If you use an HP OfficeJet or OfficeJet Pro printer, you probably already know that the HP 910XL high-yield cartridge is a workhorse, rated for roughly 825 pages of crisp black text per cartridge. Ink Genie put together these tips to help you stretch every last page out of your HP 910XL cartridges before you need to replace them.

Fortunately, you don't have to resort to risky, messy third-party refill kits or cheap knockoff cartridges that can clog your machine and void your warranty. Instead, you can stretch the life of your genuine ink by using a few simple, everyday settings and habits.

1. Toggle On "Draft Mode" for Everyday Prints

Most printers are set to a default "Normal" or "Best" print quality right out of the box. While this is great for final reports or formal presentations, it is total overkill for grocery lists, flight itineraries, or internal documents.

Before hitting print, open your print preferences menu and switch the quality to Draft Mode (sometimes called Economy Mode). This tells your printer to use significantly less ink per page. Your documents will print faster, the text will still be perfectly legible, and your cartridge will last weeks longer.

2. Force True Grayscale

Here’s a little industry secret: when your printer is set to standard black-and-white mode, it often creates "rich black" by mixing small amounts of cyan, magenta, and yellow ink with the black. That means you’re quietly draining your color cartridges even when you think you’re only printing text.

To stop this, head into your settings and select Grayscale Only or Black Ink Only. This forces the machine to draw strictly from your black cartridge, keeping your color ink safe for when you actually need it.

3. Stop Turning the Power Off

It sounds counterintuitive, but turning your printer completely off between uses actually wastes ink. Every time an inkjet printer undergoes a hard boot-up, it automatically runs a mini maintenance cycle, pumping a small amount of liquid ink through the printhead to prime the nozzles. If you turn your printer on and off multiple times a week, you’re literally washing valuable ink down the maintenance drain.

Instead, leave the printer powered on. Modern machines are designed to enter a low-energy sleep mode when idle, using almost no electricity while preventing wasteful startup cycles.

4. Print Once a Week

Liquid ink’s greatest enemy is stagnation. If a printer sits idle for months, microscopic amounts of ink can dry out and clog the tiny nozzles on the printhead. When you finally do print, the page comes out streaky, forcing you to run an intense, ink-heavy "Deep Cleaning" cycle to fix it.

You can avoid this entirely by printing just one small page, even a single sentence, once a week. This keeps the liquid ink moving naturally and prevents clogs from forming.

Plan the Smart Way

By tweaking your software settings, you can easily squeeze an extra hundred pages or more out of your current set. When your HP 910XL black ink cartridge eventually runs out, remember you don't need to pay premium prices at a traditional retail chain. By opting for genuine ink cartridges from an OEM surplus specialist like Ink Genie, you get the exact brand-name quality your printer needs at a fraction of the cost