Your Guide to Basic Multifunction Printer Maintenance

Your brand-new multifunction printer is sure to make your document management process easier! No matter your needs, your printer can boost your workday efficiency. But just like any piece of office equipment, multifunction printers require periodic maintenance and care to keep them running smoothly. Even a rented machine, where repairs are less of your responsibility, will need occasional minor work that isn’t worth waiting for a support team to handle. Are you equipped to care for your multifunction printer?

Generally, extensive customer support for both purchased and rented Sharp multifunction printers means you’ll likely never have to buy new parts for your printer or perform intricate repairs yourself. But there’s more to maintenance than difficult tasks. Make sure you know how to clean your printer, handle paper jams, and deal with minor issues yourself rather than waiting on a support team to come in.

Knowing how to handle simple multifunction printer maintenance tasks yourself will save you time and let you get back to work quickly. Take a look at how to handle these common scenarios. #PlatinumCopiers Click To Tweet

Cleaning Your Printer Bed & Exterior

For a quick cleaning job on your printer, use a microfiber cloth and moist alcohol wipes to remove dust, fingerprints, and smudges on your printer bed. Avoid using paper towels or coarse cleaning materials since they can leave scratches or just make smudges worse. The softer your cleaning materials are, the better.

Pro Tip: Wipe down your printer bed with a microfiber cloth or alcohol wipe every few days or whenever you notice smudges starting to form. This will ensure you get a clean scan or copy every time.

Prevent Ink Smears & Paper Jams

If you notice ink smudges or stains appearing in places where they shouldn’t be on your print jobs, the paper rolls inside the printer are probably dirty. Open your printer and carefully wipe the rollers and/or paper path with an alcohol wipe. Make sure the wipe doesn’t leave any shreds or debris behind or you’ll just end up with more smudges later. Most importantly, never scrape the rollers with anything abrasive! This will only make any damage worse and make it easier for ink to get trapped on the rollers.

Likewise, ink or debris buildup is the most likely culprit behind paper jams. To deal with this problem, open your printer and gently clean the paper rollers with your microfiber cloth. Remove any crumpled or trapped paper that you can safely reach. The machinery might be hot if you’ve just been using your printer, so don’t worry if you can’t get every speck of ink or dirt. Just clean as much as you can easily access.

Update Your Printer’s Firmware

Not every problem is due to ink buildup or faulty hardware. If your printer seems to be outwardly fine but is struggling to print properly, make sure its firmware is completely up-to-date. Outdated firmware makes it difficult for your machines to talk to each other, after all. Talk to your copier service provider to see about enabling automatic updates to save you some time.

Multifunction Printer Maintenance Made Simple

There’s no need for you to perform every single bit of required work and repairs on your printer yourself. However, taking a few steps to keep your printer clean and updated will go a long way toward saving you money on repair costs and saving time during your workday. Get in the habit of performing regular maintenance on your multifunction printer and keep your machinery on top of your workday!

Connect with us to learn more about multifunction printer maintenance and how our customer support team can help.