Printers #

Printers are office appliances which can print, scan, and/or copy documents.

Modern printers are Wifi-enabled, meaning they can be accessed from any computer on the local area network.

Ink Jet type printers use cartridges of color pigments to render the documents onto pieces of paper. These Ink cartridges are sold by the Printer manufacturer and are easily replaceable by hand.

Maintenance #

Printers often require maintenance as they have a large number of moving, mechanical parts. Modern printers can self diagnose most mechanical problems.

Ink Jet printers can also get old, dried up ink clogged into the printer head, nozzle, or an old cartridge. Modern printers have an automatic maintenance cycle for cleaning and re-aligning the printing heads. However, they cannot clear a clogged nozzle on their own.

Epson recommends to use up an ink cartridge within 6 months after opening. The ink will eventually dry out, forming small flakes of hardened ink which can clog a printer nozzle.

If a nozzle is completely clogged, it must be manually cleared using ammonia cleaning solution (or some other solvent) piped directly through the nozzle.

Here are some useful guides for cleaning a printing nozzle.

I purchased a simple kit off Amazon.