How to override Epson Stylus R310 ink cartridge safely?

Question

How to keep printing when an Epson Stylos R310 says "Replace ink cartridge" while the printing quality is still perfect? I suspect they tend to push to buy news ones, but without the printer overheating I surely can print more. Or sometimes just need to print in black but the magenta is off it blocks... Very frustating!

Answer 1

It will keep going with  low ink. Printers produce that warning well too early in the life of the cartridge.

Answer 2

When you are just printing black you are still using every colorr.  In order to achieve high quality photo prints the black cartridgee is not a true black, it is more of a dark grey.   Your printerr will use every cartridge to underlay color'sr to darken and sharpen that black.

And no there is not way to print with an empty cartridge.  This is for a series of reason.  

One is that your printer is using all of it's colors.  Printing with one absent will effect the quality.

The second i that epson cartridge have a tank and valve system that in order to be function need to have enough ink to cycle through the cartridge, this equates to about 20% of their original ink, so although there is ink left, it is not usable ink.

The third and most important point is that the print head, the part which actually forms the print is in your printer. the print head has a small vibrating crystal which moves to force ink out the nozzles (piezoelectric)  the ink acts as a cushion preventing this crystal form vibrating against a metal print head.   If the crystal does vibrate against a print head uncushioned it is very likely it will become damages and your printer will be rendered about as functional as a door stop.

So no, you cannot safely override this warning.

Answer 3

Most printer would keep printing with low ink, even if there is no ink left and no image could be printed. I'm not sure with your particular model, but maybe, just maybe, if you only want to print in black and your color cartridge is off, you could chose to print in greyscale and it may ignore the status of the color cartridge.