Turning printer off vs Standby mode?

[tygger]

I have a Epson Workforce 310 AIO printer. I read that it automatically goes into standby or sleep mode after a predetermined amount of time. I left my printer on all night last night and this morning before heading out to work, I glanced over and noticed the green LED was still on indicating the printer was on. Is this normal during Standby mode?

I don't think there's a way to manually force it into standby. If I only print once every few days, would it be better to turn off the printer or leave it on, considering it doesn't look like it goes into Standby?

 

[DomtheMon]

General consensus here is to leave printer on all the time to avoid drying up etc. However I was quite shocked to see a chart of what standby products use in electricity and I believe most printers use 30w an hour in power?! This is equivalent to a couple of energy saving bulbs on permanently!!!

I have taken to turning mine off and just putting it one for a short time (half hour or so) every day.

 

[embguy]

The standby power usage is depending on the printer. Some use more and some use less. Laser printer in general uses more power because the fuser unit which uses heating element. It keeps the fuser unit warm on standby. Inkjet in general uses less power.

My iP4500 uses 0W in sleep mode
But my AIO MP830 uses 10W in sleep mode.

I have a Blue Planet EM100 energy meter to measure the power usage.

 

[tygger]

Thanks for the info.

I called Epson and they told me that the bright green LED will stay on permenantly; if powered on and even in standby mode. The LCD is supposed to go blank while in standby mode.

The rep told me that if I'm only printing once every few days, it's better to just turn the printer off... so that it doesn't dry up. I'm confused because DomtheMon keeps the printer ON to avoid from drying up. So which is it? Keep it off or on to avoid drying up?

The rep also mentioned something about the printer keeping track of how long it's been on and would routinely perform a cleaning on its own. To me, it sounds like I would be wasting ink regardless of turning it on/off constantly or just keeping it on the entire time.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I don't know about Epson printers but if you leave a Canon printer off for months, the pigment black inks will dry out in the nozzles and you will have a clog that is difficult to clean. Some people like to turn everything off just on principle because of conservation, whether or not it makes any difference to the device. But most printers will survive if you turn them on at least once a week but what if you don't print anything for an extended period of time? Your printer can only take care of itself if you leave it on. It does this by "wasting ink". If you are in the habit of leaving it off except when you print and you ever turn it on sometime in the future and it has clogged nozzles, you will waste a lot more ink trying to unclog it, not to mention the time and frustration.