Wear & tear on jv33

[Forty One]

Looking at my capping station and other bits, I'm wondering what other owners would call "common" wear.
It's been almost a year now of owning my jv33 and besides new wipers and continuous ink chips needing a replacement, everything seems to be running smoothly.
However, the sponge in the capping station was only wearing ink on the left side closest to the head.
I recently (about 8 weeks ago) flipped it around to use the side without ink.
Should this be balanced better or is this the norm?
Image attached.

 

[Solventinkjet]

That's normal for this machine. Most people will flip the sponge and then replace after it gets really guncked up. You might go and clean up the dust around the area as that can cause issues but if everything is printing fine, you should be good.