Wet Paper?

On By John GrubbIn Info, Printers

Many times, people log into our Remote Technical Support service (support.4kcc.com) or they call us on the phone and complain about their printer paper jamming or coming out wrinkled.  They are often surprised by our questions:

  • How long have you had the paper?
  • Has it been sitting out unwrapped?
  • Are you re-using paper that already had printing on it?

Depending on the answers to these three questions, we often wind up saying this to them:  “Your paper is wet.”  They almost always reply, “It’s not wet.  I’m holding it in my hand right now and it’s dry!”

Although the paper may seem dry, if it’s been around a long time and sitting out unwrapped or has already been used for printing, most likely the paper is wet.  When paper is allowed to sit out for long periods of time, it absorbs moisture from the surrounding air.  This is especially true where there is high humidity such as we have here in Florida.  Once the paper starts taking on moisture from the air, the paper can jam your printer, crinkle up and even cause the ink to not lay down on the paper correctly – thus, smearing and/or printing words out of focus.

What’s the solution?  Here are a number of steps you can take:

  1.  Don’t reuse paper that’s already been printed on unless you reuse it within a day or so of the original printing.
  2.  Don’t overdo the amount of paper you put in the printer’s paper tray.  We’re not advocating only putting 5 sheets of paper in the tray but we’re suggesting you don’t put 500 sheets in the tray, either.  Unless, of course, you use a lot of paper in a short period of time.
  3.  Once you’ve opened a ream/package of paper, remove the paper you need and then seal the package back up.  You might consider putting the paper inside a large sealable bag.
  4.  One other suggestion: cheap, thinner paper tends to take on moisture faster than thicker, higher-grade paper.  Although you might pay a bit more for the better paper, in the long run, it might be the better deal.  There’s nothing worse than having to throw away a stack of paper because it got wet or, worse yet, has damaged your printer.