Laser printers like any mechanical device are prone to dust and the mechanical parts gets clogged after some time interval due to dust accumulation. Moreover, the laser printers use laser toners as the printing ink which is in powder form. During operation some ink may scatter inside the printer. Although there are many printer cleaning kits available online, you can clean the Laserjet printer yourself at home by following some cleaning instructions carefully. There is a famous saying “ It is better to prevent than to repent later-on”. If you follow certain preventive steps to upkeep the laser printer, the breakdowns are bound to occur less frequently.
DIY Steps to Clean a Laserjet Printer
Physical cleaning
You can physically clean some key components of the laser printer and most of the printer brands do provide some maintenance utility program to carry out cleaning tasks.
Internal Cleaning
1 Shut down the printer power supply. Remove the power cable if possible, to prevent any earthing shocks.
2 Open the front cover ( from where you insert the toner). Now remove the toner cartridge from the closet.
Note: Do not touch or the expose the drum unit of the toner to sunlight. The drum is either blue or green in color.
3 Next, take a small brush to wipe out the scattered ink powder from the inner area of the printer. You can also use the vacuum cleaner kit to suck the dust out. In case, you are getting small black dots on the print-out, this cleaning step will resolve the issues.
4 Now you can see a small rubber unit on a steel rod inside the closet, the area just below where the toner rests.
Take a lint-free cloth and if possible dip it in the IPA or acetone and scrub the roller from all its sides. This will cleanse out any oil or grease accumulated on the roller. Following this step will solve all the paper-pickup issues in the printer.
5 Now move to the paper input tray area. Remove all the paper from the media-tray and with the brush clean all the dust from inside the area. This will again resolve any problem related to paper pick-up.
6 In some printers, by opening the back side cover, you can see the small paper rollers made of plastic. You can clean the whole area with cotton swabs. Remove the dirt from the area between plastic rollers and clean the rollers themselves with ISO-propyl alcohol.
Note: Do not open the back area if you are not sure about opening /closing the printer cover.
7 You can also clean the toner gently by moving aside the plastic cover on the drum area. Now take a soft cloth (similar to that is used to clean spectacle glasses). Now put the toner back to the cartridge area and gently close the top cover.
8 Finally, plug in the power wire and start the printer to take a test page.
External Cleaning
Unplug the power wire and the data/network cable. Take a lint-free soft cloth and dip it in the soap water or IPA and rub the outer plastic casing with it. To conclude the cleaning, wipe the printer casing with a dry soft cloth.
Cleaning through Maintenance Wizard
As already said, most the printer brands provide an inbuilt printer cleaning tool. You can often find it in the printer properties. Navigate to the cleaning wizard and start it. It should be noted that the whole cleaning process may take a few minutes for completion so be patient and never stop the cleaning process in-between.
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