noticeable alcohol smell though. Is it still safe to use it? I bought micro-filter syringes to filter the ink through before putting it in refillable cartridges, and the cartridges have a filter in them too. Maybe I shouldn't have bought so much but I did use the ink in a Xerox, Canon BubbleJet, and Brother MFC-420CN with success. The only ink that clogged the printhead on the Brother was the Magenta but it has since been filtered and I can micro filter it if I have to, or toss it. The Cyan and Yellow never clogged. I got these inks at oddparts.com

I have truly tried and tried and TRIED, not to post on this one, but I can't resist......sorry I'm so weak.

First I DO hope someone has the right answer for you.

Second if it smells strongly of alcohol my thoughts go immediately to @The Hat. Under NO circumstances should you agree to send him a sample to test. It will not make it as far as a printer!

Third this is one for @pharmacist, right down his Alley.

Good luck, tho some detail would be handy, like how long? dark good, well sealed? temperature? stuff like that.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I have principal reservations against 'universal inks', but o.k., if it works for you it might be a lesser problem. Some companies, HP with their cartridges control them by date code, there are some effects to consider - the refill environment is not sterile, and you may get fungus into the ink. The main part of the solvent are glycoles, and like glucose they are rich of calories. You are probably capable to filter that away. Then in rare instances there is a risk of coalgulation, you are getting some kind of gel in cartridges which are stored for a long time, but as long as you filter your ink that as well might be a no-problem. And as long as you don't expose your ink bottles to heat and sun for a long time the dyes may not be affected either. Brother filters the ink directly in the printhead, and as soon as a gel blob builds up there it is difficult to clean it away because the access is pretty tricky. But this 'universal ink' may not suit the Brother piezo print mechanism very well - e.g. viscosity, surface tension may not be in spec really so there can be several reasons why magenta does not work. So using such ink is at your risk, but as long as it works it can be o.k. for you. About what age of the ink are we talking here anyway - are they 2 or 5 or ??? years old ?

 

[PeterBJ]

Excellent post @Ink stained Fingers . It does very well summarize our present knowledge of the dangers of using too old inks.

Here and here are threads about possible microbial growth in inks. Also note the photos in this post.

 

[bdazzleddesigns]

• The ink is more than five years old, HOWEVER it smells like new ink, I have some new ink on hand before I found my old ink, it smells the same. Color is still good. Tested it on paper and dries the same.
• The old ink has not gelled in any way. The magenta did have some sludge at the bottom but I filtered it, now no sludge. To be cautious I bought some non sterile syringe filters that I planned to run it through before refilling the cartridges.
• I was going to test it on an old canon printer that has the print head in the cartridges, so if it doesn't print I will know. It was kept in a cardboard box in a closet all this time. The caps were on tight. We just forgot about it.

 

[fotofreek]

The companies from whom I've purchased refill ink over the last 15 years suggest a two year shelf life. I've not tested the possibility of keeping it for five years, and I order quantities that I will use up in about that time. Larger quantities would be cheaper per ounce, but refilling is so cost-savings that I just haven't gone the extra step to save more.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

I still use, I'm guessing, 15 year old inks. No problemo. I recently dumped a bunch of very old inks but mostly to reduce inventory, as it were.

I think ink expiration dating is a bogus fear factor. I'm also willing to admit that my experience may not match others. YMMV.

 

[bdazzleddesigns]

Thank you Paul. I figured if I couldn't use them, I would tie dye shirts with them. A medical friend is giving me syringe straws, so I will filter the ink from the big bottles to smaller bottles just to be safe.

 

[Lucas28]

To my surprise there is no expiry date on Canon OEM cartridges. So Canon assumes the ink will last forever.
But the packaging doesn't look completely air tight. So over the years some evaporation of the content may occur. I noticed some difference in weight between cartridges which points in that direction.

The Epson OEM cartridges are sealed very well, so evaporation is not possible. But Epson does give their cartridges an expiry date. They last about two to three years. I've used Epson cartridges that were many years over the date and they still performed well.

Ink in bottles can't evaporate so they should last many years.

 

[stratman]

Ink in bottles can't evaporate so they should last many years.

I am not sure the plastic bottles used will completely prevent (very slow) solute loss/concentration of solute.