Small steps to lengthen the life and efficiency of your photocopier
The photocopier is an essential piece of office equipment and almost all of us use it at work, but we seek maintenance services only when either the print is not right or the paper gets jammed. The photocopier being a machine, needs regular maintenance to handle heavy usage and mishandling in your office. Amongst the most expensive and most useful equipment, a photocopiers in their advanced versions cost thousands of dollars and even its repair and maintenance becomes costly as well.
So today, when you have DIY for almost everything, we have compiled a list of simple and small steps that you can do yourself to keep your office photocopier clean and perform efficiently for linger time.
- Use Quality products. A higher quality product, be it a paper or toner, always helps in least damage to the photocopier in form of paper debris, dust and shavings inside the printer and hence reduce the internal wear and tear of the machine.
- Keep it dry and covered when not in use. It is a good habit to turn off your printer and keep it covered when it is not in use. This is the simplest step by which you can avoid dust from getting deposited inside the printer. Moisture may damage certain parts and print quality of the printer, so to keep it dry, invest in some Silica Gel bags in the paper tray. Easily available at any hardware or office supplies stores, silica bags are far cheaper than unwanted repair calls.
- Keep air filters clean and replace them frequently. The air intake of your photocopier might pull in unwanted dust particles. As most of the printers and copiers have filters on their air intake panels, it is advisable to put a strip of cheesecloth over the opening for another protective layer. Changing the air filters at a regular interval will also help in keeping the machine dust free.
- Frequently clean the copier glass. Clean the platen glass and its rear side in the feeder scanning area with a damp cloth and then use a soft and dry cloth. Or you can use any non-abrasive cloth dampened with glass cleaner to clean the optics and the slit exposure. Avoid spraying the glass cleaner directly onto the glass.
- Use fresh paper. It is suggested not to use the paper which is lying in the paper for long. Even keeping the copiers filled with paper to the brim are not advisable as it might have accumulated dust and moisture which may affect the print quality and also damage other internal parts of the printer. For a clean and clear print always use fresh paper.
- Ensure that suggested toner is being used. With a variation in its viscosity, toners come in a wide range. If you don’t use the toner suggested by the manufacturer or a toner specified for your machine, then it may result into serious damages which may lead to a costly repair or maintenance service.
With the above mentioned ways we have tried to give you small and easy yet effective tips for the maintenance and care of your copier to have a longer and productive life. If, in case, you need any assistance or a maintenance service, do contact us for an expert hand.
Your local Printer Repair & Maintenance Service provider
Has your photocopier or printer broken down? Do you have a service and maintenance contract? If no, then you must know the reason why you need one? As photocopiers and printers have become substantial in day to day working of an office, you need to ensure that there is a good repair and maintenance service contract in place. For expensive photocopiers and printers, it is an essential and wise move as it not only avoids the inconvenience caused in working hours due to machinery breakdown but also save you from additional service and repair costs incurred.
Reasons to get maintenance contract rather than having a DIY approach:
- Multifunctional Printers and photocopiers are complicated machines.
- Only service technicians have the expertise and training to fix them up.
- Doing it yourself without appropriate knowledge might make it a more expensive affair.
- Over a period of time, a contract costs lesser.
We hope you would be convinced by the above mentioned facts. So here we bring to you a few points which you should consider before penning down a contract.
- The service provider you are contracting should clearly mention the kind of costs he will bear. Will it be for the parts or for the service provided or both? As under the repair and maintenance contract, the provider charges a fixed monthly fees. He might charge additionally for each printout till an agreed limit.
- The amount of fee you are paying towards the contract is on what basis. It should be clearly fixed whether it is on the volume of usage or if it is a fixed amount that covers any and every issue. The amount of fee charged is high for machines with high volume of usage and low for lower copier limits.
- The time within which the service provider will provide a technician for the repair. A good service provider shall promise a guaranteed response time. The response time can be arrived at with mutual consent and on the basis of least disruption of effective working hours due to any fault in the machine.
- The things that are included in the package for which you are paying the monthly fee should be clearly known. It means that does the contract include the provision for consumables like ink and toner etc. or they are charged separately? Moreover a contract also stipulates the assumption of responsibility. Depending on the service provider he should clearly mention what costs he assumes to bear/pay: the cost of parts or the labour?
Conclusion
You should sign up with a reputed and faithful printer repair and maintenance service provider who provides you with timely, quality service that too without any surprise costs. A good repair and service provider does not only keeps you calm inspite of sudden machine breakdown but also relieves you from incurring unexpected cost of parts and renders reduced disruption at your workplace due to lengthy repairs.
We, at MilkMan Toner Company have the most trained and experienced technicians who would love to take care of your photocopier, printer and multifunctional printer.
Some Common printer problems to be resolved by professionals
Printers are an indispensable part of office work. They can run smoothly for years but sometimes they can present a maddening quirk leading to a failure to perform. The most common problems faced by consumers using printers may be like: printer doesn’t print or flawed output quality or regular paper jams or print speed or no prints from cloud storage or may have cartridge problem. These can happen in busy offices sharing printers or even at homes with lesser workload on printers. Some of these issues can be resolved with self-help in following ways:
- Printer doesn’t print: This issue might be present due to a number of reasons. It might be due to no paper in the tray, cartridge becomes dried or the printer is not properly connected to the Wi-Fi for print command from mobile devices. These problems can be easily resolved with filling paper in the tray and replenishing trays fully, refilling of the toner cartridges and fastening of the connecting cables. Consider running the network setup wizard to help attach to the correct network.
- Cartridge Issues: printers might give you a low-ink warning, but you don’t need to rush to replace the cartridges immediately. But to be on a safe side, it is advised to order the cartridges as soon as your printer gives an alert for running out but replace it when it really stops printing.
- No printing from cloud storage: Latest printers accept and support printing commands from mobile devices. But if you are not able to get prints from iphone, ipads or ipod touch, you must check that your printer supports AIRPRINT as well.
- Printer is too slow: Even a slow printer can be helped to speed up a bit unless high quality output is not required out of it. You can do so by avoiding duplex printing, which means not to print on both the sides of the paper, which eventually lowers down the speed significantly.
- Web pages won’t print: Web pages vary in size and have unrestricted dimensions with regard to the printer’s paper. It is advisable to check the Print Preview before giving a print command. In case the web page is very wide and needs more help, you must choose landscape mode for such prints.
Although with a little care, you can resolve these issues at your end yet if you are not aware of the printer properly you should get it done by a professional team. A professional Printer & Copier Repair Service might cost you much lesser than cost of permanently disabled device.