Make your printer last longer

In 2022, some owners of Epson printers were alarmed by a warning that said a part inside their devices was “at the end of its service life”. Epson has since reworded the message to clarify that it relates to the waste ink pads in your printer. Once the printer reaches the cycle count set by the manufacturer, it regards these pads as no longer able to absorb ink – even if they still work fine.

is leaves you with two options: either contact Epson about its “low-cost ink pad replacement service” or reset the cycle count – labelled the 'protection counter' – yourself using the free tool SSC Service Utility (www.snipca.com/50009, see screenshot).

Although this hasn’t been updated for 10 years, it still works with many old Epson printers. If your ink pads really have stopped absorbing, you can buy new ones from Amazon for less than £2 (www.snipca. com/50010).

Epson doesn’t provide a list of printers it has discontinued, but you can find one at the third-party store Ink Factory (www.snipca.com/50011), and buy new ink cartridges for the old model.

Canon’s official page for discontinued printers usefully offers technical support and drivers for models it no longer makes (www.snipca.com/50012). HP’S list of retired products (www.snipca. com/50013) is less helpful, because once a product is retired, it removes the relevant support articles and drivers from its website.