Anyone use those laser printer cleaning sheets for home computer printers? One brand is Dust-Off:
http://www.falconsafety.com/dustoff/office/dcls.html
I just replaced a toner cartridge & now the ink seems to be thick & smears. The printer is older, & before I trash it I thought I’d check those cleaner papers. Thanks for any info.
Probably doesn’t work as advertised.
Laser printer cartridges do not contain ink. If smears and stains appears on printouts your best bet is to open and clean the inside of the machine as per the instruction manual.
It might work but it sounds like you need a new photoconductor unit. If it’s an old printer the cost of a new PCU and toner cartrage will outweight the price of a new printer usually.
Also there could be somethign wrong w/ your tonner cartrage so try a different one 1st.
I convinced my boss to buy a couple of packs of these for work. My take on it was that they were supposed to clean the rollers. We had a few LJ that would jam all the time. They seemed to help but not for long. We just wound up replacing rollers.
I suspect we are talking laser printers here, and not just any old printer. What these sheets claim to do is pick up any loose toner in the paper path. It will pick up some, but heck, so will normal paper.
If you have a spill, you are better off with a vacuum made for this sort of thing. They have a filter so you don’t create a toner plume, and also have attachments that are made to fit into those nice little nooks and crannies inside a printer. But be carefull, there are small paper sensors and other elements that are easily broken. A little surgical mask and a can of compressed air will do for the little spills (and maybe a soon-to-be-retired shirt)
About 70% of the time, when people claim their laser printer needs “cleaning”, it is actually due to damaged fuser rollers. These will leave streaks or repeating images on the page. You could give it a nice hot bath at that point (highly NOT recommended) and it won’t make a difference. A new fuser would be in order.
What printer is this Violet?
I have opened up a lot of laser printers. Sometimes I take the drum out & clean it. I Don’t do
that in sunlight. Sometimes its the corona wire, depends on the printer. I haven’t tried those
sheets becauseI would rather do it myself manually.
Thanks for the feedback, all. This is an old Okidata OL 410e laser printer. It was such a work horse. But not worth repairing, etc. I took it out of storage to use when the HP 100 LaserJet started paper jamming. That one is much newer, but did not give the reliability of the Okidata. Before I remove the Oki, I may check out the cleaning sheets. Meanwhile, I’ve been using my notebook with the Canon portable BJC-80. That little thing is another work horse! But consumes little ink cartridges voraciously, of course.
:smack: The HP is an 1100 LaserJet. And I’ll probably have to deal with the paper jams again.