How To Clean A Printer

No matter for what purpose you are using a printer or how much you are utilizing it, you require proper maintenance of your printer. Let’s take a look at why it is needed to clean a printer periodically.

Suppose you are completing your article from late night to morning, finally you just end up with it by taking a backup and now going to print that article. You send the print command to the printer and you are waiting for your wonderful article printed on paper. When the printout stashed on a paper tray and you took a look at your article, suddenly you saw streaking, blotches, and other impurities on your paper. How frustrating it can be?

This is the reason why your printer requires daily or periodic maintenance, so you will never have to face such problems in the future. Sometimes it happens, especially on urgent times that printer paper gets stuck in a printer due to some issues, you really blame yourself for why you don’t maintain your printer. That’s why we are helping you with our guide on how to clean a printer so that you do not get caught in such a situation.

Whether you use branded, compatible, or reused cartridges, the ink is likely to dry out and stick to the nozzle. This can lead to further problems if not addressed properly and can damage your high-quality best budget inkjet printer. However, it is time to clean a printer.

When to clean the printer?

• In case your printer is printing blank pages even when the ink levels are normal, the problem could be printheads. If it has been a while since your last print, some of the ink in the cartridge will have dried. It blocks printheads and prevents ink from getting on the paper. To fix these problems, printheads will need to be cleaned.

• If the printer leaves faded or obscure documents or do not print articles of the right quality. Also, if you have printed an image and it is missing the color, the problem may be due to the CMYK cartridge as it is unable to create all of its dot work.
• The printer uses CMYK to create a wide range of colors that can be seen with the naked eye by placing small dots in a variety of printer formats. Each color has its own nozzle, so if a yellow one is blocked, it will change the layering technique of the dot work and affect the color of the page. It is essential to clean a printhead to improve the quality of the printout.

No matter which type of printer you have, inkjet or laser printer, each has its own cleaning methods. Don’t wait for the reasons when the printer spits out distorted print or smeared pages, otherwise, it will damage your printer as well as printing quality. Hence you need to know how to clean a printer so you can protect your printer as well as maintain the long-lasting performance of the printer.

Things required for cleaning a printer

As we know, inkjet printers use liquid-based ink, while cleaning a printer you need to look at some things such as your clothes and carpet must remain stain-free.

Paper towel: Disposable and durable, paper towel or kitchen roll is best for removing stubborn dirt and grime from internal components.

Window cleaner: It cuts through ink stains and dries on the residue for cleaning and satin-free finish.

Printer oil: Used to lubricate the internal parts of the printer. After cleaning the printer, applying printer oil can help to improve the efficiency of the printer.

Safety gloves: While you clean a printer, wear protective gloves as the printer is very difficult to remove from the skin.

How To Clean A Printer

After collecting all the required tools and equipment, let’s start the printer cleaning. At this point, we felt it was prudent to mention that the components of the internal printer are fragile and any of the latter is expensive to repair. If you have any queries, about how to clean printer, contact your nearest local printer maintenance professional.

1. Remove ink cartridges

To remove the ink cartridges from an inkjet printer, the cartridge housing often needs to be located in the center of the stabilizer bar. On most printers, if you open the front of the device, the housing will automatically replace frequently – allowing you to remove the cartridges.

2. Properly clean the cartridges

When you remove the cartridges, you will find the ink cartridges are clogged with excess ink around the print head. To clean it, take a paper towel and spray it with a window cleaner. Now, carefully clean the cartridges and make sure that you have wiped all excess ink.

3. Clean the ribbon

The ribbon is an important part of the inkjet printer and hence should be cleaned regularly to maintain its high-performance. Soak the paper towel in a window cleaner and gently wipe the ribbon to remove ink or debris. As the inkjet ribbons are fragile and expensive, you should be careful while cleaning them.

4. Clean the Cartridge Housing

The cartridge housing holds the ink cartridges in place so that naturally, there is a chance of dirt and hard accumulation. To do this, spray the window cleaner on a paper towel and wipe the cartridge housing to remove ink, grime, and debris.

5. Lubricate the stabilizer

Running directly to the center of the printer, the stabilizer bar allows the ink cartridges to move back and forth, distributing the ink where appropriate. Don’t forget to oil the stabilizer bar regularly in order to preserve the smooth functioning of the printer.

6. Replace the cartridges

Once you removed all visible dust, dirt, and grime from the printer. Switch back to the cartridges to the main and replace the ink cartridges. Then, run any cartridge realignment inspection as recommended by the manufacturer.

Final Verdict

I hope our guide will help you to understand how to clean a printer easily and properly. You should be careful while cleaning the printer and should take preventive measures. Don’t forget to clean a printer on a daily basis so you can efficiently maintain the performance as well as the quality of your printer.