RE Clogging - Should you leave your printer switched on?

Speedy1

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Just read that message from the guy who was worried about clogging the printhead while moving home...

What is the group's perceived wisdom about routine inkjet maintenance? I have a new Canon IP4200 & have just recently started re-filling the carts myself. At the moment I don't do a lot of printing normally, so I have the printer set "quiet operation" and it turns itself off automatically after 10 mins idle time. But now I'm wondering if it would be best for the printer if I left it on all the time, so it goes through its self-cleaning routines etc??

So is it best to leave your printer on or off??

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websnail

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It's early days as far as the iP4200 goes do it's hard to say how these inks and this head work out but for what it's worth I leave mine pretty much on but with the auto-off/on setting turned on..

That way the printer powers up when it's needed for a print job and powers down to reduce my power usage the rest of the time.

In terms of clogging I've not had any problems with my setup (using 2 home built CIS kits and ink from Gemini Colours) even having left the printers to sit for 10 days without use. My similarly equipped iP4000 printers weren't quite so happy with one developing a mild clog with banding but that cleared itself after about 4 pages of printing so...

Of course my other half is a teacher and usually punishes all my printers for about 2-3 hours every 3 days so they do get a good workout so your mileage may vary... I can't really see much benefit to turning the printers all the way on though and would just recommend you try to do a printout every few days...
 

Speedy1

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websnail said:
I can't really see much benefit to turning the printers all the way on though and would just recommend you try to do a printout every few days...
Cool - Thanks Websnail, you put my mind at rest about that one :)
 

Music Image

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Speedy1 ...
I have started leaving my printer (ip4000] on. Im not by any means a heavy user and I have an excel chart set up so that I note down what I print and when. Ive also just added in a column where I note down when I do actually power down, for example in an electrical storm. Just from memeory I think the longest Ive not done any printing, is around 3 weeks !!! Well Ive just had a cursory glance and the longest is 26 days !!!! There are a number of other times when its been 10 days; 2 weeks and once at 3 weeks. At no time have I experienced a clog except initially when I tried some 3rd Party carts which are still in my printer and working fine once I did a few cleans, and which I take to be a separate issue.

Theres some interesting info in the SM about how much ink is purged, depending on how long it is since the printer was last used. All in all, I thought it better in my case to leave it on, because every time you power up, it goes through a cleaning cycle. Sometimes my usage has been little and often, and I found the ink tanks were receding too fast for the amount of printing I was doing overall.

I guess everyone has to weigh up the pro's and cons and see what best fits their situation.

Music Image.
 

Nifty

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Yeah, I leave mine on too. In fact, I recently moved my computer / office and had my printer on my switched power supply. It was but a day or two until I was driven bonkers by the printer going through the whole startup routine every single time I switched on my PC. I like the printer being ready to print when I need it without much fuss.
 

hpnetserver

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Well, I at least had my ip8500 turned off unused for 3 or even 4 weeks once. When I eventually turned it on again and printed a nozzle check it was just perfect. Printed a few photos later and the printer was proven in perfect condifition. So I think you don't need to leave it on all day. But I agree that leaving it on all day, as I have done it many times too, does no harm to the printhead.
 

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