The Most Common Printer Repairs and How To Avoid Them

Learn to Avoid Costly Printer Repairs

Printers can be costly machines. The cheapest home printers are expected to last for years. Careful ink management keeps the costs associated with frequent printing down. Safe storage and other precautions help keep printers safe. However, printers are still prone to damage and other problems. While many people are capable of fixing a computer on their own, printers are a more esoteric device.

Most of the time, they require special tools and knowledge to fix. This is where a printer repair service comes in. They will fix the printer for you, but often this comes with a rather large expense.

If you follow these tops, however, you should be able to get the most out of your printer and avoid the need for printer repairs.

1: Reduce your print quality. Found in the printer options menu, a reduced print quality is hardly noticeable in every day printing. You might notice if you're printing large images with a high DPI on photo paper, but if all you're doing is printing text documents and forms, a low print quality is perfectly acceptable. This has a few effects. First, it lowers the amount of ink necessary to print a page. This saves you ink and money in the long term. It also speeds up your printing, so you can print larger projects faster.

2: If your printing is spotty or streaked, use the cleaning function. This avoids taking the printer to a printer repair service. All you need to do is run the cleaning cycle, which you can find by consulting your manual. Every printer has its own cleaning instructions, most of which are automatic once you initialize the process. A dirty print head is the cause of many printing errors, especially for inkjet printers. You can print a test page after the cleaning cycle to see if the cleaning solved the problem.

3: If you find yourself frequently running out of ink, search for your printer's specific ink cartridge online. Chances are you might find "cartridge reset" tips or instructions. HP printers especially are known for telling you you're out of ink long before you actually are, in a bid to get you to buy more from the company.

4: Avoid third party ink refills. You have no way to control the quality of the ink refill. This means you run the risk of the ink cartridge exploding or leaking during printing or inactivity. This can irreparably damage your printer unless you completely disassemble and clean the machine. This is a common task in printer repair, and it's generally more expensive than the cost you would have saved from the third party refills.

5: Always make sure you're using the right kind of paper for your printer. Also, make sure that the printer knows what kind of paper it is using. This helps you avoid one of the most common and dreaded printer errors: the paper jam. Paper jams are what happens when a paper is twisted, crumpled or otherwise stuck inside the printer itself. Sometimes the printer will forcefully eject the paper. Other times it sticks inside, requiring you to open up the machine and remove the paper manually. This is one of the most tedious printer repairs and, if done incorrectly, can result in a damaged print head or splotches on future print jobs.

6: Make sure you don't store your printer in direct sunlight, temperature extremes or anywhere it can be damaged. The most common result of incorrect storage is ink and toner leakage. These leaks, as mentioned above, end up causing a huge mess and requiring costly repairs. If your printer is prone to toner leaks, check how you're storing it when it's not in use.

7: If you find yourself needing to clean up spilled toner, avoid using water or liquid cleaning solutions. These will cause a larger mess than is necessary. Toner is a dry product, so use a small brush or special toner cleaning cloth to wipe away the mess. Try not to use a vacuum, especially one with leaks in the air hose, because you could end up spraying toner dust everywhere. Always be careful to avoid inhaling toner as well. If you end up with ink on your skin, soap and water will remove most of it. Any ink that remains will fade over time.

Dominick Rivoli is the owner of A1 Rivoli, top office equipment and computer service and repair specialists for the Long Island, NY Nassau, and Western Suffolk areas. Visit the website at www.a1rivoli.com.