How Printer Maintenance Can Extend The Life Of Printer Ink

2010-10-16

Printer ink cartridges can be expensive and inconvenient to replace. However, by taking a few simple printer maintenance steps, you can ensure that your ink cartridges will last longer and perform better.

One of the easiest printer maintenance steps to help maintain printer ink cartridges is to keep your printer clean. Regularly dusting and wiping down your printer removes dust, hair and other particles that can clog ink cartridges. Using compressed air to clean out crevices and running a blank piece of paper through the printer without the printer cartridges in can ensure dust and lint are removed from the printer's internal gears.

Another basic printer maintenance step you can take to improve printing and preserve printer ink cartridge performance is to ensure the printer heads are properly aligned. Normally, a test performed when installing new cartridges, alignment can be done to solve streaking and out of line coloring.

Yet another basic printer maintenance step you can take is cleaning the printer heads specifically. This can solve printer quality issues and ensure that no ink is wasted. Most printers have a cleaning and even a deep cleaning function that can be used regularly to ensure cartridges are working properly.

One more step you can take to prolong the life of your ink cartridges is to use the right paper for your printer and cartridges. Using the wrong paper can cause jams and other problems for your printer, and deplete ink more quickly. Using the correct paper is essential to increase the efficiency of your printer and ensure your ink cartridges are functioning optimally.

It seems like a strange piece of advice, but to ensure that your printer ink cartridges have a long and useful life, it's important to print regularly. Letting your cartridges sit in the printer unused for long periods of time can cause them to be dried out and for the rollers and cartridges to become dirty and ineffective. Even if you don't need to, print a test page occasionally to ensure that your cartridges and printer are still functioning properly.

Finally, when you're done using your computer for the day, turn it off, and if you're able to, unplug the printer. Continuous electrical power can overheat the printer and result in a clogged printer head and quickly used ink cartridge. Furthermore, when you're doing using your printer, cover it up. This prevents dirt, lint and dust from settling in the printer when it's not in use.

No one wants to waste time or money constantly replacing printer ink cartridges. But by maintaining your printer, you can extend the life of your ink cartridges and ensure high quality print jobs.