Buying a printer is easy. Maintaining them, on the other hand? Knowing a little more about how your printers work can go a long way towards their upkeep. Here are five printer hacks that will not only help you take care of your printer, but also make your life easier.
Store The Cartridges Separately While Moving
Whether you are shifting houses or moving from one office to another, there may come a time when you will need to ship your printer. When doing so, it is important to pack your printer correctly. If you own an inkjet printer, open the printer’s top cover, and remove each ink cartridge in order to avoid any ink spills. Place them in their original packages if available. Otherwise, seal them in individual resealable plastic bags to catch any ink that may run out. However, if you ship the cartridges in an upright position, ink spillage should not be a problem. Unlike ink, which is a liquid, laser printers have toner cartridges. Toner is a dry powder, so it is not necessary to remove the toner cartridges while shipping.
Paper Jams Are Often Caused By Cheap Paper
Paper jams are a common problem in printers that have persisted despite the advancement in technology. There is a common misconception that the printer is causing the paper jam. However, the truth is that paper jams are often caused because of the paper itself. Specifically, bad quality paper. Printers are very specific devices that need everything to be right in order to work properly. If your printer gets jammed frequently, you might be using bad quality paper that isn’t cut properly. Cheap paper also retains more moisture, causing curled edges. It also tends to flake off, and this “paper dust” will get accumulated inside your printer and cause jamming.
Dust Causes Printer Errors
Are you seeing errors often on your printer? It might be because of dust! Dust is the second most common cause of printer errors. Some types of papers also leave behind more dust than others. To avoid a build-up of dust, it is best to clean your printer at least once a month, preferably using a compressed air canister. However, you must be careful and keep the canister in an upright position while cleaning. Tilting it may cause condensed air to spray onto the printer, damaging it in the process.
Avoid Stale Ink By Using Your Printer Regularly
When it comes to inkjet printers, stale ink is one of the most common problems. Not using your printer for long periods of time causes the cartridges to dry up. Dust may even gather on the nozzles, clogging up the cartridges. This will render the ink unusable. Therefore, the simplest way to avoid stale ink is by using your printer regularly- at least once a month. If you don’t have anything to print, simply run a test print to make sure everything is working properly. This problem does not apply to laser printers because the toner cartridges are made up of powder, so there is no threat of them drying out.
Save More on Black Ink By Changing The Font
Did you know that some fonts eat up less ink than others? It’s true! Fonts that are ‘lighter’ and ‘smaller’ tend to use less ink because of their thinner strokes and lesser surface area. For example, Times New Roman is an ink-efficient font. Century Gothic uses 30% less ink than Arial! This is a great hack to save ink, especially when you are printing a large volume of materials. Read all about it in our article on ink saving fonts.