It Pays to Know These Printer Maintenance and Troubleshooting Tips

It Pays to Know These Printer Maintenance and Troubleshooting Tips

As with all machinery, printers require periodical maintenance to keep them functioning at optimum levels. Without care and attention to the units, they will not last as long as they should. With multifunctional printers having many components to them, it takes a great deal of care to keep them in good working order.

To ensure your MFP continues to add value to your business, and not become one of those frustrating appliances that gets the odd kick every now then, the following will stand you in good stead to getting the most production out of it.

Dealing with mechanical errors from the paper feed tray

The paper feed tray may look simple, but for it to work, the rollers must remain free from dust particles. If your office has a dust problem, you will need to keep on top of it. Cleaning is as simple as taking a paper towel across the rollers, or use a microfiber cloth to wipe them down.

Before you do that though, only attempt to clean the rollers that are visible and remember to turn the machine off before you put your hands near the rollers. Where dust is not an issue, you are best to clean the rollers every six months.

If you have a service agreement in place, your service provider will take care of this along with all other maintenance requirements, but if you own your unit outright and do not have a service agreement, then every six months, clean the rollers. Refer to your instructions provided with the unit first though, because there are some cartridges around the paper tray that should never be touched.

Dealing with paper jams (the right way)

One of the worst thing anyone in your office can do (and they often do) is get mad at the printer, ripping the paper out of the feeder tray, expecting to load it back up and everything will work tickety-boo. It doesn’t work like that because ripping the paper can and usually does cause it to tear, and the remaining small shards are then deposited inside the machine. The worst–case scenario is tugging the paper out with such force that it damages the internal components of the machine.

 

Within your instruction manual will be a section that tells you all about the mechanics of the paper tray, which will be specific to the model, because each unit is set up differently.

The universal method to deal with a paper jam is to use both hands, either side of the paper, keeping the stack level and gently pull slowly away from the rollers. When reloading, be sure it’s not overfilled, the pages are flat (no upturned corners), and give the paper a good fumble around to get any pages stuck together unstuck.

Power problems stemming from your power source

In many offices, equipment is hooked into the power supply through a surge protector. The problem with this set up, at least with any modern copier, is that they have a sleep mode. When they aren’t in use, they aren’t absorbing a high level of electricity. When they come out of sleep mode though, the power will naturally spike. That can trick your surge protector into thinking there’s a surge, when in reality, it’s just the printer coming out of sleep mode.

The simple way to avoid this is to plug the copier directly into the wall socket. 

Maintenance kit from the Printer Manufacturer

All copiers will need their toners changing, print heads cleaned, cartridges maintained, and servicing done periodically. The maintenance kits must be brand specific to your model for two reasons. It’s the only way to guarantee the kits will be compatible and secondly, if you don’t, you’ll likely void your warranty.

When you buy a colour copier, or any MFP for that matter, it helps to deal with a B2B photocopiersupplier because the servicing arrangements put in place will keep your machine operational for longer.