Seven Tips to Make Your Printer Last Longer

Printers have become crucial in our everyday lives, and we just can’t get by without them as we’re bound to use them at one point. Whether just printing everyday standard documents or pictures in our homes, or printing essential documents in an office or a mega-company, we just need functioning printers.

It’s widely known that printers malfunction a lot due to paper jams or for unknown reasons. And a malfunctioning printer can be a significant issue, especially for companies and offices. That’s why today, we’ve made a list of the best tips that’ll surely help you extend your printer’s lifespan to prevent any malfunctions.

1. Outside and Inside Cleaning

This is the most important thing that you can do to increase your printer’s life span. Whether it’s outside or inside, your printer needs to be cleaned regularly. For example, if you use a printer to print documents occasionally or at your home, then cleaning your printer once a month will be perfect. 

However, if you print multiple documents in your office, and the printer is heavily used, we suggest cleaning your printer two or three times per month.

For cleaning the outside of your printer, we recommend using a lint-free damp cloth, and gently wiping the printer’s frame to remove any excess dirt. When cleaning your printer’s interior, you’ll need to remove and wipe down any excess paper pieces, dust, or debris. It’s vital that you remove any debris or dirt from the inside of your printer, as they’ll clog your printer later on.

2. Keep the Printer in Standby Mode

Printers generate large amounts of heat when they’re on, not only is that not good for your printer itself, but it’ll also increase your electricity bill and harm the environment as well. Furthermore, it’s not advised to keep turning your printer on and off a lot as that can be quite harmful to your printer and might end up ruining it.

So, if you plan on using your printer for multiple days, we recommend putting it in standby mode. It’ll save energy and reduce the heat generated by your printer, while also maintaining your printer’s life span on the long run.

3. Keep the Manual Feed Tray Closed

Most printers come with a manual feed tray, where you insert a stick of paper into it. If you don’t plan on using your printer, it would be best to keep the tray closed. If you don’t close that tray, anyone who walks near the printer might bump into it and break it. Keeping it open increases the amount of dust and debris that accumulates inside your printer.

4. Don’t Replace Cartridges at the Last Minute

Many printers give off warnings when their cartridges reach 20% or 10%. It’s best that you change your cartridges somewhere between these two percentages and not when they are completely dry. A dry cartridge will damage your printer and shorten its lifespan.

5. Location

Choosing your printer’s location is essential. You need to have ample space to put your printer in. You also need to avoid any place with sunlight or air vents as they encourage the formation of dust and debris in and on the printer.

6. Paper Jams

Printers are bound to have a paper jam and it happens more often than you think. The chances of avoiding them are slim to none. When you get a paper jam, you need to remove it without tearing the paper, as any small piece of paper will clog the printer and decrease its lifespan, so you need to pull the paper with both hands gently out of the printer.

Also, always make sure that you’re using high-quality printing paper. Plus, you should never put a previously folded or bent paper into the feed tray as those papers increase the chances of paper jams.

7. Print a Blank Page

Every once and awhile, it would help if you tried printing a blank page. It’s very beneficial for your printer, as it will pick up any lint or dust particles that’ll clog your printer in the future.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, we must try to increase our printer’s lifespan, as they are valuable and used quite often. You must clean your printer once or twice a month depending on your usage, avoid putting it in any place with sunlight, change the cartridges when they reach anywhere from 10% to 20% capacity, and finally, print a blank page every now and then.

Happy Printing!