Inkjet printers are very popular today, as many people choose them for home use. There are many models, from which it is very easy to choose the one that will best suit your requirements and will also please you at an affordable price.
But it’s not enough to choose and. In order for it to serve you for many years, you need to use it correctly.
First of all, let's figure out what a “printer for home use” means. This means that the main loads that you will place on it will be printing a book or coursework, printing a few photographs from time to time, and printing out certain materials from the Internet. In a word, it will be used either from time to time, or often, but little by little.
I would like to note that from the technical side it is much more complicated than laser and requires compliance with certain operating rules. Otherwise, it may fail quite quickly. But a careful and correct attitude will help you get high-quality printing for a long time and not have problems with repairs.
The most complex printer device, which requires maximum attention and care, is the print head. It consists of a huge number of microscopic printing nozzles through which ink gets onto the paper.
There are two main potential dangers here - ink drying out if the printer is left idle for a long time, and nozzles becoming clogged if you refill the printer with low quality ink.
So, let's look at the most important rules that will help you extend your service life. inkjet printer.
1. Regular use – at least once a week. This will help you avoid such a moment as the ink drying out. Even if you don’t need to print anything, don’t be lazy and print test page. You can also go to the printer driver properties and check the nozzles. It’s not at all difficult to follow this rule, but if you neglect it and allow the ink to dry out, the nozzles will become clogged and print head will fall into disrepair. In this case you will have to buy new printer, since repairs will be impractical.
2. Use high quality ink. Otherwise, you will also encounter head clogging, as low-quality ink forms clumps and various deposits that clog the nozzles. It is best to purchase original ink from the manufacturer of your printer. This will not only keep the printer safe and sound, but will also allow you to get the highest quality prints. The ink is very good quality you can purchase in our online store www..
3. Keep the printer clean and promptly clean it from dust, as this is one of the main enemies of such equipment. It settles on moving parts located inside the printer, leading to their wear and, as a result, to faster breakdown. The quality of printing you will receive, as well as many other issues related to the operation of the printer, depends on the quality of these parts. Therefore, try to clean as often as possible, not only from the outside, but also from the inside of the device. Pay special attention to paper trays and the inside of lids. In addition, after printing, try to always close the printer, which will partially protect it from dust.
4. Use quality paper. Choose it very carefully and pay attention to the fact that the packaging must certainly contain the inscription “suitable for inkjet printing" If you use low quality paper, or even high quality paper designed for laser printing, this will again lead to clogging of the head. The fact is that unsuitable paper has a lot of fluff on its surface, which sticks to the head and paralyzes its normal operation. As well as ink, high-quality printing paper (for example, high quality)
As you can see, the above rules are very simple and following them will not be difficult for you. But the result will exceed all your expectations - the printer will work without failures or breakdowns for much longer, making you happy highest quality print.
In general, there are a lot of people on Habré who are well versed in printers and their consumables. But there are probably more of those who perceive the printer as a device familiar to everyone (almost like an iron) that “works and is fine.”
And if this approach is still acceptable for home use, then for the office, inattention to the printer can result in significant costs (and the wrong choice of printer threatens to turn into a black hole for finances). And for a home user, it would also be nice to save a couple of thousand rubles, right?
After mature reflection, we decided to publish a short reminder article for printer users (the article is “tailored” for working with laser printers, there are a couple of mentions about inkjet printers, and that’s all).
The article contains several tips on choosing a printer, on choosing cartridges (for now we are only talking about laser printers), plus tips on the correct operation of printers and consumables for them.
We also decided to develop an application - a nice reminder on working with the printer for “accountant Varvara Germanovna” and other employees. You can print out the reminder and hang it near your printing machine.
Choosing the right printer? Challenge accepted
1. Decide on your approximate print volume: up to 50 pages per month or 50,000 pages per day.
In the first case, you will need a simple inkjet printer (don’t forget about the danger of ink drying out) or the services of printing centers (which is more economically feasible given such a volume). In general, you can deliver it for 2,000 rubles. streamer and don’t worry about it anymore.
The inkjet is also justified for constant load high quality (photo printing) printing. But here it’s worth looking at the situation - is there a need for a “smut” with a jet and CISS (system continuous feed ink), or is it easier for you to constantly work with a photo/printing studio?
If your printing needs exceed 100 pages per month, we recommend purchasing a modern basic laser printer for RUB 4,000.
It’s clear with a home printer, but how can you estimate the volume of printing in the office? We recommend taking the average amount of paper ordered to the office as a basis. Then, you need to decide on the number of printers per company: either it will be one large productive device in the corridor, or several basic printers in offices. But we must not forget that by placing one large printer for an office, saving on additional printers results in, albeit small, but daily, costs for work time employees.
You can decide on the type of printer(s) based on the classification of printing equipment according to the recommended load: personal, small, medium and large.
Personal printers have a service life of up to 5,000 pages per month and are intended for home or office use with small print volumes. Most inkjet printers/MFPs (multifunction devices) and simple laser and LED printers/MFPs fall into this category.
Small equipment are MFPs and printers that can print from 5,000 to 10,000 pages per month. This is the most common class of devices and is used in small offices or in separate rooms.
Mid-range printers print from 20,000 to 50,000 pages per month. Such devices can be placed one at a time in a large office; the feed trays allow you to make a significant supply of paper for intensive printing.
Large office equipment capable of printing over 50,000 pages per month without loss of performance. Such devices are close in performance to mini-printing houses and can be used to print small edition brochures.
If the speed of printing documents is important in your office, you need to understand that the higher the class of the printer, the faster it prints.
2. Plan your overall printing budget.
All logical arguments when choosing a printer fall short of the budget. But the financial investment after purchasing a printer is far from over, and, more often than not, is just beginning.
To insure against unplanned expenses, you need to consider printing costs, taking into account such concepts as:
Copy price- includes costs for consumables: cartridges and paper. Paper is often not taken into account in calculations, since its price is stable; however, its cost is on average 25 kopecks per sheet.
Cost of use includes, in addition to the price of the copy, also the cost of equipment, preventive maintenance of printers, repair work and the cost of spare parts.
Full copy price: this is the cost of use / per number of copies for the entire planned period of use of the equipment. The average service life is from 3 to 5 years, depending on the load (the manufacturer indicates this period in the documentation for the printer).
3. Decide on the color of the print: black or color.
The real need for printing color images fluctuates around the figure of 5% of the total printing volume. And for the sake of this 5%, a color printer is often purchased at an order of magnitude higher than the cost of a monochrome printer.
It is better to print color photographs from a corporate event in any photo studio, with higher quality and “inexpensively”. It's like buying a convertible in St. Petersburg. It seems nice and cool, but with an open top you can ride 2-3 days a month, and not every year :) And if you, apart from corporate photos, have nothing else to print in color, we still recommend purchasing a monochrome printer.
4. Pay attention to the type of cartridge system in the printer:
- “all in one” (for laser printers, monolithic cartridge);
- “compound cartridge” (for laser printers, the cartridge can consist of 2 or 3 parts).
If you plan to purchase one printer, then you can cope with both a composite laser cartridge and system setup CISS inkjet printer (if you buy an inkjet).
But if you manage several printers that are used by several dozen users, then composite cartridge systems will significantly complicate the maintenance process. The all-in-one system is much less troublesome.
5. How many users will print documents on this machine.
Yes, the more employees there are, the faster printers die.
It is more economically profitable to install 1 device per open space office, but in practice this is difficult to implement: documents get confused, duplicate reprints occur. There are systems for individual printing on cards, but they are expensive (unique software + additional equipment) and their implementation must have a serious justification.
6. For large volumes of printing, you need to think about how the process of servicing the printing equipment will be organized.
This is not always obvious, but printing technology, like any other, needs preventive maintenance. Some people prefer to carry it out on their own, while others use the services of outsourcers.
If the company has 100 printers (some of which are in remote branches), you need to decide who will service the printers: full-time employees or an external company.
But rarely can anyone afford a full-time printing specialist. For example, a 5-day training course on using printers from Hewlett-Packard costs about $750 in Moscow (different courses for black and white and color). And if the specialist quits...
We can write a separate article on organizing printing systems in medium and large offices if such interest arises.
7. We also advise you to assume the filling density of the printed sheet.
For what? There are interesting statistics here that few people know about.
All specifications Printer manufacturers issue based on a standard indicator - 5% coverage of the printed sheet. If the % of sheet coverage increases, the cartridge consumption rate also increases.
Example of 5% coverage of a printed sheet
Example of 15% coverage of a printed sheet
For example, one of the top models, the HP CB436A cartridge, is designed for 2,000 sheets. It turns out that at 5% coverage it will print 2,000 sheets, and at 15% coverage it will print 3 times less, i.e. 666 pages...
Not new, but the popular C7115A cartridge is designed for 2500 sheets at 5% coverage, and at 15% coverage it will print 3 times less, i.e. approximately 834 pages.
8. Decide on additional options for the printing device.
In addition to the basic configuration, the printer can have many additional configurations that directly affect the cost of the device. Let's focus on the main ones:
Copying, scanning, telephone, fax– these tasks are solved by an MFP, and not a simple printer.
Duplex(device duplex printing), which eliminates the need to manually turn over documents that must be printed on both sides.
Printing on special paper(cardboard, labels, photo paper) – the printer will print efficiently and without breaking down only if this option is included in its configuration.
Print from mobile device
– more and more often modern printer models are equipped with the option of printing via local wireless network, but in practice it is not often used.
Printing from USB, memory cards etc.
Additional paper trays(there may be several of them) - allow you to fill the printer with paper, sometimes for months in advance.
Finishers- automatic hole punchers, staplers, booklet makers, etc. “Heavy” A3 format devices are equipped with such devices. Their purchase directly depends on the tasks assigned to the printer.
Sorters (mailboxes) – sort printed documents when shared.
HDD- speeds up printing on pre-created templates, such as letterhead, where only the text is changed.
The printer has a touch screen– makes it easier to manage printing processes.
Battery operation– for force majeure situations and for mobile printing.
Choose the right cartridge? Let's try
When choosing any product/service, we first of all evaluate them according to 2 main criteria: price and quality, it is difficult to find a compromise between them:
1) original cartridges: the quality of the prints is standard, but it’s really expensive
2) remanufactured cartridges: the print quality is close to the original cartridges, they are 30-40% cheaper than the original ones, but the savings are felt only in the long term;
3) compatible cartridges: 2-3 times cheaper than the original ones, but their quality is unstable and the resource is lower than that of the original ones (since the printing is “denser”, the toner consumption is higher);
4) refilled cartridges: “cheap and cheerful” in the literal sense: the most economical solution, but the resource and print quality of the cartridge are unpredictable.
Choosing which cartridges to use(we repeat, we are only talking about cartridges for laser printers) it is important to set priorities and decide on the following printing parameters:
- quality of the printed document (“not important at all” - compatible and refilled cartridges; “important” - refurbished and original; “color rendition is very important” - original);
- cost of the printed document (“not important at all” - original cartridges; “quick savings are important” - refilled and compatible; “very important, we optimize costs” - remanufactured);
- environmental friendliness (a trend, and in some companies – already a necessary requirement); figuratively speaking, by buying and throwing away an original or compatible cartridge, you are “burying a plastic bag in the ground after 1 use”; when refilling the cartridge, you “bury the plastic bag in the ground after the 2nd use”; When using recovery, you are “using a paper bag.”
Here's a guide to using printers and their consumables:
DOWNLOAD MEMOTHE PRINTER WILL WORK PROPERLY IF:
correctly install cartridges into the printer; do not try to install the cartridge without reading the instructions: you can damage not only the cartridge, but also the printer itself;
print b/w documents on monochrome printers and NOT print b/w documents on color printers; since when printing a b/w document, parts of all 4 color cartridges wear out, just like when printing in color;
Correctly remove jammed paper; if paper is stuck in the printer, you can’t just drag it, straining yourself (even more so, remove it using scissors, rulers, etc.); The right way Removing jammed paper from the printer depends on the machine model and is described in the user manual; It is best to contact the specialist responsible for servicing the device;
monitor the humidity and temperature in the room; toner is a very complex substance and the manufacturer describes all the printing characteristics of the printer, referring to ideal conditions (certain humidity and air temperature); a simple air humidifier can save you several tens of thousands of rubles on device repairs; According to statistics, the number of printer and cartridge breakdowns increases with the onset of the heating season;
carry out regular preventive maintenance of the printer (service maintenance); it is always cheaper than one-time repairs after the fact (prevention of diseases is always cheaper than treatment);
place the printer correctly indoors; It is not recommended to place the printer near a window or on a windowsill (dust, humidity and temperature instability negatively affect printer parts); in addition, the printer must stand on a flat surface slightly larger than its area (since if one leg of the printer moves off the surface, the load on its individual parts will change);
correctly place blank paper in the printer; ideally, clean paper removed from the pack should be leafed through before placing it in the printer (to avoid “sticking” from static electricity sheets);
take into account the thickness and type of printing paper; printing on thick paper, glossy, adhesive, on printers not intended for such types of paper is dangerous for the printer;
do not use drafts for printing; It is generally accepted that it is economical to print on drafts, however, this is not entirely true: the old draft toner can crumble and bake on the printer’s thermal block; savings on paper will be a couple of hundred rubles, and the cost of repairing the printer stove will be several thousand rubles;
respond correctly to force majeure; if liquid or small objects enter the printer, the device must be unplugged from the socket, “shout loudly “Help!”” (call a specialist);
Make sure that paper clips, stripes, glue, tape, etc. do not get inside the printer; According to statistics, it is the paper clip that is the main enemy of the printer; This also includes the rule: use the printer for its intended purpose; Do not store foreign objects in the printer trays (cookies, cosmetics and payday stash).
Tags: Add tags
Quite often questions arise about the service life of printers and multifunction printers. But it’s worth noting right away that there is no specific meaning, because The useful life of a printer is directly dependent on a variety of factors and conditions, for example, the manufacturing company, the quality of components, compliance with manufacturing technology, frequency of maintenance, etc.
In general, the service life of a laser model printer can be about 5 years with careful handling, and an inkjet printer can be within 3-5 years. It should also be added that, according to some experts, the resources of the main parts laser device are as follows: for a photo drum (photo) it is approximately 20-30 thousand printed pages, and for an oven, as well as units responsible for feeding paper and removing excess toner, this figure can reach 100 thousand. If the annual load is in the range of 1-2 thousand printed pages, then the service life of a laser model printer increases significantly to 10 years or more.
It should also be said that the operating life of a laser/inkjet printer or multifunctional device depends on whether it is intended for specific model for home use or for office use. The fact is that office equipment can withstand heavy loads and at the same time has more high speed print. Therefore, by purchasing an office printer for home use, you will receive office equipment with a huge service life. Despite the fact that office devices are highly reliable, they are more susceptible to failure than their home counterparts. This is due not only to the huge volumes of work performed daily, but also to the carelessness of some employees.
But by following the rules for using printers, which are quite simple, and also by following a few useful tips, you can increase the service life of your device by several years. This step is very advisable in a modern office environment, especially when it is necessary to save money on the purchase of new office equipment of this type.
- The most intricate part of an inkjet printer model is, of course, the print head. It is this detail that requires increased attention. As a rule, there are a number of nozzles on it, through which small droplets of coloring matter fall onto the surface of the paper. At the same time, the ink has the property of drying out during prolonged inactivity, as a result of which the print head nozzles become clogged. Therefore, in order for this part not to fail, and for the inkjet printer to work for the maximum possible period of time, you first need to prevent the occurrence of such stagnation. For this purpose, you will need to print out several pages with the necessary documents at least once a week. Please note that good quality alternative inks can remain in good condition for almost a month. But it’s better not to tempt fate and not let your inkjet printer rest for too long.
- One of the key parts of a laser printer is the photo roller (photodrum), which sooner or later wears out. Signs of this include vertical black streaks appearing on printed pages. To extend the service life of this part, never install the device near a window, otherwise you will not be able to avoid direct sunlight on the photodrum. If you decide to wipe the photo roll, do not use chemical solutions, alcohol or other solvents for this, but use the system automatic cleaning. If this does not help, then wipe the part with a dry cloth. Find out about .
- Another important rule, the observance of which will help increase the service life of an inkjet printer, is that cartridges should be changed immediately after they run out of ink. Remember that under no circumstances should you remove consumables for a long time - install a new cartridge immediately after removing the old one. When installing the CISS or refilling it, strictly follow the instructions, or better yet, use the services of professionals. Also keep in mind that you should not shake the already used consumables of a laser device in order to restore its printing function for a short period of time. The fact is that this will lead to powder spilling out of the mining hopper and the apparatus itself falling asleep.
- Also, you should not disable the sensor that monitors the ink level in the device. The fact is that if you do not refill the printer consumables in time, air can enter the print head. This, in turn, will cause the nozzles to dry out.
- In addition, to increase the service life of your office equipment, try to buy only high-quality ink and toner. It is better to give preference to products from well-known and reputable manufacturers. Cheap, low-quality inks can lead to various kinds of problems, for example, the ink of an inkjet device can oxidize the head and clog its nozzles. And never mix ink or toner from different manufacturers. Products from different companies have their own individual chemical composition. Mixing can lead to a reaction, especially with ink.
- The quality of paper is of no small importance in the longevity of any office equipment. It’s better not to save on buying it, otherwise you will have to sacrifice the “health” of your device. For inkjet devices, use special media, otherwise the paper may spread under the influence of moisture and get stuck in the printing mechanism. Pay attention to its density. To do this, study the characteristics of the printer, where the minimum and maximum threshold for this value are usually indicated. Paper that is too thick can be just as dangerous as paper that is too thin. Do not forget that it is not recommended to use wrinkled media, because... it tends to get stuck in the printing mechanism.
- Do not allow any objects to get inside the mechanism. To do this, be sure to remove all staples and scrapers from the paper, and, if possible, protect the device from children. Also make sure that no dust gets into its mechanism. To prevent this, try to regularly remove dust from the printer using a vacuum cleaner and do wet cleaning in the room where it is installed.
- Do not place any type of printer close to heat sources, such as a heating system. In addition, such a device must always stand on a hard and level surface. If you are using an inkjet model with CISS, make sure that the system’s reservoirs are located at the same level as the office equipment.
Compliance with the listed rules and recommendations will definitely help you “squeeze” the maximum out of your printing device. This is especially true if you are using a fairly expensive and multifunctional model. In this case, your office equipment will serve you for at least ten years.
