How to Clean & Maintain Your Inkjet Printer

How you can Clean & Maintain Your Inkjet Printer 

Inkjet printers may seem like very little plastic boxes along with a few electronics crammed within, however they're truly terribly refined bits of hardware. Witness the actual print head zipping back again and forth whilst spraying drops of ink the dimensions of the red blood cell and hitting the actual mark along with which drop lots and lots of times a second. Obtain the thought? Printers would like care and ought to be dealt with to obtain consistent print quality, paper feed, and longer print lifestyle. 

Component 1 : Software program based mostly maintenance 

Begin having a Nozzle Check 

In case your print quality starts to reach down (skinny lines, colours suddenly shift or turn out to be light-weight) the very first factor to carry out is operate a nozzle verify. Utilizing an ordinary section of paper, your printer can print a little check of each and every ink colour and the several nozzles. 

Nearly all inkjet printers have functions referred to as head cleaning and head alignment. 

Head Cleaning 

What to seem for : Sudden colour shifts with your prints. Blacks may begin to get a bronzed look. Lines which operate a similar path like the print head. 

The top cleaning cycle ensures all ink nozzles are distinct and totally free of charge of any obstructions. Constantly operate a cleaning in case your printer has established for longer than a month in among printings. 

Head Alignment 

What to seem for : White repeating lines or perhaps a grid such as pattern in your print can indicate misalignment of heads. Perform this purpose when required. 

You'll would like a few sheets of plain or photo paper to the method. Alignment ensures all of the nozzles are pointing the ideal directing and firing ink inside the correct location. A few newer printer designs have an automatic alignment and clean purpose you are able to operate rather than the actual manual method. 

Exactly in which to locate these tools 

Your printer can possess a upkeep or utility purpose where one can accessibility these and some other functions. A few printers, particularily HP designs, might not have cleanin functions that you may accessibility. 

Upkeep screen shots Mac 

You'll doubtless discover utility and care controls in Method Preferences » Print & Fax » Established Up Printers. 

Cchoose your printer inside the printer checklisting and click Utility close to the highest from the screen.

Epson

Canon

Maintenance screen shots Windows

Newer Epson printers

Older Epson models

Canon Printers

Some Canon printers also have additional cleaning features. As you can see below, this model has a bottom plate and roller cleaning option.

Part 2: Printer Roller and Feed Mechanism Cleaning Tips

If you use your printer often, and especially if you use 2-sided inkjet papers, proper maintenance of the feed rollers is important. Paper leaves behind dust as it runs through your printer. 2-sided papers leave inkjet coating behind, which can be slick. You will eventually notice inconsistent feeding or sometimes your printer will not feed at all.

Also, ink overspray can build up on the rollers below the print head. This results in black streaks, usually on the back of your paper.

Follow the steps below and any feed or streaking issues should dissappear.

NOTE! Red River Paper assumes no liability if you follow these cleaning steps. If you are careless in cleaning your printer, damage could occur. We have been cleaning our printers in this manner for 13 years with no problems to date.

What you will need:

Bottle of rubbing alcohol

Alcohol pads

First, look down the feed tray of your printer - see image below.

Canon printer note! Because Canon printers do not have an on demand paper feed button, you will not be able to reach the entire roller. When running the alcohol soaked sheet through, you will have to make a print - we suggest a text document with only one line or character.

If you put your fingers in the feed path, you will feel rubber coated rollers. Take your alcohol swab and hold it on a roller with your finger. Now, push the paper feed button on your printer - the rollers will move. Don't be alarmed if your finger gets tugged a bit. It will NOT get pulled into the mechanism! Cycle the paper feed a few times and make sure you clean each roller.

If you are having trouble with ink streaks on your paper, try this:

Take an 8.5x11 sheet of plain paper. Soak the interior of the sheet with rubbing alcohol, leaving all four edges completely dry. Run this sheet through your printer 2-3 times front and back. This will clean all of the internal rollers of debris and any ink.