How to Get the Best From Your Hewlett Packard Printer

If you’ve invested in a Hewlett Packard printer from a retailer like cartridgepeople.com, you’ll want to get the best out of it and to maintain it in good working condition for as long as possible. Printers tend to be overlooked when it comes to maintenance and are only noticed when they get jammed or stop working for other reasons.

You can lengthen the working life of your HP printer by treating it well, so here’s a few tips to help you to do just that.

Clean the inside of the printer carefully at least once a month

One of the best things you can do to head off problems is to clean the inside of the printer regularly. Do this once a month at least and more frequently if you print out a lot of pages – you can use clean, dry, lint-free cloths as well as compressed air to blow out debris from the insides.

Don’t use bent or torn paper

Torn or bent paper can cause jams, which can lead to internal damage for your printer. If you dislike waste, use the damaged paper for notes or scrap.

Use high-quality paper

Low-quality paper can also cause jams, so buy the minimum standard that Hewlett Packard recommends for your particular model of printer. You might think you’re saving money on paper if you buy cheaper, but it’s a false economy once you have to replace your printer.

Keep your paper in a cool, dry place

Humidity can cause paper to stick together, leading to jams and feed problems. Your printer should also be in a similar environment.

Replace your old rollers

Worn paper rollers also cause jams – as they age they get smoother and this means paper isn’t fed into the path properly. Sometimes your manufacturer provides a kit that lets you roughen up the surfaces of the rollers again, but if not, you can either replace them or simply use a small file on them. Make sure you file them as evenly as possible.

Close up the feed tray when you’re done

If your HP printer has a manual paper feed tray that folds out, make sure you always fold it back in again when you’re finished. It’s easy for someone to walk into the tray and break it – or even injure themselves. It’s a bit of a pain to fold it in every time, but so is a broken tray or a cut face!

When you replace parts, do it gently

Printers use a lot of plastic parts and some of them are very thin and delicate, so when you’re assembling or reassembling your printer after maintenance or repairs, take care not to use too much force. It’s easy to snap them or bend them out of shape – if the parts don’t fit together with ease in the first place, you may well be doing it wrong anyway.

Get a service manual

Hewlett Packard can provide you with a service manual for your printer model which will contain assembly diagrams, repair procedures, troubleshooting tips and other helpful information. This manual will make life a lot easier when you have to perform repairs or routine maintenance tasks.