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There is a lot to be said for keeping your inkjet printer maintenance up to date; in many cases it will actually prolong the life of your printer and will keep the quality as good as the day you bought it.
Below we will list a few tips for keeping your machine in tip top condition:
- An obvious one perhaps … but makes sure you use the correct media for your printer; if you do happen to have a paper jam, please make sure to remove all last scraps of paper
- Cleaning the printheads. Inkjet printers require regular cleaning of the printheads in order to clear any clogged ink, which may have gathered on the head. A gunky printhead can affect the smooth flow of ink and in turn your final print out can look a little blotchy. It is a fairly simple task -there will either be a setting in the software or you can push a combination of buttons on the machine and it will automatically clean the heads for you.
- Every now and then run a nozzle test – again there will be a setting in the software or you will be required to push a combination of buttons. The nozzle test prints a line of ink from each cartridge so you can check that it is smooth and running freely. If it is not smooth, then try re-aligning the printheads, which you can do by either pushing relevant buttons or choosing the setting in your printer software.
- Replace ink cartridges when they start to get low. Be sure to replace with those recommended by the manufacturer; in some cases using refilled cartridges will cause the warranty to become void. Remember to reset ink cartridge levels so display information is accurate.
- If the paper rollers require cleaning either use the clean rollers command in the printer software, or remove the roller manually and clean with a dry, lint-free cloth.
It can sometimes be damaging to run nozzle tests and printhead cleaning if done too regularly, therefore we would recommend only running these tests when the quality of the print starts to look poorer than normal.
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