My 2c:

If you vacuum-pack a printer cartridge, you're surrounding it with air which is at a lower pressure than in the cartridge itself.  

It strikes me that the higher pressure air in the cartridge would slowly migrate into the surrounding package and slowly extract the very moisture you're trying to leave in place.

Surely, you'd want to apply the opposite process to the cartridge - ie, pack it under HIGHER pressure, rather than lower, as in a vacuum pack process?

Any physicists out there who can comment?

Ian Porter
Computer Guys Inc.
Arrowtown
New Zealand
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  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Frank Suszka 

  Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Printer Cartridge Storage


  Doug Wrote:
  >My daughter has left her HP 712C printer with me to keep in storage for 
  >about two years.

  The shelf life of some cartridges (Epson) is about two years from date of
  manufacture. I'm not sure what it is for HP. However, this is only true for
  unopened factory sealed packages.

  > Since these are expensive, I want to try to keep them working if at 
  > all possible.

  A search on the net produced some relatively low prices on the cartridges
  for your Daughters printer. The prices I found were less than twenty
  dollars.

  I would give some thought to Donating the printer to a school or a needy
  family. Two years from now printer cartridges may not be available.

  >Does anyone know the correct way to store these after they have had
  >some use?

  "Vacuum pack them, shrink wrap them, or hermetically seal them, two years
  from now they will probably not work due to the fact the ink will still dry
  out or at best congeal. For the sake of argument, I surely wouldn't want to
  put them in a printer and chance they will render it useless.

  A search on the net produced no results... Sorry. If anyone can come up with
  an exact method, I would like to hear about it.
  Sincerely,

  Frank Suszka

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