Make your home office gear last longer

The fact is, today's home-office equipment is doomed to a much shorter life than those manual typewriters that easily survived decades of hunting and pecking. Avoid these common mistakes and make your gear last longer.

• You might think the compact designs of today's printers, fax machines, scanners, and other home-office gear provide adequate protection against dust and other household pollutants, but you'd be wrong.
• The open paper trays found on most inkjets, for instance, offer an easy way in for dirt and even small objects like paper clips and staples.
• To keep your home-office gear in top working condition, use dust covers to keep them clean between jobs.

• Never use a regular plug-in vacuum cleaner or hair dryer to clean off computers, printers, monitors, and other home-office equipment.
• When powered by your home's electrical system, such appliances can generate enough static electricity to cause serious damage to your electronic gear.
• Use a can of compressed air, a soft brush, or a battery-powered vacuum instead.

• The most important rule to remember whenever you're cleaning or repairing any electrical device is to detach its power cord or remove the plug from the wall socket or power strip.
• Overlooking this simple step can result in serious injury or electrocution — to say nothing of causing serious damage to the device.

• Although you may use a surge protector or power strip to accommodate the various electrical plugs from your home-office equipment, you shouldn't use it to turn off your gear.
• Some products perform essential power-down routines that can be performed only by using the unit's dedicated on/off switch. (Many printers, for example, use a capping mechanism to cover the print heads between uses, a feature that is implemented only when the unit is properly shut down.)