You must have that feeling of having to replace a printer; it is frustrating and expensive. Well, the good news is that if you take proper care of your printer, you won’t incur such expensive replacements anytime soon. Printers can live for years just like any other piece of technology if properly cared for; with a few touches, though, they keep running.
In this article, we share expert tips that will guide you on proper care of your printer and how best to get the best out of your printer’s lifespan. From a simple home inkjet to a more complex laser model in the office, these tips ensure that you’re protecting your investment and getting the best use out of your printer.
1. Key Regular Cleaning
Sounds pretty simple, but the most direct way to extend the life of a printer is through cleaning. With the passing of time, dust, paper debris, and even more importantly, toner particles will build up inside your printer and cause jams, poor print quality, or even permanent damage. So, cleaning makes it work without such common problems as jamming.
Clean the Outside: It is not unusual for dust accumulate on the outer side of your printer. Then, it goes inside your printer. Clean this area with a soft, lint-free cloth.
Inside Matters Too: Use compressed air or a soft brush to clean the inside of your printer. This includes those areas surrounding paper feed rollers. These are always places that have collected dust and grime which may cause your printer to get stuck on its paper jams.
Print Head Maintenance: If you print with an inkjet printer, cleaning the print head regularly prevents clogs. Your printer probably has a cleaning function you can use through its built-in settings, but you should do an occasional manual clean with a lint-free cloth.
2. Print Often–Even if You Don’t Need To
It’s very strange, but the best way to prolong its life could be to print periodically. On the ink jet side, this idle time causes the ink to dry and clog up the sections like the print head; on the laser side, it will rapidly deteriorate the fuser.
Even if you rarely print long documents, you will print a test page or an image of very small size one time a week. It would only take one minute and will take care of internal printer parts that require proper operation.
3. Quality supplies
In truth, though, it has much to do with how much ink and toner waste is wasted by the printer itself, as well as the paper’s quality it’s printing onto because low-quality, cheap ink will degrade and collect or cause jamming within the printer.
Recommended paper: Jamming with low-quality or the wrong kind of paper wears away the rollers on your printer. Use the recommended paper type as recommended by the manufacturer of the printer to last longer and for smooth printing operations.
Use Quality Ink or Toner: The only reason to use third-party ink or toner is because it is relatively inexpensive; however, it will not print properly as genuine cartridges. Low-grade ink may also clog up the print head but in some cases may also cause other issues. Buy quality supplies and ensure your printer functions at an optimal level.
4. Don’t Overfill Your Printer
Each printer has a recommended print volume, or the number of pages it can print per month. Anything above this is overkill for those parts, including the motor, fuser, and rollers.
Break large print jobs into smaller batches, allowing the printer time to cool and thereby reducing overheating. This also gives it some space, helping not to hasten the wearing off of parts in your printer. In the simplest form, respect for printer limits is the surest and easiest way to prolong printer life.
5. Upgrade drivers and firmware
Just like all the other devices, updating the software on a printer is beneficial. Frequently, a company would output updated drivers and firmware updates hence resolving bugs or errors while ensuring improved performance. Thus, in your pursuit of regularly updating drivers in your printer, you may not suffer from software crashes that damage your printer.
All of these printers update automatically, but it’s always a good idea to check them manually sometimes. This will be very easy and definitely help in lengthening the printer life and keeping everything working correctly.
6. Store Your Printer Properly
In that place and how you store your printer, the outcome can be colossal. Internal elements can get spoiled by extreme temperature, humidity, and dust.
For your printer to stay in good condition, make sure that your printer is always placed in a clean, dry, and ventilated place.
Do not Place it near the Source of Heat: One has realized that placing the printer near the radiator, heater, or direct sun can cause overheat for the printer and its performance reduces through overage.
Control the humidity to be within range. For example, too much moisture may make paper curl and glue it inside the printer’s parts.
Room with balance: controlled temperature and humidity levels
7. Change consumables when it is close to running out of supply
It is so tempting to allow your printer run until the ink or toner completely runs out, but it will cause more problems than it will solve in the long run. Running on an empty cartridge might damage the print head or even print poorly and leave debris inside the printer. The best way to extend the life of your printer is to replace ink or toner once the printer informs you of low levels.
Most of the printers in the market today will always give you a notification when the ink or toner is running low. So, do not sit and wait for the ink to dry up. Take immediate action and replace cartridges before they completely run dry. This is a straightforward procedure that will help prevent stress to your printer, thus making it function as required.
8. Maintenance Check Regularly
Generally, any machine needs some sort of maintenance after a regular time period. Most of these printers contain diagnostic tests, alignments, and cleaning tools. These minor problems in these printers become diagnosed before it becomes a major issue by regularly running such tests.
Align Print Heads: If your prints are not coming out well and maybe misaligned or streaky, then you run the alignment function on your printer.
Run Diagnostics. Most printers have a self-diagnostic component that identifies trouble early. That same tool is often optimized in the performance of the printer itself, which can lead to extending its life.
Conclusion
Proper printer care is extremely time-consuming and may extend the life of the printers. Keys of extending printer life include regular cleaning, quality supplies, regular printing, and routine maintenance. Stick to these tips from experts who can help in making your printer last as long as possible as well as keep surprise breakdowns at bay.
For more information on how to take care of your printer, or if you encounter other problems with your printer, please visit our contents at PrinterNotWorking.com. A little effort will ensure that your printer continues to work for you well without paying expensive repair or replacement costs.