Keeping Your Printer Clean

Printers require a little more maintenance than other peripheral devices. They have several different parts working together at once, which means it's easy for one or more of the parts to jam and cause performance problems. Cleaning your printer regularly will help prevent these complications.

Every printer is different of course, so the cleaning and maintenance process may vary just a bit. But for the most part, there are a few steps you can take that will help prolong the life of your machine-regardless of the type of printer you have.

Preventative Care of Your Printer

It's a good idea to perform preventative maintenance on your printer as often as you can. One of the most important parts of your device that you must always keep clean is the print head. If a printer has not been used for quite some time, there's a greater chance of the print head becoming clogged with dried-up ink. Needless to say, this will have a significant impact on the quality of output, and it can even do permanent damage to the printer. You can easily avoid any blocking or obstruction by simply cleaning the print head on a regular basis. The best way to do this is with a dry cloth. Gently wipe down every possible surface you can reach-especially all the nooks and crannies on the inside of the printer. Tiny particles of dust and dirt have a tendency to find their way into every little crevice, so be as thorough as you can.

Nowadays, most printers come with an automatic utility program that can instruct the printer to do a self-cleaning process. If you run these cleaning cycles fairly often and wipe down the inside of your printer on a regular basis, you shouldn't encounter too many problems. On the other hand, printers that do not come with an automatic cleaning cycle require a bit more attention. In this case, you may want to consider purchasing a cleaning kit, which usually includes a tube of ammonia that you can lightly spray on the print head to get rid of crusted ink.

Manually Cleaning Your Printer

If you are experiencing printer jams or any sort of ink build up, you can clean the print head manually by performing the following steps:

1.) Remove the cartridge from the printer. Dip a cotton swab in rubbing alcohol or hot water, and gently wipe down the cartridge. This should soften up the dry, crusted ink. 

2.) Then, soak the print head in hot water and leave it there over night. 

3.) If the print head is still clogged after soaking it all night in water, let it soak in rubbing alcohol over night. 

4.) After removing it from the water (or alcohol), wipe off the print head with a damp paper towel, and let it dry off carefully. 

5.) When you put it back in the printer, try running the self-cleaning cycle again.

If your print head is still clogged, you can either buy a new cartridge or you can contact a service technician who can try to repair the damage.

The author of this article works for Superwarehouse, an online retailer of technology products including Lexmark toner and Samsung laser printers. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stacy_Page