How to Keep Your Printers in Prime Condition

Just like any device, printers need to be maintained on a regular basis. This is to ensure that it continues to provide you with the same high quality printed documents and images like the very first print out you made. One way to do this is to regularly clean your printer.

Advantages of Cleaning Printers

Scheduling a monthly cleaning of your printer would prove to have a number of advantages:

Lesser amount of ink is wasted. This is a common problem with inkjet printers because over time, ink dries up and causes clogging to occur in the nozzle. The longer the time lapsed between cleaning would mean that there is more clogging in the nozzle. This would cause you to constantly repeat the process, leading you to use up more ink cleaning your printer nozzles than creating the print outs.
Prevention of smearing and smudging. Many times, users would just clean the printer nozzles and not clean out the printer heads entirely. This results in the paper surface becoming smudged or smeared with the ink that has already been used for cleaning the printer’s nozzle.
Lesser paper is wasted. Unless you have a regular schedule to clean your printer, the only time that you will clean the printer is when the materials printed out are of substandard quality. This would mean that you would need to keep on printing not just the final document or image, but also the test pages which usually uses a lot of paper.

How Often Should Printers Be Cleaned?

The average cleaning schedule should be at least once a month. But, this may need to be done more frequently, depending on the following conditions:

Amount of print outs. If you print large quantities of documents and images on a daily basis, you should schedule to clean your printer on a bi-monthly or even weekly basis.
Kind of cartridge used. If you refill your own printer cartridges, you will need to clean out your printers more often because of the possibility of leakages.
Working environment. Printers used in areas that are prone to dirt and dust such as those that are used in production and manufacturing plants should be cleaned more often.

What are the Things Needed to Clean a Printer?

Scratch paper
Moist (not wet) cloth
Fine bristle brush

How to Clean a Printer?

Print out a test page found in the “Maintenance” tool of your printer. Compare the print out with the one on the computer screen.
If the print out is different from what is displayed, click the “Clean” option provided. Make sure that all your printer cartridges are at least half full. Some printers would not run the “Clean” option if any of the cartridges have low ink or toner contents.
Unplug the printer from the power source and wipe the rollers of the printer with the moistened cloth. Make sure the rollers are completely dry before plugging the printer back to the power source.
Sweep out any dust on the exterior of the printer and wipe with the moist cloth.