You are here: » » How to Clean & Maintain Your Inkjet Printer How to Clean & Maintain Your Inkjet Printer Inkjet printers may look like little plastic boxes with some electronics crammed inside, but they are actually very sophisticated pieces of hardware. Hp 8600 Drivers For Windows 8.1. Witness the print head zipping back and forth while spraying drops of ink the size of a red blood cell and hitting the mark with that drop thousands of times a second. Get the idea?

Reset Epson waste ink counter by Epson R220, R230 Printers Service Adjustment Program Since your printer consumes ink not only for printing but also for other operations like cleaning, a certain amount of ink is wasted and it is collected by the waste ink pad. EPSON printer utilities allow you to check the current printer status and do some printer maintenance from your screen. EPSON Status Monitor 3 You use the EPSON Status Monitor 3 utility to check the printer status and the level of ink remaining in each cartridge.

Printers need care and should be taken care of to get consistent print quality, paper feed, and longer print life. Part 1: Software based maintenance Start with a Nozzle Check If your print quality starts to go down (thin lines, colors suddenly shift or become light) the first thing to do is run a nozzle check. Using a plain piece of paper, your printer will print a small test of each ink color and its many nozzles. Virtually all inkjet printers have functions called head cleaning and head alignment. Hp Truevision Hd Webcam Driver Windows 7 Download more. Head Cleaning What to look for: Sudden color shifts in your prints. Blacks may start to have a bronzed look.

Lines that run the same direction as the print head. The head cleaning cycle ensures all ink nozzles are clear and free of any obstructions. Always run a cleaning if your printer has set for more than a month between printings. Head Alignment What to look for: White repeating lines or a grid like pattern on your print can indicate misalignment of heads. Perform this function when needed. You will need a couple of sheets of plain or photo paper for the process.

Alignment ensures all the nozzles are pointing the right directing and firing ink in the right place. Some newer printer models have an automatic alignment and clean function you can run instead of the manual process. Where to find these tools Your printer will have a maintenance or utility function where you can access these plus other functions. Some printers, particularily HP models, may not have cleanin functions that you can access. Maintenance screen shots Mac You will likely find utility and maintenance controls in System Preferences » Print & Fax » Set Up Printers.

Cchoose your printer in the printer list and click Utility near the top of 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 double-sided inkjet papers, proper maintenance of the feed rollers is important. Paper leaves behind dust as it runs through your printer. Double-sided papers leave inkjet coating behind, which can be slick.