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Protect the Environment with Printer Repair

Submitted by Stacey Anderson

Printers are relatively inexpensive these days, leading many businesses to assume that the cost of repair will exceed the convenience and benefit of simply buying a new printer. This, in turn, leads to millions of printers winding up in trash dumps long before they really need to go.

Next time your printer malfunctions, instead of shopping for a new one, consider repairing the broken part. You’ll be helping the environment and your budget at the same time.

For example, the fuser is the printer part that bonds the toner to the paper. Even on top-of-the-line printers, the fuser can start to malfunction long before the rest of the printer. Yet replacing a fuser is easy and fast; for most HP models, it simply requires opening the printer, releasing the fuser levers or unscrewing the connection screws, and then simply replacing the old part with the new. Most other parts, or sub-assemblies as they’re called, can be replaced with similar ease. 

If you’re replacing your fuser, this would also be a good time to purchase a printer maintenance kit. Maintenance kits include printer parts identified as having high wear characteristics, or parts that break down sooner than the other parts of your printer, including a fuser and replacement parts. Interval charts are available online to help schedule part replacements before they lead to problems. Having high wear printer parts on hand will allow you to effectively perform preventative maintenance, further increasing the longevity of your printer’s life. So, instead of junking the whole printer, savvy businesses simply order a new maintenance kit and replace high wear parts as needed.

Taking recycling a step further, instead of ordering a brand new part, many businesses today order a “remanufactured” part. Companies like Depot America offer remanufactured parts as a cost-effective alternative to buying new. Through rigorous testing all Depot America remanufactured parts are subjected to strict quality standards including three independent quality assurance inspection checkpoints, in order to ensure that remanufactured parts offer the same performance and quality as a new part, but at a significantly lower price.

So the next time you get an error message on your printer, before you start shopping for a new printer, check out the fast and easy fixes on sites like Depot America. The environment and your bottom line will thank you