Getting the Best Out of Your Inkjet

Inkjet printer’s are perhaps the least cared for computer accessories. It’s only when a sheet of paper gets jammed in or you run out of ink, do you pay any attention (for a very limited time period) to your paper-churning workhorse.

With the constant falling prices of home printers these days, users are getting an even bigger excuse to not really bother too much with the printer’s lifespan. But if you have spent a good amount on your inkjet printer and want to make sure that it will last you for more than what the warranty period can vouch for, while still giving you the best results, then you’re at the right place.

Our five simple tips will not take too much of your time, or effort, and will surely help extend your printer’s lifespan. Some of them may sound obvious, some less obvious, but they are all equally essential. So let’s start with the first tip:

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1. Keep the nozzle clean

While the best way to keep your printer problem free is to keep using it as often as you can. But since daily printing is not possible for an average home user (and for the rain forests), the part of the ink that’s exposed to air tends to dry up over time and even collect a bit of dust and grime, which results in clogged nozzles.

You usually have an option that looks like this in your printer’s preferences

If you even use your printer twice a week, this problem is less likely to affect you over, say, someone who prints once in two weeks. So to be on the safe side and just to ensure that you get good quality output at first shot, run the nozzle cleaning application in your printer driver if you’re using it after a week or more. It will definitely save you a lot of time and money in cases where you’ll be taking high quality photo prints on expensive inkjet paper.

At the same time you must take care not to over-clean the nozzle, so try to limit the nozzle cleaning to just once a week.

2. Overall cleaning
I realize I run a risk of being labeled obsessive-compulsive after all these cleaning tips, but hey, this one is essential.

Unless you’re obsessive about keeping your home printer covered in plastic at all times, printers tend to gather dust when inactive. Not just that, if you’ve ever run into a paper jam between the roller and have had to yank the paper out, tiny shreds of paper could still be stuck in our printer’s roller and other areas, hindering its overall performance.

This along with a good brush make perfect dust busters

So once in a while, maybe even once in a couple of months, it’s a good idea to just clean the insides of your printer. You can use a common air pump available for as little as Rs. 15 in the market along with an ordinary paintbrush. Just clean off the dust wherever it’s visible, but never apply too much pressure on any part of the printer.

Simple maintenance like that can keep dust away from all the important parts, increasing the printer’s lifespan.
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3. Refilling care
Though all printer manufacturers give strict warnings against refilling ink cartridges and the damage it can cause to your printer, the reality is that a lot of home users still go for that option. Most users don’t realize that using these cartridges will instantly void their printer’s warranty. It’s still a cheaper alternative for them over buying a fresh cartridge every time.

It’s time to refill the color cartridge

So while we don’t recommend refilling, if you’re gonna do it anyways, it’s better to refill on early signs of ink depletion. All printers have an on-screen display to show you the cartridges’ in levels. Once the level goes low enough for the driver to warn you, that’s when you should be refilling your ink cartridge.

The reason for this is that when a cartridge runs out of ink, the resistors (they control the current provided for ink output) tend to burn out a lot faster due to overheating. Once theres resistors burn out, your print lines will end up looking wavy, giving you inaccurate results. So it’s always a good idea to refill the cartridge back to the top on the first signs of depletion.

4. Review your settings
As novice as this may sound, not a lot of users bother checking their print settings. If you’re printing documents on a regular basis, just a simple change in setting from normal mode to draft mode can make your ink last a lot longer for you, with little loss of quality.

Moreover many printers have settings for normal printing or fast printing, which really comes in handy when you have to print a lot of documents at one go.

There are a lot options to explore here

Just a little experimentation with the settings can reveal functions and enhancements that you may have forgotten or not known about. Simple things like selecting the right paper and setting the right orientation can make a world of a difference in your print output.

Also consider going to Control Panel > Printers and Faxes, right click on your printer’s icon there and setting it’s default printing properties. Once you’re done with this, you wouldn’t have to bother reviewing the settings every time, unless the print requires it of course.

5. Switch off the right way
The last tip and perhaps one of the most important ones. Shut down your printer using its power off button before turning off it’s main power switch. It may sound unnecessary, but in actuality when you power off your printer, it firsts docks the cartridges in positions where the cartridge will be least susceptible to weather damage, reducing chances of a clogged nozzle and ink drying up.

The right way to shut down

So just wait till your printer does its thing and shuts down before you yank its power cable off the socket… or switch it off.

Right then, just follow these tips and give your printer some good old tender loving care and it will give you more than its money’s worth over the long run. Got some more more tips to add here? Well, let’s hear it in the comments below and our forums.

Who knows, the best user tips could end up (with due credit) in the next article in this series.