How to Clean a Printer Inside and Out (Inkjet and Laser): A Step-by-Step Guide

Quick answer: to clean a printer, turn it off and unplug it, then work from the outside in. Wipe the case with a slightly damp microfiber cloth, clean the scanner glass and the white lid pad with glass cleaner sprayed onto the cloth (never onto the glass), wipe the narrow automatic document feeder (ADF) strip, and clean the paper-feed rollers with a lint-free cloth dampened with distilled water. Inside an inkjet, dab away stray ink and let the printer's own cleaning cycle handle the print head. Inside a laser printer, use only a dry cloth, slide the corona-wire tab on the drum if your model has one, and never use a household vacuum on loose toner.

Updated October 11, 2026 · By William Elward, founder of Castle Ink (helping people with printers and ink since 2005)

Most "my printer is acting up" problems we hear about trace back to dirt, not a broken part. Paper dust glazes the pickup rollers until they stop gripping. A smear on the scanner glass turns into a line down every copy. Toner dust in a laser printer turns into gray haze on the page. A twenty-minute clean fixes all of those, costs nothing, and makes a printer last years longer.

This guide covers a full clean of an inkjet or laser printer, including what to use, what never to use, and how often to do it. Where a specific part needs its own deeper guide (print heads, feed rollers, cartridges) we link to it rather than repeat it.

What You Need to Clean a Printer

You don't need a kit. Everything here is probably already in your house:

• Two or three lint-free microfiber cloths. Paper towels and tissues shed fibers that end up on the glass and in the paper path.
• Distilled water. Tap water leaves mineral spots on glass and rollers.
• Foam-tipped swabs. Cotton swabs leave fluff behind; foam doesn't.
• Ordinary glass cleaner for the scanner glass only, always sprayed onto the cloth. HP's own instructions start with a water-dampened cloth and allow an ammonia-based surface cleaner on the cloth if water doesn't shift the mark.
• Isopropyl alcohol (70% or higher) for stubborn rollers, but only if your printer's manual allows it. Some manufacturers say water only, because alcohol can dry out certain rubber compounds.
• For laser printers: a toner-rated vacuum if you have a lot of loose toner. More on why a regular vacuum is a bad idea below.

What Should You Never Use to Clean a Printer?

• Bleach, acetone, paint thinner or abrasive cleaners, anywhere. They cloud plastic and attack rubber rollers. Keep ammonia-based cleaners off the plastic case, rollers and touchscreen too; the scanner glass is the one place a glass cleaner belongs.
• Liquid sprayed directly into or onto the printer. It runs under the scanner glass (where you can't reach it) or into the electronics.
• Compressed air inside a laser printer. It blows toner deeper into the machine and into the air you're breathing.
• A household vacuum on toner. Toner particles are fine enough to pass straight through most vacuum filters and back into the room. Xerox's toner safety data sheet notes that fine toner dust dispersed in air can form an explosible dust-air mixture, which is why toner vacuums are built to handle it.
• Your fingers on the drum, the print head nozzles or the gold cartridge contacts. Skin oil is enough to cause print defects.

Step 1: Turn It Off the Right Way

Press the printer's power button and wait until the lights go out before you unplug it. On an inkjet this matters: shutting down with the button lets the print head park and cap itself so the nozzles don't dry out while you work. Pulling the plug while it's on can leave the head uncapped. On a laser printer, give it 20 to 30 minutes to cool. The fuser runs at around 180–200 °C, and Brother's manuals warn that some internal parts are extremely hot right after printing.

Step 2: Clean the Outside Case

Dampen a microfiber cloth with water (a drop of dish soap if it's grimy), wring it until it's barely damp, and wipe the case, the control panel and the paper trays. Follow with a dry cloth. Pay attention to the paper output tray and the area around the input tray, because dust that sits there gets pulled into the paper path with every sheet.

Touchscreens: use a dry microfiber cloth, or one lightly dampened with water. Skip glass cleaner on the screen, since some have anti-glare coatings.

Step 3: Clean the Scanner Glass, Lid and ADF Strip

If your copies or scans have a line, smudge or spot that appears in the same place every time, the scanner glass is almost always the cause.

1. Lift the lid and wipe the glass with a slightly damp, lint-free cloth. If marks remain, spray glass cleaner onto the cloth, not onto the glass. Liquid on the glass seeps under the edges and leaves streaks under the glass, which you can't clean without taking the scanner apart.
2. Wipe the main glass in straight overlapping strokes, then buff dry with a second cloth.
3. Wipe the white pad or white backing on the underside of the lid. It gets dirty too and shows up as gray marks on scans.
4. If your printer has a document feeder on top, find the narrow glass strip to the left of the main glass. That strip is what the feeder scans through, and a single speck of correction fluid or dust on it puts a line down every page fed through the ADF.
5. Open the ADF cover and wipe its small pickup rollers with a cloth dampened with distilled water.

If the scanner still misbehaves after a clean, it's likely a software or connection issue. Our guide to why your scanner isn't working when the printer still prints covers the next steps.

Step 4: Clean the Paper Path and Feed Rollers

Pickup rollers are the rubber wheels that grab each sheet. Paper dust slowly glazes them until they're smooth and shiny, and then the printer starts feeding nothing, feeding crooked, or pulling two sheets at once.

1. Remove the paper tray and any paper.
2. Find the rollers. On most home printers they're visible through the tray slot or behind the rear access door.
3. Wipe each roller with a lint-free cloth dampened with distilled water, turning the roller with your finger so you clean the whole circumference.
4. Let them dry for a few minutes before reloading paper.

Rollers that are still slipping after a clean may be worn out. We go deeper on that, including how to tell glazed rollers from worn ones, in printer won't pick up paper: how to fix feed rollers. While the tray is out, look for torn bits of paper left over from old jams; our paper jam guide shows where they tend to hide by brand.

Step 5: Cleaning Inside an Inkjet Printer

Open the cartridge access door. You'll usually see some ink mist or small drips around the carriage and on the plastic underneath it. That's normal.

• Dab, don't wipe, any visible ink with a dry foam swab or a folded cloth. Wiping spreads it.
• Leave the carriage rail alone unless it's visibly gunked. Many rails are lubricated, and wiping the grease off causes carriage noise and jams.
• Don't touch the print head nozzles. If prints are streaky or missing colors, run the printer's own head-cleaning cycle from its maintenance menu instead. If one or two cycles don't fix it, our guides to cleaning print heads and what to do when a print head is still clogged take it from there.
• Cartridge contacts: if the printer says a cartridge isn't recognized, gently wipe the copper contacts on the cartridge (and the matching contacts in the carriage) with a dry lint-free cloth or a swab barely dampened with distilled water. Let it dry fully before reinstalling. Our guide to cleaning ink cartridges covers this in detail.

Ink tank printers (Epson EcoTank, Canon MegaTank, HP Smart Tank, Brother INKvestment) have a permanent print head, so be even gentler with them. Also keep an eye on the maintenance box or waste ink pad status. If you see an "end of service life" message, that isn't fixed by cleaning; see Epson service required: waste ink pad full.

Step 6: Cleaning Inside a Laser Printer

Laser printers collect toner dust, and that dust causes gray haze, specks and smudges. Brother's print-quality troubleshooting lists a dirty drum unit among the causes of a gray background.

1. Remove the toner and drum (on many models they come out as one assembly). Set them on a sheet of paper, out of direct light. The drum is light-sensitive, so keep this to a few minutes.
2. Wipe the toner bay with a dry, lint-free cloth. Use a toner vacuum for anything more than a light dusting.
3. Clean the corona wire if your drum has one (most Brother lasers do). Slide the small blue or green tab on top of the drum all the way left and right a few times, then return it to its home position. If you leave the tab out of position, you'll get a vertical stripe down every page.
4. Don't touch the drum surface (the shiny green or blue cylinder) or the black transfer roller. Both are easily marked by fingerprints.
5. Clean the laser window only if your manual shows how. Some models have a scanner window that can be wiped with a dry swab; on others it's not user-accessible.
6. Reinstall everything and print a few pages to clear residual toner.

Still getting streaks or repeating marks after a clean? Those usually point to a worn part rather than dirt. See laser printer streaks and lines and printer ghosting, and our printer parts glossary if the part names are unfamiliar.

Step 7: Run the Printer's Built-In Cleaning Tools

After a physical clean, plug back in and use the printer's own routines:

• Inkjets: run a nozzle check first. Only run a head clean if the nozzle check shows gaps, because every cycle uses ink.
• Many lasers: have a "cleaning page" or "fuser cleaning" option in the maintenance or service menu. It prints a page that picks up toner from the fuser.
• Both: print our free printer test page to confirm everything is clean.

How Often Should You Clean a Printer?

The single best thing you can do for an inkjet is print a page at least once a week. Regular use keeps ink moving through the nozzles, which prevents more clogs than any cleaning routine. If a printer is going to sit unused for a while, read does printer ink expire? first.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use rubbing alcohol to clean a printer?

On the outside case and on most feed rollers, yes, in small amounts on a cloth. Check your manual for the rollers, since some manufacturers specify water only. Never use alcohol on the print head nozzles, the drum, or a touchscreen.

Can I use Windex on my printer's scanner glass?

A standard glass cleaner is fine on the scanner glass if you spray it onto a cloth first (HP's instructions allow an ammonia-based cleaner on the glass if a damp cloth doesn't work). Don't use it on the plastic case or the touchscreen, and never spray it directly onto the glass.

Is it safe to vacuum a laser printer?

Only with a vacuum rated for toner. Toner particles are fine enough to pass through ordinary vacuum filters and back into the air, and fine dust in the air can be a fire hazard. A dry cloth is fine for small amounts.

How do I clean the inside of an HP, Canon, Epson or Brother printer?

The steps above apply to all four. The main brand difference is in the built-in cleaning tools: HP puts "Clean Printhead" under Printer Maintenance, Canon calls it "Cleaning" and "Deep Cleaning," Epson uses "Head Cleaning" and on some models "Power Cleaning," and Brother lasers have a corona-wire tab on the drum.

Will cleaning fix streaks on my prints?

If the streaks are only on copies and scans, cleaning the scanner glass usually fixes them. If they're on everything you print, it's more likely a print head or toner issue. See why is my printer printing streaks.

Do I need to clean a brand-new printer?

No, but do remove every piece of orange or blue shipping tape and foam inside it. Leftover packing material causes jams and error codes. Our new printer setup guide lists where it hides.

Keep Printing

Cleaning is often the moment you discover a cartridge is nearly empty. Find the right ink or toner for your model on our Find Ink by Printer page, or shop HP, Canon and Epson ink and laser toner. Need microfiber cloths, foam swabs or a toner vacuum? Here's a printer cleaning supplies search on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, Castle Ink earns from qualifying purchases.

Something else wrong? The printer troubleshooting center has a fix for nearly every common printer problem.

Sources

• HP: How to clean the flatbed glass
• Brother: Improve the print quality (dirty drum and gray background)
• Brother: HL-2000 series routine maintenance (hot internal parts)
• Xerox: Toner safety data sheet (PDF)