Epson Printer Overview

Caring 4 Your Printer
Your Epson printer will provide excellent service to you for
many, many prints. But like all mechanical and digital
devices, wear and tear, as well as computer conflicts, can
cause problems.
The life of a printer depends on your printing needs. There is
no question the expensive graphic arts ink jets, which often
have similar printing specifications to much lower priced
units, will print a volume of prints everyday without failure
much longer than a value-priced printer. You do get what
you pay for. However, if you only print a few photos per
week, you probably don't need a high-priced printer
designed for the graphic artist, or wedding photographer,
who cranks out lots of photos.
In addition, you may want to upgrade your printer, if new
technology offers something valuable to you. Seven-color
printers, for example, are a real boon for black-and-white
printing. So, if you want to do a lot of that type of printing
and only have a four- or six-color printer, it may be an
excellent investment.
Regardless of your printer, there are some things you can
do to keep your Epson printer working at its best. Your
printer's manual will cover much of this
in more detail specific to your unit than I can do in the book,
but I will give you some hints on maintaining your printer.
1.
On and Off
This seems like such a basic thing. How can be
turning a printer on and off be a problem? It isn't
unless you turn it on and off from a power strip.
Never do that. When you turn a printer off, it parks
the heads in a very specific place. If you turn the
printer off at a power strip, it may or may not be parked
properly. This can lead to the head drying out and
clogging.
If you are using the printer on a daily basis, you can just
leave it on. You should turn the printer off if it is not going
to be used for a few days. This allows it to park its heads,
which maintains them properly. However, your printer
does work best when used regularly, so turn on your
printer and make a small print at least every couple of
weeks (if not more often) to keep it functioning well.
Know your printer's controls and always
turn it on and off with the power button.