560 When to change Ink Collector?

Has anyone figured out more or less how much printing can be done before the ink collector needs to be rinsed out?

And is there a recommended procedure for rinsing it? I find it easier right after running the printer before the ink has a chance to dry, but it doesnt just flow off either. I need to squeeze the sponge and wipe the plastic pretty hard. I wonder if an isopropyl alcohol bath would soften it up.

But I've also noticed that the material appears to just be adhesive felt pads. I wonder if I can find a long roll of something similar and just replace it completely.

 

I'm hoping that there was a good rule of thumb so that I don't find out that the trough is full only when it starts to smear the backside of my print. They don't seem to hold all that much ink from the looks of it.

 

So I took some dimensions and the foam appears to be roughly 18 cubic inches. Converted to mL, its about 288mL but lets round it down to 250 since the foam material does take up some space. So the foam should be fully saturated with 250mL of ink.

If a mesh has 50% air flow, I would think that half the ink would go through. So if there is no evaporation, then in theory after 500mL of printing, the foam should need to be changed. I can't say how quickly the water evaporates but since there is a heater near it, maybe 10% of it will evaporate during the run, so 550mL of printing.

Most mesh I've seen have around 30% air flow, so that would be about 916 mL of printing.

A 64" x 164' roll has 875 sq ft, so if you are average 1 mL per sq ft, then you should be just about saturating a new foam kit. But if you are averaging more than that, then I think you'd be in trouble if you were trying to run an entire roll.

Does this make sense or did I miss something?

Update:

So I took more stuff apart and it appears that the ink collector is mounted to a series of drainage holes that I'm guessing feeds into the condensation collector. The foam appears to function as a filter.