Wireless portable printers allow you to wirelessly print pictures, documents, contracts, timetables on the go from a variety of sources. With a wireless portable printer you can print out the files and images you need from: USB sticks, phones, cameras and laptops – all without the hassle of cords and wires. Simply turn on the blue tooth, and get printing!

These devices come in all shapes and sizes, but tend to be small, low maintenance, effective printing machines. Almost all of these modern inkjet printers print in surprisingly high resolution, quickly and easily. Not only this, but the prices of these printers are quite low, many ranging from just a few hundred pounds. They can be slipped into a laptop bag for printing practically anywhere.

Portable wireless inkjet printers are a compact and lightweight option for use with laptops, as well as other devices. They run on batteries; some can even charge their battery off a car’s cigarette lighter.

I for one think that these wireless portable printers will revolutionise how printing is. A few decades ago people thought that laptops were a ridiculous concept. Who really needed a computer that much on the go? Yet here we are where most families own a laptop, if not two. Wireless portable printers will go the same way, maybe not yet at their current level of technology. But what happens when they are are more practical, able to print as many sheets as ordinary printers, have a very long battery life, and more importantly are able to print on the go?

Printer has been a modern staple for many decades, as has been computing. However in the last decade a transformation has taken place allowing computing to be done on the go. Meaning the laptop was born – allowing people to work, read, watch videos and listen to music wherever they went.

Yet this transformation didn’t happen to printers.

Until now.

Desktop PCs have been transformed into highly powerful and intelligent laptops, only a decade later has this revolution in electronics caught up to the printing world.

But in what form? How come I’ve never heard of them?

Three words – Wireless Portable Printers. These highly sophisticated and advanced – yet remarkably cheap devics have taken printing to the next level. But what exactly are wireless portable printers?

As the name would suggest, these devices are portable – meaning they’re generally small and compact – usually no larger than is needed to print of an A4 sheet. They’re light and durable which is necessary as you can imagine to survive being constantly carried around. But what’s more is the wireless function on these printer wonders. The wireless function allows you to connect a mobile phone or laptop wirelessly via blue tooth or an internet connection to allowing printing.

What does all this mean?

It means you have cheap, compact and highly advanced laser printers capable of printing hundreds of sheets of high quality wherever you go – quickly, wirelessly and efficiently.

But how do these devices work? How much do they cost, and where can I find unbiased information and help?

http://www.wirelessportableprinter.net/

Although we have found this printer to produce a good quality print and to have been reliable, there is a question mark over the longevity of the printheads and also the high cost of replacing them. You will find, in this article, my experiences dealing with these issues and I hope you will find some inspiration for dealing with your own problems.

If you own or operate one of these printers you will be aware of the cost of replacement of the printheads and may also be aware of the relatively short life-span reported by a number of owners. Hopefully, if you read on, you will find the confidence to attempt the replacement yourself and save up to £400 per head in doing so.

When routinely printing the IQ test print to confirm that the quality of print from each head was acceptable, we noticed that the L Magenta swatch had a scratchy appearance. We were advised that this was an indication of a head that was wearing out and that it would need replacing soon.

Just in case the engineer had been mistaken we decided to give the head a physical clean using a fine cloth and some wiper fluid. Repeating this a number of times resulted in the print quality returning to its original quality.

Over 2-3 days, however, the IQ print became somewhat ’scratchy’ again – although the majority of prints were of an acceptable quality the problem was particularly apparent on large regions of single colour using the light magenta.

We continued in this manner for 2-3 months with reasonable success but eventually the amount of up-time deteriorated to a level where the machine could print no more than a few feet before needing a headclean, so the decision was taken to replace the suspect printhead. The price that we were given was around £1800-£2000 for parts and labour. A maintenance engineer was arranged to attend on the Tuesday following the weekend to double-check that the head needed replacing.

In order to improve the head as much as possible before the engineer came to confirm the need for replacement we switched the printer off – this seats the printheads in a bath of ink and is recommended in order to soften any congealed ink and aid cleaning.

When Monday arrived we switched the printer back on and gave the heads a purge in anticipation of the engineer arriving the next day.

When the engineer arrived he ran the IQ test to ascertain the state of the print quality and found that all 6 heads were printing scratchily. The heads did seem to recover a little after a number of strong purges but it was not consistent and still did not produce a useable print quality.

After a significant amount of further cleaning it was decided that we would replace the Magenta and Light Magenta Head under a scheme run by HP for out of warranty machines where they agree to sort out any problem (including changing up to 2 heads) for a 1 off charge of £1000 (I’m not aware if they are still running this scheme)

When a second engineer came to change the heads he noticed that there was an air leak into the ink reservoir. Once this had been fixed and the heads cleaned a number of times, the prints being produced were of an acceptable quality and the IQ prints appeared to be improving a little each time they were printed.

We were concerned, however, that once the engineer had gone, if the heads deteriorated we would have missed our opportunity to have them replaced as part of the HP scheme. We persuaded the engineer to leave the 2 heads with us so that they could be installed as part of a follow up call and we would only have to pay for the call out and not for the parts.

Almost inevitably, the day following the engineers visit, the light magenta and magenta heads deteriorated significantly. The earliest that the engineer could return was in three days so we decided to investigate replacing the heads ourselves.

We parked the head assembly, switched off the printer and removed the plastic covers. Next the printhead assembly covers were removed to allow access to the printhead themselves. Using a sharp implement such as a knife blade or screwdriver blade, score a positional mark into the fixing plate in order to record the heads position of the head prior to removal. Using the caps supplied with the new printhead, seal off the ink flow and remove the connector for the electrical feed. Take a small socket driver and undo the screws which secure the head to the fixing plate.

We then removed the printhead from the storage packet and carefully placed onto the head fixing plate, lining it up with the marks previously made. Next connect up the ink supply tube as before and press-on the electrical connector. Replace covers and run the ink system purge routine in the maintenance menu to fill the printhead with ink and run the head alignment routines to fine tune the alignment.

This was repeated with the second printhead both of which continue to print well. All the other heads have improved with use (and regular cleaning) and are printing well.

We have since been made aware that the use of an ultrasonic cleaner can return the heads to a good condition when they have been clogged with ink.

http://www.exdisplay.co.uk/