Labels and laser printers have a difficult relationship; they don’t get along well. More than likely, if you send a sheet of labels through a laser printer, sooner or later you will experience the frustration of finding warm, gummy labels stuck to the toner drum or worse, adhered to the fuser. Because the fuser in a laser printer gets very hot, it warms the gluey side of labels. This can cause them to peel off the page while being pulled through the printer. Damaged drums and toners are pricey enough to replace. Fusers cost even more.
My advice is to save label printing for ink jet printers or, better yet, for label makers. If, however, you insist on feeding labels through a laser printer, try following these suggestions and perhaps you will avoid the pain of having adhesive stuck to something inside your printer.
- Make sure to purchase labels that are marked specifically for use in laser printers. The glue on these labels is designed to withstand hotter temperatures in a laser printer versus cooler ink jet printers.
- Feed labels through one at a time via the feed tray (marked tray 1) so the label sheet runs through in a flat manner. This will lower the risk of having a label peel off and adhere to the internal parts of your printer.
- Never ever send a sheet of labels through the printer more than once. Each time the sheet is feed through, the glue on the backside is heated, and you risk a label slipping off.
- Don’t print on old labels, no matter how tempting it is. Old labels have dry glue that peels off easily inside your printer and sticks to things. Buying a new box of labels is a lot cheaper than buying a new drum or a new fuser.
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