How often should you clean your printer?

Even though many of the printers available today have reached an impressive level of perfection, from low energy use and fast movement through to impeccable print quality they still run down over time. Wear and tear combined with the printer cartridge heads becoming clogged present the need to occasionally check and clean the whole printer mechanism as best you can.

One of the easiest ways to know when your printer cartridge needs checking/ cleaning is simply through noticing print smears, misalignment or fading. Many printers now come with software that allows you to commence self-cleaning via your computer.

If you utilise Windows you should be able to access the self-clean options by moving to your control panel, then clicking on the printer, then clicking on the button/ tab for “maintenance” within which there should be an option to clean your cartridge. Once the printer has finished cleaning the cartridge it often then spits out a printed page for you to check. This process is repeatable as many times as you can bare to get the cartridge back to full functioning, not usually much more than once or twice generally.