Epson Printer: On or Off, revisited

[walter.sk]

I remember seeing a thread here but was unable to find it, where somebody stated that they had been told by an Epson person to leave the printer on.  Several people responded that the printer should be turned off because that way the head was parked over the tank which would keep the ink in the nozzles from drying out.

Last night I heard a talk by one of the Canon Explorers of Light, who said all printers should be left on and allowed to go through their periodic "wake-up" cycles to check and maintain the heads.  I stated that there was nothing in my Epson 4900 manual to that effect.  He said that when he was in Japan at Epson he was told to leave Epson printers turned on, and that he would not risk having the head have to be replaced because of nasty clogs.

I checked the Epson website and under an article called something like "Care 4 Your Printer" it said that if you use the printer every day to just leave it on, and only turn it off if it will be unused for several days.

Does the 4900 go through cycles to service the heads the way my old HP Z3100 did?  How do I find out what is really the best choice for my printer?

[Ken]

I have a 7900 and had been leaving it on for a week or two without using it. During those times of no usage, I never heard it do anything. If not used for more than a day, I always run a nozzle test before printing, and the longer it had been idle, the higher probability that it needs a cleaning cycle, regardless of whether it had been left on or off.

[Farmer]

In actual fact, your 4900 will turn itself off if left on unless you disable that feature. It won't run cleans if you leave it on. Something like the GS6000 will, but that's because it's a solvent printer.

If you have finished printing for the day you might as well switch off.

[Wayne Fox]

you probably should tell us which "explorer of light", because some are very knowledgable about epson printers, but there are others that use only Canon printers.

There are no cleaning cycles triggered on an Epson printer because it is left on.

Canon and HP printers maintain the nozzles with an extremely small amount of ink when left on.  This prevents the nozzle from drying out while the printer is on, and a Canon nozzle once clogged is  usually done for, requiring one of the spares to be mapped in.  Obviously the slower this process the longer the head will last so for the most part Canon printers (and HP's) are best left on unless you won't be using the printer for a couple of days or more.  Leaving them on 24/7 for months without use would probably waste a fair amount of ink because they will also initiate some cleaning activity based on hours.

Epson nozzles are different ... they are designed to be cleaned and not permanently clog.  There is some debate about leaving the printer on, but I've never heard more than one or two "random" suggestions such as those mentioned here about leaving them on.  Personally I've found leaving them doesn't seem to help much and in fact on a few occasions after forgetting to turn one off when leaving town have come back to find large  numbers of clogs (missing nozzles).

Leaving them on may help in maintaining pressure in the ink lines, some clogs appear to be more like air getting pulled back into the head (often seen as an entire channel or a large chunk of continuous nozzles missing in the pattern).  Whether cause by a clog or air, it still takes ink to clear it.  This problem seems to be worse when printers are new ... my 4900 wasn't too great for a week or so, but now rarely clogs.  My new 9900 has had a couple of episodes where a very large number of nozzles are cleared, but then goes days with none.  This is similar to the 7900 experience I had when it was new ... a printer which rarely clogs anymore.

I don't believe leaving the printer one will hurt anything (other than consuming power).  It may help a little, especially a new printer but it won't' stop clogs, and indeed may make things worse, especially in dry climates.  But when you turn the printer off, it does cap the heads, which should help slow down the ink drying out.  I've never seen an official epson document recommending leaving the printer on most of the time, but have seen many references to turning the printer off if not being used for a while.

As mentioned, if Epson thought the printers should be left on all the time or for longer periods of time, the default off power timer on the 4900 would probably function differently.  Seems the fact it turns of after a few hours indicates they think this might be best for the printer.

[walter.sk]

Thanks, Wayne.  You have presented some aspects about the 4900's built-in functioning in a clear fashion, and I can only respond by shutting the printer down for the day, particularly when I know I will not be printing for several days.

Yes, the Canon Explorer (Eddie Tap, in this case,) did say he now uses only Canon printers in his office, but he claimed to be knowledgeable about Epson.