Installing HP Maintenance Kits the Right Way

There is always a right way and a wrong way with anything that you do.  Installing a maintenance kit in your HP Laser printer is one of them.

HP maintenance kits can be simple to install but many people are missing the service part of the installation.  Just installing the kit will keep you up and running, but there is much more involved than just slapping in the components.  A maintenance kit normally consists of a fuser assembly, transfer roller, and feed rollers.  When replacing the items in the maintenance kit there are other service procedures that need to be accomplished as well. There are many different models of HP Laser Printers.  I have combined all of them together for this article and may speak broadly on the specific issues or procedures I list.

First, you will need to vacuum out the residual paper and toner dust.  This dust can find its way into the drum and fuser and cause undue wear on the drum and drum blade inside the toner cartridge. It can also cause wear on the fuser film or rollers in the fuser assembly.  It is important to vacuum it all out.  Remove all of the components listed.

Fuser assembly, paper trays, feed rollers, toner cartridge, and the transfer roller.  Locate the jam area before the transfer roller. There is normally a green handle to lift it up.  If you make many prints you will see a great deal of paper dust under this area.  Also, when you pull out the transfer roller, there will be toner and paper dust there also. Make sure you vacuum out the paper dust inside the paper trays.  Remove the paper from the tray and you will not have any trouble finding paper dust.   Some laser printers have a circulation fan that has a filter.  These will get completely clogged with dust and can overheat the inside of the machine.  This can cause many problems especially with the toner cartridge. Look for vents on the side of the machine.

Warning:  Do not use canned air!  This will just blow the contaminates into circuit boards, bearings, and other components.

The next thing to do would be to wipe out the inside with a good towel.  You can’t get all of the toner and dust off with a vacuum.  Toner tends to build up if not cleaned and it will eventually cause many problems.  Make sure you clean the entire paper path good. 

Warning: There may be a sensor lever that sticks up and you could break one while cleaning it if you are not careful.

Not all of the paper feed rollers are provided in a standard maintenance kit.  There are rollers that do not require replacement most of the time and they are known as the pre- feed rollers.  Pre-feed rollers are the rollers that push the paper into the feed rollers. They don’t wear as much but they do require cleaning.  You can clean the rollers with WD-40.  Just saturate the cloth and go over the tread of the roller really good.  Then go back over them with the dry part of the cloth and remove any residual cleaner. 

Warning: Never use alcohol when cleaning feed rollers.  Alcohol will dry out the tread and ruin them!

Install all of the maintenance kit components.  Be careful not to damage the fuser assembly while unpacking.  There are some fragile sensor arms and other components that break easy on most of them.  When you are done with installing all of the parts, you should clean the outside covers.  This is important to me because I want it to look good when I am done.  You can use 409 because it really cleans covers well and is easy to get and it is inexpensive.  Follow the procedure for resetting the Perform Maintenance Display.  Print out a test from your work station and you are finally done.  If you follow these steps each time you change your maintenance kit you will see a big difference in quality and performance of your HP Laser Printer.

About the Author:

Bill Tucker has been in the office equipment and supply industry for over 20 years and has several published industry related articles that help the end-user as well as the technician.