l_d_allan
Fan of Printing
I leave my two CLI-8 based printers on, but I've never heard either of the printers initiate a cleaning cycle on their own. Both are in my home office, and most days I am in that room 10+ hours a day.
This got me to wondering what happens if there is an interval of several weeks or longer between printing. Does the powered-on printer self-initiate a regular cleaning cycle, and I just haven't noticed?
If so, then it would seem less important to do weekly nozzle checks as long as the printer has power. If they don't self-initiate, then weekly nozzle checks are certainly justified, and neglect of this practice is asking for trouble.
My experience is that if it has been a while since a print was made (several days), it does seem to do some kind of maintenance before the print gets started. That is consistent with an earlier post about cleaning mode and amount of ink purged .
Does this vary by printer? The info above was from the service manual for an iP4000, which has been available for a relatively long time and is somewhat old technology. Based on posts on this forum, my uninformed impression is that more recent printers do more maintenance cleaning cycles, but that may be anecdotal.
Also, does it make a difference if the power light is off in powered-off deep sleep mode, but the printer is plugged in? Would a printer in sleep mode come out of sleep to do a self-initiated maintenance clean cycle even if powered off (but plugged in)?
BTW, most maintenance cycles seem to be initiated based on ink-drop counts, which explains delays between prints. This isn't a factor when prints aren't made for days or weeks or even months at at time.
This got me to wondering what happens if there is an interval of several weeks or longer between printing. Does the powered-on printer self-initiate a regular cleaning cycle, and I just haven't noticed?
If so, then it would seem less important to do weekly nozzle checks as long as the printer has power. If they don't self-initiate, then weekly nozzle checks are certainly justified, and neglect of this practice is asking for trouble.
My experience is that if it has been a while since a print was made (several days), it does seem to do some kind of maintenance before the print gets started. That is consistent with an earlier post about cleaning mode and amount of ink purged .
Does this vary by printer? The info above was from the service manual for an iP4000, which has been available for a relatively long time and is somewhat old technology. Based on posts on this forum, my uninformed impression is that more recent printers do more maintenance cleaning cycles, but that may be anecdotal.
Also, does it make a difference if the power light is off in powered-off deep sleep mode, but the printer is plugged in? Would a printer in sleep mode come out of sleep to do a self-initiated maintenance clean cycle even if powered off (but plugged in)?
BTW, most maintenance cycles seem to be initiated based on ink-drop counts, which explains delays between prints. This isn't a factor when prints aren't made for days or weeks or even months at at time.