The thing with technology is that it’s constantly improving. It’s the greatest blessing and the greatest curse for the modern day individual. Blessing because it means better tools to work with and curse because keeping up with technological upgrades can be difficult.
Take for example your printer. Printer technology is evolving so fast that it’s difficult to know when you need to buy a new printer. Moreover, if you use your printer regularly, it’s very easy to get stuck in the routine and not realise that your printer is approaching the end of its life.
So, how do you know when you need to buy a new printer? There are signs that you need to watch out for and we can help qualify them for you. Here are the top signs that you need to buy a new printer!
You Need To Buy a New Printer If You Can’t Find Replacement Parts
This one is quite obvious. Usually, this is the timeline that people experience with regard to the ageing of their printers.
First, the printer breaks down and spares from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) become unavailable.
At this stage, people can find aftermarket spares or components made by third party manufacturers.
In this phase, your need to buy a new printer isn’t critical but it can be argued that it is pertinent.
In other words, whether you need to buy a new printer or not depends upon your preferences.
For instance, if you’re not one of those people who want the absolute best in technology, then you can continue using this printer with aftermarket parts. However, if you’ve gone beyond this stage, then you absolutely need to buy a new printer. This is the stage where you can’t find any spare parts for your printer.
You Need To Buy a New Printer If Your Printing Needs Have Scaled Up
Another fairly obvious way to decide if you need to buy a new printer is if your printing needs have evolved and your current printer can’t keep up with them. This situation can crop up in a number of ways. This includes.
- You need features that your current printer doesn’t have like AirPrint, remote printing, copying, faxing, scanning, and even automatic duplexing.
- You need more printing speed because the volume of your printing has increased or if you have more people using the same printer.
- You need to print in colour or need to print photos but your printer is monochrome.
- Your printing volume has increased so much that your current inkjet printer is proving to be costlier than it needs to be and a laser printer would be a better option.
This is easily the most common reason why people need to buy a new printer. If your printing needs have scaled up, then by not upgrading your printer you may be adversely affecting your professional or personal productivity.
Since time is money and growth, it’s better to realise that you need to buy a new printer rather than let your productivity suffer.
You Need To Buy a New Printer If Print Quality Has Gone Down
The first sign that you need to buy a new printer will be when the print quality goes down. This means everything from faded prints to blank lines in your prints.
If the print quality of your printer has gone down, it might be prudent to first consider if the culprit are your cartridges. Unfortunately, the only way to check this is to replace your current cartridges with new ones.
If even the new cartridges fail to make a difference to print quality then you should see if you can replace the print head on the printer.
It’s easy to replace the drum or print head on most modern printers. In fact, if you spend a little time, you may even be able to do it yourself. Moreover, many printers’ cartridges come with their own print heads which means that you get new print heads every time you replace cartridges.
These are options you should consider before thinking that you need to buy a new printer. Still, if things have come this far, then you can only delay buying a new printer. Putting off a new printer purchase may be helpful now but keep in mind that a printer not performing optimally will most probably start consuming more and more consumables for the same kind of work.
A printer using more ink or toner than it used to is a sign of inefficiency and definitely a hint that you should buy a new printer. We’ll get to this situation further down this article.
You Need to Buy a New Printer If You’re Experiencing Frequent Paper Jams
A clear sign that you need a new printer is if you are experience paper jams at the drop of a hat. Paper jams will occur a few times in most printers but they shouldn’t be frequent.
If paper jams are frequent in your printer, then there may be something wrong with its rolling mechanism. You can usually deal with paper jam problems by replacing the roller on your printer.
However, if more than a single component is causing frequent paper jams, then you may need to buy a new printer. In such scenarios, buying a new printer may turn out to be a cheaper option in the long term.
The reason for this is that if you’re replacing parts in bulk, then your printer is most likely beyond its lifespan. Even though you just installed new components, some other parts may fail soon through ageing, wear, and tear.
You Need To Buy a New Printer If Your Cartridges Are Running Out Too Soon
Most people don’t realise this fact. If your printer is using more cartridges than it used to without your printing needs growing, then your printer has become inefficient.
This inefficiency will only grow in the future. It will result in you spending a lot of money on cartridges. Since you already know that cartridges are expensive, this could mean a massive and unneeded outlay.
While you can always try to get technician to give your printer a once over, this doesn’t always solve the problem of inefficiency. Inefficient performance of a printer is much more difficult to fix than a malfunctioning part.
So, it might be better for you to get a new printer if your current printer is guzzling down ink or toner and your printing needs haven’t scaled up.
What Can You Do About Your Old Printer?
The above should’ve helped you decide if you need to buy a new printer or not. If you have decided to get a new printer, you’re most probably wondering what to do about your current printer. There are options for this as well.
You could consider exchange offers but those are few and far between. Furthermore, those kinds of offers only exist for poorly selling printers. This either means that those printers are too expensive to begin with or have poor performance.
The other option, of course, is to simply relegate your current printer to being a backup. You could assign it to a department where printing needs are not as pressing or even donate it to a charity organisation.
In any case, if you need to buy a new printer and decide to chuck the old one into the trash can, remember to be environment friendly!
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