Topic: HP z3100 - Leave the power on for off? (Read 2929 times)

Bluesmusic · « **on:** February 05, 2009, 12:40:30 pm »

Recently I purchased a HP z3100 printer. The documentation recommends to leave the printer powered on all the time. My situation is that I work in another city, and away from home Monday through Friday. I can only print on weekends. Does it make sense to turn the printer off while I'm away.

Thanks in advance.

Jim Cole · « **Reply #1 on:** February 05, 2009, 01:43:01 pm »

Quote from: Bluesmusic

Does it make sense to turn the printer off while I'm away.

Most owners will recommend that you leave it on all the time.

Jim

rickk · « **Reply #2 on:** February 05, 2009, 01:43:46 pm »

For what it is worth, I've had the Z3100 in a variety of use modes: daily for weeks at a time, one print per week with the power left on, leaving the power off for a few days at a time and powering up only for an occasional print or two, and leaving it shut down during multi-week absences followed by a flurry of printing. The machine seemed to perform just fine and in a consistent manner regardless of the power on/off situation. This treatment is not exactly what the manual recommends, but so far, I haven't discovered any problems over the past 18 months.

Rick

kaelaria · « **Reply #3 on:** February 05, 2009, 08:31:16 pm »

You won't notice a 'problem' by not leaving it on, unless you do periodic nozzle checks, and see how many are clogging because it's left shut off.

Miles · « **Reply #4 on:** February 07, 2009, 07:47:05 pm »

The Z3100 wakes up from sleep mode and runs a cycle about once every 24 hours. This process prevents nozzle clogs and the wasted ink and downtime associated with fixing the clog. Since I owned a printer that constantly clogged before trading up to the Z3100, I consider this one of the best features of the Z. Other than power outages and an infrequent reboot, mine hasn't been off since I bought it.

kaelaria · « **Reply #5 on:** February 07, 2009, 08:09:10 pm »

Every 6 hours.

neil snape · « **Reply #6 on:** February 08, 2009, 04:22:28 am »

I turned off my 3100 , do the same with the 3200. I can't stand the fans running. There is no true idle mode like Epson. For a week long powered off lapse there should be no detriment at all if the printer is fairly new. If you had printed a lot and many nozzles were already becoming used* then you would see them deteriorate rapidly by doing so.
I would say that I do turn on all HP printers at least once every three weeks to let it prime, purge, recap and wipe the heads. Printing a small letter size page with a test page would be better although I don't.

Bluesmusic · « **Reply #7 on:** February 08, 2009, 10:17:21 pm »

Thanks everyone for your recommendations! It seems that leaving the printer ON is best, if one can live with the noise.

kaelaria · « **Reply #8 on:** February 08, 2009, 11:36:54 pm »

I strongly considered leaving it off, even with regular use, because of the slight fan noise and regular maint noise. However after a week, I hear neither. The only time I even notice the fan noise is when we have a power outage. If it was in a room close to my bedroom however I would have to close the door. Oh - and the wife complained about the maint noise waking her in the middle of the night for a couple weeks. lol

Roscolo · « **Reply #9 on:** February 09, 2009, 04:06:33 pm »

Leave it on. Mine has been on for 20 months or so now. No problems. No clogs. It's quiet, only runs a cleaning cycle every now and then and that only takes a minute.

sloow · « **Reply #10 on:** February 12, 2009, 02:59:46 pm »

I left mine plugged in and in idle mode for 6 months while I was away. No serious problems to report. In fact after running a cleaning cycle, my diagnostic sheet shows not a single nozzle not firing. I did take out a couple of heads and wipe them down, as the red/black head seemed to be spraying ink around a bit.
cheers,
Paul

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