Salt, damp and what they do to a machine
A printer within a few hundred metres of the water has a harder life than one inland. Salt air corrodes the connectors on the boards, damp swells the paper, and lint and fine sand clog the fans. The result is a machine that works until somebody bumps it, or one that sounds like a hairdryer and warms up slowly.
We look for the signs when we open a machine: a white crust on a connector, rust on a screw head near the fan, curled paper at the bottom of a tray. None of that is dramatic. Cleaning the contacts, changing the fan filter if there is one and moving the machine clear of an open door buys years.
Paper is the simplest fix of all. Keep it wrapped until the minute it goes in the tray, and keep the ream off an outside wall.
Tin Can Bay: harbour, marine suppliers and the back office
Tin Can Bay sits on the Great Sandy Strait with a working harbour, a marina and a fishing and boating trade that keeps a lot of small offices going. Delivery dockets, registration paperwork, invoices for slip work and fuel, charter trip sheets. A great deal of it prints on a small laser or an inkjet multifunction that lives beside an open door.
Cooloola Cove behind the town is mostly houses, with a cluster of small businesses and home offices. Real estate, a few trades, community groups. The printers there look like any home office printer, with the same causes behind the same faults.
Dolphin feeding at Norman Point draws visitors every morning, and the tourism side of town prints its own tickets, receipts and sign in sheets. When the thermal printer at a counter stops, it stops in front of a queue.
Rainbow Beach: holiday lets, tours and the ferry queue
Rainbow Beach is the gateway to Inskip Point, the ferry to K'gari, the Carlo Sand Blow and the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park. It is also a town of holiday managers, accommodation, dive and tour operators, four wheel drive hire and the cafes that feed them.
A holiday manager prints arrival notes, keys lists, house rules and invoices, sometimes fifty pages at a time on a Friday. A tour operator prints waivers and safety briefings for a morning departure. Both of them run a machine that sits quiet midweek and works hard at the weekend, which suits nothing about a fuser.
Sand is the second enemy after salt. A fine film settles on rollers and glass, and a scanner with a gritty platen leaves a grey streak the full length of the page. We clean the scan path and the document feeder glass and show you where the line was coming from.
School holidays, long weekends and the quiet months
Before a busy week
The busiest weeks are easy to name: Christmas, Easter and the school holidays, plus any long weekend with good weather. If your business lives on those weeks, book a check beforehand. A new feed roller and a clean costs far less than a failure on the Saturday morning.
In the middle of one
If it fails during the rush, phone early with what you know. We say honestly what we can fit in that day, and whether a stopgap such as printing through a phone or a second machine makes sense while the part is arranged. We carry the common spare parts, so most calls need only the one visit.
After it
The quiet months are when machines sit with toner stuck to the drum and rollers gone hard. A test print before the first booking weekend is cheap insurance, and a quick service then is easier to schedule.
What we look at on a coast machine
- Connectors and boards for a white or green crust, which is the first sign of salt.
- Fan intake and exhaust for lint and sand, the cause of most noisy machines.
- Paper trays for damp, curl and the smell of a ream stored against an outside wall.
- Rollers and the scanner glass for fine grit that causes streaks.
- The power point and the surge board, because storms and marginal power are a regular visitor here.
None of this takes long. It is the reason we tell a coastal customer the same thing a few times, and why we write what we found on the invoice in plain words.
Holiday parks, motels and reception desks
A holiday park office or a motel reception runs a printer for check in forms, receipts, key tags and notices to guests. It is shared by whoever is on shift, it gets moved to wipe a bench, and it is rarely switched off properly. Cables take a beating. A USB lead loose in a port gives a printer that works on some days and not on others.
If the problem comes and goes, tell us it comes and goes. Intermittent faults are usually a cable, a connector or a power supply, not a failed machine, and they are cheap to fix once they are found.
Receipt and ticket printers at a counter have their own habits. Fed the wrong roll or fitted the wrong way round they print nothing, and the cause looks like a dead printer. Check the roll first, and then call us if it still prints blank.
Marine offices and the inkjet question
A great many small marine businesses run a cheap inkjet multifunction because that is what they bought on the way home. We prefer commercial laser machines, and we say so, but we will not turn you away if the inkjet is what runs the business. A look takes little time and we say honestly whether a repair is sensible.
When the business has outgrown the inkjet, the move to a small commercial laser is usually the cheaper path over a year. We buy and sell, new and second hand, and the machines we sell are warranted. We help size one to the way you print.
How we fit your job in
The Cooloola Coast is a good way from the main Sunshine Coast towns, and we plan for that by grouping jobs. When you phone we ask who else nearby is waiting on a machine and try to pair your visit with theirs. The earlier you ring, the better the chance we can do it the same day. If the lines are busy the call is logged and returned, so leave the details.
Technicians carry the common spares for the machines in this area, mostly Brother, HP, Canon, Kyocera and Toshiba. 98% of repairs are done on the first visit. If the same fault returns we fix it again at no charge.
Thinking about replacing it
We buy and sell commercial machines as well, new and second hand, so we can say what a replacement would cost to run against what your current machine is costing you. Salt damaged machines are sometimes better replaced than patched, and we say so when it is true. The machines we sell are warranted.
Parts
The part is in the van, or we know before we arrive
Waiting a week for a roller to come from a warehouse is a poor deal for a firm with invoices to print. Technicians carry the common spare parts, and on the phone we work out which ones your make and model are likely to want. If something rarer is needed, you hear that before we arrive, not after we have pulled the machine apart on your floor.
Parts that are not worth fitting we tell you about too. A fifteen year old machine with three things failing is a different conversation, and we have it plainly.
- Common parts carried. Rollers, drums, blades and the usual wear items.
- Rare ones flagged early. You know before the visit.
- Plain advice. Repair or replace, your call.
More for Sunshine Coast offices
Photocopier repairsCopiers fixed at your desk, one call, price agreed first.
Commercial printer repairsCommercial laser printers, label printers and fleets repaired on site.
GympieMary Street offices, rural suppliers, council and regional trade.
Noosa and NoosavilleHastings Street, Noosa Junction, Noosaville and Tewantin.
Brother repairsBrother HL lasers, MFC multifunctions and A3 inkjets repaired on site.
HP repairsLaserJet Pro, Enterprise, Color LaserJet and DesignJet repaired on site.
Photocopier paper jamsWhy copiers jam, what you can do at the machine and when to ring.
Printer and copier salesNew and second hand commercial copiers, printers and plotters, with our own technicians behind them.Buy, sell and lease
Buy, sell and lease commercial copiers on the Sunshine Coast
We also sell new and second hand commercial copiers and buy used ones. Same team, same technicians.
Caloundra, Maroochydore, Noosa and the hills
What people ask when they ring
Do you cover printer service in Rainbow Beach and Tin Can Bay?
Yes, along with Cooloola Cove and the country toward Gympie. Phone with the location, the make, the model and the symptom.
Why is my printer fan so loud near the coast?
Salt and lint clog the fan and the intake. We clean it, check the fan itself and look for corrosion on the connectors.
Can you fix a scanner that leaves a grey line on every copy?
Usually, yes. Sand or dust on the platen glass or the document feeder glass is the commonest cause. Clean both first. If it stays, tell us the model.
Should my accommodation business service its printer before school holidays?
It is a good idea. A feed roller and a clean before peak weeks costs much less than a failure during one.
My receipt printer prints blank slips. What now?
Check the roll is the right way round, because thermal paper only prints on one side. If it still prints blank, the head or the paper sensor is the next suspect.
How is the price set for a call on the Cooloola Coast?
On the phone, before booking, with nothing locked in. We say what we think the fault is and what the repair involves.
Do you repair inkjet multifunctions used in marine offices?
We prefer commercial machines, but if an inkjet runs the business and you phone, we look at it and say honestly whether a repair makes sense.
What if I am not sure what the error code on the screen means?
Type it into our code guide or read it to us on the phone. A code points to an area of the machine rather than naming the part.
Do you service printers in holiday parks and motels?
Yes. Reception printers, receipt printers and the office copier. Tell us how it fails and whether the fault comes and goes.
My printer works some days and not others. What is that?
An intermittent fault usually points to a cable, a connector, the power supply or a network address that changes. Tell us when it fails and what had changed.
