I have an Hp ink jet printer that uses two cartridges. There is one three color, and one black cartridge, a number 21. Ninety five percent of any printing I might do is in black, but the problem is I rarely have to print anything. So the printer sits idle covered up, sometimes for months and the cartridges dry up. I've boiled these up and refilled them several times, and although this restores operation it is always a messy pain in the ass job.

Today I had to print a 150 page document, and rather than use my wife's laser printer and then have to listen to her complain about the toner being low, I fired up the HP. Of course the cartridges were set right up solid. After cooking hem for awhile I got the color one going, but rather than re inking that one I concentrated on the black. I finally got the ink running out of it after simmering it over the stove for about an hour. In the interim though I got impatient and ****ed off and just tore into a new cartridge to get the job done.

So now I have to put the printer away again for only God knows how long and it would be nice if at least I could count on the new black cartridge to still be alive when I next try to use it. I realize that these damned things are going to dry up eventually but is there anything that can be done perhaps in the way of storing the working used cartridges to prevent this, or at least prolong the inevitable? Thanks, Lenny